Petralona Archantropon Cave

Petralona Cave is a major tourist attraction of the Halkidiki peninsula south of Thessaloniki. And it is a famous bone cave, especially for human and hominid remains. Here the first human remains of Greece were discovered, and the number and continuity of remains is extraordinary.

• The cave was discovered by the goat shepherd Filippos Chantzaridis from Petralona, who heard the sound of water from a hole in the rocks. It took some time to persuade some men from the town, but in 1959 some men went to this place and dug a seven metre deep hole in the search of water. What they found was the cave.

• The first research of 1959 was made by the big old man of Greek speleology, Ioannis Petrocheilos. He found numerous bones of animals, many of them covered with cave coral.

• One year later a human skull was discovered, hanging at the wall about 30cm above ground, where it was held by sinter. The skull of an Archanthropus, a transitional type between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, was a scientific sensation. It was the first discovery of an Archanthropus in Greece and showed, that this cave was inhabited 600,000 years ago.

• The major excavations were made by the anthropologist Dr. Aris N. Poulianos, who spent many years in the caves. He published many articles in various periodicals, especially in Anthropos, the Greek Anthropology Magazine. He wrote a book, which is available in Greek, English and German. His theories always were an affront to the established palaeontology, so he had various problems, but many of his theories seem to be accepted now. However, the controversy, especially on the topic dating, is easy to discover in the little literature list above.

• The finds, including bones of hyenas, lions, deer and other animals, are presented to the visitors in the nearby museum. Numerous bones, skulls and stone tools made of flint, bauxite and quartz. Many bones are encrusted with cave coral, some are part of a bone breccia. All exhibits are explained in Greek and English. This museum is really worth a visit!

• The central exhibit is the reconstruction of the famous Archanthropus, which is called Archantropus' Mausoleum. This title has obviously nothing to do with reality. The skeleton is of a 30 years old male, a very old man as most individuals died before they were 20 at this time. He lived probably here, because this is the driest and most comfortable place of the cave. Probably he was not able to move very much, and so he was looked after by other members of the group. Most likely he died peaceful of old age at this location.

• Pretty strange is the fact, that his head was sticking at the wall 30cm above the floor. The explanation is easy: after the man died with the head touching the wall, his skull and the wall were covered by a thin layer if calcite, a crust of cave coral which glued the scull to the wall. Later climate changed again and the secluded spot became drier, the thick layer of clay on the floor dried and shrunk, and the floor went down 30cm. The skeleton moved down with the floor, but the skull was glued to the wall and stayed where it was.

The cave itself, despite its major tourist attraction status, is definitely not worth a visit. Tours are held only in Greek, which seems a bit arrogant with so many foreign visitors. There is no cave description, no hand outs or brochures, no guidebook. A short explanatory text hanging in the window of the kiosk is all you get. But the signs, which inform you that photography is forbidden, are big and in multiple languages. They even demand you not to take a camera into the cave, a demand we never heard before. And beware to show a camera inside, you will be humiliated by the guide! He is well able to do this in English, even if he is not able to say a few words about the cave in English. The postcards are few, and, to be honest, pretty ugly.