Yarimburgaz Cave earliest human presence in Turkey İstanbul. Yarimburgaz is a double cave with slightly offset upper and lower entrance chambers, connected laterally inside the cave. Below Byzantine and modern debris, the upper cave encloses Chalcolithic to Upper Paleolithic occupations above a beach sand attributed to the Last Interglacial.
Photo By Niyazi Ugur Genca
Below the beach sand, strongly modified sediments contain sparse Lower Paleolithic artifacts. The lower cave preserves only Lower Paleolithic industries, but with abundant cave bear and other fauna. Lower cave sediments (>5 m thick) comprise a lower, barren section of decalcification clays interfingering with alluvial fine sands, small gravel and rounded pebbles from the cave interior, and isolated limestone blocks from the cave ceiling. These sediments have been strongly affected by secondary phosphatization that fills vugs, cements the sediments, and produces thick reaction rinds on the large blocks.
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
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