The Hunas cave ruins are a filled cave near Hunas, a part of the Middle Franconian municipality of Pommelsbrunn in the district of Nürnberger Land in Bavaria.

Traces of more than 130 animal species have been detected in the deposits. These animals got into the cave in very different ways. Some animals, such as bears and bats, sought shelter or a place to hibernate here. On the other hand, others were brought into the cave as prey by predators or even humans. According to the findings so far, the numerous animal remains recovered in the process, as well as a few stone tools and silex chips, still belong to the penultimate ice age. With an age of more than 200,000 years, these represent the oldest traces of human life known in Bavaria to date.

The excavations showed that the presence of humans can be detected in almost all layers. Also recorded are cave bears, cave lions, cave hyenas, wolves, polar foxes and red foxes. The rich small fauna, together with plant remains such as charcoal, pollen and the analysis of the sediments, allows good insights into the climate development during the deposition period. In this way, the mighty sequence of layers becomes a multi-structured archive that documents the constant change in climate and environmental conditions during the Ice Age over a long period of time. The thick lower layer package shows temperate to warm-temperate conditions with some climate variations. At that time, Barbary macaques lived on the Franconian Jura, which was covered by sparse mixed forest. The climate archive also shows that this phase came to an end and it became increasingly drier and colder. The northern vole, the dwarf whistling hare, the lemming and other cold-tolerant animal species spread as a result. With the top layers, reheating began.

In 2002, a sinter blanket was found at the base of the sequence of layers in the new excavation area. An investigation revealed a time window of about 100,000 to 125,000 years in the range of 200,000 years. This would allow the entire sediment sequence to be dated to the beginning of the Würm glacial period. The stone artifacts of the upper layers found are consistent with the dating of archaeologists. The devices from the lower layers differ significantly from the younger ones and can be compared with Middle Pleistocene sites. The redating makes the 1986 find of a human molar from Hunas a classic Neanderthal and thus the oldest hominid from Bavaria.