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Tsutskhvati Cave
Wikipedia data hasn't been reviewed for accuracy by the Gignos Research Team
- Lat/Long:
- 42.27, 42.85
- Country:
- Georgia
Tsutskhvati Cave Natural Monument (Georgian: ცუცხვათის მღვიმე) is a karst cave near village Tsutskhvati in Tkibuli Municipality in Imereti region of Georgia. Locally known as Maghara (Georgian: მაღარა) cave is located in Okriba-Argveti ridge, south of Shalataghele River in Chishura River gorge 320 meters above sea level.
The Tsutskhvati Cave is site of archaeological works and has status of the protected areas of Georgia. Archaeological studies were conducted since the 1970s, when the State Museum of History of Georgia and the Institute of Paleobiology carried out joint works at the site.
At the Tsutskhvati Cave archaeologists have found and identified an artifacts of neanderthal settlements dated back 50,000 years. According Georgian National Museum the previously discovered item was confirmed as belonging to a neanderthal era and newly found items was attributed to homo sapiens. A child's tooth found at Tsutskhvati Cave in earlier digs has now been confirmed to be dated back to around 50,000 years ago to the Upper Paleolithic historical period. A new findings of the presence of homo sapiens in the same location has been assigned to the period between 80,000-12,000 years ago.
The scientists also excavated a Chalcolithic settlement in a Tsutskhvati Cave dubbed The Bronze Cave, indicating artifacts from an era of early metallurgy.
Archaeologists' findings included stone weapons from 400,000-40,000 years ago. The location also saw digs in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, however, most of the cave area was only studied starting in 2016.
The current works were launched in 2017 by an international expedition with the support of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation, under the project titled Neanderthals in the South Caucasus. The international team includes archaeologists from Georgia, France, and the United States, as well as about 50 local students.