Teshik-Tash

37.96596388888967.156511111111Koordinaten: 37 ° 57 ' 57.5 "N, 67 ° 9' 23.4 " E

The Teshik - Tash cave (Russian Пещера Тешик - Таш, Uzbek Teshik - Tosh - stone with hole ) is an archaeological site in Baisuntau Mountains, in the Uzbek province Surxondaryo.

On July 4, 1938, the Soviet archaeologist Alexei Okladnikow found in Teshik -Tash 70,000 years old skeletal remains of an eight -to ten- year-old Neanderthal child. In the literature, usually referred to as a boy Teshik -Tash, it is in the partial skeleton according to recent research by the remains of a girl. The skeletal remains were deposited in the soil so that it can be considered a deliberate positioning of the body in this position and talked of a possible burial. However, this interpretation is controversial.

Location

The Teshik - Tash cave is located 125 km south of Samarkand, 18 km north from the city Baisun, in Baisuntau Mountains, the southwestern foothills of the Hissargebirges at an altitude of 1600 m above sea level. The cave is located at the bottom of a narrow, only 15 to 20 m wide, with high steep 40 to 50 m, partially overhanging rock walls provided, Sautoloschsaja mentioned gorge, which starts from the left bank of the river Turgan -Darya.

Description

The cave entrance is oriented to the northeast. The Teshik - Tash cave consists of one at the entrance 20 m wide and 7 m high chamber that extends 21 m in depth.

Five separate settlement layers and a dozen fireplaces, some of which could be found in the Teshik - Tash cave with accumulations of broken bones and horns of wild goats, bones of other animals as well as stone deductions and other tools. In the northwestern part of the cave, about 10 m from the entrance, near the western cave wall, the skeletal remains of a child were. The yellow-colored by the surrounding sediment partial skeleton was in the top five Mousterian cultural layers of the site, with the feet to the entrance of the cave in a shallow pit.

The skull was crushed by the weight of the overlying sediments. He was still in such good condition that it could be reconstructed from the 150 pieces. The skull showed the anatomical features of the Neanderthals: Face with a large nose, the approach of a Brauenwulstes, a sloping forehead, a long braincase and a lower mandible without protruding chin. The brain had a volume of about 1500 ³ cm.

To the skull lying around several postcranial bones in anatomical connection not dispersed, a vertebrae, several ribs, the left humerus, the clavicle, the right femur, left tibia and the two fibulas. The ends of the humerus and femur bones were gnawed. In addition to the skeletons lay a Koprolith; perhaps a predator ransacked the tomb, took out some bones and gnawed at her.

The most striking thing about the grave were six pairs of large bone plug of Siberian ibex horns, which were arranged with the top down in a circle around the skull. The horns were sometimes completely broken part. Two were still attached to the forehead of the skull, three or four pairs had been separated in the pit of his forehead. All horns stuck with the peaks in the ground and were arranged in a direction - they formed a kind of fence at the top of the grave and lay in the same layer and at the same depth as the skull of the child. In addition to the body had burned for a short time a fire.

Classification

Although some evidence suggests that the child was buried along with the horns of the ibex near a fireplace, there are doubts whether the horny couples are to be interpreted as a tomb. In particular, the evidence of disturbance of the site by predators that any resulting fact that the skeleton was not in anatomical association and by the lack of evidence of a clear grave pit remains Teshik -Tash as an example of the Neanderthal burials continue controversial.

The child from Teshik -Tash was probably related to the European Neanderthals even closer than the early humans from Sibirien.Bis to the discovery of Okladnikow Cave 2000 km further east, it marked the eastern boundary of the known distribution area of the Neanderthals.

The Russian archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov, founder of forensic sculpture in archeology, prepared a sculpture including the detailed facial reconstruction of the child Teshik -Tash. The sculptures will be shown in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Peter the Great ( Kunstkammer ) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. The fossils are in the Museum of Anthropology at the Lomonosov University in Moscow.