Oldest Man-Made Structure Found in Greek Cave

[n2doc]

Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi | Mon Apr 5, 2010 11:43 AM ET


The oldest known example of a man-made structure was found within a prehistoric cave in central Greece, according to the Greek culture ministry.

The structure is a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave near Kalambaka on the north edge of the Thessalian plain. It was constructed 23,000 years ago, probably as a barrier to cold winds.

“An optical dating test, known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence, was applied on quartz grains nested within the stones. We dated four different samples from the sediment and soil materials, and all provided identical dates,” Nikolaos Zacharias, director of the laboratory of archaeometry at the University of Peloponnese, told Discovery News.

more

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/oldest-man-made-structure-found-in-greek-cave.html

[derby378]

1. Toula's dad from MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING was right

The Greeks DID invent everything!!

Seriously, this is a tremendous find.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. A little Windex will clean that cave right up. nt

[xchrom]

2. What an amazing find. Nt

[The Doctor.]

4. Naturally the first 'man-made' object was a recliner.

Shortly after, woman invented 'guilt'.

[Orsino]

5. I think that there are older known structures...

...though I can't vouch for the dating at this Czech site: http://www.donsmaps.com/dolnivi.html

Inside the largest hut, about 50 feet long by 20 feet wide, were five shallow hearths dug in the floor. One was equipped with two long mammoth bones stuck in the ground to support a roasting spit. In these relatively comfortable surroundings it is easy to imagine a man sitting on a boulder making tools-working with the purposeful, deceptively slow movements -of a master craftsman, using a bone hammer to strike delicate blades from a cylindrical chunk of flint, the core. Meanwhile, from a far end of the hut might have come a clear, high-pitched sound like a bird's call. Its source would have been a woman blowing into the end of a piece of hollow bone that had two or three holes pierced in its length-what humans some 25,000 years later would call a penny whistle has been found at Dolni Vestonice.