The Pestera cu Oase is a sealed limestone cavern in southwestern Romania which served principally as a hibernation den for Pleistocene cave bears and wolves, but also contained the fossil remains of the earliest modern humans in Europe.
Currently inaccessible except through cave diving and rock climbing, the cave preserved its contents undisturbed for tens of thousands of years.
To understand the cave, its contents, the bear and wolves, and especially the humans, an international team mapped and excavated the Pestera cu Oase from 2002 to 2005, and has since analyzed its remains in detail.
The result was a wealth of information on the geology and paleontology of this cave as a reflection of life in the southwestern Carpathians 40-50 thousand years ago.
This volume presents those findings.
Among other things, the large cave bears provided the first solid evidence of the omnivorous nature of these not-so-gentle giants.
The deer remains brought into the cave by wolves are among the largest known in Europe and document the westernmost extent of the eastern (wapiti) variant of this species.
And the human remains, a complete lower jaw of a young adult and a largely complete skull of an adolescent, furhish detailed information on the anatomy of the earliet modern Europeans, who were modern without being fully modern.
They combine an overall distinctly modern anatomy with traits reminescent of earlier archaic humans and among the largest rear molars in the genus Homo.
They thus document the initial spread of modern humans into the cul-de-sac of Europe, the complex ancestry of those humans, and the ongoing nature of human evolution after the established of people like ourselves.
Edited by:
Erik Trinkaus (Professor of Anthropology Professor of Anthropology Washington University),
Silviu Constantin (senior researcher,
senior researcher,
Emil Racovita Institute of Spelology),
Joco Zilhco (Research Professor,
Research Professor,
University of Barcelona)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 221mm,
Width: 282mm,
Spine: 28mm
Weight: 1.497kg
ISBN: 9780195398229
ISBN 10: 019539822X
Series: Human Evolution Series
Pages: 452
Publication Date: 27 December 2012
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
I. Introduction and Background 1. Introduction Erik Trinkaus, Silviu Constantin, João Zilhão 2. Exploration and Documentation of the Pestera cu Oase Stefan Milota, Mircea Gherase, Laurentiu Sarcina, Ricardo Rodrigo, Oana Moldovan, Erik Trinkaus, Silviu Constantin, João Zilhão 3. Problems, Approaches and Fieldwork: 2004-2005 João Zilhão, Stefan Milota, Ricardo Rodrigo, Silviu Constantin, Erik Trinkaus II. The Cave and Its Contents 4. The Karst Geology of the Ponor-Plopa System in its Regional Context Silviu Constantin 5. The Ponor-Plopa Cave System: Description, Sediments, and Genesis Silviu Constantin, Cristian-Mihai Munteanu, Stefan Milota, Laurentiu Sarcina, Mircea Gherase, João Zilhão 6. Uranium-Series Dating on Speleothems from the Pestera cu Oase Silviu Constantin, Stein-Erik Lauritzen 7. Electron Spin Resonance Dating of Vertebrate Remains from the Pestera cu Oase Rainer Grün, Tegan Kelly, Maxime Aubert 8. Radiocarbon Dating of the Pestera cu Oase Faunal Remains Thomas Higham, Eva Maria Wild 9. Rock Magnetic Data of Late Pleistocene sediments from the Pestera cu Oase and their Paleoclimatic Significance Cristian Panaiotu, Catalin Petrea, Viorel Horoi, Cristina-Emilia Panaiotu, Silviu Constantin 10. The Distributions of Finds and Features João Zilhão, Ricardo Rodrigo, Hélène Rougier, Stefan Milota III. The Cave Bears 254 11. Cave Bear Paleontology and Paleobiology at the Pestera cu Oase: Fossil Population Structure and Size Variability Martina Pacher, Jérôme Quilès 12. Taphonomic Analysis of the Cave Bear Remains from the Pestera cu Oase Martina Pacher, Jérôme Quilès 13. An Ancient DNA Perspective on the Cave Bears from the Pestera cu Oase Mathias Stiller, Michael Hofreiter IV. The Other Vertebrates 345 14. Hyena, Wolves and Foxes from the Pestera cu Oase Emil Stiuca, Alexandru Petculescu 15. Small Mammal Remains from the Pestera cu Oase Alexandru Petculescu 16. The Ungulates from the Pestera cu Oase Simon A. Parfitt, Adrian M. Lister 17. Taphonomic Considerations of the Non-Ursid Vertebrate Remains Erik Trinkaus, Martina Pacher 18. Stable Isotopes and Dietary Patterns of the Faunal Species from the Pestera cu Oase Erik Trinkaus, Michael P. Richards V. The Human Remains 19. Radiocarbon Dating of the Pestera cu Oase Human Remains Erik Trinkaus 20. The Human Mandible from the Pestera cu Oase, Oase 1 Erik Trinkaus, Hélène Rougier 21. The Human Cranium from the Pestera cu Oase, Oase 2 Hélène Rougier, Erik Trinkaus 22. Frontal Bone Contours of the Oase 2 Cranium Sheela Athreya, Hélène Rougier 23. The Internal Cranial Morphology of Oase 2 Marcia Ponce de León, Christoph P. E. Zollikofer 24. The Dental and Alveolar Remains of Oase 1 and 2 Erik Trinkaus, Shara E. Bailey, Hélène Rougier 25. The Oase 1 Human Stable Isotopes Michael P. Richards, Erik Trinkaus VI. Discussion 26. The Paleoenvironmental Context of the Pestera cu Oase Silviu Constantin, João Zilhão, Erik Trinkaus 27. Paleoanthropological Implications of the Pestera cu Oase and its Contents Erik Trinkaus, João Zilhão VII. References
Erik Trinkaus is a Professor of Anthropology at Washington University, who has been analyzing the late archaic and early modern fossil human remains since his doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania. He is concerned primarily with the changes in human biology that reflect the emergence of modern humans. Silviu Constantin is a geologist and senior researcher at the Emil Racovita Institute of Spelology. His research covers all aspects of physical speleology and karst geology with a special interest on U/Th dating of carbonates, analysis of sedimentary sequences in caves and paleoclimate reconstructions based on speleothems. Joao Zilhao is an archaeologist, currently ICREA Research Professor at the University of Barcelona. His excavation and investigation work have primarily concerned the fate of the Neandertals, the origins of art and symbolic behavior, and the emergence of farming.
