STANBUL Dec. 1 Turkey: Science fiction film crews pumped a river through it and/farmers grew mushrooms in it but a cave near Istanbul rose above such indignities to reveal one of the oldest human settlements outside Africa.
Mehmet Ozdogan, who led an Istanbul University excavation team this summer, said diggings indicated the settlement was at least one million years old.
Scientists believe excavations point to major archaeological evidence for the existing and movements of early man outside Africa Research is continuing on finds from the Yarimburgaz. Cave known to archaeologists since the 1890s for it’s byzantine Roman structures and undated wall paintings of two boats.
The cave had also been noted for evidence of a potter using culture from the Chalcolithic era. Dating back at least 7000 years. It was this that spurred Ozdogan an expert on the era to begin a recovery excavation.
Then underneath the Chalcolithic layer ashes bones and tools from a much earlier period were found.
“The human settlement we ex-caveated is at least one million years Old. In fact laboratory tests and further excavations by experts may prove that the settlement is older” Ozdogan told Reuters.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 5, 1986
