Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Stone tools from Neanderthals, over 130,000 years old, have been discovered in Raciborz, Poland, revealing their repeated visits to the region.
Archaeologists have made a remarkable discovery in Raciborz, Poland, unearthing stone tools dating back at least 130,000 years. These finds provide the earliest evidence of human presence in the Moravian Gate region and shed light on the repeated visits of Neanderthals to the area. These prehistoric artifacts were found at the bottom of a former river valley, revealing a vital connection between the Raciborska Basin and the Moravian Gate in sustaining and nurturing the human population of that era.
A two-year-long archaeological expedition in the western part of Raciborz, known as Studzienna, was conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Wroclaw, Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Silesia in Katowice, the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, and in collaboration with the Raciborz Museum.
Researchers believe that the old sandpit area, systematically explored over the past two years, may hold tens of thousands of artifacts across at least three layers. The discoveries also shed light on the tools used by prehistoric people, particularly those with asymmetrical, knife-like forms. These tools played a crucial role in activities ranging from hunting to butchering.
The age of these artifacts was determined using innovative optoluminescence techniques in the Gliwicki Centre for Absolute Dating at the Silesian University of Technology. The results, according to Prof. Andrzej Wiśniewski, demonstrate the power of combining new excavation methods and laboratory analyses.