The Prehistoric Cave of Theopetra

Theopetra Prehistoric Cave

The prehistoric Cave of Theopetra, which is located only 4 km away from Meteora, is indeed a very unique archeological site. Over the past few decades, it has revealed many of Mankind’s secrets of prehistoric origins in Greece. During excavations, archaeologists were able to find many burials, stone tools, pottery, animal bones, as well as the oldest known man-made structure on earth, officially dated to this day.

The prehistoric Cave of Theopetra’s location offers great advantages for survival. It has superb access to fresh water and different food sources, it provides access to raw materials, and its vantage point served as a magnet for early inhabitants who recognized immediately these key advantages. As a result, various groups of Neandertals and Homo Sapiens used it continuously for more than 130.000 years.

Useful info

Museum Visiting Hours and Days: 8.00 am – 16.00 pm (Tuesday closed)

Important Notice: The cave of Theopetra remains closed for safety reasons until further notice.

Through the course of the exhibition visitors will see:

what is the archaeological trench and how the deposits of a site are being formed
The actions of the prehistoric inhabitants of the cave were imprinted in the soil
which species of humans lived in prehistoric Theopetra and what sort of materials they used to produce their material culture
how did the first prehistoric jewels look like
how our ancestors perceived the passage from life to death which species of plants and animals composed the prehistoric environment of the cave
how did a Neolithic household look like

At the specially built educational applications room visitors of various ages will be able to get information about Greek prehistory and Theopetra cave, through interactive applications that were designed to combine knowledge and fun.

The educational trench, specially designed for our younger visitors, will give children the ability to experience a real excavation and to comprehend the stages of the archaeological process.

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Its uniqueness from an archeological perspective is that it contains, within a single site, the records of two greatly significant cultural transitions: The replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans, and the later transition from hunter-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age. The cave consists of an immense 500 square meter rectangular chamber at the foot of a limestone hill, which rises to the northeast above the village of Theopetra, with a very big entrance 17m wide by three meters high.

It lies at the foot of the Chasia mountain range, which forms the natural boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia prefectures, while the Lithaios River, a tributary of the Pineios River, flows in front of the cave. In addition, the small Lithaios River flowing literally on the doorsteps of the cave meant that cave dwellers had always easy access to fresh, clean water without the need to cover daily long distances to find it.

The latest cave findings published in 2012 by the lead scientist and her team responsible for the excavations, Paleoanthropologist Dr. Ekaterini (Nina) Kyparissi-Apostolika, has raised the time records of cave’s dwelling up to 135.000 BC.

In 2010 it was announced that according to an optical dating test known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence, that was performed to date a recently excavated stonewall and applied on quartz grains nested within the stones, it surprisingly revealed the oldest known man-made structure. The 23,000-year-old stone wall in front of Theopetra cave was probably built to protect its residents from cold winds at the height of the last ice age, it ranks among the oldest known example of a man-made structure!

The Theopetra Cave Museum

Near the cave, you can find the documentation and training center of the cave, which hosts the finds from the excavations that took place in the cave from 1987 to 2008. The purpose of the small Museum is to promote the cultural wealth of the cave and to give visitors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the notions of archaeology and prehistory.