Theopetra Cave stone wall
Muro de piedra de la cueva de Theopetra
- Date
- c. 23 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Theopetra Cave, Kalambaka, Thessaly, Greece
- Credited to
- Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A dry-stone wall about 2 m long built at the cave mouth near the end of the last glaciation to shelter it from the cold. It is cited as one of the oldest known built structures.
The date (c. 21,000-23,000 years) and the 'oldest' label come from the press and the local museum; the interpretation of the wall as deliberate and its exact dating call for caution. The same site preserves human footprints of c. 135 ka.
What it led to
- evidence of deliberate habitat modification in the Upper Palaeolithic
- continued occupation of the cave into the Neolithic