Qaleh Kurd Cave: Oldest Evidence of Himinins in IRAN

Qaleh Kurd cave is located next to the village of the same name, in the east of Koh-Sari, in Hesar Valiasr village of Avaj city in Qazvin province, and its average height above sea level is about ۲۱۳۷ meters. The mouth of this cave is ۸ meters wide and faces south-west. The result of the three seasons of field work of the joint delegation of Iran and France in Qaleh Kurd cave was the discovery and recording of more than thousands of cultural findings (including human remains, animal bones and stone tools). This area has a very favorable condition from the point of view of the preservation of animal remains, which may be the main reason for it being dryness and lack of humidity. Animal remains include most of the cultural materials obtained from the excavation of Qaleh Kurd cave. In general, the ratio of stone tools to animal remains in Qaleh Kurd is ۱ to ۸, which, along with other evidence, is a confirmation of the use of the area as a centralized place for processing animal remains. Large mammals such as equids, cattle (Cervus elaphus) and wild goats and sheep (Capra cf. aegagrus) accounted for most of the remains of large animals. In the meantime, the presence and abundance of different species of wild horses is a point worthy of attention, as well as the presence of an extinct type of horse from the Pleistocene era called hydruntinus (Equus hydruntinus) is one of the key points in the study of animal remains. In addition to the remains of large mammals that were mentioned earlier, the presence of animals such as the extinct two-horned rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) that lived in Eurasia until the end of the Pleistocene, as well as the brown bear (Ursus arctos) is significant. A total of ۲۰ human teeth have been obtained from the excavation of Qaleh Kurd cave. Although the work of studying all the obtained teeth is ongoing, a baby tooth attributed to a Neanderthal human child that is ۱۷۵,۰۰۰ years old (now on display in the Qazvin Museum) is one of the most important discoveries of this site, which, taking into account the mentioned age, this sample is the oldest physical evidence of a type of human in Iran. The latest dating of the layers excavated in the Qaleh Kurd cave indicates an age of more than ۴۷۰,۰۰۰ years, which has made this area the oldest human settlement in the Iranian plateau.