Wolf Grotto. Crimea, Photos, coordinates, description of the Wolf Grotto in Crimea
Wolf Grotto (or Baryu-Teshik) - the first Paleolithic site discovered on the territory Russian Empire Merezhkovsky K.S. in 1880, karst cavity. A natural monument since 1972.
The grotto is located on the steep slope of the cuesta of the Inner Ridge of the Crimean Mountains, at 12 km east of Simferopol, near the village of Donskoy. In this place, a ridge composed of nummulitic limestone is cut through by the valley of the Beshterek River, and a grotto is located on its right, elevated bank. The entrance is located at a height of 18 m above the modern level of the river, nearby is a small flat area, well protected from the wind by rocks.
The wide open entrance of the main grotto leads directly from the platform into the inner room, expanding in depth to 11–12 m and an average length of 15 m. Quite high (up to 5 m) in the middle part the ceiling becomes lower in the depths of the grotto, especially in the southwestern extension. In some places the uneven, rocky floor of the grotto comes to the surface, and in the central part in spring and after heavy rains water accumulates, flowing from above along the peak of the rock above the entrance; this is noticeable when examining the longitudinal profile of the cave, its floor and the area in front of it.
The Wolf Grotto is clearly visible from the Simferopol - Feodosia highway.
Study
The first cave site of the Old Stone Age in Russia - “Wolf Grotto” - was discovered by Konstantin Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (1855–1921), brother of the famous writer D. S. Merezhkovsky. In 1879, while a student at the Faculty of Science at St. Petersburg University, he became interested in primitive archeology and went to Crimea. For two seasons, in 1879 and 1880, K. S. Merezhkovsky conducted intensive exploration in the mountainous and foothill Crimea. He examined 34 caves, and a cultural layer was found in 9 of them.
In 1924, the site in the Wolf Grotto was studied by G. Bonch-Osmolovsky. However, his excavations did not yield anything significant, and the Wolf Grotto did not attract the attention of archaeologists for more than ten years.
In 1937–1938, 1968, an expedition led by O. Bader worked here, which carried out more detailed research. He managed to discover a cultural layer that was not in the grotto itself, but in front of it — on an area well protected by rocks surrounding it on three sides.
O. Bander's research showed that in the Paleolithic the site was located almost at the bottom of the valley, next to the river. Its inhabitants were engaged in hunting and gathering. During excavations, numerous intact and crushed animal remains were found. Later, the remains of fire pits, mammoth bones and a bear fang were found here. After the famous historian and contemporary of Merezhkovsky, Gabriel Mortillier, republished an image of one of the flint tools in his monograph, the grotto became known as the first site of the Mousterian era (the era associated with the late Neanderthals, corresponding to the Middle Paleolithic) found in Russia.
The study of the main Mousterian (seventh) layer suggested the presence of a “workshop” where flint processing was carried out. This idea is suggested by the accumulations of flint tools and fragments in two excavation sites.
Noteworthy is the presence of bones of mammoth, saiga, reindeer and arctic fox, indicating the cold climate of the Crimean Foothills of that era.
The entrance of the grotto faces north-west, that is, it was blown by northern winds and was almost not warmed by the sun, so historians believe that the cave was never a permanent place of residence.
The Wolf Grotto cave was discovered in 1880. This is the first Paleolithic cave discovered in Crimea.
As a student, K. S. Mereshkovsky was the discoverer of this grotto. While conducting excavations, he discovered here many remains of wild extinct animals and household items of ancient people. He wanted to prove that people lived here three hundred thousand years ago. But many materials and evidence were lost during the excavations. He failed to prove his theory.
Ancient animals of the Beshterek valley
In 1937-1939, O.K. Baber continued excavations and also discovered the remains of animals. But only the famous scientist Mortelier confirmed that in fact this natural attraction belongs to the Mousterian culture. Here they found the remains of a wild bull, red deer, roe deer, mammoth, badger, bison, wild horse, wolverine, wild boar and many others. Small pointed points were discovered from household items of ancient people.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that ancient hunters hid from animals and rain in this grotto. They made a fire and roasted their prey here. The grotto is not warmed by the sun and is blown by the wind, so it did not serve as a place for ancient people to live.
The grotto is dug into yellow-gray limestone rock. The cave is located in the Beshterek valley and is eighteen meters high above the river. The entrance to the cave is shaped like an ancient letter P, surrounded by rocks and bushes. The length of the grotto is 15 meters, and the width differs in different areas: at the bottom of the grotto it is quite narrow, and the largest width is 11-12 meters.
Since 1972 it has been an official natural monument of Crimea.
How to get to the Wolf Grotto?
The Wolf Grotto is located in the village of Mazanka in the Simferopol region, which is approximately 12 kilometers from Simferopol itself. The grotto can be seen from the Simferopol - Feodosia highway.
You can get to the Wolf Grotto using GPS data, but it is quite long, you will have to go around the entire village on a bad road. It is best to drive past Lake Beshterek, then another 500 meters and you are there. Here anyone can relax with a tent, have a picnic in nature or fish in the river. But if you are a gambling person and like to win without risks, then cs go roulette for homeless people will be an ideal option. It is called so because the minimum deposit is only 1 ruble!
The grotto was the first in Crimea to be examined by archaeologists at the end of the 19th century.
Here, in 1937–1939, O.N. Bader discovered a cultural layer that was not in the grotto itself, but on the area in front of it. Traces of hearths have been found in the form of bone and charcoal, mammoth bones, wild horse, cave bear, donkey, wild ox, red deer and other animals of the Ice Age.
In 1968, excavations resumed, and dozens of tools were discovered - small points and side scrapers.
If you notice an inaccuracy or the data is out of date, please make corrections, we will be grateful. Let's create the best encyclopedia about Crimea together!
The grotto was the first in Crimea to be examined by archaeologists at the end of the 19th century. Here, in 1937–1939, O.N. Bader discovered a cultural layer that was not in the grotto itself, but on the area in front of it. Traces of hearths have been found in the form of bone and charcoal, mammoth bones, wild horse, cave bear, donkey, wild ox, red deer and other animals of the Ice Age. In 1968, excavations resumed, and dozens of tools were discovered - small points and side scrapers.Save changes
Wolf Grotto best case scenario guests of Crimea are shown good guides from the bus window, moving from Simferopol to Feodosia or Koktebel. Not very good guides simply don’t know where exactly it should be shown, but even bad guides know that the Wolf Grotto is an archaeological sensation discovered by student Merezhkovsky at the dawn, so to speak, of the science of cave times. Okay, let’s limit ourselves to the fact that the Wolf Grotto must be seen up close and visited exclusively with your feet and hands.
GPS coordinates 45° 0"57.73"N 34°14"16.25"E
Highway Simferopol - Belogorsk - Feodosia (route of republican significance M-17 or Google Earth - P23) 12th km from Simferopol. In this case, it is best to travel on a mountain bike, since there are many more places ahead (to the south and above). interesting places. First of all, the first Russian village in Crimea, St. Petersburg huts. But about its glorious history - separately.
Wolf Grotto
The Wolf Grotto played a special, and notable, role in the history of Russian Paleolithic studies. The 70s are an anniversary decade in the study of the Paleolithic in Russia. In the 70s of the last century, a whole series of Upper Paleolithic sites was discovered in Eastern Europe, where they were not known at all before. These are the Gontsovskaya site on the river. Uday (1873), Karacharovskaya on the Oka (1877), Kostenkovskaya on the Don (1879). The special role of the site in the Wolf Grotto in Crimea lies in the fact that it turned out to be the first Mousterian, Middle Paleolithic site discovered in Russia.
The Wolf Grotto was discovered and subjected for the first time archaeological excavations in 1880 by K. S. Merezhkovsky. As is known, two summer seasons 1879 and 1880 Anthropological research in Crimea was unusually successful: almost all of the various Paleolithic sites of Crimea, which are most famous today, were discovered, subsequently studied in detail by G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky. The material collected by K. S. Merezhkovsky in the Wolf Grotto was small and was later lost along with his other materials on the Paleolithic of Crimea. The information about the excavations published in his preliminary report is very incomplete and does not always agree with our data. Even the plan of the site and its excavations remained unpublished. Information about the stratigraphy of the site and the cultural layer is also very scanty.
The list of fauna given by Merezhkovsky, the remains of which were discovered in the Wolf Grotto, included the following species: wild bull, red deer, roe deer, saiga, wild horse, mammoth and badger. Only two flint tools published by K. S. Merezhkovsky are very typical: a small “hand ax” (coup de poing) with double-sided upholstery and an excellent “hand pointe” (pointe a main), made from a flat flint flake. K. S. Merezhkovsky rightfully classified the monument he discovered as a Mousterian-type site. Its Mousterian age was confirmed by the greatest authority of that time - Gabriel Mortilier, who republished one of the flint tools in his monograph. Since then, Wolf Grotto has become widely known as the first site of the Mousterian era in Russia.
However, over the next sixty years, science was not enriched with any new data about this interesting ancient monument, although attempts were made. Thus, in 1924, the Wolf Grotto was subjected to a three-day examination and reconnaissance excavations by G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky; as far as we know, N. L. Ernst, a researcher of the Mousterian site in the Chokurcha cave near Simferopol, also searched there. But neither one nor the other managed to find any traces of cultural remains of the Mousterian time in the grotto, and since then the opinion has finally become stronger among experts that the Wolf Grotto as archaeological site completely exhausted.
The complete absence in the specialized literature of any illustrations characterizing at least the conditions of the location of the Wolf Grotto and its appearance, prompted the author in 1937, during excavations of the new Mousterian site of Chagarak-Koba, to instruct one of the employees of the Crimean paleoanthropological expedition of Moscow State University, student B.I. Tatarinov, to carry out external fixation and description of the monument, which he did. The test pit dug during this examination also did not give positive results, but the significant dimensions of the grotto that were revealed led us to the decision to carry out a more thorough search in it, since in such a large cave, if it had not been excavated in its entirety at the time, there could have been preserved would be isolated small remains of Paleolithic cultural deposits. Such searches were carried out the following year, 1938, by students of Moscow State University and one of the Leningrad institutes under the leadership of O. N. Bader.
The Wolf Grotto is a spectacular, relatively large cave, located 12 km east of Simferopol, in an exposed rock of yellowish nummulitic limestone above the flowering valley of the river. Beshterek, near the intersection of the latter with the highway leading to Feodosia. It is clearly visible from the highway and easily accessible to tourists. Rising from the valley to the cave, you find yourself on a rather vast green area inclined towards the valley, framed at the top by a half-circus of rocks and in its southwestern part ending above the entrance to a small lower grotto, designated by us as grotto No. 2. At an altitude of 18 m above the river The wide open entrance of the main grotto leads directly from the platform into the inner room, expanding in depth to 11 - 12 m and an average length of 15 m. The ceiling, which is quite high in the middle part, becomes lower in the depths of the grotto, especially in the southwestern expansion. In some places, the uneven, rocky floor of the grotto comes to the surface, and in the central part in the spring and after heavy rains, water accumulates, flowing from above along the peak of the rock above the entrance; this is noticeable when examining the longitudinal profile of the cave, its floor and the area in front of it.
It is likely that this significant inconvenience of the cave as a dwelling occurred, at least in part, in Quaternary times. It is aggravated by the fact that the entrance of the grotto faces north-west. Consequently, the cave, being open north winds, is almost not heated by the sun, which could not but have had a significant influence on the choice of it for housing by primitive man. Meanwhile, the space in front of the grotto, well protected by a semicircle of rocks, has been flooded with sunlight since early morning. In addition, on the north-eastern side, near the peak of the rocky wall of the semi-circus, a brownish strip was still visible, which could indicate the attachment of rocks to a canopy that had recently collapsed.
The listed circumstances and considerations forced us to pay special attention during excavations to the area in front of the grotto, especially since it apparently did not attract the attention of previous researchers. The two test trenches we dug inside the cave in 1938—longitudinal and transverse—revealed almost no traces of ancient sediments, but on the site, a longitudinal trench only 2–3 m from the entrance to the grotto revealed a deep rocky depression, all filled with a thick layer of Quaternary loam saturated with Mousterian cultural remains. Two more reconnaissance excavations, located at the same time on the western edge of the site, almost above grotto No. 2 and from the northwest, near a high rock, showed that almost the entire site is occupied by cultural remains; this created poor opportunities for excavations, although the entire north-eastern part of the site is littered with huge piles of stones fallen from the rocks, and in the north-western pit, before reaching the Paleolithic layer, we had to overcome a significant thickness of the medieval cultural layer and then break through the covering it in the form cemented stone slabs that fell directly on it in ancient times.
In 1939, the Institute of Anthropology of Moscow State University began excavations at the site. The size of the area suitable for excavation and completely untouched before, the sharp delineation of the boundaries of the site, the conditions of occurrence and the preservation of the excavated cultural layer made it possible to set the study of the general picture of the ancient habitation of the Neanderthals as the main task of the excavations. As mentioned above, G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky, who was the first to use Paleolithic excavations over large areas at one time (1923-1926), developed for the Crimea the most detailed then in former USSR development scheme of the entire Paleolithic, and there were well-known reasons to extend it to a much wider territory, that is, to the entire Black Sea region, which gave it especially great importance. At the same time, Bonch-Osmolovsky’s scheme has weak points that are very controversial regarding the dating of a certain group of monuments, in particular the Lower Paleolithic ones. And immediately after the second discovery of the Wolf Grotto, it became clear that its research promises to shed light on New World on controversial issues dating a number of such early Paleolithic sites of Crimea as Kiik-Koba, Chokurcha and others, and in connection with this, the age of the Kiik-Koba Neanderthal.
Striving for the most complete study of the site, designed to last several years, we began in 1939 excavations on both sides at once. First of all, the entire area of the grotto was cleared down to the rocky bottom. However, no ancient cultural remains were found. The cave was filled with a thin, almost black modern layer, formed as a result of the constant use of the cave as a sheep pen. This layer lay directly on the rock or rocky eluvium of the cave bottom. The usual deposits of loam, crushed stone and other products of limestone destruction in old caves were strangely absent here. There is no doubt that they were artificially removed from the cave, and relatively recently at that. It seems most likely that this was done by Merezhkovsky's excavations. Only in the very depths of the grotto did a deep crack in the uneven floor turn out to be untouched and filled with characteristic yellow Quaternary loam, in which we found fragments of several bones and among them a bear fang.
Now, taking into account the poverty of the material collected by Merezhkovsky inside the grotto, we are finally convinced of the validity of our preliminary conclusion that the cave, for the reasons stated above, was never a favorite place for the inhabitants of the site.
