Olševa, eastern Karawanks, Slovenia
Potočka zijalka
After about 34,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years (134 bone points, direct dates on the points themselves)
At 1,650 metres, Potočka zijalka held 134 massive bone points. The front of the cave reads as a place where hunters replaced broken tips. The back reads as a store. An older reading had the points as offerings.
Why this is extraordinary
Potočka zijalka opens at 1,650 metres on the south side of Olševa, which rises to 1,849 metres, in the eastern Karawanks. It holds the largest collection of well-preserved Aurignacian bone points with a massive base in Europe: 134 of them. One hundred and twenty-seven came out of the campaigns of 1928–1935. Later seasons and a look through the old spoil added the rest. Most are either flat or spindle-shaped. They lay in two layers and in two parts of the cave, the front and the rear, which are not the same kind of floor.
What the cave was for has been argued since those first campaigns. One reading is a sanctuary: points left as offerings in a high, hard-to-reach room, a place you climb to rather than a place you camp. A 2012 study of the breaks and the repairs reads it as a hunting technology instead. The front of the cave was where points were unhafted and replaced. The rear was where finished points were cached, stored for a return. Caching and retooling are the ordinary work of a hunting trip. They do not need an altar. They do explain why so many whole points sat in the dark at the back while the front had the broken ones. The sanctuary reading is the one that study sets aside. It had been in print for decades. A cache can still be a gift. The breaks are what the hunting reading uses, and a gift does not have to be broken.
Eleven direct radiocarbon dates on points from Slovenian early Upper Palaeolithic caves, Potočka zijalka among them, fall after the 34,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon-year line that study uses for the last Neanderthals of the region. An older account of this cave used about 30,000 years. The new dates are on the bone of the points, with a filter meant to strip contamination, not only on charcoal beside them. The question they were asked is whether Neanderthals made these points, alone or in contact with the newcomers. The study says that idea is not supported, and it does not call it closed. The Divje Babe bone, a cave-bear femur with holes, is a different object in a different cave. These are projectile points.
No azimuth of the mouth, and no star for the points, is published in these papers. The cave faces out of a cliff at 1,650 metres. The photograph shows the opening and the path. A high cave can be a landmark for people moving through the mountains. That is a suggestion the hunting study allows, because the mountains were in use. It is not a measured sightline.
Why it matters
If the dates on the points are right, this equipment belongs after the region’s last Neanderthals, and the makers are the new people. If the cache is an offering, the same points are a rite in a high cave, and the breaks are damage after the gift.
The photograph is the mouth of the cave. The points are in collections. The two uses of the floor, front and back, are the argument.
Photo tour
1 photograph, unedited. On a phone, swipe the row. Choose one to look closely.
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- The points are not in the photograph of the mouth.
What is still unexplained
These sit beside the consensus account, with the same visual weight. None of them is marked solved.
Location and dating
- Location
- Potočka zijalka, south side of Olševa, eastern Karawanks, at 1,650 metres. The pin is the cave.
- Period label
- Current consensus — open to revision Aurignacian. Direct dates on the points fall after about 34,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years. An older account used about 30,000 years for the cave.
- How this dating was done
- Radiocarbon on the bone of the points themselves, ultrafiltered collagen, in a series of 11 dates from Slovenian sites that includes this cave. The older “about 30,000” was the cave’s working age before those dates.
- What could change it
- A date on a point whose find-spot is the rear cache, published separately from the front, would show whether the store and the repairs are one visit.
What is actually there
- 134 massive-based bone points. 127 are from the 1928–1935 digs.
- The cave is at 1,650 metres. Olševa reaches 1,849.
- A 2012 study reads the front as retooling and the rear as a cache.
- Eleven direct dates fall after the 34,000–32,000 radiocarbon-year line used for the last Neanderthals of the region.
- No azimuth of the mouth is published.
Open questions
| Question | Status |
|---|---|
| Cache or offering? | Open. Breaks and repairs fit a hunting kit. A high cave can still be a place of gifts. The study uses the breaks. |
| Who made the points? | Open. The direct dates do not support a Neanderthal maker, and the same paper does not call that possibility finished. |
The current narrative
Where publication stands today. It is the best-supported reading, and it is open to revision. It is not a verdict.
The current narrative — open to revision
A hunting cave, retooled at the mouth and stocked at the back
Aurignacian hunters used Potočka zijalka as a high stop, replacing points at the front and caching them at the rear, after the region’s last Neanderthals.
What supports this
- The break patterns differ between the mouth and the back in the way a workshop and a store would differ.
- 134 points is a lot of equipment for a single offering and a sensible number for a cache used more than once.
- Direct dates sit after the 34,000–32,000 line drawn for the last Neanderthals nearby.
What pushes back
- A sanctuary reading was the published story for decades, and a cache of fine points in the dark can be read as gifts.
- The Neanderthal-maker idea is not supported and is not declared impossible by the dating paper.
- The 11 dates are a series across Slovenian caves, not eleven numbers published here one by one for this floor.
What would settle it
It is the centre. Retooling and caching explain the two ends of the cave without a rite. They do not forbid a rite. The dates put the equipment with the new people more readily than with the old.
Emerging narratives
Other published readings. Each may be right. None is adopted here unless the evidence carries it.
An emerging narrative
Offerings in a high sanctuary
The points were left as gifts in a cave that is hard to reach, and the hunting reading is a later description of damage and of storage.
What supports this
- The cave is at 1,650 metres, which is a climb, and the rear is dark.
- Whole points at the back are what an offering of equipment would look like.
- The sanctuary interpretation is the one the first generation of reports worked with, and it stayed in print.
What pushes back
- Broken points and repairs at the mouth are extra work if every point is a gift.
- The same two shapes occur in both areas, which fits one toolkit used in two ways.
- Direct dates pull the points away from the Neanderthal centuries the oldest telling sometimes kept open.
What would settle it
A high cave invites a rite. The breaks invite a workshop. Both are published. The workshop is the one that uses more of the points’ damage.
Should the current view be reevaluated?
Open to revision
134 bone points at 1,650 metres, with the front and the back used differently, are firm. A cache is the fuller use of the damage. An offering remains a reading of whole points in the dark. The direct dates sit after the region’s last Neanderthals and do not quite close the question of who made them. No sky alignment of the mouth is published.
What drives this
- 134 massive-based points, 127 of them from 1928–1935.
- Front as retooling, rear as cache, in a 2012 study.
- Eleven direct dates after 34,000 to 32,000 radiocarbon years.
This is the museum’s own weighing of the evidence. It is not a visitor vote, and it is separate from the slider.
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If the contested reading is right
What would follow if a reading that is not the consensus turned out to be true, and what could settle it. This explains the stakes. It does not adopt the reading.
The rear is only a store
The mountains were ordinary hunting country in the Aurignacian, and the cave was a locker on a route.
Why it is still worth a test
More repaired points from the front, published with their dates, and none of the “offering” pattern of untouched sets.
Neanderthals made some of the points
The toolkit would cross the change of people. The direct dates do not support that, and they do not call it finished.
Why it is still worth a test
A point dated inside the Neanderthal range of this region, from a layer that is not mixed. The series used here did not produce one.
Sources
- Caching and retooling in Potočka zijalka Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt
- Aurignacian osseous points from Potočka zijalka Arheološki vestnik
- Reassessing the Aurignacian of Slovenia Journal of Archaeological Science
Image credits
- The mouth of Potočka zijalka, high on Olševa. A path leads to the dark opening. A sign stands in the grass. The bone points are not in the frame. . DancingPhilosopher, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shown unedited.