12,900-Year-Old Epipalaeolithic Site Unveils Fire, Tools and Ornaments in Turkey
Excavations at Koskarlı Cave near Trabzon have uncovered a 12,900-year-old hunter-gatherer layer with a hearth, stone tools and personal ornaments, offering rare insight into Epipalaeolithic life in the eastern Black Sea region.
Koskarlı Cave, situated about 40 km south of Trabzon in the Söğütlü Valley at roughly 1,030 m elevation, was first recorded during 2019 surveys and excavated in 2024 under the joint direction of the Trabzon Museum and Karadeniz Technical University. The first season uncovered a 20-40 cm thick layer dating to the closing stages of the Late Pleistocene, with radiocarbon results of 12,916-12,183 cal BC (charcoal) and 12,413-12,070 cal BC (bone).
Evidence includes an in-situ hearth, ash, burnt sediment and heat-altered flint, indicating controlled fire use. The stone toolkit features end-scrapers, backed blades, bladelets, points, burins and lunates, while personal adornments consist of a grooved antler fragment and a perforated animal tooth. Technological parallels to Epipalaeolithic assemblages across Anatolia, the Levant and the Caucasus highlight the cave’s strategic position between these regions. Preliminary faunal and mollusc finds await identification, promising further data on diet and environmental adaptation, and establishing the site as a new reference point for Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in a previously under-documented area.
Why it matters
The find provides the first solid evidence of Epipalaeolithic occupation in Turkey's eastern Black Sea, shedding light on early human mobility and technology.
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