Paleoanthropological Investigation of the Pestera cu Oase, Romania

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Recent anthropological research has documented that modern humans emerged in sub-Saharan Africa prior to 100,000 years ago, and then after 50,000 years ago spread into Eurasia and the remainder of Africa. They spread across Europe between 37,000 and 30,000 years ago, during which time they encountered and variably absorbed populations of European Neandertals. However, the human fossil evidence for those earliest modern Europeans has been scarce and postdates 32,000 years ago. In the context of this, the 2002 and 2003 discoveries of early modern human fossils in the Pestera cu Oase in southwestern Romania, directly dated to about 35,000 years ago, provide novel evidence for understanding the biology and behavior of these earliest modern Europeans. The research at the Pestera cu Oase will consist of the detailed geological, paleontological, chronological and archeological documentation of the contents of the cave, which served primarily as a hibernation cave for Pleistocene cave bear and contains the fossil remains of cave bear, humans, and a variety of other mammals. From this, in addition to the recovery of additional human fossils, the research will answer questions about how the humans came to be in the cave, what their relationships were with the hibernating bears, and the extent to which they used the cave as a ritual and mortuary locality. It will document the biology of these earliest modern Europeans, who, on the basis of the material found so far, differ significantly from living humans. Moreover, ongoing study of these fossils relates directly to questions regarding the biological nature of the earliest modern humans and why, after two million years of successful adaptations, archaic humans (like the Neandertals) were replaced by modern humans in a relatively short period of time. Romania is in the process of emerging scientifically and economically to participate in the larger European and global community. The international collaborative research at the Pestera cu Oase will promote this in several ways. It will foster scientific exchanges between Romanian, American and other European scholars. It will involve field and laboratory training of Romanian doctoral students, who do not have the resources to otherwise train outside of Romania. It will enhance the scientific infrastructure of laboratories of the Romanian Academy and Universitatea Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca, through collaboration and providing needed equipment and supplies. It will help to conserve the valuable, and irreplaceable, cave environments of the abundant cave systems in Romania, most of which are currently threatened by commercial exploitation, uncontrolled tourism and pollution. It will facilitate the proper curation and subsequent analysis of the valuable paleontological treasures of Romania. Moveover, the initial announcement in 2003 of the Pestera cu Oase fossils received global (and Romanian) media attention, and as such it is helping to increase awareness in Romania and elsewhere of their natural resources. This can only help with the process of conserving those resources and making them appropriately available to the public. The field research at the Pestera cu Oase will enhance all of these aspects of international collaboration.