Petralona, Chalkidiki

Petralona Πετράλωνα
Petralona
Location within the regional unit
Coordinates: 40°23′N 23°9′E / 40.383°N 23.150°E / 40.383; 23.150Coordinates: 40°23′N 23°9′E / 40.383°N 23.150°E / 40.383; 23.150
Country	Greece
Administrative region	Central Macedonia
Regional unit	Chalkidiki
Municipality	Nea Propontida
Elevation	660 m (2,170 ft)
Population (2011)[1]
• Municipal unit	348
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Vehicle registration	ΧΚ

Petralona (Greek: Πετράλωνα) is a small locality in Chalcidice, Macedonia, Greece. It is 6 km N-W of Triglia and 35 km S-E of Thessaloniki. Its altitude is 660 m.^[2]

It is famous for the eponymous cave at about 1 km from the village, the Petralona cave in which was discovered one of the earliest European humanoids.

Petralona cave entrance

Prehistory

The Petralona cave, at the foot of Mount Katsika, was discovered in 1959 by a local looking for a spring. In it was found in 1960 the Petralona skull, extremely well preserved, dated to more than 700,000 years. It was named Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis (Poulianos, 1976).^[3] This is considered as one of the oldest European Homo erectus specimen found so far.

References

1. ↑ "Απογραφή Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2011. ΜΟΝΙΜΟΣ Πληθυσμός" (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 
2. ↑ Petralona village.
3. ↑ (English) « Pre-Sapiens Man in Greece ». By Aris Nickos Poulianos, Current Anthropology, vol. 22, n° 3, June 1981, pp. 287-288.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Petralona.

• An important neolithic site: The Petralona Cave and Anthropological Museum.