Petralona, Chalkidiki

Petralona
Πετράλωνα
Community
Petralona cave entrance
Petralona cave entrance
Petralona is located in Greece
Petralona
Petralona
Location within the regional unit
Coordinates: 40°22′10″N 23°09′33″E / 40.369522°N 23.159120°E / 40.369522; 23.159120[1]
CountryGreece
Administrative regionCentral Macedonia
Regional unitChalkidiki
MunicipalityNea Propontida
Municipal unitTriglia
Elevation
270 m (890 ft)
Population
 (2021)[2]
 • Community
316
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)
Vehicle registrationΧΚ

Petralona (Greek: Πετράλωνα) is a small locality in Chalkidiki, Macedonia, Greece. It is 6 km northwest of Triglia and 35 km southeast of Thessaloniki. Its altitude is 270 m (890 ft).[3]

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

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).[4] This is considered as one of the oldest European Homo erectus specimens found so far.

References

  1. ^ These are the coordinates of downtown Petralona from Google Maps. The cave is some distance away from the downtown area.
  2. ^ "Αποτελέσματα Απογραφής Πληθυσμού - Κατοικιών 2021, Μόνιμος Πληθυσμός κατά οικισμό" [Results of the 2021 Population - Housing Census, Permanent population by settlement] (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 29 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-21.
  4. ^ (in English) « Pre-Sapiens Man in Greece ». By Aris Nickos Poulianos, Current Anthropology, vol. 22, n° 3, June 1981, pp. 287-288.

Media related to Petralona, Chalkidiki at Wikimedia Commons
Petralona travel guide from Wikivoyage

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