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Mala Balanica

CaveSićevo

Cave complex in Serbia

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Mala Balanica
Photo: Breza07 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Address
Naselje Brana, Sićevo

About

Balanica (Serbian Cyrillic: Баланица) is a cave complex, archaeological and palentological site in the City of Niš' municipality of Niška Banja in southeast Serbia. It consists of Velika Balanica and Mala Balanica (meaning Great and Little Balanica). The entrances of two caves are 7 m (23 ft) apart, at an elevation of 329 m (1,079 ft), and form one cave system. The two Balanica caves extend parallel to each other, likely being connected at the rear. In 2006, remains of a non-Neanderthal archaic Homo were discovered in Mala Balanica. Estimated to be up to 525,000 years old, it was the oldest hominin remains discovery in Serbia and third oldest in Europe discovered at the time. In 2022, Neanderthal fossils were discovered in Velika Balanica. Estimated to be 300,000 years old, they represent the oldest Neanderthal remains in Eastern Europe and the second oldest hominin fossils found in Serbia to date. This makes Velika Balanica one of the oldest sites in Europe documenting the transition from the Lower to the Middle Paleolithic. The caves also confirm that the Balkan Peninsula, due to its geographical location, was always an important crossroads, and a migration corridor even for archaic humans, connecting continents already 300,000 years ago. Different hominin morphologies survived and coexisted in the area, making the Balkans a "hotspot of biodiversity". During the Marine Isotope Stage 5 (130,000–80,000 years ago), the Neanderthals thrived.

Balanica — Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

Getting there

FAQ

Where is Mala Balanica?

Mala Balanica is located at Naselje Brana, Sićevo.

How far is Mala Balanica from the city centre?

It is about 0.5 km from the city centre (Sićevo) as the crow flies, about 8 min on foot.

Nearby

Data sources: Wikidata