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Petralona,_Chalkidiki Latitude and Longitude:

40°22′10″N 23°09′33″E / 40.369522°N 23.159120°E / 40.369522; 23.159120
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Petralona
Πετράλωνα
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]
Country Greece
Administrative region Central Macedonia
Regional unit Chalkidiki
Municipality Nea Propontida
Municipal unit Triglia
Elevation
270 m (890 ft)
Population
 (2021) [2]
 • Community316
Time zone UTC+2 ( EET)
 • Summer ( DST) UTC+3 ( EEST)
Vehicle registrationΧΚ

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

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.

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 specimen 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.

External links

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