The Cave That Filled the Black Sea's Missing Chapter
A mountain cave above a creek near Trabzon has preserved a hearth, stone tools and ornaments from about 14,000 years ago — the first systematic evidence of its kind in the region.
The Location
Koskarlı Cave sits 40 kilometres south of Trabzon in Türkiye's Söğütlü Valley, 1,030 metres above sea level and 24 metres above the creek below. It occupies a geographical hinge between Anatolia and the Caucasus — and until now, a blank space in the archaeological map of late Ice Age hunter-gatherers.
A new open-access study in Antiquity reports the first systematic investigation of an Epipalaeolithic context in Türkiye's eastern Black Sea region. The cave was identified in 2019; excavation began in 2024.
What's There
Beneath a disturbed upper deposit, archaeologists found an intact layer of grit, ash and carbonised material. Burned sediment and heat-altered flint mark an in situ hearth, while bone and charcoal dates place the occupation at roughly 12,900 to 12,000 BC.
The layer and nearby deposits contained:
- flint, obsidian and dacite tools and production debris;
- blades, points, scrapers, perforators and crescent-shaped lunates;
- a grooved antler ornament and a perforated animal tooth;
- animal remains and terrestrial mollusc shells awaiting detailed identification.
A fireplace survived where an entire chapter of human movement had been missing.
The History
Epipalaeolithic research in Anatolia has traditionally concentrated farther south. Koskarlı's blade and microlith technology shows parallels with sites in Anatolia, the Levant and the Caucasus, but the sources of its coloured flint and obsidian have not yet been identified.
That combination makes the cave a possible reference point for studying movement and technological exchange across the region. It does not prove a specific migration route; the excavators describe those connections as questions for continued research.
The Mystery
The recovered debris shows that people made tools at the cave, used fire and wore personal ornaments near the end of the Pleistocene. What brought them to this high valley, where their stone travelled from and how their community related to groups on either side of the Black Sea corridor remain open.
Further seasons will analyse the plant and animal remains and deepen the cultural sequence. The cave has supplied the missing coordinates. Its routes are still invisible.