Gera (dpa/th) – Ice Age bones from the Lindenthal Hyena Cave were able to be backdated almost 50,000 years ago by a scientific team in North Rhine-Westphalia. Thanks to a high protein content in the bones and teeth from the site in Gera, it was possible to determine the age of six finds “quite precisely”, the city announced on Monday. For example, two horse samples could be predated 46,000 to 44,000 and 41,000 to 40,000 years ago. “The result of the dating of a woolly rhinoceros bone with 47,000 to 46,000 years ago is a little older,” it said.
In September 2020, numerous bones and teeth of Ice Age animal species such as woolly rhinoceros, bison, reindeer and horses were loaned to the University of Cologne by the museum. The age was then determined by radiocarbon dating at the Curt Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry (CEZA) in Mannheim.
The Lindental Hyena Cave was discovered in late autumn 1874 in what is now Gera’s Pforten district. Thousands of years ago, the cave was a so-called hyena nest, used by cave hyenas to eat their prey and most likely to raise their young. It was filled with numerous bones, bone splinters and teeth. 2024 is the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the Lindenthal Hyena Cave. The examined bone and tooth material will then be presented in a special exhibition.
