Scladina Cave, Belgium

S

cladina Cave is located in a small tributary valley of the Meuse River, in the village of Sclayn, near the present-day town of Andenne (southern Belgium). Discovered in 1971 by speleologists, the cave has been excavated since 1978 almost continuously until today. It has delivered more than 17.500 lithic artefacts and thousands of faunal remains with traces of human exploitation. Neandertal remains have also been discovered, including a fragment of a maxilla and a nearly complete mandible of a juvenile. Together with Walou, Scladina cave is one of the best-studied cave sequences in Belgium. TraceoLab’s involvement concerns the study of avian fauna.

Further reading

• Bonjean D., Di Modica K., Abrams G., Pirson S. & Otte M., 2011 – La grotte Scladina: bilan 1971-2011. In: Toussaint M., Di Modica K. & Pirson S. (dir.), Le Paléolithique moyen en Belgique. Mélanges Marguerite Ulrix Closset. Liège: University of Liège (ERAUL, 128): 323-334
• Pirson S., Toussaint M., Bonjean D. & Di Modica K., 2018 – Spy and Scladina caves: a Neandertal’s story. In: Demoulin A. (ed.), Landscapes and landforms of Belgium and Luxembourg. Cham: Springer International Publishing: 357-383
• Toussaint M. & Bonjean D., 2014 – The Scladina I-4A juvenile Neandertal (Andenne, Belgium): palaeoanthropology and context. Liège: University of Liège (ERAUL, 134), 464 p.