Cuciulat Cave

Coordinates: 47°19′03″N 23°24′37″E / 47.317608°N 23.410219°E

Cuciulat Cave (Romanian: peștera Cuciulat) is located in Podișul Someșan plateau, near the village Cuciulat in the commune Letca, Sălaj County, Romania. It contains the first known cave paintings of Central Europe.

The cave of Cuciulat was known to locals since before the World War I. Later it was partially destroyed by a limestone quarry, using explosives. On 28 July 1978, a team of speleologists (A. Done, F. Cucu, T. Vadeanu, M. Codrescu, Simona Manolescu) from the Emil Racoviță Speleologic Club (Romanian: Clubul de Speologie Emil Racoviţă) explored the cave, noticing the existence of cave rock paintings in one of the rooms.^[1]

The next spring the archeologist Marin Cârciumaru accompanied by other two team members came to the cave, to carry out the scientific research. They discovered, all in a cave room of moderate size, approx. 3,7 × 2,5 m, besides the best preserved image of a horse, an image of a feline, then the representation of a bird, of another horse, and an image vaguely reminding of a human figure. The chemical analysis established that the paintings were made with red clay rich in iron oxides (13% Fe₂O₃).

Marin Cârciumaru, according to analogies in Europe, estimated that the Cuciulat cave paintings were completed in the Upper Paleolithic, about 12,000 years ago. This dating could not be supported by other evidence of an archaeological nature. A significant part of the cave had been already destroyed by quarrying, together with possible traces of a human habitation in the cave or in its immediate vicinity. It compromised the chances to discover artifacts that would provide additional clues for the dating of the paintings.^[2]

The individual images show silhouettes with neither outlines nor shading. The painted horse is 24,6 cm long and 12,5 cm high, the bird is 21 cm long and 14 cm high. The alleged image of a human, in a very poor state of conservation, is 51 cm high and approx. 26 cm wide.^[3]

In 1985 the entrance of the cave was blocked by landslide in the former quarry. In this context, the present condition of the cave paintings is not known.

Recently the interest for Cuciulat cave and its cave paintings has revived. There is an aim for a new research based on contemporary techniques and dating methods, allowing also eventual identification of drawings that were possibly omitted by the first, and so far the last researchers in 1979.^[4]

References

1. "Malarstwo jaskiniowe — poza obszarem Hiszpanii i Francji. Jaskinia Cuciulat (Rumunia)". archeofil.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 17 November 2015.
2. Olaru, Sebastian (21 July 2013). Olteanu, Karina, ed. "Specii de lilieci unicat în Europa și picturi rupestre, în peșterile din Sălaj". Agerpres (in Romanian).
3. "Malarstwo jaskiniowe — poza obszarem Hiszpanii i Francji. Jaskinia Cuciulat (Rumunia)". archeofil.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 17 November 2015.
4. Olaru, Sebastian (21 July 2013). Olteanu, Karina, ed. "Specii de lilieci unicat în Europa și picturi rupestre, în peșterile din Sălaj". Agerpres (in Romanian).