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Petralona Πετράλωνα
Community
Petralona cave entrance
PetralonaLocation within the regional unit
Coordinates: 40°22′10″N 23°09′33″E / 40.369522°N 23.159120°E / 40.369522; 23.159120
Country	Greece
Administrative region	Central Macedonia
Regional unit	Chalkidiki
Municipality	Nea Propontida
Municipal unit	Triglia
Elevation	270 m (890 ft)
Population
• Community	316
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Vehicle registration	ΧΚ

Petralona (Greek: Πετράλωνα) is a small locality in Chalkidiki, Macedonia, Greece. It is 6 km northwest of Triglia and 35 km southeast of Thessaloniki. Its altitude is 270 m (890 ft).

It is famous for the Petralona Cave about 1 km from the village, 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). This is considered as one of the oldest European Homo erectus specimens 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

• An important neolithic site: The Petralona Cave and Anthropological Museum.

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