Verteba Cave

Verteba Cave is located about {{convert|1.5|km|abbr=on}} from the village of Bilche-Zolote, Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. It is one of several karstic caves located in the Podillia–Bukovynian or Transnistrian karst region{{sfnm|1a1=Bondar et al.|1y=2021|1p=240|2a1=Sokhatsky|2y=2001|2p=239}} on the Ukrainian Podolian Upland, a loess plateau cut by several ravines and rivers. Verteba itself is on the eastern bank of the Seret, a tributary of the Dniester.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=1}} There is only one entrance, located in a depression caused by a collapsed sinkhole. The cave features a labyrinth of interlocking passageways.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|pages=239–240}} Estimates of the total length of the passageways range from {{convert|8.555|km|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=10}} to {{convert|9|km|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|p=240}} The overall surface area of the cave floor is about {{convert|23000|sqm|abbr=on}} and the cave's capacity is about {{convert|47000|sqm|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=1}}

File:01887 Bilcze, Höhle (im Felsen).jpg

During the 19th century, the land on which the cave sits was part of an estate owned by the Polish noble Sapieha family.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=2}} Jan Khmeletsky discovered the cave in 1822.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=240}} Prince Leon Sapieha was part of the Anthropological Committee of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków and permitted Adam Kirkor to conduct the first explorations in 1876 and 1878. These archaeological excavations yielded two human skeletons and several additional incomplete sets of remains. Further studies took place sporadically between the 1890s and 1900s by {{ill|Gotfryd Ossowski|pl}} and {{ill|Włodzimierz Demetrykiewicz|pl}}, between 1914 and 1928, and again after World War II.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=2}} After the war, the cave again began attracting tourists for its geologic and archaeological interest,{{cite news |last1=Greenboim Rich |first1=Viktoria |title=How Caves That Have Sheltered People for 6,000 Years Saved Jews From the Holocaust |url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-07-22/ty-article-magazine/how-caves-that-have-sheltered-people-for-6-000-years-saved-jews-from-the-holocaust/00000189-79fe-d09f-a3a9-ffff6dc20000 |access-date=22 March 2024 |work=Haaretz |date=22 July 2023}} and it officially opened as a show cave to the public in 2004.

Beginning in 1996, Mykhailo Sokhatskyi from the Borshchiv Local History Museum has led periodic archaeological expeditions. By 2010, the team had excavated {{convert|64|sqm|abbr=on}} of the cave.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|p=10}} The 2018 field season unveiled a new hearth and a bag of flint blanks. The flint was not from local quarries but instead originated in Volyn Oblast and was subsequently brought into Verteba Cave.{{cite news |last1=Снітовський |first1=Олег |title=Печера Вертеба: відкриття й нові загадки |script-title=uk:Pechera Verteba: vidkrytti͡a ĭ novi zahadky |trans-title=Verteba Cave: discoveries and new mysteries |url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-tourism/2606942-pecera-verteba-vidkritta-j-novi-zagadki.html |language=uk |access-date=6 May 2024 |work=Ukrinform |date=23 December 2018}}

{{See also|The Holocaust in Ukraine}}

On 12 October 1942,{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|pages=13, 28}} 28 Jews from seven families fled from Bilche-Zolote and the nearby village of Korolivka to Verteba Cave, seeking refuge from mass executions by the Nazis, who had arrived the year prior.{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|page=29}} Tourism to the cave had by then halted for the winter months. Upon arrival, the group chose a chamber measuring {{convert|12|m|abbr=on}} across and sealed it off with rubble.{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|pages=19, 22–23}} Once a week, three of the men—who had obtained special licences to remain in the area collecting scrap metal—performed a supply run, bringing a wagon with supplies under the cover of darkness. As the cave has no reliable water source—the inhabitants collected water runoff from the walls—and the Nazis planned to resume searching the forest for hiding Jews the following spring, the refugees regarded Verteba as a temporary shelter. To avoid discovery, in February 1943, they moved deeper into the cave, {{convert|900|m}} from the entrance. They also dug out a smaller, second entrance as an emergency escape route, towards which they carved steps into the stone.{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|pages=25–26}} In one part of the cave, a survivor inscribed {{Transliteration|he|ha}}wikt:שומר ('the protector') in Hebrew on the wall.

On 5 April 1943, their hiding place was discovered and the Gestapo stormed the cave. All but five of the Jews, who were taken by the Nazis, managed to escape through the back entrance; three more later escaped execution and rejoined the group. The survivors spent a few weeks hiding around Bilche-Zolote and Korolivka before a neighbour told them about Priest's Grotto.{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|page=34}} There, they waited out the remainder of the war and Holocaust until Soviet troops arrived in April 1944.{{sfn|Nicola|Taylor|2007|page=56}}

One of the survivors, Esther Sterner, published a memoir entitled We Fight to Survive about the experience in 1975. Christos Nicola later published a book, The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story, about the group's ordeal and his excursions into the caves to corroborate their story. In 2012, a documentary, No Place on Earth, was released. Some of the artefacts from their occupation, as well as some that belonged to Nazis, have also been retrieved by archaeologists.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|p=153}}

Verteba Cave, as with many other local caves in the Transnistrian formation, is set inside a gypsum sequence that developed under a shallow sea during the Middle Miocene epoch.{{sfnm|1a1=Bondar et al.|1y=2021|1p=240|2a1=Kadrow|2a2=Pokutta|2y=2016|2p=1}} The eventual evaporation of the sea into separate lagoons left behind large deposits of gypsum, limestone, clay, and other layers of sedimentary rock.{{sfn|Sokhatsky|2001}} Stratigraphically, this gypsum layer is located between the Eastern European Platform and the Carpathian Foredeep. Over time, the unstable gypsum has caused collapses on the surface, one of these causing a steep depression that forms the current cave entrance. Although most of the cave is covered by modern Quaternary topsoil and limestone, some outcroppings of gypsum are visible around the entrance.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|pages=239–240}}

File:Дивовижні кам'яні утвори.jpg

The cave's layout consists of a maze of interlocking passageways and galleries. Several theories regarding the cave's formation have been proposed. One early group of scholars posits that it formed during the Early-Middle Pleistocene, through the erosion of underground streams fed by the nearby Seret, which bends close to the site. In 2000, a new theory emerged that springs from underground aquifers formed the caves through artesian flow, in which groundwater below and around the cave permeated through more porous rock layers into the gypsum and carved out the channels. This process could have taken place between the Late Pliocene and the Early Pleistocene.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|pages=239–240}}

Deposits of different materials—some geologic, some biogenic—make up the surfaces of the cave. The floors are lined with silty loam or chernozem soils. Overall, both the topsoil and the gypsum rock above the cave create a semi-permeable surface prone to collapse, through which water and soil can enter; water movement has created calcite speleothems and clastic rock debris litters the cave.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}} These collapses have also rendered some caves that might have been used in prehistory inaccessible, and other entrances to the cave complex may have existed at that time.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|pages=245–246}} Verteba has gone through regular periods of heavy flooding by silt, creating undisturbed soil deposits even between the prehistoric human layers of occupation.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}}

File:Печера Вертеба, Борщівський район, Більче Золоте.7.jpg

Although Verteba is only one of several karst caverns in the area, it is the only one known to have prehistoric occupation.{{sfnm|1a1=Nikitin et al.|1y=2010|1p=10|2a1=Kadrow|2a2=Pokutta|2y=2016|2p=18}} Early human presence at Verteba was part of a larger settlement pattern of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, the dominant, mostly-agricultural culture of Copper Age Eastern Europe at the time.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=3}} About 5,000 years before present (BP), people began settling, farming, and ranching along the local rivers, building adobe houses and creating ceramic vessels.{{sfn|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022|page=111}} Within {{convert|10|km|abbr=on}} of the site, at least 16 other settlements from this culture have been identified, dating between {{BCE|3700–2750}}.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=240}} Within the Dneister Canyon, population density measured about 12 people per square kilometre, making it one of the most densely populated areas of Europe at the time.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018b|p=897}}

Verteba Cave's prehistoric occupation occurred in three distinct periods.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}} Several different groups from the Cucuteni–Trypillian culture occupied the cave at different times. The occupation periods at Verteba Cave fall within three distinct horizons: the BII ({{BCE|4100–3600}}), CI ({{BCE|3600–3200}}), and CII ({{BCE|3400–2750}}) horizons.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|p=9}} Most researchers agree that Verteba Cave was not used as a permanent residence and possibly functioned as a temporary shelter, or even a religious center.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=3}}{{cite news |last1=Скаврон |first1=Богдан |title=Енциклопедія Наддністрянських Помпей |script-title=uk:Entsyklopediya Naddnistryanskykh Pompey |trans-title=Encyclopedia of Transnistrian Pompeii |language=uk |url=https://zbruc.eu/node/21402 |access-date=6 May 2024 |work=Zbruč |date=18 April 2014}} However, the 2018 discovery of a permanent hearth similar to the ones in the surface settlements may provide evidence of long-term occupation.{{cite news |title=Археологи знайшли трипільську піч-лежанку в печері на Тернопільщині |script-title=uk:Arkheolohy znayshly trypilsku pich-lezhanku v pecheri na Ternopilshchyni |trans-title=Archaeologists found a Trypillian oven-bed in a cave in Ternopil Oblast |url=https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-tourism/2567273-arheologi-znajsli-tripilsku-piclezanku-v-peceri-na-ternopilsini.html |language=uk |access-date=6 May 2024 |work=Ukrinform |date=26 October 2018}}

Most of the excavated archaeological material is kept either in the Archaeological Museum of Kraków or in the Borshchiv Local History Museum.{{sfnm|1a1=Bondar et al.|1y=2021|1p=240|2a1=Kadrow|2a2=Pokutta|2y=2016|2p=12}} The Kraków collection contains papers detailing the earliest archaeological excavations, over 35,000 ceramic sherds and 300 intact vessels, approximately 120 clay figurines, other clay objects like spindle whorls and fishing sinkers, and hundreds of other artefacts.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=240}} One of the most prolific deposits of archaeological material occurs in a region of the cave known as Site 7. Here, ceramics, anthropomorphic figurines, bones, and antler or stone tools have been recovered.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018a|page=45}} Larger structures such as waste pits, dugouts, and hearths—supported by traces of fire—have also been discovered.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}}

File:Печера Вертеба, Борщівський район, Більче Золоте.9.jpg

Three different Cucuteni–Trypillian ceramic typologies, which roughly correspond to the occupation periods, have been identified amongst the Verteba Cave pottery: the Schypynetska ({{circa}} {{BCE|3900–3450}}), Koshylovetska ({{circa}} {{BCE|3450–3100}}), and the Kasperivska ({{circa}} {{BCE|3200–3000}}).{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=11}} The site was busiest around the first transition period, {{circa}} {{BCE|3500}}.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=15}}

About 2,500 ceramic vessels and 200 cooking vessels from the early Schypynetska group have been recovered.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=4}} This group occupied the cave for about 195 years; a 2010 study dated a sample of ceramics to {{BCE|3745–3550}}.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|p=15}} Their pots come in a variety of shapes and are characterized by their grooved, spiralling ornamentation and were painted with red, black, brown, and white pigments.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=11}} However, dozens of ceramics and fragments from this era were found to have been imported from the neighbouring Badrazhy group, as well as the more distant Bodrogkeresztúr and Lublin-Volhynia cultures.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|pages=4–6}}

File:02022 1122 Figurines found in archaeological excavations in Vertebra Cave.jpg

Many samples of the Koshylovetska pottery group display patterns that are more characteristic of the Branzeni and Badrazhy assemblages within the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=6}} Besides vessels, this group notably includes clay anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=11}} Such artwork began to be uncovered during the late 19th-century excavations, and are believed to have been fastened to either the walls or ceiling of the cave.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=12}} Of the 113 humanoid figures excavate before 2022, almost all are female, only five being designated as male. Generally, most are sculpted standing up, with two legs that join together into one foot, and two eye holes carved into a disc-shaped head.{{sfn|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022|pages=113–114}} A further five female figures were discovered in 2023.{{cite magazine |title=Neolithic Ritual Cache Discovered in Ukrainian Cave |url=https://www.archaeology.org/news/11436-230512-ukraine-verteba-cave |access-date=16 March 2024 |magazine=Archaeology |publisher=Archaeological Institute of America |date=12 May 2023}} 133 other figures represent various animals, including bears, bulls, horses, goats, and sheep. These are stocky but proportionate with four short legs, and several have tails.{{sfn|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022|pages=114–115}}

The Kasperivska pottery group contains signs of influence from the neighboring Funnelbeaker and Baden cultures. Several features of the Verteba Cave ceramics also reflect Anatolian and Balkan influences, which fits into a broader pattern of similar pottery that stretched as far as modern-day Poland.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=9}} These vessels are relatively colourless.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=11}} Combined, the Koshylovetska and Kasperivska groups occupied the cave for a period of about 803 years, radiocarbon dated to about 3550–2747 BCE, with a period of about 87 years between them during which the cave was disused.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=15}}

One of the most symbolic finds is that of two bone plates carved in the shapes of bull's heads. The first was excavated sometime between 1898 and 1904 by Demetrykiewicz, and the second was found by Sokhatskyi in the 1990s. One of the plates features a design in the shape of a female figure. The shape of the horns resembling a lyre suggests these were intended to represent aurochs, of which representations are found at various other worship sites in the Near East and elsewhere in Neolithic Europe.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|page=17}} Auroch horns have been found in Verteba, often close to human remains.{{sfn|Nikitin|2014|page=306}}

Various tools, including grinding stones used for grain, flint blades, and other bone, stone, or copper instruments have also been found.{{sfn|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022|page=113}} There are also remnants of necklaces that were ornamented with shell beads, animal teeth, and bird bones.{{sfn|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022|page=115}}

Human remains located at Verteba Cave, while mostly attributed to the Cucuteni–Trypillian occupation, also include individuals who lived before and after this time. Osteological samples have returned dates ranging between {{BCE|7955–3522}}.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018b|p=898}} The earliest remains date to the Mesolithic.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|p=152}}

Initial radiocarbon dating on bones found in the three separate Cucuteni–Trypillian culture layers returned calibrated dates of {{BCE|3951–3538}}, {{BCE|3758–3371}}, and {{BCE|3265–2620}}, corresponding with the ceramic periods.{{sfn|Nikitin et al.|2010|p=12}} The burials here are a rare example of Cucuteni–Trypillian dead; very few such sites contain burials or human remains, and other Cucuteni-Trypillia sites contain remains than postdate those at Verteba.{{sfn|Gelabert et al.|2022|page=2}}

First account of human remains at Verteba was published in 1948, describing a find of 21 articulated skeletons.Stojanowski, K. (1948) Antropologia prehistoryczna Polski. Polska Akademia Umiejetnosci, Kraków. However, it is not clear if these date to the Trypillian times. The remains of no fewer than 17 individuals were uncovered at Verteba during subsequent excavations. At least 36 more individuals—whose remains consist mainly of crania but also some disarticulated limbs and vertebrae—were found between 2008 and 2012.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018a|page=45}} Overall, most of the remains recovered consist of disarticulated cranial and post-cranial remains. The majority of remains are those of adult males,{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|pages=9, 12}} but there were several females and children and additional remains of indeterminate sex.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018a|pages=47–48}}

File:Залишки кісток.Печера ВЕРТЕБА (1).jpg inside the cave]]

The remains found at Verteba represent a departure from usual burial practices of European Enelithic farming groups. Isotopic analysis of the human remains supports them being deposited in clusters of occupation, rather than deposited slowly over a long period of time.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|p=152}} Additionally, many of the remains seem to have been deposited in the cave long after death and display signs of exposure, such as sun bleaching and scavenging marks left by animals, and disarticulation, suggesting they were moved to the cave long after death and decay.{{sfnm|1a1=Madden et al.|1y=2018a|1p=50|2a1=Ledogar et al.|2y=2019|2pp=146–148}} Therefore, it appears probable that the human remains found at Verteba are secondary burials, having undergone excarnation beforehand.Nikitin AG. (2020) The Genetic Landscape of Present-Day Ukraine from the Early Holocene to the Early Metal Ages. In: Lillie M, Potekhina I (Eds.), Prehistoric Ukraine: From the First Hunters to the First Farmers. Oxbow Books: Oxford, UK, pp. 327-339.

Some scattered bones and skeletons have been dated to much later time periods and appear to be the result either of incidental entry into the cave, or a continued occupation for which associated artefacts inside the cave are absent. A 1948 discovery of 21 skeletons all consolidated in one corner may have been the result of a rockslide; {{As of|2011|lc=y}}, these remains have not been dated.{{sfn|Nikitin|2011|page=9}} Later finds include bones dating to the Bronze Age Gáva-Holigrady culture; the epicentre of this culture is about {{convert|15|km|abbr=on}} to the south in Holigrady.{{sfn|Nikitin|2011|pages=10–11}} Much later Scythian remains were dated to {{BCE|781–511}},{{sfn|Lillie et al.|2017|page=314}} and another bone dates to the 8th century AD, during the Kievan Rus' period.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|p=152}}

Many of the Cucuteni–Trypillian remains display injuries that occurred around the time of death and were likely fatal. A 2018 study that evaluated 25 skulls found that 11 had suffered trauma. Most injuries were located on the top or back of the head, suggesting the victims were kneeling or lying down when struck. A few displayed healed facial injuries that might have occurred during combat. Madden et al. suggest this is consistent with raiding activity rather than battle, or perhaps motivated by politics or rituals.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018a|pages=47–49}} Several skulls also showed signs of scalping after death, evidenced by several sharp, circumferential cuts around the top of the head.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|pages=13–15}} Some of the crania found at Verteba bear evidence of possible trepanation.Lillie, M.C., Potekhina, I.D., Nikitin, A.G. and M.P. Sokhatsky. 2015. First Evidence for Interpersonal Violence in Ukraine’s Trypillian Farming Culture: Individual 3 from Verteba Cave, Bilche Zolote, in Gerdau-Radonić, K. and K. McSweeney (eds.) Trends in Biological Anthropology. 1: 54-60 (Proceedings of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology 13th and 14th Annual Conferences in Edinburgh (2nd-4th September 2011) and Bournemouth (14th–16th September 2012)).

These findings fit into a larger trend of violent contact between the Cucuteni–Trypillian culture and their neighbours.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018a|pages=50–51}} The two main theories about the motivations behind the rise in violence are either competition among neighbours for resources, or warfare between the Cucuteni–Trypillians and migrant groups moving in from the peripheries of their culture.{{sfn|Madden et al.|2018b|p=899}}

At least four skulls had their brains removed post-mortem, which was performed either through the nose, eye sockets, or through drilling holes in the temporal bone or foramen magnum of the cranium; and was sometimes accompanied by the deposition of red ochre. This practice might have served a ritualistic function.{{sfn|Kadrow|Pokutta|2016|page=13}}

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis has placed the Cucuteni–Trypillian remains among haplogroups R0, including subclades HV and H; JT and its subclades, T and J; K; V; and U.Nikitin AG, Sokhatsky MP, Kovaliukh MM, Videiko MY. (2010) Comprehensive site chronology and ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis from Verteba Cave -a Trypillian culture site of Eneolithic Ukraine. Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica 1(1-2): 9–18.{{Cite journal |last1=Nikitin |first1=Alexey G. |last2=Potekhina |first2=Inna |last3=Rohland |first3=Nadin |last4=Mallick |first4=Swapan |last5=Reich |first5=David |last6=Lillie |first6=Malcolm |date=24 February 2017 |title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis of eneolithic trypillians from Ukraine reveals neolithic farming genetic roots |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=e0172952 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0172952 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5325568 |pmid=28235025|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1272952N }}{{sfnm|1a1=Gelabert et al.|1y=2022|1p=7|2a1=Schmidt et al.|2y=2020|2p=5}} These groups and their frequencies are consistent with Cucuteni–Trypillian and other Neolithic sites across central Europe during this time period, especially displaying similarities to the Funnelbeaker culture. All except haplogroup U are thought to have arisen from migrations of Anatolian farmers into the Balkans and Mediterranean Europe before diffusing north into the central and northern reaches of the continent, and bringing agriculture with them.{{sfnm|1a1=Nikitin|1y=2014|1pp=304–305|2a1=Nikitin et al.|2y=2017|2pp=6–8}} However, haplogroup U predates the Anatolian migrations and is of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer origin. Compared to the agricultural haplogroups, its presence at Verteba is rare, and suggests the local population had been largely replaced by the migratory groups. Even the presence of hunter-gatherer lineage is thought to have arisen not from local populations, but instead from hunter-gatherer groups in western Europe.{{sfn|Gelabert et al.|2022|pages=7–8}}

At the whole genome level, Trypillian ancestry is predominantly derived from the Neolithic farmers of Europe and, ultimately, from Anatolia, with a 14% admixture from Balkan hunter gatherers and 5% ancestry from the Caucasus-Lower Volga migrants in the northwestern Pontic region.{{Cite journal |last1=Nikitin |first1=Alexey G. |last2=Lazaridis |first2=Iosif |last3=Patterson |first3=Nick |last4=Ivanova |first4=Svitlana |last5=Videiko |first5=Mykhailo |last6=Dergachev |first6=Valentin |last7=Kotova |first7=Nadiia |last8=Lillie |first8=Malcolm |last9=Potekhina |first9=Inna |last10=Krenz-Niedbała |first10=Marta |last11=Łukasik |first11=Sylwia |last12=Makhortykh |first12=Serhij |last13=Renson |first13=Virginie |last14=Shephard |first14=Henry |last15=Sirbu |first15=Gennadie |date=March 2025 |title=A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=639 |issue=8053 |pages=124–131 |doi=10.1038/s41586-024-08372-2 |issn=1476-4687 |pmc=11909631 |pmid=39910299|bibcode=2025Natur.639..124N }}

The Bronze Age remains at Verteba have more varied lineages. The first tested Bronze Age remains had mitochondrial haplogroups of H and U5a1a; the presence of the H haplogroup across both the Copper and Bronze Ages might suggest a common local maternal lineage.{{sfn|Nikitin|2011|page=12}} One set of Middle Bronze Age remains dating to {{BCE|1960–1770}} has ties to the Yamna and Corded Ware cultures, suggesting a more local Carpathian origin than the earlier Cucuteni–Trypillian remains. A second set of Late Bronze Age remains had more similarities with the Bell Beaker culture, which was already extinct, than with any other group.{{sfn|Gelabert et al.|2022|page=8}}

Stable isotope analysis of human teeth recovered at the site suggested the cave's inhabitants grew up locally.{{sfnm|1a1=Lillie et al.|1y=2017|1p=318|2a1=Madden et al.|2y=2018b|2p=901}} Among the Neolithic remains, diets were likely best represented by plants and herbivores, such as livestock; despite the cave's location near the Seret River, little evidence has been found to support a fish-based diet.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|pp=153–154}}

File:Печера «Вертеба». Кажани.jpg

Prehistoric non-human bones have also been uncovered during archaeological excavations. Species represented include mammoth,{{cite book |last1=Pokutta |first1=Dalia |title=From farmers to heroes?: Archaeological studies in honor of Sławomir Kadrow |last2=Tkachuk |first2=Taras |last3=Tóth |first3=Peter |date=2022 |publisher=Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie |isbn=978-3-7749-4298-1 |pages=223–232 |chapter=Strontium in Pots: An Experimental Study on the Determination of Strontium Isotope Ratios (87Sr/86Sr) and Provenance of Prehistoric Vessels from Verteba Cave, Ukraine (Tripolye Culture)}} aurochs, chickens, pigs,{{Cite journal |last1=Lillie |first1=Malcolm C. |last2=Budd |first2=Chelsea E. |last3=Potekhina |first3=Inna D. |last4=Price |first4=Douglas |last5=Sokhatsky |first5=Mykhailo |last6=Nikitin |first6=Alexey G. |date=27 December 2017 |title=First isotope analysis and new radiocarbon dating of Trypillia (Tripolye) farmers from Verteba Cave, Bilche Zolote, Ukraine |url=https://journals.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/44.18 |journal=Documenta Praehistorica |language=en |volume=44 |pages=306–325 |doi=10.4312/dp.44.18 |issn=1854-2492}} European hare, Equus, Caprinae, and European pond turtle.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|pp=146–148}} A domestic dog bone has been dated to the Scythian Iron Age occupation, and one of the chicken bones recovered is medieval.{{sfn|Ledogar et al.|2019|p=152}}

In modern times, the cave is inhabited by a variety of animals, most notably by a large colony of bats, which has contributed a large deposit of guano to the cave.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}} The most common species is the lesser horseshoe bat, but greater mouse-eared bats and brown long-eared bats are also present. Bat populations severely declined after modern humans began regularly visiting the cave, with only 12 bats being counted in 1996. Conservation efforts have since increased the colony size.{{sfn|Sokhatsky and Dudar|2021}} Other animals, such as rodents, foxes, and martens, have also been recorded as visiting the cave.{{sfn|Bondar et al.|2021|page=241}}

• Dniester Canyon
• Geography of Ukraine
• List of longest caves

{{Reflist}}

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• {{cite report |last1=Сохацький |first1=Михайло |last2=Дудар |first2=Олександр |date=2021 |title=Rol' prypodno-zapovidnykh terytoriĭ Zakhidnoho Podilli͡a ta I͡Ury Oĭt͡sovs'koï u zberez͡henni biolohichnoho ta landshaftnoho riznomanitti͡a |script-title=uk:Роль природно-заповідних територій Західного Поділля та Юри Ойцовської у збереженні біологічного та ландшафтного різноманіття |trans-title=The Role of Protected Areas of the Western Podilla and Jura of Ojców in Preservation of Bіоlоgісаl and Landscape Diversity |url=https://verteba.com.ua/shho-vidomo-naukovczyam-4/ |script-chapter=uk:Печера Вертеба як екологічна ніша рідкісних видів рукокрилих |trans-chapter=Verteba Cave as an ecological niche for rare species of bats |chapter=Pechera Verteba i͡ak ekolohichna nisha ridkisnykh vydiv rukokrylykh |lang=Ukrainian |access-date=20 March 2024 |ref={{harvid|Sokhatsky and Dudar|2021}} }}
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• {{cite book |last1=Сохацький |first1=Михайло |last2=Потєхіна |first2=Інна |chapter=Таємниці печери Вертеба |script-chapter=uk:Tayemnytsi pechery Verteba |trans-chapter=Secrets of Verteba Cave |editor-last1=Hershkovich |editor-first1=Y.P. |editor-last2=Grechko |editor-first2=D.S. |title=Archeology of Ukraine during the years of Independence |date=2022 |publisher=Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |location=Kyiv |pages=111–119 |isbn=978-617-7810-29-1 |language=Ukrainian |url=https://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/items/678e5501-be4e-4952-af87-bfb050443bcc |access-date=6 May 2024 |via=eKMAIR |ref={{harvid|Sokhatskyi and Potehina|2022}}}}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book |editor1-last=Kadrow |editor1-first=Sławomir |editor2-last=Trela-Kieferling |editor2-first=Elzbieta |title=Bilcze Złote: Materials of the Tripolye Culture from the Werteba and the Ogród Sites |date=2013 |publisher=Biblioteka Muzeum Archeologicznego w Krakowie |location=Krakow |isbn=978-83-924242-1-5 |oclc=935676815 |language=Polish}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Karsten |first1=Jordan K. |last2=Heins |first2=Sarah E. |last3=Madden |first3=Gwyn D. |last4=Sokhatskyi |first4=Mykhailo P. |title=Dental Health and the Transition to Agriculture in Prehistoric Ukraine: A Study of Dental Caries |journal=European Journal of Archaeology |date=2015 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=562–579 |doi=10.1179/1461957115Y.0000000004 |ref={{harvid|Karsten et al.|2015}} }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Lazarovici |first1=Cornelia-Magda |title=Peştera Werteba de la Bilcze Złote |trans-title=Verteba Cave of Bilche-Zolote |journal=Arheologia Moldovei |date=2011 |volume=34 |pages=79–94 |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=602586 |access-date=13 June 2024 |language=Romanian}} {{Open access}}
• {{cite book |last1=Pokutta |first1=Dalia |last2=Tkachuk |first2=Taras |last3=Tóth |first3=Peter |title=From farmers to heroes?: Archaeological studies in honor of Sławomir Kadrow |date=2022 |publisher=Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie |isbn=978-3-7749-4298-1 |pages=223–232 |chapter=Strontium in Pots: An Experimental Study on the Determination of Strontium Isotope Ratios (87Sr/86Sr) and Provenance of Prehistoric Vessels from Verteba Cave, Ukraine (Tripolye Culture)}}

{{commons category|Verteba}}

• {{Official website|https://verteba.com.ua/}}
• [http://tor.gov.ua/list/?type=view&id=19720 Verteba Cave at Ternopil'ska Regional Council]

{{Prehistoric caves}}

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Category:Archaeological sites in Ukraine

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Category:Cucuteni–Trypillia culture

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