Satsurblia Cave

Satsurblia Cave Natural Monument (Georgian: საწურბლიას მღვიმე) is a paleoanthropological site located 1.2 km from Kumistavi village, Tsqaltubo Municipality, in the Imereti region of Georgia, 287 meters above sea level.

The animal remains found at Satsurblia were dominated primarily by wild boar, followed by red deer; the remains of aurochs, steppe bison, Capra caucasica, and roe deer were also found.

Some brown bear, wolf, fox, and Eurasian beaver remains were also found at the site.

[7] In 2013, archaeologists found a temporal bone fragment of an ancient human in the cave.

Researchers successfully extracted DNA from the petrous part of the temporal bone and managed to recover low coverage genomes.

The Satsurblia individual was also lactose intolerant and did not carry the derived EDAR allele commonly found in East Asians and Native Americans.

[8] The Caucasus hunter-gatherers contributed significantly to modern European populations by way of the Yamnaya people.