New dating changes our view of the cave in the hinterland of Kaštela. Its age is not the only intriguing aspect: the finds also tell us about people – and about how to approach the site today.
Not a new cave, but a new chronology
Mujina pećina, north of Trogir and Kaštela, has long been a research site. Writing in Antiquity, Ivor Karavanić and his team now report much older ages for its lower deposits: about 65,000–73,000 years for E3A and 73,000–82,000 for E3C. The associated stone tools push the dated evidence of human presence in Dalmatia back by around 30,000 years.
The paper belongs to the October 2026 issue, but appeared online on 22 July. It is therefore not a discovery made this morning. Sediment samples were examined using optically stimulated luminescence, or OSL. Dating minerals in this way should not be confused with the direct age of a human bone.
People become tangible through their work
Kaštela Town Museum and the University of Zagreb carried out systematic excavations here from 1995 to 2003. The museum describes scrapers and denticulated stone tools of the Mousterian culture, among other finds. According to its account, no human remains were found at the site; its inhabitants are probably attributed to Neanderthals.
A tool is more than a clue to the search for food. Its manufacture reveals decisions: which edge was needed, which material was suitable and which steps produced the result. A glimpse of this everyday life requires neither an invented cave family nor a supposedly precise reconstruction of their appearance.
What the dates leave open
The study gives younger ages for the uppermost layer examined, but warns that it may have mixed with later sediment. The individual layers must therefore be considered separately. They do not establish continuous occupation over tens of thousands of years.
Nor can today’s landscape simply be projected back into the Stone Age. According to the museum’s account, sea level and climate were different then; the present-day Bay of Kaštela was land at times. Our image therefore explicitly shows a symbolic karst landscape, not a scientifically reconstructed view.
Start at the museum or arrange a guided visit
Finds from Mujina belong to the prehistoric collection of Kaštela Town Museum. Anyone wanting to explore the history can start there and ask which objects are currently accessible. For the Sikuli, Biranj and Mujina sites, the official visitor page lists separate specialist guided tours for 100 euros, with advance booking on +385 21 260 245.
The page does not describe this amount as a regular per-person cave admission ticket. Clarify the group size, date, meeting point, route and total price directly with the museum. It describes the ascent as demanding; the site’s research history does not make it a freely accessible show cave with fixed daily admission times. At an archaeological site, stones and sediments stay where they are.
Evidence
Sources & date
Sources support the facts. Planning notes and recommendations are Golden Beach editorial assessments.
- Mousterian occupations in Dalmatia, Croatia: early dates suggested by optically stimulated luminescenceKaravanić et al. / Antiquity, Cambridge University Press · 22 July 2026 online; October 2026, volume 100, issue 413, e48OSL dating, layers, earlier chronology and caveat concerning the upper sample
- Mujina pećinaMuzej grada Kaštela · Checked on 13 October 2026Excavations, tool finds, absence of human remains, landscape and demanding ascent; older age estimates supplemented by the study
- Prapovijesna zbirkaMuzej grada Kaštela · Checked on 13 October 2026Mujina finds in the prehistoric collection
- Opći podaci – visitor informationMuzej grada Kaštela · Checked on 13 October 2026Separate archaeological guided tours, 100 euros and advance telephone booking; no claim of a daily cave ticket
