Vela Spila Cave

The Vela Spila cave is situated above the town of Vela Luka on the island of Korčula, in Croatia on Pinski Rat hill at an elevation of approximately 130 m [1]. The cave consists of an elliptically shaped cavern that measures 40 m in length, 17 m in height, and is approximately 40 m wide [1]. There are two openings in the roof of the cave which were caused by collapse at an as yet undetermined time [1]. The cave has been mentioned in the Korčula Statute back in the 15th century [1]. Scientific research of the cave started in the late 1940s [1]. Marinko Gjivoje took up work at the site in 1949 [1]. Further excavations between 2001 and 2006, produced 36 ceramic artifacts dated to the late Upper Palaeolithic period, about 17,500 to 15,000 years ago [1]. These finds are the only examples of ceramic figurative art in southeastern Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic [1].