Peștera cu Oase (Cave with Bones)

About Peștera cu Oase (Cave with Bones)

Peștera cu Oase, the Cave with Bones, is part of the karst system of the Miniș valley, in the Anina Mountains, a few kilometres from Anina. Its galleries lie underground, between the Plopa and Ponor caves, about 40 m above the underground Ponor river, and no longer have any opening to the surface: the old entrances collapsed or were choked with sediment. The name comes from the thousands of cave bear bones covering the floor; during the last Ice Age the galleries were a hibernation site for bears, and their nests can still be seen.

In February 2002 the cavers Ștefan Milota, Adrian Bîlgăr and Laurențiu Sarcina, from the Timișoara club Pro Acva Grup, reached it from below, through the Plopa spring and the underground river, and found a complete human jawbone lying on the surface, named Oase 1. In 2003 the face and other skull bones of an adolescent, Oase 2, turned up, and in 2004–2005 an international team, with the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, studied the galleries. The dates point to about 37,000–42,000 years ago, which makes the Oase finds some of the oldest modern human fossils in Europe. In 2015 DNA analysis showed that Oase 1 had 6–9% Neanderthal genes and a Neanderthal ancestor only four to six generations back.

Information verified on 31 October 2026.

Good to know before you go

Getting there

By car: the Miniș valley is ~10 km from Anina, on the DN57B towards Bozovici (~20 minutes); from Reșița it is ~46 km (~1 hour) and from Timișoara ~130 km (~2h20). The Plopa entrance, through which the only route to the cave passes, is a spring with a sump, not a visitor site. The Bigăr Waterfall is ~19 km away, also on the DN57B, and Comarnic Cave ~42 km.

Public transport: the nearest town is Anina, linked to Oravița by the mountain railway; the Miniș valley is reached by car.

Rules

Access to the cave is restricted to scientific purposes. Do not try to get in through the Plopa spring: the sump can only be passed with cave-diving equipment and training, and the galleries are a palaeontological and archaeological site.