Palaeolithic station Babja jama

virtual excursion

Babja jama, hidden in the wooded landscape between Gorjuša, Dob, and Domžale, lies in the immediate vicinity of the tourist cave Železna jama and the historic Krumperk Castle. Although modest in size and easily overlooked, it has played an important role in the lives of people living on the edge of the Ljubljana Basin. During the Turkish incursions of the 15th and 16th centuries, the cave served as a refuge for the local population, who sought safety in its dark, protective interior. Even in early modern times, the cave became part of the collective memory of the surrounding villages.

But Babja jama also holds another, quieter and more personal story—a story of childhood imagination. As a child, I often wandered through the surrounding forests, exploring meadows, ravines, and hidden corners that felt like gateways to another world. Babja jama was one of those places that both fascinated and frightened me. Entering it was always a mixture of curiosity and fear: the darkness, the cool air, and the smell of damp earth created the sense that I was stepping into a space where reality and legend intertwined. In the 1970s, Babja jama was part of the local school curriculum, and we learned about it in primary school. This gave the cave an even deeper aura of mystery—we knew it was not just a natural feature but a place where people had once lived, hunted, and struggled to survive.

Its true story, however, began to unfold only in the second half of the 20th century. In the spring of 1967, researchers studying the caves around Dob came across Babja jama and noticed something that caught the attention of archaeologists. Although the cave is small, its location and easy accessibility suggested that it might contain important traces of the past. A test excavation was launched immediately.

At a depth of 1.8 meters, the team discovered the first bone fragments, pieces of charcoal, and a flint flake embedded in gravelly clay sediment—clear signs that the cave had served as a shelter or station for humans in the distant past. The discovery was significant enough that systematic archaeological excavations followed the next summer, in 1968. Paleolithic remains were found at a depth of 2.5 meters, confirming that the cave held traces of Ice Age humans. Excavations continued down to three meters, where the work was halted by a layer of hard breccia.

In 1972, members of the Simon Robič Caving Society from Domžale undertook further exploration. Their goal was ambitious: to connect Babja jama with the nearby tourist cave Železna jama. But they stopped as soon as they encountered new bone fragments and other archaeological material. It became clear that the cave was not merely a geological feature but an important archaeological site requiring careful study. Planned excavations at the second cave entrance took place in 1972 and 1973 and covered the entire cave interior.

The story of research continued in later decades. In the summer of 1987, local youth organized a volunteer work campaign at Krumperk Castle. The organizers assigned several young volunteers to continue excavations at the first entrance of Babja jama under expert supervision. Once again, the cave became a meeting point of archaeology, local history, and youth engagement.

The archaeological layers of Babja jama revealed a rich story of life during the Pleistocene and Holocene. The sediments contained bones and teeth of numerous mammals that lived during the Ice Ages. Most of the bones were broken with sharp fracture edges, and some were even burned—typical signs of prey processed by Ice Age hunters. Among the finds were bones of reindeer, chamois, Alpine marmots, beavers, elk, and bison. This diversity reflects the dramatic temperature fluctuations of the Pleistocene, which caused animal migrations and shifting ecosystems.

In addition to animal remains, numerous tools of Ice Age hunters were found—flint flakes, scrapers, blades, and other artifacts indicating that the cave served as a hunting station or temporary shelter. The finds from Babja jama are estimated to be between 12,000 and 15,000 years old, placing the site among the most important Late Paleolithic archaeological locations in central Slovenia.

Babja jama, however, also holds a deeply personal dimension for me. One summer evening, long after my childhood explorations, I decided to visualize the cave—not with sophisticated equipment, but simply with a handheld flashlight. The darkness that once frightened me became a canvas. With the flashlight, I painted the walls with light, illuminating sediments, hollows, and the subtle details carved into the limestone by time. The cave revealed itself in ways invisible to the naked eye in darkness—its textures, its silence, its ancient presence. That visualization was not just documentation; it was a tribute to the childhood curiosity that once led me to its mysterious entrance.

Today, Babja jama is part of the caving collection in Gorjuša and an important element of local natural and cultural heritage. Although it is not arranged for tourist visits, it remains a place that carries a story of survival, adaptation, and life in a time when nature was far more unpredictable than today. It is a space where geology, archaeology, history, and personal memory converge—and where one can still sense the breath of Ice Age hunters, the imagination of a child, and the quiet grandeur of the underground world.