Karain E chamber is one of the biggest and richest paleolithic sites in the world. It bears eleven-meter-thick Middle Paleolithic sequence. Furthermore, all the prehistoric chronology and knowledge from Anatolia is known from this site due to its very large archaeological collection. The Neandertal remains obtained from the site gains its significance and makes it unique in prehistory of Turkey since those are the oldest hominid fossils of Turkey up to date. In addition, numerous animal remains such as Elephas meridionalis, Hippopotamus amphibius, Equus hydruntius, Equus caballus, Bos primigenius, Cervus elaphus, Dama dama, Capra aegagrus, Ovis orientalis, Capreolus capreolus, Ursus spelaus, Crocutta crocutta, Felis leo, Felis lynx, Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes, Felis slyvestris, Meles meles, Martes martes, Hystrix cristata,many birds, reptiles, fishes and malacofauna have been unearthed from the site have served to the prehistorians in understanding the paleoecology of Anatolia, at least concerning area.
Excavations first begun in the 1940's by Prof. Dr. Ismail Kilic Kokten in several chambers, including Karain B. They were resumed by Kokten's successor at the university of Ankara Department of Prehistory, Prof. Dr. Isin Yalcinkaya in 1985. Subsequently, excavation concentrated on Karain E and in 1996, excavations were restarted again in collaboration with Universite de Liege Service de Prehistoire (Belgium).
New excavations of E Chamber were started by Prof. Yalcinkaya in collaboration with the University of Liege (Belgium) in 1985.
