di Alessandra de Nardis
Not long ago it was still taught that Homo Sapiens, then nicknamed Cro-Magnon[1], had arrived in Europe about 40.000 years ago and had gradually replaced the Neanderthal man, who finally became extinct 35.000-30.000 years ago. We were still firmly attached to the idea that we, Sapiens, were the pinnacle of a natural selection represented on the evolutionary scale almost always with the image of a white male who dominated the Earth; an image that implies an infinite descending ladder, of which very few people questioned the scientific evidence. Indeed, faithful to this image, they only sought confirmation of the narrative, leaving at the margins of the researchers' gaze everything that was not in line with this assumption.
In recent years, the extraordinary discoveries made possible by paleogenetics and advanced techniques for the analysis of ancient DNA recovered from fossil remains have revealed a surprisingly more complex evolutionary landscape, characterized by interactions between different human species and fundamental genetic adaptations. Incredible discoveries that have profoundly transformed our understanding of evolution and the biological and cultural history of humanity. But not only that, they have also helped to significantly change our perspective, overcoming the somewhat simplistic anthropocentric vision of "the strongest wins", recognizing the importance of our inclination towards social cohesion, planning, communication and care. This approach has revealed how our species has evolved rapidly, not only thanks to strength and conflict, but also and above all thanks to our ability to build strong bonds and take care of our fellow humans, facilitating cooperation at an individual and collective level.
A new genetic analysis of Neanderthal remains dating back more than 50.000 years and found in a cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains has revealed that these humans traveled in small groups organized into families. Archaeologists discovered fragmented bones and teeth belonging to 13 individuals, including a father with his teenage daughter and a young boy with an adult female relative, possibly a cousin, aunt or grandmother. The discovery offers the first glimpse of a Neanderthal family and provides the most complete set of Neanderthal genomes to date. The group of adults and children are believed to have died while taking refuge in their hunting camp, leaving behind valuable evidence for archaeologists and geneticists. The study – published in Nature – was led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, headed by Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo. The only Italian author is Sahra Talamo, professor at the University of Bologna and director of the radiocarbon laboratory.
We have never been alone, in fact we have become so in a very recent period.
Until very recently (in evolutionary terms) the Earth was inhabited by several human forms, different from each other, related, but with very different environmental histories.
Our solitude probably materialized in an extremely recent time span ranging from 30 to 12 thousand years ago.
Some of the other human forms arrived at the edge of history with a capital H to finally become extinct a few thousand years ago. The last Neanderthal community, which lived in the area of the Rock of Gibraltar and consisted of about 20-50 individuals, became extinct 28,000 years ago but there was no genocide, no violence, no epidemic, but something slower and more inexorable: a demographic replacement; a slow pressure from our Sapiens, which led to a marginalization of this other human form, which eventually disappears, first from the Middle East, then from Anatolia, from the Balkans, then from Italy, then from France and finally from Spain, as if it had been crushed towards the West by these continuous waves of entry of Homo Sapiens into Europe.
The Neanderthal Genome and Interactions with Homo Sapiens
The genus Homo arrived from Africa to the Eurasian continent through waves that were repeated several times and that gradually brought other human forms that always began their journey from the same point: from the Horn of Africa, migrations that started from the valleys between Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, from there following the path of the Nile and other corridors that opened into the Sahara, from which one reached the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
This last point of arrival has always been the fundamental sorting point of human migrations towards Europe on the one hand, and towards Asia and the Caucasus on the other.
In two of these major waves of migration, the first about 120.000 years ago, small groups reached the Middle East but did not expand significantly beyond that. These early migrants did not contribute substantially to the genetic makeup of modern populations; the second wave, about 60.000-70.000 years ago, was a migration that led Sapiens to colonize much of the world. The groups that left during this wave expanded from Africa through the Middle East, reaching Asia, Europe, Oceania and, subsequently, the Americas. This wave represents the main genetic base of modern human populations and it was these populations that met and mated with Neanderthals who had already been living in Europe and Asia for hundreds of thousands of years; the two species interbred continuously for about 7.000 years, until the Neanderthals began to disappear. In 2010, DNA was sequenced from cell nuclei of Neanderthal bones found in the Vindija Cave (Croatia), pinpointing the period when our species mated with Neanderthals and inherited part of their genes, clearly indicating that they were an integral part of our evolution.
Thanks to this hybridization that occurred between 100.000 and 60.000 years ago in the Near East, Eurasians inherited many genes from our Neanderthal ancestors that together constitute between 1% and 3% of our current genomes, so if we were to consider the hypothesis of extracting Neanderthal DNA from our genome, we could reconstitute only 60%.
Some genes inherited from Neanderthals influence various aspects of human biology and health, on the one hand they provided useful adaptive advantages, on the other they introduced risks for some modern diseases. Neanderthals in fact had developed the ability to survive in cold and inhospitable environments, with pathogens that Sapiens had not yet encountered and by interbreeding with them we have refined our survival weapons. As reported in some previous studies most of the high frequency Neanderthal genes are related to immune function, skin pigmentation and metabolism. The genome-based estimate is consistent with archaeological evidence confirming that modern humans and Neanderthals lived side by side in Eurasia for a period between 6.000 and 7.000 years and that the bulk of the mixing between the two human groups occurred about 45.000 years ago in a single wave that lasted a very long time (SOURCE).
The new dates also imply that the initial migration of modern humans from Africa to Eurasia essentially ended 43.500 years ago, otherwise gene exchange with Neanderthals would not have been possible; while modern humans spread across the globe, reaching Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, Neanderthals remained confined to Europe and parts of western Asia, never expanding to other parts of the world. The sequencing of a Neanderthal Y chromosome in 2016 also revealed that its DNA has not been found in Homo sapiens, suggesting male sterility in hybrids born of a Neanderthal father and a Homo sapiens mother. On the other hand, the Y chromosome of the most recent Neanderthals, probably from Homo sapiens who arrived in Europe between 370.000 and 100.000 years before today, shows that the mating between a Sapiens father and a Neanderthal mother probably did not cause male sterility. Even more interesting: the Neanderthal variant of the FOXP2 gene, which codes for the development of brain regions related to language learning and articulated speech, is similar to ours, which suggests that our cousin also had a language.
The Denisovans
Another group of ancient humans, whose genome extracted from teeth and fragments of a phalangeal bone found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, was sequenced in 2010. Until that date, Denisovans were known only from their genetic material, but we had no direct fossil evidence of their morphology.
Research has revealed that Denisovans were genetically distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans, but there was some interaction and interbreeding between Denisovans and Asian populations, particularly those of East Asia and Southeast Asia. Some groups of modern people, such as Melanesians, have a significant percentage of Denisovan DNA (about 5%). It was discovered in 2015 and 2016 that the Tibetan population has a Denisovan version of the EPAS1 gene, which allows the blood to be better oxygenated and to reproduce more easily at altitude; these are the genes TBX15 and WARS2, which facilitate resistance to cold and accumulation of fat, whose Denisovan form is identified in the Inuit population. While in 2019 it was the turn of the Melanesians, whose Denisovan genes would facilitate life in a tropical environment; Meanwhile, in 2018, DNA extracted from a long bone of a young girl who died 50.000 years ago at the age of 13, revealed that she had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father!
Since then, a few additional bones have been identified or interpreted as Denisovan: the Xiahe (China) mandible, the Penghu mandible off Taiwan, the Dali (China) and Hathnora (India) skulls. New piece of the puzzle: Further studies have revealed that Neanderthals and Denisovans had a common ancestor and that their lineages may have begun to diverge 450.000 years ago, after their common lineage itself diverged from the Sapiens lineage about 650.000 years ago.
And in Italy?
The Italian peninsula was a territory involved in the evolution and migrations during which Neanderthals and Sapiens cohabited and succeeded each other, occupying different areas. The presence of Neanderthals is relative to a period that goes from 250.000 to 40.000 years ago, corresponding mainly to the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian culture), even if some datings coming from the upper part of the stratigraphic sequence of Grotta Breuil demonstrate that some Neanderthal communities were still present about 35-33.000 years ago, when Sapiens had already been present in Northern Italy for several millennia.
Sapiens arrived in the peninsula instead during the second “Out of Africa” migration in the Upper Paleolithic, around 45.000 years ago. Initially they coexisted for a few thousand years but even here Sapiens eventually became the only species present. We draw up a short list, without claiming to be exhaustive, of the main Italian sites that to date attest to the presence of finds that highlight the overlap of the two species and those in which there is evidence of hybridization like those discovered in the rest of the continent. We postpone to another place the in-depth analysis that each of these very important archaeological sites deserves.
Mochi Shelter – Liguria
Multi-layered Neanderthal and Sapiens site with occupations attributable to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Link to VIDEO.
The Mochi rock shelter, on the Ligurian coast of Italy, is part of the important Balzi Rossi complex, located at the foot of the cliff between the Grotta di Florestano and the Grotta del Caviglione. Due to its nature as a shallow cave, the site was only archaeologically identified in 1938, unlike the other caves that were mostly explored and “emptied” between the end of the 800th century and the beginning of the last century.
The Mochi Shelter currently represents the only archaeological deposit with a complete stratigraphy that documents the entire evolution of Neanderthal man and the subsequent cultural development of Homo Sapiens.
The excavations, conducted for several years now by Professor Stefano Grimaldi, lecturer in prehistoric archaeology at the University of Trento, allow us to study the dynamics of substitution between the two species and to delve deeper into the cultural evolution of Homo Sapiens. During the last glaciation, in fact, the human groups that inhabited the site had to adapt to constantly changing climatic conditions, determining significant transformations in their lifestyles and survival strategies.
The stratigraphic sequence based on new field observations presents 5 radiocarbon determinations from Middle Palaeolithic (late Mousterian) and Lower Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian and Gravettian) levels. Most of the dates were produced on human-modified material, particularly marine shell beads, which comprise some of the oldest dated personal ornaments in Europe. The radiocarbon results are incorporated into a Bayesian statistical model to construct a new chronological framework for this key Palaeolithic site. A tentative correlation of the stratigraphy with palaeoclimatic records is also attempted. Evidence of the Aurignacian culture associated with Homo sapiens has been found here.
Sharp Shelter – Veneto
The cave takes its name from Francesco Tagliente who discovered it in 1958; the first research was conducted between 1962 and 1964 by the Civic Museum of Natural History of Verona, and was then resumed in 1967 by the University of Ferrara and is still ongoing.
The importance of the site derives from the evidence of two different series of frequentation, deducible from the discovery of two deposits of overlapping materials referable to different eras. A first deposit, dated between 60 and 000 years, attributable to the Neanderthal, and a second deposit, dated between 30 and 000 years, attributable to Homo Sapiens.
The site, in addition to the deposits, revealed the remains of a residential area and a burial.
During the excavations of the 60s, a human jaw with signs of pathology was found, today exhibited at the Natural History Museum of Verona. In the same context, artifacts of mobile art were also discovered, now preserved together with the burial at the National Archaeological Museum of Verona.
Dating between 13.500 and 11.000 BC are some bone and stone finds with animal representations. Among the most famous are a lion engraved on a block, which was part of the burial and an imposing ibex, engraved on a river pebble, one of the most characteristic of the entire Upper Paleolithic.
What is defined as the representation of a cave lion, which to us instead appears to be a pregnant lioness engraved on a block, was part of the grave goods of a burial together with a river pebble engraved with an imposing ibex.
Fumane Cave – Veneto
Located near Fumane, in the province of Verona, it is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe for the study of the transition between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. This site offers an extraordinary testimony of the prehistoric cultures that followed one another in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.
The cave is located at the foot of the Lessini Mountains, an area rich in natural resources such as water, flint and fauna, which made it an ideal place for prehistoric settlements.
The stratigraphic sequence of the cave is exceptionally well preserved and documents a continuity of occupation ranging from approximately 100.000 to 30.000 years ago, with evidence from the Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian.
The Neanderthals who occupied it in the Middle Paleolithic, about 100.000-40.000 years ago, used the cave as a seasonal refuge, hunting large herbivores (such as deer and horses) and producing flint tools.
The cave bears witness to the arrival of Homo Sapiens, with the appearance of the Aurignacian culture. More sophisticated stone tools, ornaments and signs of figurative art have been found, marking a cultural change. An extraordinary find in the cave is represented by fragments of stone with paintings and engravings, attributed to the Aurignacian Sapiens, signs that are among the first forms of figurative art known in Europe, testifying to the development of symbolic thought; the most famous is the so-called Grotta Fumane shaman. The presence of hearths suggests that the cave was used as a place of life and food preparation.
Recently, in the A4-A3 levels of Fumane, some typological elements have been identified that could be linked to the Uluzzian (Peresani, 2008) whose dating is considered by the author to be compatible with that of Castelcivita, approximately 34-33 thousand years ago (Gambassini, 1997). Also in Fumane, the presence of Aurignacian cultural contexts has been attested with datings between 36 and 31 thousand years ago, attributed to modern Homo Sapiens. Even with the caution for the ongoing revision of the OIS 3 datings (Anikovich et al., 2007; Higham et al., 2006) that would push back the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic to more than 40 thousand years ago, a wide-ranging problem arises that involves the whole Italian peninsula (Ronchitelli et al., 2009).
Mezzena Shelter – Veneto
The site on the Lessini Mountains in the province of Verona has yielded Neanderthal fossils associated with abundant artefacts and faunal remains.
Collagen was extracted from the human remains for analysis relating to ancient DNA, which provided an age referable to 35,5 thousand years ago. While the study of the lithic industry of layer III highlighted a typological structure typical of the Middle Paleolithic in which the presence of elements of the "Aurignacoid type" should also be emphasized. Riparo Mezzena is located a few kilometers away from the Fumane cave and Riparo Tagliente, two sites that have returned significant evidence of human frequentation during the Middle Paleolithic and the first phases of the Upper Paleolithic. In the Lessini Mountains, the absence of interstratification and the interpretative difficulty posed by the dates, which, in Fumane, not only involves the difficult relationship between the proposed chronology and the stratigraphic position but also includes the recently proposed theme of hypothetical Uluzzian layers (A3 and A4), underlying the A2 level (Proto-Aurignacian), lead us to hypothesize that in northern Italy the process of innovation undertaken by Neanderthal man, whose maximum expression materializes in the Uluzzian, is the result of an individual and unconditioned path. In this scenario, the presence of Neanderthals in Mezzena and of a lithic production typical of the Middle Paleolithic associated with typological elements of the “Aurignacian” type – leptolithic elements such as dihedral burins, snout and keeled scrapers, back-shaped points together with the geometric semilunar tools and the change in technological organization – could represent the beginning of this innovative process. The introduction of these typological characteristics at Riparo Mezzena are typical of the Neanderthal and therefore we would not be witnessing phenomena of acculturation, although the hypothesis of a possible coexistence between the last Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern men should be explored in depth to better understand the relationship between cultural aspects that would become characteristic in the subsequent production of the Upper Paleolithic.
Cave of San Bernardino – Veneto
The Grotta di San Bernardino di Mossano is the oldest archaeological site in the Vicenza area, it is a cavity of natural origin that presents stratigraphic layers from the Paleolithic period, some of which are visible in section; the cave was used by Neanderthals starting from 100,000 years ago as a place to slaughter hunted prey.
Broion Shelter – Veneto
It is located on the Berici Hills, 135 meters above sea level near the municipality of Longare, in the province of Vicenza. It is a rock shelter consisting of a covering created following the collapse of a rock face.
The research of the University of Ferrara began in 1998 and was carried out until 2008 by Professor Alberto Broglio. In 2015 the research was resumed and has so far brought to light a stratigraphic sequence that covers thousands of years of Paleolithic culture. The excavations are still ongoing.
What makes the Riparo del Broion important is precisely the discovery of three stratigraphic units belonging to the Uluzzian cultural complex with a great variety of finds and more than 1200 chipped stone tools. Archaeological evidence suggests alternating frequentation of the cave by man and carnivores. Initially the site was frequented by Neanderthal man, (40.000±1270 uncal. BP or 38.650 BC). A phase of abandonment or sporadic frequentation by man follows in which carnivores, in particular the cave bear (or cave bear), repeatedly use the cave as a den. It is only in the upper part of the cave that we again have evidence of human frequentation, this time by modern man, testified by Epigravettian lithic industries.
Guattari Cave – Lazio
The site of Grotta Guattari, in Lazio, is one of the most important for the study of Neanderthals. This natural cavity, formed in limestone, was inhabited by Neanderthal groups when the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea began to retreat from the caves of the Circeo promontory. The stable conditions of temperature and humidity have contributed to the extraordinary preservation of fossil remains and lithic artefacts.
The most recent research has led to the discovery of bones belonging to a hybrid female individual, with characteristics of both Sapiens and Neanderthals. Among the most significant finds is an almost complete skull, among the best preserved in Europe, which has allowed us to reconstruct the individual's appearance: while the front part shows typical traits of the first Neanderthals, the back part is surprisingly similar to that of a Sapiens. The discovery of stone tools, typical of the Mousterian culture, and bones of animals such as deer, horses, rhinoceroses and hyenas, suggests that Neanderthals practiced hunting or gathering carcasses. In 2021, new excavations conducted by the Ministry of Culture and the University of Rome Tor Vergata brought to light further Neanderthal remains, with the identification of at least nine individuals of varying ages, from young to adults, dating between 50.000 and 100.000 years ago.
Link to VIDEO of discoveries.
Breuil Cave – Lazio
Grotta Breuil is one of the many cavities that open on the coastal slope of Mount Circeo, in the province of Latina, about 100 km south of Rome.
It was discovered for the first time in 1936 by Alberto Carlo Blanc, Luigi Cardini, Hugo Obermayer and the abbot Henri Breuil, the famous French paleontologist to whom the cave was dedicated.
At the time of its discovery, the cave deposit aroused great interest due to the considerable amount of finds. However, it was only in 1986 that the Italian Institute of Human Paleontology, in collaboration with the Department of Animal and Human Biology of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, became interested in the site again and under the direction of Prof. Antonio Bietti began new excavation campaigns that continued until 1998. Neanderthal remains and numerous flint tools typical of the Mousterian were found.
The accumulation of faunal remains in the cave reveals that mainly adult ibex and deer were hunted and that the prey was brought whole to the site and here at the various stages of carcass treatment (from skinning to consumption). The seasonal indications, provided by the stages of eruption and wear of the teeth of the hunted animals, suggest that the cave was occupied from autumn to early spring. The remains of the avifauna (39 different species have been recognized, among which the most important are represented by the common chough and the red-billed chough; the choice of two species of birds characterized by shiny black plumage is intriguing, which leads to the hypothesis of a decorative use of the plumage) indicate a temperate-cool climate, more or less like that currently present in central Europe, with quite varied habitats, indicated by woodland species, others of rocky areas and open areas. Very interesting are the new results obtained from the analysis of the micro-traces of use visible on the lithic artefacts. These studies are very important because they allow us to trace the action carried out by stone tools made by man. In the archaeological sample from layer 6 of the Breuil cave, traces of wear related to butchering, skin scraping and woodworking were observed. Three tools show characteristic striations of fish scaling. A dating recently performed with the “Electronic Spin Resonance” (ESR) method, on some samples from the upper part of the stratigraphic sequence, gave an age of about 33.000 years from today: this would be a rather recent dating for a Neanderthal settlement that would prove that about 35-33.000 years ago, when Homo Sapiens had already been present in Northern Italy for several millennia, Neanderthal men still lived in Circeo, the last before their extinction. It is very likely that they had met those strange beings with bodies more slender than theirs, with olive skin, with a small face under the forehead and with vaguely childish features (Pig iron).
Grotto of St. Augustine – Lazio
Currently, the Grotta di Sant'Agostino is known for its evidence related to the Upper Paleolithic and Sapiens, with a predominance of Gravettian culture (30.000-20.000 years ago). However, given the presence in the surrounding area of sites that have provided numerous clues to the presence of Neanderthals, the lack of Neanderthal traces could be due to conservation factors or to the fact that Neanderthals did not systematically occupy the site. The cave is located on the Tyrrhenian coast, a few kilometers from the sea, in a strategic position that offered abundant resources, both marine and terrestrial, which made it an ideal place for human settlement.
Molare Shelter (or Molare Cave or Molara Cave) – Campania
An archaeological site dated to a period between 100.000 and 50.000 years ago, the shelter has yielded, in addition to Mousterian lithic deposits, a Neanderthal mandible discovered in 1985 and attributed to a 4-year-old child. The excavations have brought to light, at various levels, two structures for the organization of the living space and some unstructured combustion areas, oval in shape and small in size. The lithic materials and meal remains collected are abundant. The sedimentological and paleontological studies on the mandible, not yet completed, now allow us to date this find to a moment within isotopic stage 5 rather than attributing it, as previously suggested, to the beginning of isotopic stage 4. The antiquity of the find is confirmed by the metric and morphometric traits of its structures and its overall volume. The plesiomorphic and apomorphic characteristics, above all, are well documented despite the fact that it is a juvenile mandible; they fall within the typology of the Neanderthal taxon as given by the homologous fossil record of this species. Attempts at mtDNA investigations are underway on the find.
The Caves of Cape Palinuro – Campania
The caves of Capo Palinuro, today overlooking the sea, present a very different landscape compared to about 130.000 years ago, during the Riss glacial phase. At that time, the sea had receded and the territory was covered by woods and clearings, populated by animals such as ibex, fallow deer, deer, horses, bears and cave lions. In this context, the caves served as a refuge for Homo Erectus.
The area is rich in prehistoric sites, with over 60 caves explored between Palinuro and Marina di Camerota, including the Visco Cave, Cave of Ciavole , Cave of the Bones, the latter known for its fossil remains.
The finds date back to a wide time span, from about 500.000 years ago to the beginning of history. The oldest traces of human presence are found in the bay of Cala Blanca, with stone tools dating back almost half a million years. During the Middle Paleolithic, between 100.000 and 25.000 years ago, Neanderthal man settled in the caves, leaving behind tools and remains of hunted animals.
In the Upper Paleolithic (25.000-10.000 years ago) the presence of Homo Sapiens is documented with finds from different cultures such as the Aurignacian and the Gravettian. Lock Cave offers a stratigraphy that also includes the Mesolithic and the Neolithic, the latter recently discovered, marking the cultural change towards agriculture and livestock farming.
Castelcivita Cave – Campania
The Castelcivita caves are a complex of karst cavities on the right bank of the Calore river, about 300 meters from Ponte Paestum in the Campania municipality of Castelcivita in the province of Salerno. Particularly rich in stalactites and stalagmites, they extend for several kilometers in the Alburni massif, mainly in the municipalities of Castelcivita and Controne.
Traces of occupation by Neanderthal man have been found in the caves; this frequentation is referred to by the discovery of a pestle for grinding cereals, dated to about 40.000 years BC (contemporaneous with the one found in the Balzi Rossi Caves in Liguria) or about 30.000 years before the period in which Homo Sapiens is thought to have begun to practice agriculture.
Paglicci Cave – Apulia
A fundamental site, with remains of Homo Sapiens, Aurignacian and Gravettian tools, as well as cave paintings and objects of movable art. They were also found burials and power traces.
Altamura Cave – Apulia The skeleton of a Neanderthal, the famous “Altamura Man”, trapped in a limestone deposit, was discovered in the Lamalunga Cave.
Among the most complete skeletons ever found, the Altamura Man is one of the most extraordinary paleontological discoveries made in Italy; the remains belonging to an individual who lived between 180.000 and 130.000 years ago were found in 1993 and remain an exceptional case from both a geological and archaeological point of view, due to its skeletal structural integrity and excellent state of preservation. The Altamura Man was probably an adult male 160-165 centimeters tall who, during a hunting trip, fell into one of the many karst wells in the area. The fractures and wounds he suffered prevented him from leaving the cave, which from that moment became his tomb forever, 8 meters deep.
Horse Cave – Puglia
The Grotta del Cavallo is one of the oldest Italian sites with remains of Homo Sapiens, dating back to around 43.000 years ago. Aurignacian tools and ornamental objects have been found here, providing valuable evidence of the first human populations in Europe.
Located on the limestone coast of the municipality of Nardò, near the Ionian coast of Salento, the cave is part of a larger system of natural caves in the Bay of Uluzzo, within the Regional Park of Porto Selvaggio. Its name derives from the discovery of numerous remains of donkeys. Next to it, in the same bay, there are two other caves of archaeological interest: the Uluzzo Cave (or Uluzzo B) and the Cosma Cave (Uluzzo C).
The discovery of the Grotta del Cavallo dates back to 1964, when two deciduous molar teeth were found within a 7-meter stratigraphy with different levels referable to the Paleolithic. The remains and associated artifacts were initially attributed to a culture similar to the Castelperronian, called Uluzziana from the toponym of the area. This culture, widespread in much of the Italian peninsula, was characterized by stone tools and shell ornaments, elements that led to the assumption of a connection with theHomo Neanderthalensis, considering the Uluzzian one of the last expressions of Neanderthal culture. In 2011, however, a research led by Stefano Benazzi of the University of Vienna, published in the journal Nature, revealed that the teeth found in the cave belonged not to Neanderthals, but to one of the first Homo Sapiens lived between 43.000 and 41.000 years ago. According to Benazzi, these results suggest that the Uluzzian culture is not to be attributed to Neanderthals, but to modern humans. However, although the provenance of the teeth is now accepted, the attribution of the entire Uluzzian culture to Homo Sapiens remains a matter of debate.
Footnotes
[1] The term Cro-Magnon from the cave in the Vézère valley, in Dordogne (France) where in 1868 five skeletons were found, 3 men, a woman and a child dated to about 28.000 years ago, attributed to the Aurignacian culture. One of the 3 men was about 180 cm tall, with massive muscles. The fossil has become so famous that the name Cro-Magnon has been used for a long time to indicate any European Homo Sapiens of the Upper Paleolithic (about 45.000-10.000 years). Some interesting anatomical characteristics, such as the rectangular eye sockets, a cranial capacity of 1500 cc, similar to that of the Neanderthal and greater than that of modern Sapiens (about 1350 cc on average).
REFERENCES
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Alessandra de Nardis - February 9 2025
