NEANDERTHAL TRIBE DISCOVERED IN LAZIO CAVE

Palaeontologists have made an exciting find in a cave near the fashionable seaside resort of San Felice Circeo (Latina, Lazio). The fossilized bones of seven Neanderthal men and one woman, dating from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago, plus the remains of an even earlier individual, along with bones of hyenas, elephants, cave bears, rhinos and a long extinct giant auroch, have been discovered in a previously unexplored area of the Guattari Grotto.

The Grotto, situated near the sea in the protected area of the Nature Park of the Circeo peninsula, was first discovered in 1939 and produced an exceptional find: the perfectly preserved skull of a Neanderthal man, placed inside a circle of stones. The skull is now in the prehistoric Luigi Pigorini Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.

The present research campaign was carried out by the Archaeology & Arts Superintendency of Frosinone and Latina Province in collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome.

Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, described the find as “extraordinary”, while Mauro Rubini, director of the local Department of Archaeology, Fine Arts & landscape said that Neanderthal man was a fundamental link in human evolution and the discovery gave valuable insight into the process of human settlement in Italy.

Italy is not new to prehistoric finds that made world news. In 1998 the fossil of a baby Scipionyx dinosaur of 113 million years ago was discovered at Benevento (Campania), exceptionally with much of its intestine still intact, allowing scientists to analyse its diet. The dinosaur is affectionately nicknamed “Ciro”.

Posted on 13 May 2021 by Editor
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