Paglicci Cave is an archaeological site situated in Paglicci, near

Rignano Garganico Rignano Garganico is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southern Italy. Geography Apricena, Foggia, San Marco in Lamis, San Severo and San Giovanni Rotondo San Giovanni Rotondo is the name of a town and ''co ...

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The cave, discovered in the 1950s, is the most important cave of

Gargano Gargano () is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of a promontory projecting into ...

. The cave is an attraction of the

Gargano National Park The Gargano National Park () is a national park in the province of Foggia in southern Italy. Aside from the Gargano promontory (encompassing the ancient woodlands of the Foresta Umbra) from which it takes its name, it includes also the Tremiti I ...

Description

In the cave, situated near Rignano Garganico, there are more than 45,000 individual finds, including

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

tools, human and animal bones. They are currently housed in Rignano Garganico's Museum. Evidence of Paleolithic oat harvesting dating to 30,600 BC was linked to a pestle recovered from the cave. The cave contains also some Paleolithic mural paintings, depicting horses and handprints. Images of goats, cows, a serpent, a nest with eggs, and a hunting scene have also been found engraved on bone. Two human skeletons have been found as well, belonging to a boy and a young woman, both wearing deer bone or teeth ornaments. Paglicci cave contains the earliest

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Cro-Magnon, Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the L ...

and

Gravettian The Gravettian is an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by ...

remains of Italy, dated to c. 34,000 and 28,000 BP (uncalibrated).

Risk of collapse

In 2008 Italian archaeologists made a plea to the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to dedicate funds to save the cave which is at risk of imminent collapse.

Relevance in population genetics

Caramelli et al. (2008) tested human remains from Paglicci 23 dated 28,000 BP (before present), and found that the individual had the human mitochondrial haplogroup H, specifically the rather common Cambridge Reference Sequence. The result was exhaustively tested for possible contamination and replicated in a separate test. Fu et al. (2016) found that 31-35 thousand years old human remains from Paglicci 133 carried Y-DNA haplogroup I (not I1) (CTS674+, CTS9269+) and mtDNA haplogroup U8c.Qiaomei Fu et al
The genetic history of Ice Age Europe
Nature(2016)doi:10.1038/nature17993Received 18 December 2015 Accepted 12 April 2016 Published online 02 May 2016

References

External links

Grotta Paglicci website
{{Authority control Caves of Italy Landforms of Apulia Archaeological sites in Apulia Prehistoric sites in Italy Province of Foggia

Description

Risk of collapse

Relevance in population genetics

See also

References

External links