2 replies to this topic

[Maju]

Found in A Very Remote Period Indeed (archaeology blog):

Paglicci Cave in risk of collapse.

Terrible news from Italy, where a section of the the exterior wall of Paglicci Cave (...) has collapsed, thus threatening the integrity of the cave as a whole.

The cave, in Apulia, has some of the oldest Aurignacian remains of Southern Italy and the research is far from finished. The researchers have made an appeal to the new PM Slvio Berlusconi to provide funds to secure the wall, so research can continue.

More information and external links in the link above.

[Maju]

I don't have any news about the danger of the site but I think this is worth mentioning: one of the human skeletons found in this cave (Paglicci 23, c. 28,000 BP) has been confirmed to belong to the most common modern European maternal lineage: mtDNA haplogroup H, more specifically to the Cambridge Reference Sequence (a very common variant, inccidentally used as reference in mtDNA sequencing).

I can only hope that this important finding wil increase the notoriety of the site and help gathering funds for the necesary intervention.

The cave has some of the oldest Aurignacian and Gravettian remains of Italy and has some mural art (horses, handprints) as well as engravings on bone.