Grotta del Romito

The Grotta del Romito, at Nuppolara in Papasidero, in the Pollino National Park, is an Upper Palaeolithic site preserving one of the oldest examples of prehistoric art in Italy. It consists of a rock shelter and a cave, originally a single space, artificially separated when the cave became a hermitage. On the large boulder between the two is engraved an aurochs (Bos primigenius), shown standing still, dated between 14,000 and 12,000 years before present and likened in artistic treatment to the Franco-Cantabrian style: it is striking for its respect of natural proportions and anatomical detail. A reproduction is kept at the National Museum of Reggio Calabria, while other finds are at the Florentine Museum and Institute of Prehistory.

The site was used from the Gravettian to the Neolithic, between 23,000 and 10,000 years ago. It has yielded the remains of nine individuals of Homo sapiens, women and men: the oldest dates to about 14,500 years ago, the others to between 12,200 and 10,800 years ago. One of them had dwarfism; another, left half-paralysed perhaps after a fall, lived for a long time, as the wear of their teeth shows, thanks to the care of their community. Two individuals buried together were related through the maternal line, a very rare case; a child aged 11–12 was laid on a bed of red ochre, covered with hundreds of shells and deer teeth. The layers have yielded stone tools, two finely decorated bone spear points and, for the Neolithic, large quantities of obsidian, suggesting a role for the site in trade between the Tyrrhenian and the Ionian. Today the cave can be visited thanks to work by the University of Florence with the heritage authority, the Florentine Museum of Prehistory and the town: walkways, lighting and an antiquarium with some of the finds.