Guattari cave

The Grotte Guattari is a prehistoric site of the Latium, in Italy. It opens to a hundred meters of the Tyrrhenian coast , on the Eastern slope of the Mont Circé, with San Felice Circeo.

History

Its discovery took place by chance in 1939, whereas workmen worked to extract from the stones on the property of Mr. Guattari. A very old crumbling had blocked the entry of this cavity.

At the bottom of the cave, in the middle of a circle formed coarsely with stones, the owner discovered a cranium d' Homo neanderthalensis , extremely well preserved (image). A mandible was also collected on the surface. Excavations were carried out at once by White A.C. and L. Cardini, then by A.G. Segre (1950).

Archaeological vestiges

Trenches dug inside and especially outside the cave delivered industries Moustérien born from type Pontinien (Paléolithique means). These industries, studied by Mr. Taschini then more recently by A. Bietti and S. Grimaldi, show characteristics mainly dictated by the use of very small Galet S of Silex (small tools, cortical supports, Débitage Levallois after fractionation on anvil or cutting up on anvil, etc).

The fauna of the surface level having delivered cranium includes/understands remainders of Bovidé, stag, horse and hyena. The dates obtained for this surface make it possible to propose an age of approximately 57.000 years before the present.

Ritual cannibalism with the den of hyena

The Paleontologist White A.C. and the Anthropologue S. Sergi believed to note on cranium discovered on the surface of the very clear mutilations, of which the widening of the occipital foramen that they interpreted like an index of consumption of the brain. The stone circle was also regarded as an anthropophagous testimony of ritual. The cave was quoted a long time like example of primitive “sanctuary” of the néandertaliens, more especially as the ideas of ritual Cannibalisme and worship of craniums were generally allowed then.

With the beginning of the year 1990, American and Italian researchers proposed a new explanation: the bones would have been accumulated by carnivores, in particular the mottled Hyène (Crocuta crocuta). The mutilations evoked previously are compatible with the traces of tooth of these animals. On the other hand, the cranium does not carry any scratch of cutting by a flint instrument as one can see some on other human fossils or animal soups by the man. The stone circle would have been produced fortuitously by natural phenomena. For the Guattari Cave, the assumption of the ritual cannibalism is given up today by a majority of researchers.

References

Bietti, A., and S. Grimaldi, “Small flint pebbles and mousterian reduction chains: the box off Southern Latium (Italy)”, Quaternaria Nova , VI, (1996), pp. 237-260.
Piperno, Mr., and Giacobini, G., “have taphonomic study off the paleosurface off Guattari Cave”, 'Quaternaria Nova , vol. I, 1990-1991, Proccedings off the International Symposium “The fossil man off Assembles Circeo: fifty years off studies one the neandertals in Latium”, A. Bietti and G. Manzi Eds., (1992), pp. 143-161.

Stiner, Mr., “The Guattari faunas then and now”, 'Quaternaria Nova , vol. I, 1990-1991, Proccedings off the International Symposium “The fossil man off Assembles Circeo: fifty years off studies one the neandertals in Latium”, A. Bietti and G. Manzi Eds., (1992), pp. 163-192.
Toth, NR. and White, T., “Assessing the ritual cannibalism hypothesis At Grotta Guattari”, Quaternaria Nova , vol. I, 1990-1991, Proccedings off the International Symposium “The fossil man off Assembles Circeo: fifty years off studies one the neandertals in Latium”, A. Bietti and G. Manzi Eds., (1992), pp. 213-222.

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