A century after its initial discovery, the Romanelli Cave has revealed new paleolithic art. Excavations in caves located in southeast Italy have found numerous ancient engravings.
According to published research, a group of archeologists, paleontologists and geologists have found undiscovered ancient art in the cave. They have also been able to determine that the cave was occupied by humans some 11-14 thousand years ago. The research by the group has been going on since 2016. Dario Sigari, the lead author of the research, also remarked that multiple art patterns have been superimposed over each other in the cave walls. These suggest that the cave was inhabited for a far longer time than initially assumed, perhaps even by different groups of humans.
Among the numerous artworks found in the cave, perhaps three panels are the most remarkable. They feature more than 30 images, depicting a variety of motifs like geometric and zoomorphic figures. Researchers have also found “finger flutings”, a kind of art form where people would dip their fingers in moonmilk and trace them on the lime walls. An image of a yet-unidentified hoofed mammal was also found, which was created in a 3D style using the curvature of the walls. Another image depicted a bird with a large beak, which researchers suspect to be the extinct auk.
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The Romanelli Cave was first discovered in 1874. However, it was only since the beginning of the 20th century that explorations were possible. It was soon discovered to a site of amazing Paleolithic art, one of the most detailed ones in the world. However, its inaccessible location resulted in slow exploration, which is why that more discoveries could be only made more than a century later.
