Altamura Man

The Altamura man is a partially -preserved fossil of the genus Homo, which was discovered in 1993 in the Grotta di Lamalunga in Altamura in Puglia / Italy and is still there today. The skeleton was initially dated to the era of Homo heidelbergensis, or because it has also Neanderthal characteristics attributed to the Neanderthals, later it has been dated to around 130,000 years, and the archaic Homo sapiens attributed. Age determination and assignment of the discovery are still controversial.

The bones are in a vast cave system far away from the entrance and are heavily overgrown with stalactites. The Fund circumstances indicate that the man was not abducted by a predator in the cave, for example, but died at the site in a sitting position. Presumably, he had fallen into the cave, had hurt himself, could not climb back and looked in complete darkness an output until he fell and gave up a blind alley. Because of the extraordinarily good state of preservation of the bones and a very difficult rescue in sight, it was determined that the fossils are to remain in their original location until further notice.

The cave is closed to visitors. A canned up as a show cave museum nearby is the circumstances in the big cave where also numerous animal fossils were found by.

52332
de