Museo Archeologico del Finale, Finale Ligure Borgo, Italy
Ivano Rellini
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), Università degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy
Marco Firpo
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), Università degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy
Fabio Negrino
Dipartimento di Antichità, Filosofia, Storia (DAFIST), Università degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy
Marta Zunino
Grotte di Toirano, Toirano, Italy
Elisabetta Starnini
Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la Città Metropolitana di Genova e le province di Imperia, La Spezia e Savona, Genoa, Italy; Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa, Pise, Italy
Based on the integration of laser scans, sedimentology, geochemistry, archeobotany, geometric morphometrics and photogrammetry, here we present evidence testifying that a Palaeolithic group of people explored a deep cave in northern Italy about 14 ky cal. BP. Ichnological data enable us to shed light on individual and group level behavior, social relationship, and mode of exploration of the uneven terrain. Five individuals, two adults, an adolescent and two children, entered the cave barefoot and illuminated the way with a bunch of wooden sticks. Traces of crawling locomotion are documented for the first time in the global human ichnological record. Anatomical details recognizable in the crawling traces show that no clothing was present between limbs and the trampled sediments. Our study demonstrates that very young children (the youngest about 3 years old) were active members of the Upper Palaeolithic populations, even in apparently dangerous and social activities.
