Romito Cave

Papasidero, Italy

The Romito cave (Italian: Grotta del Romito) is a natural limestone cave in the Lao Valley of Pollino National Park, near the town of Papasidero. Stratigraphic record of the first excavation confirmed prolonged paleo-human occupation during the Upper Paleolithic since 17,000 years ago and the Neolithic since 6,400 years ago. A single, but exquisite piece of Upper Paleolithic parietal rock engraving was documented. Several burial sites of varying age were initially discovered. Irregularly recurring sessions have led to additional finds, which suggests future excavation work. Notable is the amount of accumulated data that has revealed deeper understanding of prehistoric daily life, the remarkable quality of the rock carvings and the burial named Romito 2, who exhibits features of pathological skeletal conditions (dwarfism).

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Details

Founded: 17000 - 6400 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Italy

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Lindsay Vickers (5 months ago)
An amazing piece of history. The bull carvings are the originals, although the human burials are copies, but in situ as found. Excellent guide who spoke good English. A rare opportunity to look into the lives of early stone age mankind.
Alison Siciliano (5 months ago)
Super special place to visit. Tour guide was great, spoke in English and Italian.
Vytautas Astrauskas (2 years ago)
It is 75 minutes drive from the coast, and whole tour last less than 30 minutes. Also staff have extended siesta and we had to wait extra hour. Anyway there are several human remaining from stone age and painting of the bull, plus pretty small cave. You cannot even close to compare with large cave systems in other places Slovakia or Slovenia. Therefore it is not worth visiting if you are going only for this site in region, but if you have other activities as rafting so maybe it is worth as side attraction. By the way staff speak only Italian :(
Valeria Agamennone (3 years ago)
I'm sure the Grotta is amazing, but we didn't get to see it because, despite arriving there 40 minutes before closing time, we were told it was too late and to come back the next day. Having read in other reviews that the visit lasts about half an hour, it should not have been a problem. I guess the ladies working there had other plans for the night, as after sending us on our way they got in a car themselves and left the Grotta well before 18, which the website indicates as closing time.
Miguel Martinez (4 years ago)
It's interesting, but the tour guide only spoke fast Italian, so unless you speak decent Italian, you'd miss the most interesting part which is the story behind the find. The cave was small and simple the archeological finds were interesting.
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