14,000-Year-Old Footprints Found in Italy Cave

Footprints and handprints dated to around 14,000 to 14,400 years ago were identified in Grotta della Bàsura in Toirano, northern Italy. The traces belong to a group of five early humans, including two adults, one adolescent of about 11 years, and two children aged about three and six years.

Cave Site and Chronology

Grotta della Bàsura is a cave in Liguria, a region in north-western Italy. The footprints were left on a clay-rich cave floor during a single exploration event by Epigravettian hunter-gatherers of the Late Upper Palaeolithic.

Footprint Evidence and Movement

About 180 footprints and handprints were recorded from the cave surface. The trackways include evidence of crawling through low tunnels, which is the first fossil footprint evidence of human crawling locomotion.

Lighting and Material Culture

The group used bundles of purpose-dried Scots pine twigs as portable torches inside the cave. A reconstruction of prehistoric cave lighting in Bàsura Cave found that two burning pine twigs could illuminate movement for the five-person group, with visibility extending to about 10 metres.

Scientific Methods Used

The study used modern dating methods, 3D modelling, laser scans, sediment analysis, geochemistry, and archaeobotany. The research was published in eLife in May 2019 and involved researchers from Italy, Argentina, South Africa, and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Associated Faunal Evidence

Evidence from the cave suggests that a canid accompanied the group. Cave bear remains are abundant in Grotta della Bàsura, and the cave contains animal traces from Pleistocene occupation.

Important Facts for Exams

• Epigravettian culture belongs to the Late Upper Palaeolithic in Europe.
• Scots pine is scientifically known as Pinus sylvestris.
• 3D modelling and laser scanning are standard tools in archaeological footprint analysis.
• Toirano is a town in Liguria, a region in north-western Italy.