Balzi Rossi

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The caves of the Balzi Rossi

The Balzi Rossi ( Ligurian Baussi rossi , dt. "Red Rocks") are dolomitic limestone rocks on the Mediterranean coast near Grimaldi di Ventimiglia in Liguria in Italy , near the French border. The rocks contain a total of seven caves ("Grimaldi caves"), which have served as residential caves since the Middle Paleolithic .

Under the direction of the hobby archaeologist Prince Albert I of Monaco , the 200,000 year old hip bone of a human individual was found in the lower layers of the Grotta del Principe named after him at the end of the 19th century, which according to today's classification was late Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals can be made.

Barma Grande

In another cave, the Barma Grande , six skeletons from the Upper Paleolithic were found during unsystematic excavations between 1884 and 1894 . These were dated into Gravettia using the radiocarbon method . In addition there are the Venus figurines by Balzi Rossi , which stylistically very likely also come from Gravettia.

Many of the finds can be seen in the Museo Preistorico dei Balzi Rossi .

Web links

Commons : Balzi Rossi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Michael S. Bisson, Nadine Tisnerat, Randall White: Radiocarbon Dates From the Upper Paleolithic of the Barma Grande. In: Current Anthropology Vol. 37, No. 1, 1996, pp. 156-162, doi: 10.1086 / 204483 .

Coordinates: 43 ° 47 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 32 ′ 8 ″  E