Overview
On 24 February 1939, during excavation work for limestone extraction at the base of the Morrone hill, the Neanderthal site known as the Guattari Cave was accidentally discovered. The preservation of the cave was made possible thanks to the rocky material of a landslide that, in effect, prevented access over the centuries. On the inside, the soil was littered with fossilised bones mixed with a quantity of stones. Those remains were identified as belonging to the following animals: deer, primeval ox, roe deer, fallow deer, horse and hyena. A fossilised skull of Homo neanderthalensis dated to around 50,000 years ago was found inside the Antro dell'Uomo, which was in a good state of preservation. The first scholar to deal with this find was Professor Alberto Carlo Blanc.
