- Paglicci Cave
Paglicci cave is an arheologic site situated in
Italy . The cave, discovered in50s , is the most important cave ofGargano ,Apulia .Description
In the cave, situated near
Rignano Garganico , there are more than 45000 individual finds, includingPaleolithic tools, human and animal bones. Now, they are in Rignano Garganico's Museum.The cave contains also some Paleolithic mural paintings, depicting horses and handprints. Images of goats, cows, a serpent, a nest with eggs, and a hunting scene have also been found engraved on bone.
Two human skeletons have been found as well, belonging to a boy and a young woman, both wearing deer bone or teeth ornaments.
Paglicci cave contains the earliest
Aurignacian andGravettian remains of Italy, dated to c. 34,000 and 28,000BP (uncalibrated) [ [http://averyremoteperiodindeed.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-paper-on-pagliccis-eup-levels.html Julien Riel-Salvatore in his blog "A Very Remote Period Indeed"] ] .Risk of collapse
In 2008 it archaeologists made a plea to the President of the Republic, Silvio Berlusconi to dedicate funds to save the cave, that is in risk of imminent collapse [ [http://www.lifeinitaly.com/news/news-detailed.asp?newsid=9381 Life in Italy: "STONE AGE CAVE RISKS COLLAPSE"] ] .
Relevance in population genetics
In 2008, a scientific team lead by David Caramelly tested human remains from Paglicci cave (Paglicci 23) dated 28,000 BP and found that the individual had the human mitochondrial haplogroup H, specifically the rather common
Cambridge Reference Sequence . The result was exhaustively tested for possible contamination and replicated in a separate test [ [http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0002700 D. Caramelli et al., "A 28,000 Years Old Cro-Magnon mtDNA Sequence Differs from All Potentially Contaminating Modern Sequences". PLOS ONE, 2008] ] .References
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