Ricerc@Sapienza

Grotta Romanelli has been considered a key site for prehistoric studies in Italy, since the beginning of XX century. The cave, located on the Adriatic coast of southern Apulia (Italy), was discovered in 1871, but only in 1900 P.E. Stasi realised the remarkable importance of the site as the first evidence of the Palaeolithic in Italy. In 1914, G.A. Blanc started a pioneering excavation campaign, during which the first systematic paleontological and stratigraphical study with scientific methods was performed. The cave and its deposits were object of extensive studies until the end of the seventies, when the site fell in a sort of oblivion.
The stratigraphic section of Grotta Romanelli lays on a marine terrace referred to the Tyrrhenian Stage (MIS 5), which strongly constrains the whole sequence to the Late Pleistocene. The in-filling deposits are considered mainly of eolian origin and be subdivided in two main parts: (1) the upper Terre Brune bearing upper Paleolithic lithic tools and a cold vertebrate fauna including Pinguinus impennis; (2) the lower Terre Rosse bearing a diversified vertebrate fauna and limestone artefacts. Despite decades of researches many open issues need to be investigated and clarified about the age of the lower deposits due the apparent contradiction of the supposed archaicity of the lithic artefacts and the vertebrate fauna. In 2013, a detailed revision of fossil carnivores from Grotta Romanelli started and the wolf remains from terre rosse have been taken into account. The peculiar features of the two fossils considered can be evaluated within the variation range of Canis lupus, therefore these fossils cannot be considered a biochronological constrain restricted to the Middle Pleistocene.
In 2015, the reopening of the excavation campaign after more than 40 years broke the spell of inactivity in the field. In September 2016 and 2017 new field activities were carried on. The study and the analyses on collected samples are in progress.