Italy - Karstic caves in prehistoric Apulia

The Salento peninsula is a uniform lowland area on the southeastern tip of Apulia. Like the Gargano and the Murge - the two sub-regions bordering on the Adriatic Sea, located more to the north - it is composed of limestone and, exactly because of its geological features, it shows karstic phenomena that have given rise to several natural caves, of which some are currently located along the coastline. Among such caves, the Grotta Romanelli (Castro) and the Grotta delle Veneri at Parabita - both inhabited during the Palaeolithic Age - are some of the best famous caves from an archaeological viewpoint on account of their artistic findings, with the Grotta dei Cervi at Porto Badisco that is a remarkable and unique evidence of post-palaeolithic rock painting. In the Grotta Romanelli there have been found traces of a Tyrrhenian beach from the Riss-Würm interglacial period (about 120,000-80,000 years ago); limestone flake tools from the mid-Palaeolithic have been collected, preceding the rich layers from the Upper Palaeolithic. In addition to the typical stone industry - named after the type-site ‘Romanellian' -, bone tools and limestone stones bearing naturalistic engravings (bovid, feline, deer, boar, etc.) or else geometric shapes - also visible on the walls of the cave - have been found. Two small-sized female figurines carved in bone - which are especially interesting artistic manufacts from the Upper Palaeolithic - have been also found in the Grotta delle Veneri, where human occupation can be documented from the Mousterian Age until the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The Grotta dei Cervi close to the village Porto Badisco, with its corridors decorated with paintings dating back to the Neolithic Age, completes the picture of the artistic and cognitive skills pertaining to the ancient dwellers of this region. The cave was discovered in 1970 by a group of speleologists, who called it ‘Grotta di Enea' on the basis of a local tradition; later on it was named ‘Grotta dei Cervi' because of the presence of paintings showing deers. The Grotta dei Cervi is of karstic origin and contains the largest as well as the most important set of paintings from the European Neolithic, thanks to the hundreds of pictures painted on the walls of its galleries and in the many chambers it is composed of. The archaeological findings show that human dwellers started inhabiting the cave between the mid-Neolithic (facies of Masseria La Quercia and Serra d'Alto) and the early Chalcolithic (facies of Piano Conte) - when some corridors became obstructed. The paintings were created during this time span (about 4,000-3,000 b.C.), although it is difficult to determine their precise chronological sequence; however, many graphic elements (cross-shaped, comb-shaped, spiral-shaped, etc.) are especially similar to the decorations that feature in the Neolithic facies of Masseria La Quercia and Serra d'Alto. Figurative elements in the shape of human beings, dogs, and deer - often giving rise to hunting scenes - are especially frequent in the area that is closest to the entrance of the cave, whilst they become less frequent, and ultimately dwindle to nothing, as one moves towards the remoter parts of the galleries; here there predominate hand-shaped marks and abstract motifs that are more difficult to interpret. The groups of paintings, mostly in brown and only exceptionally in red, are located along three corridors for a total length of about 400 m; the galleries are separated by narrowings, deposit conoids, dry-stone walls, and steps. Their distribution shows that the different sections of the cave were intended for different purposes, bears testimony to the use of the cave as a place of worship, and is an outstanding example of the spiritual sphere of the populations from the Neolithic Age.