Sitting out in a remote area of northern Italy is an enormous karst formation rather ominously called Dolina dell’Inferno, or Hell’s Sinkhole. The name is well earned, as it is permeated with networks of narrow, meandering tunnels that branch out into the darkness through the porous rock, many of them barely large enough for a. Read more »
How This Ancient, Defleshed Human Skull Ended Up in Such a Strange Spot
Image: Belcastro et al, 2021, PLOS ONE
Archaeologists may have finally figured out how a 5,300-year-old skull ended up on the ledge of a deep vertical cave shaft in northern Italy.
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The skull, with no jaw, was discovered in 2015 during exploratory work at a natural gypsum cave in northern Italy. It was found near the top of a vertical shaft, approximately 40 feet (12 meters) below a complex of meandering caves and 85 feet (26 meters) below ground level.
That a skull should be found in such a strange and isolated spot came as a complete surprise, to say the least. No other human remains were found in the immediate vicinity, nor any archaeological evidence. The location of the upturned skull a natural cavity within the shaft can only be accessed with special climbing equipment, and not a spot that ancient peoples could have easily reached.