This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology.聽Sign up聽to receive it in your inbox for free every month.
Have you heard of Altamura Man? Since it was new to me, I鈥檓 going to guess that you may be unfamiliar with it. Which is peculiar, because it鈥檚 an astonishing specimen.
To find Altamura Man you would need to travel to Puglia (also known as Apulia) in southern Italy: if you think of Italy as looking like a boot, Puglia is the heel. Much of it is karst, a landscape where water draining through bedrock creates sinkholes, springs and caves 鈥� including Lamalunga cave near the town of Altamura.
Advertisement
In early October 1993, local researchers were exploring Lamalunga cave when they stumbled upon human bones, including a skull. They alerted anthropologists including Eligio Vacca and Vittorio Pesce Delfino at the nearby University of Bari Aldo Moro, who arrived the following evening. It was immediately obvious that the skeleton was in excellent condition. As the researchers wrote later that year, it was 鈥渙ne of the most extraordinary paleontological discoveries in Italy and in Europe鈥�.
However, it was also obvious that the skeleton was going to be hard to study. Not only is the cave difficult to operate in, but, as the team wrote the following year, 鈥淎ll the bones are partly covered with, or embedded in, calcareous concretion while others are visible but lined with a calcareous shell of varying thickness.鈥� Bluntly, the skeleton is embedded in rock.
It鈥檚 31 years later and the skeleton is still there, still entombed. Thanks to some ingenious researchers, we know more about it than we did in 1993 鈥� but its secrets remain largely untapped because of its fragility and inaccessibility. That鈥檚 vexing, but on the plus side, nobody has done anything egregiously stupid. As a result, Altamura Man remains intact.
Altamura Man
The central problem for anyone wanting to study Altamura Man is that it鈥檚 embedded in a speleothem. To answer your immediate question, a speleothem is any rock formation that gradually forms in a cave, often as a result of water flowing through. Stalactites are an example where water dripping from the ceiling leaves behind tiny particles of minerals, which accumulate over the years into dangling pillars.
In the case of Altamura Man, the skeleton is smothered in cave popcorn. These speleothems are small nodules of calcite sometimes known as 鈥渃oralloids鈥�, because they look like the corals that make up a reef.
You might think researchers could carefully remove the cave popcorn from the skeleton, but there鈥檚 another complication. The bones are not fully fossilised, probably due to the conditions in the cave: the temperature varies a lot and fresh air often blows in. As a result, the bones are fragile.
So we have a perfect storm: a cave that鈥檚 difficult to get into containing a skeleton that鈥檚 both fragile and trapped in hard rock.
The solution lies in virtual palaeoanthropology. Over the past decade, researchers have used digital imaging equipment and other advanced technology to study Altamura Man without physically interfering with it.
To find out more, I emailed with Costantino Buzi at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain, the lead author of . Buzi describes the skeleton as 鈥渓ike Godot鈥� 鈥� the titular character of Samuel Beckett鈥檚 play Waiting for Godot, who famously never shows up 鈥� as it鈥檚 鈥渙ften in the conversation but no one can actually see it鈥�.
Despite the difficulties in studying Altamura Man, some tantalising snippets have emerged. A 2004 study by Vacca and Pesce Delfino used miniature video cameras to photograph the bones, concluding that the skeleton belonged to an adult male.
Five years later, researchers removed a single bone from a small chamber behind the main skeleton, using a procedure inspired by keyhole surgery. The bone, a scapula or shoulder blade, yielded a lot of information. In a 2015 analysis, the researchers dated the specimen to between 172,000 and 130,000 years ago. The shape of the scapula suggests Altamura Man was a Neanderthal 鈥� as does the DNA the team extracted.
The following year, the palaeoartist brothers Alfons and Adrie Kennis produced a detailed reconstruction of Altamura Man鈥檚 face.
More recently, Buzi and his colleagues have used laser scanning and 3D analysis of photos to study the skeleton. In 2023, they produced a virtual reconstruction of Altamura Man鈥檚 cranium. This painted an intriguing picture: although clearly Neanderthal, his skull had some features that are not seen in most Neanderthals, but are found in older specimens from Atapuerca in northern Spain that are thought to be the ancestors of Neanderthals. It may be that the Neanderthals living in southern Italy were isolated from other populations, and as a result retained some older features that Neanderthals elsewhere lost.
Extracting the skeleton
This is all gleaned from one shoulder blade and scans of the skull. Imagine what we could learn if we got our hands on the whole skeleton.
Buzi says research into Altamura Man is stuck in first gear. 鈥淭here have been only limited observations with traditional methods, and the works published struggled in getting attention,鈥� he says. 鈥淔or this reason, Altamura has been quite overlooked.鈥�
He wants to work towards a way to safely remove the skeleton. 鈥淚n my opinion, extraction would be the best way to both study and keep the skeleton in the ideal conditions for its preservation,鈥� he says.
This presents a twofold problem: getting the skeleton out, and preserving it. The second problem is arguably easier, says Buzi, because we already have ways to preserve delicate specimens like 脰tzi the iceman, who is kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy. 鈥淚t is more difficult to envision the protocols for a safe removal,鈥� says Buzi, but he thinks it鈥檚 achievable with 鈥渟ufficient technical expertise鈥� and funding.
Arguably, there has been 鈥渁n excess of caution鈥� around Altamura Man, says Buzi, but he says that is understandable because 鈥渢he context is so unique鈥�.
Certainly, it鈥檚 preferable to the alternative. On the same day Buzi鈥檚 latest study was published, the journal it appeared in also released a study of the Juukan 2 rock shelter in Western Australia. Researchers led by Michael Slack at Scarp Archaeology found that Aboriginal Australians had repeatedly visited the site over the past 47,000 years. These people processed bush potatoes as food and left behind a variety of stone artefacts. A piece of braided hair revealed that the ancient visitors were closely related to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples that live in the area today.
I mention this because Juukan 2 is not there anymore. It was blown up in 2020 by the Rio Tinto corporation, as part of a mining project. This was, I want to emphasise, permitted under Australian law. It was legal to destroy 47,000 years of Aboriginal Australian heritage.
A 2023 paper found a host of flaws in the ways Australian heritage law operates. For instance, there was no way for the traditional owners of Juukan 2 to appeal the decision to allow the destruction, even when the archaeologists found new information about its significance. The deck was stacked in favour of the mining company and against Aboriginal Australian cultural heritage.
The contrast with the fate of Altamura Man could hardly be more stark. Some of this is sheer luck 鈥� Buzi points out that the area around Lamalunga cave doesn鈥檛 contain any valuable mineral resources. Furthermore, the cave is in the pre-existing Alta Murgia National Park, so Altamura Man was already protected before anyone knew he existed. 鈥淟uckily, Italy has an old history of protection and management of natural and cultural heritage,鈥� says Buzi.
Like Buzi, I would like to see more work done on Altamura Man and Lamalunga cave. If it can be done safely, I would love to see the skeleton extracted from its rocky tomb so its secrets can be plumbed. He has sat in the shadows long enough. But I鈥檓 also relieved that this extraordinary specimen has been treated with such care over the past three decades.
Neanderthals, ancient humans and cave art: France
Embark on a captivating journey through time as you explore key Neanderthal and Upper Palaeolithic sites of southern France, from Bordeaux to Montpellier, with New 杏吧原创鈥檚 Kate Douglas. Visit iconic archaeological sites and deepen your knowledge of Neanderthals and early human ancestors, all while journeying from Bordeaux across the picturesque south of France. Traverse through charming medieval towns and breathtaking countryside, culminating in the vibrant city of Montpellier.
