The Barma Grande cave (Grimaldi, Vintimiglia, Italy): From Neandertal, hunter of “Elephas antiquus”, to Sapiens with ornaments of mammoth ivory

Abstract

In 1884 the Barma Grande cave (Grimaldi, Ventimiglia, Italy) entered history following the research of L. Jullien and S. Bonfils who discovered, buried at a depth of 8.4 m, a grave dating from the Upper Paleolithic: “le nouvel homme de Menton”. Subsequently, there were the excavations by the quarry-worker Abbo and his sons, which revealed new burials, including a triple burial which included ornaments crafted from mammoth ivory (discovered in 1892) and remnants of a late “Elephas antiquus” in a Mousterian level. Starting in 1928, the research of A. Mochi, G.A. Blanc and L. Cardini highlighted the site’s stratigraphy: at the base, a Tyrrhenian marine level (MIS 5.5); above, a long continental sequence from the middle Paleolithic including several Mousterian hearths with a fauna composed of large mammals, including the remains of “E. antiquus”.The study of the material of the Bonfils excavations, preserved at the Musée de Préhistoire Régionale of Menton, and of the Abbo excavations preserved at the Balzi Rossi Museum allowed attribution of all of the graves to the early and middle Gravettian level with its “fléchettes“. Moreover, in the highest sequence of the site (MIS 2), mammoth bone remains have been found, as well as ivory funerary ornaments in the triple burial and in the burial known as of "l’homme aux jambes croisées". Although very rare, there are sporadic mammoth remains in some sites in Liguria, but it is primarily in western Gravettian hunter sites in the low valley of the Rhône that this animal is well represented. The sites were on the road for zoned flint (Stampien), a material that was both exotic and prestigious, constituting a funerary offering given by the Gravettians of Liguria. The “E. antiquus” of the lower levels (MIS 3 to 5), present in the Mousterian levels, not only indicates the persistence of this animal until MIS 3 (when it took refuge in Provence and Liguria), but provided material for tools made from elephant ivory by the last Neandertal hunters.