In the Archi surroundings, near Reggio Calabria, for the first time layers contemporary of the last quaternary glaciation were recognized. This series, about 30 m thick, shows at about 90 m above sea-level a brackish layer laid on a fresh water sand. Below are fluvial and deltaic-marine gravely layers with Paleoloxodon antiquus, Dicerorhinus merchi, Hippopotamus, Bos primigenius, Megaceros sp., Cervus elaphus: there a mandible of neanderthal child was detected, and among the few birds, bone fragments of the great auk, i.e. Alca impennis were recognized. Rolled marine shells (Patella ferruginea, Spondilus gaederopus, ecc.) in the middle inferior gravels of this series are probably remnants of a Tyrrhenian—Strombus beach completely destroyed by energetic erosional processes caused by strong isostatic movements that here at the end of the middle-paleolithic or later, submerged the fluvio-continental fossiliferous layers and subsequently raised it to the present 90 m above sea-level. The highly mineralized neanderthal mandible is incomplete, both the ascending rami having been broken away long since. It belonged to a child aged 5-6. The resemblance of the Archi mandible to that of the Devils'Tower (Gibraltar) child is very striking in many respects.
Referenze Bibliografiche
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Con il contributo del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali