May 10, 2021 - 18:43 AMT
Extraordinary fossils of 9 Neanderthals discovered in Italy

Archeologists have unearthed fossils from nine Neanderthals in a cave outside Rome that an Italian official boasted will be the “talk of the world,” The Huffington Post reports.

The oldest remains date back some 100,000 years. Fossils of the other eight Neanderthals date to between 50,000 to 68,000 years ago, the Italian Culture Ministry has announced.

Interest in the often disparaged version of prehistoric humans has surged in the past few years with the discovery that traces of Neanderthal DNA still live in homo sapiens. Research is proving that the Neanderthals, who died out about 40,000 years ago, were far more sophisticated than modern humans have long believed.

The latest findings — in the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo some 55 miles southeast of Rome — include skulls, skull fragments, teeth and other bone fragments.

Anthropologist Mauro Rubini said the large number of remains indicates a significant population of Neanderthals in the area, and “the first human society we can speak of,” The Associated Press reported.

A team of archaeologists, anthropologists, geologists and paleontologists also searched a separate section of the cave to unearth burned bones, bones with cut marks indicating hunting, and carved stones.