More than a century ago, amateur archaeologists uncovered the skeletons of six people, along with various ceremonial items, inside an Italian cave called Barma Grande. Estimates of when these people died still provoke controversy.
Radiocarbon analyses of one of the skeletons now suggest it dates to around 26,400 to 23,200 years ago, a time when Stone Age artistic and symbolic expressions achieved unprecedented complexity in ancient Europe.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.