Их сургуулийн судлаачид Италийн хойд хэсэгт орших Гротта делла Басура агуйгаас палеолитын үед хамаарах хүний мөр, гарын алга болон өвдөгний ор мөрийг илрүүлжээ.
Судалгааны баг лазер сканнер, фотограмметр болон геологийн шинжилгээний тусламжтайгаар агуйн гүнээс олдсон 180 орчим мөрийг судалсан байна. Эдгээр ул мөр нь 14,700-14,000 жилийн тэртээ хоёр насанд хүрсэн хүн, нэг өсвөр насны хүүхэд болон гурав, зургаан настай хоёр хүүхдээс бүрдсэн бүлэг агуйгаар аялсныг гэрчилж байна. Агуйн хананд үлдсэн нүүрсний үлдэгдлүүд нь тэднийг галт бамбар ашиглан агуйн гүн рүү нэвтэрснийг баталжээ.
Агуйн 80 см-ээс бага намхан хонгилуудад хүмүүс босоо явах боломжгүй байсан тул дөрвөн хөллөн явсан нь шаварлаг хөрсөнд тод үлджээ. Энэ нь эртний хүмүүс хүнд хэцүү орчинд хэрхэн хөдөлж байсныг харуулсан дэлхийн анхны баримтжуулсан мөр юм.
“Sala dei Misteri” буюу Нууцлаг танхим хүртэл үргэлжлэх энэхүү мөрүүд нь зөвхөн насанд хүрэгчдийн төдийгүй бага насны хүүхдүүд ч бамбар барин, хүнд хэцүү нөхцөлд хамтдаа зорчиж байсныг илтгэж байна. Судалгааны үр дүн нь палеолитын үеийн бүлгийн гишүүдийн биеийн механик болон хөдөлгөөнийг шинжлэх ухааны өндөр түвшинд тодорхойлох боломжийг олгожээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Small handprints, knee marks, and bare footprints pressed into cave clay record a journey made about 14,000 years ago inside northern Italy’s Grotta della Bàsura. The trail runs more than 400 meters from the entrance, where five Paleolithic visitors moved through darkness with torches and left their route in the floor.
The group included two adults, one adolescent, and two children, according to a study published in eLife. One child was about three years old. The other was about six. Their tracks appear with those of the older visitors, turning the cave floor into a rare record of adults and children moving together through a difficult underground route.
The route was tight, wet, and uneven. In one passage, the ceiling dropped below 80 centimeters, too low for upright walking. The visitors went down onto hands and knees, pressing a sequence of crawling marks into the clay as they passed through the corridor by firelight.
Ancient Footprints Preserved Bodies in Motion
Researchers examined 180 footprints and other traces inside the cave, including handprints, knee marks, finger marks, footprints, and charcoal remains. These were not scattered marks without context. Their position and sequence helped the team follow the group’s path through the cave and read how the visitors changed their movement as the space narrowed, sloped, or turned wet.
The floor conditions mattered. Firmer areas preserved less detail, while softer clay captured clearer impressions of feet, palms, knees, and fingers. In places, the marks show walking. Elsewhere, they show climbing or crawling. Together, they form a movement trail rather than a single isolated archaeological clue.
Charcoal along the route helped place the visit in the Upper Paleolithic, about 14,700 to 14,000 calibrated years before present. The charcoal also points to how the group moved so far underground: they carried Paleolithic torches made from Pinus t. sylvestris/mugo wood, using firelight to navigate the cave.
A Low Corridor Forced Hands and Knees Into Clay
The clearest crawling traces appear in the Footprints Corridor, where the roof dropped too low for standing or walking normally. Hands, knees, and feet pressed into the sediment in a pattern that recorded the body mechanics of crawling through a confined passage.
The eLife study described this as the first documented evidence of crawling movement in the global human trace record. Ichnology is the study of preserved tracks and traces, including footprints and other marks left by movement across a surface. In this cave, the traces do more than place people underground. They show how those people physically negotiated the cave.
That is what makes the Bàsura trail unusually direct. The cave’s shape forced a change in posture, and the clay held the result. The low roof, the soft floor, and the sequence of hand, knee, and foot impressions together preserve a moment when the group had to crawl forward through darkness.
Child Footprints Make the Trail Unusually Human
The children’s tracks give the site much of its force. A child about three years old moved hundreds of meters inside the cave with the group, while the six-year-old’s traces appear with those of the adolescent and adults. The study does not need to attach a dramatic story to those prints. Their location already carries weight.
This was not only an adult route later interpreted through tools or wall marks. The evidence includes small feet, hands, and knees on the same difficult path. The child traces place very young members of the group inside a cave journey that required torchlight, balance, crawling, and close movement through narrow spaces.
That detail sharpens the subject of the discovery. The site is not simply about ancient footprints. It is about a small Paleolithic group moving together through a deep cave, with children participating in the same physical route as the older visitors.
The Inner Chamber Held More Traces
The group eventually reached the Sala dei Misteri, or Hall of Mysteries, an inner chamber where researchers documented additional footprints, handprints, finger marks, clay traces, and charcoal. These marks extend the trail beyond the low passage and show activity deeper inside the cave system.
To study the route, the team used laser scanning, photogrammetry, sediment analysis, geochemistry, archaeobotany, and footprint measurements. In plain language, they mapped the cave, measured the marks, studied the floor material, and connected the traces to body size, movement, torch use, and passage shape.
The eLife research involved scientists including Marco Romano, and the strongest part of the evidence remains the trail itself: adults and children walked, climbed, and crawled through Grotta della Bàsura, leaving their movement in clay.
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