ROME, ITALY—Radioactive deposits in sediments taken from the inside of two Neanderthal skulls discovered in a gravel pit in central Italy in the early twentieth century have been re-dated by a team made up of researchers from Sapienza University, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Italian Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV). “The results of our studies show that the Saccopastore remains are 100,000 years older than previously thought—and push back the arrival of Neanderthal man in Italy to 250,000 years ago,” Fabrizio Marra of INGV told The Local, Italy. This is about the same time that Neanderthals are believed to have arrived in central Europe. The new dates are also in line with the age of 11 stone artifacts that had been discovered with the fossils. To read more in-depth about Paleolithic Europe, go to "Structural Integrity."
