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This report provides a complete description of the general “Ciampate del diavolo” palaeontological site (Tora e Piccilli, Central-Southern Italy) and each of the human ichnites there found so far. This description is integrated and completed with the tables, graphs, and pictures given in Supplements 1, 2, and 3 of this volume [Panarello et al., 202...
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This book gives a detailed report of twenty years of scientific research, investigations and studies on the site with Middle Pleistocene fossil footprints, known as “Devil's Trails" paleontological site, which is located on the north-eastern slopes of the Roccamonfina volcano, in the locality of Foresta (municipality of Tora e Piccilli, Central-Southern Italy). The fossilised human and animal footprints, radiometrically dated to 349±3 ka years ago, are described here in detail and contextualised in the worldwide ichnological panorama.
In addition to the images, a dimensional dataset is also provided of all the human footprints detected and studied and of the world’s oldest prehistoric pathway so far, from which most of the footprints branch out coordinating themselves into trackways.
The report is enriched with some methodological observations that provide a state of the art of human ichnological research.
Finally, historical-archaeological and anthropological-cultural evidence is also considered and discussed so providing a complete and detailed picture of one of the oldest and most important human ichnosites in the world and its territorial surroundings.
The various on-field activities which have been carried out by researchers in the “Devil’s Trails” palaeontological site from 2005 to 2010 and the subsequent Ph.D. researches on the site that took place until 2016 have allowed us to identify - in addition to the various ichnological evidence of prehistoric times - also a series of anthropic cuts made in various historical times. These cuts sometimes overlap the prehistoric traces, or partially alter them, so creating many problems of interpretation. For this reason, "recent" anthropogenic cuts have been studied in great depth, to fully understand their etiology, morphology, typologies, and precise functions, with a view to a maximally objective assessment of the authenticity of prehistoric ichnites. In this report, we provide a complete and analytical description of such anthropogenic evidence from historical times.
The details and in-depth descriptions provided in this careful report give a complete description of what is considered the oldest human pathway up to now know in the world. The so-called “P1 Pathway” has the same direction of the ledge overlooking the slope on which the so-called "Ciampate del diavolo" are preserved and some fossil footprints have been recognized also inside its space. People and animals walked along this path during prehistoric times. In the same space, men and animals have been walking during historical time, and walk at present time in a chronological continuity, recorded on topographical maps, that finds no comparison anywhere else in the world and that seems to be due to the important geomorphological constraints that have always influenced the settlement choices in this area. The detailed description of this uncommon ichnological structure is integrated and completed with the tables, graphs, and pictures given in the Supplement 4 of this volume [Panarello e Mietto, 2022d].
Attributing a fossil footprint to a specific human species is always a challenging task, especially when no other archaeological evidence is available in addition to the age of the trampled layer.
In the Foresta ichnosite only recently some rare Levallois lithic tools have been found and they are still under study. For this reason, the precise attribution of the so-called “Devil’s Trails” to a specific human trackmaker remains very hard. Moreover, the rekindling of the palaeoanthropological debate about the precise characterization of human species moving in the age to which these fossil footprints have been dated (around 350 ka) (Homo heidelbergensis vs. Homo neanderthalensis) has made this task even more difficult. In this contribution, we summarise the status of the studies in light of the latest findings and knowledge.
