THE DEVIL’S TOUCH: A FIRST DATASET FROM WHAT COULD BE THE OLDEST HUMAN HANDPRINT EVER FOUND (CENTRAL-SOUTHERN ITALY)

Abstract

This paper aims to report about all collected data and information on the human handprint firstly identified at Tora e Piccilli palaeoichnological site (Tora-Piccilli, Caserta, Central Italy) i.e. within the same site in which Middle Pleistocene (about 350 ka) human fossil footprints (the so called “Devil’s Trails”) are preserved. As well-known, these footprints are not randomly patterned, but are organized into at least two long trackways, called A and B. During first surveys of the site, in the middle of the Trackway B, aside the traces of a long fossil slide, it was noted a hollow: it was preliminary thought to be the print of a left hand used by the trackmaker to regain lost balance. Even if this possibility seemed to be very probable, it has remained a simple hypothesis and has been, for a long time, waiting for a scientific confirmation. After many years of careful studies, we have enough data to confirm that the first impression was correct and to report about what is, so far, the oldest human fossil handprint in the world. A first set of dimensional data is also given. They are precious in the sight of each future study about the upper limbs of prehistoric humans. fossil