PALEONTOLOGY SPRING FIELD SCHOOL REPORT ON THE EXCAVATION OF CASTEL CELLESI (BAGNOREGIO, VITERBO, CENTRAL ITALY)

Abstract

Fossil remains of Palaeoloxodon antiquus were found in 2013 at "Campo della Spina", near the small village of Castel Cellesi (Bagnoregio, Viterbo, Central Italy). A Paleontology Spring Field School was planned, under the patronage of AIQUA and the Italian Paleontological Society, to raise funds for the excavation. Sixteen students attended the lectures delivered by eight eminent teachers, most of which members of AIQUA. The excavation unearthed many bones of the highly disarticulated skeleton of Palaeoloxodon. Following an agreement reached with the Regional Board of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environmental Conservation of Southern Etruria the specimens were left in situ. They will be housed in an eco-structure that will be built over them and that will represent a cutting-edge museum with no such equivalent in Italy.