Grimaldi

A site on the Italian Riviera near the French border with caves and rock shelters of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic flint industries, mainly Aurignacian and Gravettian assemblages (also termed Grimaldian industries). The caves also have elaborate Homo sapiens sapiens burials with grave goods including Venus figurines, backed blades, and objects of adornment. The Grotte du Prince yielded a pure Mousterian deposit. There is no Magdalenian in Liguria, where the Grimaldian persists until the end of the Palaeolithic period.

Site on the Riviera in Italy, a few hundred metres from the French frontier, with a series of shelters and caves which were mainly investigated in the 19th century. Long sequences of archaeological levels were excavated with many burials and objects of adornment. Two of the burials, the ‘negroids’ from the lower levels of the Grotte des Enfants (or dei Fanciulli) have been the subject of controversy. First they were thought to be preNeanderthal, and when that idea was abandoned in favour of an early Upper Palaeolithic date, they were claimed to represent an early appearance of the negroid peoples, an idea rarely held today.