Tourist Attraction in Altamura:
L'Uomo di Altamura

The Man of Altamura is a skeleton of Homo neanderthalensis discovered on October 3, 1993 in the cave of Lamalunga, near Altamura, and is dated between 128,000 and 187,000 years ago. The cave of Lamalunga is the place of the discovery of the Man of Altamura. This karst structure is located in the area of ​​the high Murge, a morphological context characterized by blades, sinkhole dolines and the collapse doline, called Pulo di Altamura. The landscape is characterized by a succession of arid rocks and an almost total absence of vegetation. The geological outcrops of the area can be identified as Calcare di Altamura (upper middle Cretaceous). The average course of the cave is never very deep, the thickness of the rock cover is in fact with values ​​never higher than 25 or 30 meters. In the evolution of the cave it is evident together with more recent phases of collapse and sediment. Paleontological findings are present in good state of conservation. Faunal remains are abundant and scattered over much of the cave's surface. The existence of at least one other entrance is demonstrated by the underlying debris cone, in the area near the current entrance. Often these karst pits were transformed into natural traps for animals and men. judging by the remains of the animals scattered on the bottom of the cave and the skeleton of the Altamura man who seems to have dragged himself with the radio and a fractured scapula, to the bottom of a narrow tunnel, perhaps looking for a way out. The discovery is to be attributed in equal measure to the Altamurano Speleological Research Center. The discovery took place in the karstic well, consisting of a rather complex cave system, of Lamalunga, near a blade, which looks like an elongated valley, bordered by numerous hills with the typical appearance of the Murgia di Altamura, in Puglia. On the slope facing the valley of one of these hills, the access that leads inside the cave, located about 8 meters deep, opens up. All caves of this type show, through openings (swallow holes) on the surface, which can remain pervading, the ability to collect inside them materials that are transported by the superficial flow of rainwater. This explains the presence of numerous remains (some very voluminous) of very ancient fauna. It is an adult human specimen, trapped in the cave of Lamalunga in Altamura, remained incorporated in the stalactites and stalagmites that have grown around it and that have preserved it intact. Elaboration of text Giovambattista Spagnuolo (Myooni)

Attractions in Altamura