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Approximate age:35,000 years old=average of minimum (0.03 Ma) and maximum (0.04 Ma)

Date based on: Radiocarbon See map of sites with similar ages

Dating reference: Mussi, M. (1986). On the chronology of the burials found in the Grimaldi Caves. Antropologia Contemporanea, 9, 95-104; Mussi, M. (2001). Earliest Italy: an overview of the Italian Paleolithic and Mesolithic: Kluwer Academic Pub.; Formicola, V., Pettitt, P. B., & Del Lucchese, A. (2004). A Direct AMS Radiocarbon Date on the Barma Grande 6 Upper Paleolithic Skeleton1. Current Anthropology, 45(1). ;

Hominids: Homo sapiens      

Archaeology:Late Stone Age (LSA)/Upper Paleolithic  Epipaleolithic/Mesolithic    

Important specimens: Pre-agricultre Homo sapiens

Notes: Numerous burials. Skeletons from Grimaldi were promoted as evidence for Homo sapiens existing in the earlier late Pleistocene, contemporaneous with neanderthals. It was promoted as evidence for the Pre-sapiens idea of human evolution: that neanderthals were a nonhuman lineage of primitive apelike creatures and that humanity's origins lay much deeper in the past. Grimaldi specimens were later show to be intrusive burials. In a similar way (and by many of the same people), Grimaldi specimens were argued to be an African-like pre-modern race of Europeans. This assessment was unscientific and is no longer considered valid.

Location: (Balzi Rossi: Grotta del Conte Costantini, Grotta dei Fanciulli, Grotta dei Fanciulli, Grotta di Florestano, Riparo Mochi shelter Mochi, Grotta del Caviglione, Cave of Caviglione, Barma Grande, Barma Grande, Grotta del Principe, Grotta del Principe), Liguria , Italy
Map location/coordinates reference: Coordinates exact. Monument at locality is well-known.

Key references: