The Arene Candide, is an archaeological site in Finale Ligure, Liguria, Italy. Its name was derived from the eponymous dune of white sand that could be found at the base of the cliff until the 1920s in the Caprazoppa promontory, where the Arene Candide cave is located. The cave is situated at above sea level on the upper margin of the former Ghigliazza stone quarry and has three wide openings that point towards the sea. Thanks to its position and to those openings the cave is well lit and relatively dry. It can be accessed from above within 30 minutes via a path from Borgio Verezzi.
History
The cave is locally known as Grotta dei Frati or Armassa, and received its popular name in 1864, when Arturo Issel visited it, who was the first in a long series of archaeologists and geologists and researchers. The Arene Candide gained international attention after the excavation campaigns in the years 1940 to 1942 and 1948 to 1950 in the south-eastern part of the cave, led by Luigi Bernabò Brea and Luigi Cardini. Their excavation brought a detailed stratigraphic sequence to light, that ranges from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Byzantine period. The favorable environmental conditions in the cave proved to be the key to the good state of conservation of the organic material like bone fossils and charcoal fragments. Due to their extraordinary preservation condition, the nineteen paleolithic burial pits, that were discovered in Arene Candide rank among the most significant funerary complexes in the world, as the material enabled researchers to conduct extensive and comprehensive anthropological studies in the framework of contemporary available scientific methods. Further excavations were carried out in the 1970s and the 2000s. The most remarkable and scientifically valuable burial is called the "Young prince", a juvenile male, around 15 years old, dated to about 23,500 years BP, attributed to the Gravettian culture. The body was positioned on a layer of red ochre, below the surface sediment, looking to the South and accompanied by an extremely rich set of grave goods with a creel-like cap, jewels made of shellfish, animal bones, deer antler and a long flint tool in his hand. The blade was crafted of flint originating in the Forcalquier basin in SE France. The fossil bears a mortal wound below its chin, that was tidied up with yellow ochre before the final burial. Isotope analysis of the teeth revealed that approximately ¼ of the juveniles diet consisted of marine protein Excavation discoveries are on display in several Italian museums, including the Museum of Ligurian Archaeology in GenoaPegli, the Archaeological Museum of Finale in Finale Ligure and the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.
