Pleistocene wildlife and ventarole
edited by Medica Assunta Orlando
| Cursi - section of disused quarry with ventarole |
| Around 800-700 thousand years ago the emersion of the Salentino land slowly began, although further seawater incursions occurred during the interglacial periods, reaching far inland. Proof of this are the significant deposits of blue clay, found in the centre of the Salento from Cutrofiano to Corigliano d’Otranto, full of marine molluscs, while evidence of land fossils dated with certainty to the Early Pleistocene period is still lacking, when there is no proof even of the presence of Man. |
Up to 18 m. deep and with a mouth 4-5 meters wide, the ventarole acted as a natural trap for animals which had the misfortune to fall inside; however it was also a sort of food dispenser for hyenas, which often took shelter in the dens. |
| Neanderthal Man also periodically explored the ventarole as part of his hunting strategies, descending along the cavities and removing the most satisfactory parts of the animals, leaving behind the carcass showing signs of the clean cuts and grooves from their stone tools, verified by different remains of bone found in these fractures. During the last great ice age, the Würm, these deep holes were quickly filled by rubble and other accumulated sediment that hid them from the eyes of man until the start of quarrying the Lecce stone. During the different phases of the mining of Lecce stone, ventarole cut vertically into the cave walls often revealed deposits of red soil that had been hidden for millennia, rich in fauna, mostly no longer found in Salento, such as the cave bear, rhinoceros, elephant, hippopotamus, hyena and other animals, which today are extinct such as the Bos primigenius, the Equus hydruntinus and the Mammoth. |
| The special conditions of many discoveries, and their anatomical connections make the Salentino reserve a precious source information and comparison for scholars; and the ventarole carved in the fronts of some unused quarries in the Maglie, Cursi and Melpignano areas now offer an extraordinary insight that, along with the scientific value of their deposits, make them a unique Italian geological and landscape heritage. |
Further studies:
D. de Lorentiis, Nuovi giacimenti fossiliferi pleistocenici nelle fessure di pietra leccese: le ventarole ossifere di S. Isidoro e Melpignano a Maglie, in Quaternaria, V, 1958-1960, pp. 297-298.
M. A. Orlando, L'Uomo e la Pietra nel Salento Preistorico, in M. A. Orlando (a cura di), L'Uomo e la Pietra nel Salento Preistorico. Guida alla comprensione e alle escursioni sul territorio, pp. 11-22, Lecce, 2007.
