Ancient proof of man-dog friendship discovered in Toirano

The oldest evidence of direct friendship between man and dog discovered in Liguria at the Toirano Caves

The Caves of Toirano never cease to amaze. In recent studies, researchers have ascertained that along with the visitors who ventured into the Basura cave some 14,000 years ago, there was also a dog. The footprints indeed testify that those men – probably a family – and the dog were there at the same time. And for fun, out of the sheer desire to explore, exactly like those who visit the caves today. As well as being the first evidence of a friendly relationship between humans and dogs, this opens up interesting scenarios on human life in the Upper Palaeolithic age

The Toirano Caves

What are the Toirano caves?

The Toirano Caves are a complex of natural karst cavities located a few kilometres from the coast on the highland above the village of Toirano, in the province of Savona.
The first cavity, Grotta della Basura (i.e. the ‘Witch‘, because of the sounds caused by air currents), was discovered in 1950 and shows evidence of human, Homo sapiens presence, dating back to around 12,000 to 14,000 years ago. The real inhabitants of these caves, however, were the bears: the‘Ursus spelaeus, a giant but vegetarian bear, used to spend its winter hibernation there in the Pleistocene epoch. In fact, many bear bones accumulated over the years from flooding have been found and can still be seen in the ‘Bear Cemetery‘ dating back some 30,000 years.
In 1960, the Grotta di St Lucia Inferiore, with its large halls covered with calcite flowers and aragonite crystals, was discovered.
For the sake of tourism, the two caves have been connected by an artificial tunnel, creating a spectacular route some 1300 metres long, which can be visited in 70 minutes. Visitors move from the Corridor of the Footprints to the Cemetery of the Bears, the Hall of Mysteries, theAnthronus of Cybele, the end hall of the Bàsura cave with splendid mamelon concretions, and then to the Pantheon Hall in the Santa Lucia cave, with its great column reaching eight metres in height.
Another cavity, the Grotta Superiore di Santa Lucia, houses a Rock Sanctuary and is a testimony to the devotion and frequentation of the caves by the people of Toirano, who have frequented it since 1500 and took refuge there during World War II.  The walls are covered with signs, signatures and dedications: it is said that there is even one by Ugo Foscolo.
A further cave, named Colombo, is closed to the public for scientific reasons.
www.toiranogrotte.it

What is the new discovery at the Toirano Caves?

About 14,000 years ago, a few individuals, five Sapiens humans, decided to explore the Toirano Caves. After analysing the footprints, it was realised that they were two adults, a teenager, a pre-teen boy and a very young child, who could have been three years old. But the sensational discovery was that with them, at that same moment, was a dog, a large adult dog, about 40 kg and 70 centimetres tall at the withers, who explored the caves with them, his human friends. They were not hunting, not defending themselves, not looking for food: they were simply exploring underground cavities.
How do we know it was a family? The researchers deduced this from an analysis of the footprints: two of the youngest specimens were certainly relatives because they carried a genetic thumb defect (transmitted paternally); the other two we like to think were mum and dad. A dog was also a part of the family: using neoichnology, the science that studies modern traces, a comparison was made between fossil footprints in the cave and those of modern-day dogs. The result was that all the prints belonged to the same individual. A dog was pacing back and forth, like any curious dog. The five visited the cave using a number of torches that they lit as they went, and they were barefoot: this (as well as giving great impetus to the analysis because the footprints on the clay are very clear) suggests that it must have been the summer season. The dog walked along with them, indeed, at one point they helped him over a difference in height to get to the Hall of Mysteries, where the little family must have relaxed for a moment, so much so that the children played with clay and left numerous tracks on the rocks. The caves also carry the world’s first evidence of crouching , i.e. traces of humans crawling.

The very interesting discovery, therefore, is that a large dog, a specimen from the Upper Palaeolithic period (and which may have been a wolf until a few thousand years earlier), was ,man’s friend and probably shared environments, experiences and food with him. But, looking at the overlapping footprints, of a dog, a man (and probably woman), child and dog, it is not difficult to imagine a family scene, a real prehistoric family outing then, such as is not found elsewhere. And as so many people do today on a site that never ceases to amaze. The research resulted in a scientific publication with the participation of experts from the Universities of Genoa, Rome and Pisa, the MUSE (Science Museum of Trento) as well as the Archaeological Museum of Finale, to which Marta Zunino, palaeontologist and guide at the Toirano Caves, contributed.

Toirano

You won’t be bored in Toirano: thanks to the cliffs where you can climb, a network of trekking trails that intersect the finalese, festivals and popular festivals, there is always something to do.
But in Toirano , underground Liguria is at least as interesting as that of the surface: nearby is the ‘Buranco‘, the gateway to hell, a cavity where the devil is said to push damned souls. If you happen to be there during the Festa dei gumbi (as the olive presses are called in the local dialect), families from all over Italy gather in the cellars and olive mills to share mutton stew, delicious fugassin, vegetable ravioli, and apple fritters with a glass of Vermentinoor Pigato in an ideal twinning of the different Italian oil areas.