The celebrations of the centenary of Albert I of Monaco, the explorer prince and archeology enthusiast, were crowned by the Balzi Rossi prehistoric museum, where the Prince’s Grotto is located. In 1895, in fact, Alberto I bought one of the caves, the Barma del Ponte and commissioned the canon Leonce de Villeneuve to start the research according to a scientific method that he wanted to experiment.
The Balzi Rossi site, a stone’s throw from the border with France, is considered one of the most important places for the study of prehistory in Europe. Yesterday a group of scholars and authorities took part in the visit organized by Professor Henry de Lumley, president of the Institut de paléontologie humaine.
The prefect Armando Nanei, the commissioner Giuseppe Felice Peritore and the mayor of Ventimiglia, Gaetano Scullino, participated in this event, among others.
“Territorial studies are also fundamental in this” human corridor “territory – said the commissioner – An area of passage between one land and another”. The prefect: «Great professionals and scientists have transmitted to us enthusiasm for their studies, which from the past foreshadow our future: having participated is a privilege. The very close collaboration with the Principality of Monaco and France is beautiful ».
In particular, Italian, Monegasque and French archaeologists recalled the history of the Cave of Prince Albert I, great-great-grandfather of Albert II, a passionate archaeologist, navigator and promoter of a modern scientific method.
They explain from the Balzi Rossi Museum: “The first systematic archaeological research, after the first essays carried out by Emile Rivière, is in fact due to Prince Albert I of Monaco who in 1882-83 agreed with the owner of the area to precede the works quarry from archaeological excavations. With the collaboration of Gustave Saige, curator of the palace archives, the prince had the excavations resumed according to stratigraphic principles, crossing the central part of the deposit of the Barma Grande and then testing the deposit of the Prince’s cave for the first time ». Admiring the beauty of the caves on a day full of spring sunshine there were also Didier Gramedinge (Minister of Health of the Principality of Monaco), Michel Granero (Principality of Monaco), Massimo Osanna (Director General of the Museums), Alessandra Guerini (regional director of Liguria Museums), Federico Delfino (rector of the University of Genoa) and Carlo Ferro (commander of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit). «In this site man lived in very ancient geological phases – explains Guerini – The plain extended, there were animals and man had settled to hunt them. There have been periods of climate change similar to the ones we are experiencing, visible from the shift of the sea line. Here there was the transition from Neanderthal man to Homo Sapiens ». Osanna highlighted “the importance of research in places of culture”. –
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