ABSTRACT
Lowest and most recent terrace deposit of the Aniene River on the outskirts of Rome (Italy), where two early Neanderthal skulls were found in 1929 and 1935. The terrace deposit that yielded the skulls also contained fossil vertebrates, including hippopotamus and elephant (Palaeoloxodon), terrestrial molluscs, and pollen suggesting a mixed oak forest. These paleoenvironmental data suggested that Saccopastore should be attributed to the last interglacial (ca. 120 Ka). A few stone tools of Mousterian or Pontinian type, including a retouched point and a side-scraper, were also recovered. The skulls probably represent a male and a female, and it is interesting to note that the supposed female specimen shows the more marked Neanderthal characteristics, although both have relatively small cranial capacities.
