In a cave eroded and created by the sea you can discover the world’s oldest mother.The Woman of Ostuni is more ancient than was thought.
The mother of all mothers, the world’s only example of a late Stone Age pregnant female, found buried in the Ostunese hills of Agnano, never ceases to amaze the people of the White City. Twenty years after her discovery in 1991 by archaeologist Professor Donato Coppola from Ostuni, we now learn that she is older than we believed. Original studies based on carbon dating the tomb placed her at 24,410 years old but recent studies in December 2010 by the University of Leipzig (which specializes in the study of bone analysis) dates her at 28,000 years old.
This proves that Puglia wasn’t an outpost but was of primary importance, inhabited 30 thousand years ago by hunter tribes who had chosen this area as a strategic spot good for hunting and easy to defend. Laying next to the Woman, visitors can see the cast of the Man of Ostuni, an adult hunter buried in the same cave in a foetal position on his side with his back to the pregnant woman. Recent carbon dating techniques dated his burial to 30,000 years ago, which make him older than the Woman of Ostuni.