Ciampate del Diavolo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ciampate del Diavolo (Neapolitan: "Devil's Footprints") is the name of a locality near Roccamonfina (northern Campania, Italy), in the neighbourhood of an exinct volcano with the same name. It takes its name from several human fossil footprints.
The local tradition attributed the prints to the Devil, since it was deemed the sole creature capable of walking on lava without harm. In 2003 it was however discovered that they belong to Homo heidelbergensis, an hominide living in the area some 350,000 years ago.
The footprints were left by individuals no more than 1.50 m tall, when Homo heidelbergensis was normally around 1.75 m in height. It has been suggested they could have belonged to childs, or that in ancient Campania lived an unusually short tribe of H. heildebergensis.
