Day with the Prince of Arene Candide

On May 1, 1942, inside the Caverna delle Arene Candide, located on the Caprazoppa promontory in Finale Ligure, archaeologists Luigi Cardini and Virginia Chiappella, under the direction of Luigi Bernabò Brea, at a depth of 7 meters below ground level of the cave, uncovered the burial of a boy who was nicknamed the “Young Prince of the Arene Candide” due to the richness of his grave goods.

Thanks to studies of the finds, now we know much more about that young man: he was a hunter who lived 28,000 years ago, 15-16 years old, over 170 cm tall (a very high stature for an Upper Palaeolithic boy), buried with many special belongings accompanying him into the afterlife.

Due to their shape and exceptional rarity, four of these items have been symbolically compared to royal scepters and thus named “staffs of command”, allowing the assumption of high social status for the boy. On his left wrist the “Young Prince” wore a bracelet of pierced shells bearing a pendant worked in mammoth ivory, and on his head, an elaborate headdress made entirely of sea shells, collected along the shoreline near the Cave.

The “Young Prince” is the protagonist of an activity for children and the whole family, during which they discover secrets and interesting facts about one of the most important prehistoric finds in the Finale area!