Mount Circeo
| Mount Circeo | |
|---|---|
 Mount Circeo as seen from Terracina, Italy | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 541 m (1,775 ft)  |
| Prominence | 541 m (1,775 ft) |
| Coordinates | 41°14′00″N 13°03′00″E / 41.2333°N 13.05°E |
| Geography | |
  Mount Circeo Italy | |
| Location | San Felice Circeo, Lazio, Italy |
Monte Circeo or Cape Circeo (
Latin: Mons Circeius) is a mountain promontory that marks the southwestern limit of the former Pontine Marshes, located on the southwest coast of Italy near San Felice Circeo. At the northern end of the Gulf of Gaeta, it is about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long by 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) wide at the base, running from east to west and surrounded by the sea on all sides except the north. The land to the northeast is the former ancient Pontine Marshes. Most of the ancient swamp has been reclaimed
for agriculture and urban areas.
The mountain, the coastal zone as far north as
Circeo National Park
.
Geology
Although a headland, it was not formed by
barrier islands that was formed on a horst and made part of the mainland by sedimentation of the intervening graben
.
The mountain is composed mostly of marl and sandstone from the Paleogene and of limestone from the lower Early Jurassic.
Prehistory
In 1939, the skull of a Neanderthal man was found in the Guattari Cave by a team led by Alberto Carlo Blanc. Several other findings also show that the mountain was inhabited in prehistorical times.[1][2] In May 2021, the remains of 9 Neanderthal men were discovered in the same Guattari cave. The Minister of Culture in Italy declared the site to be one of the most significant in the world regarding the Neanderthal period.[3][4]
History
Today
Mount Circeo is today included in the
Ponziane Archipelago
).
References
- ^ "Guattari Cave". NESPOS - Pleistocene People and Places. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ "Guattari Cave - cranium". NESPOS - Pleistocene People and Places. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
- ^ (in French) Les restes de neuf Néandertaliens découverts dans une grotte en Italie, Buzz-europa.com, 19 May 2021
- ^ Elisabetta Povoledo, These Neanderthals Weren’t Cannibals, So Who Ate Them? Stone Age Hyenas., Nytimes.com, 8 May 2021