It all began in the winter of 1906,

during my stay in Sanremo. I’d already heard about the Bertrand cave, my naturalist friends told me what was hidden inside.

The cave was well-known for the presence of blind beetles, discovered by two entomologists, Dodero and Spagnolo. We didn’t yet know about its other “inhabitants”, but let’s take one thing at a time.

My curiosity overcame the well-known difficulty of reaching the cave, as I read Paolo Bensa’s guidebook “Grotte dell’Appennino Ligure e delle Alpi Marittime ” (caves of the Ligurian Apennines and Maritime Alps): I remember him describing the cave as “a cross-section of the Eocene”. So, with my friends from the Sanremo cultural association, we set off in search of the cave and its blind beetles. It was a long journey: Sanremo to Badalucco was a two-hour bus ride – in those days public transport was by omnibus: a large carriage pulled by real horses; I don’t think they exist any more. From Badalucco we set off on foot, and after walking for an hour and a half through the woods, we finally came to the Bertrand cave.

Concealed among trees and bushes, the entrance was very narrow and slanting, rather like a crooked triangle. To enter that narrow opening we had to almost crawl along the ground, and even when the cave opened out, we were unable to stand up. Don’t expect to see the wonders of nature in there; it was more like a cave of ghosts.

As I checked the walls for blind beetles, completely by accident I came across something unexpected: lying on the floor of the cave there were two jawbones and a long, thin bone, perhaps a humerus. They were human remains, that was certain; but whose, and from when?

None of us had a real answer to those questions. Back in Sanremo, I wrote to some experts: Henry Ogg Forbes, Arturo Issel and Émile Cartailhac. They all agreed that the human remains dated back to the Copper Age, in the era 2800-1800 B.C. From then on, the phrase “Old as the Bertrandcave ”became a favourite of mine.

G.M. CROWFOOT

Grace Mary Crowfoot: a woman of the future

“If you are interested in anything, you’ve got the equipment—go ahead and learn what you can, don’t expect someone to be there to tell you everything.”

“Se sei interessato a qualcosa, hai l’attrezzatura: vai avanti e impara quello che puoi, non aspettarti che qualcuno sia lì per dirti tutto.”

“The Bertrand cave: a torch to illuminate prehistory”