A lot of engraved stone and bone fragments with linear signs, staircases and geometric patterns was found in this cave with some naturalistic representations of animals. The pebble carved with a figure of wolf is probably the masterpiece in this set; the marks that covered it are referable to cult activities finalized to propitiate hunt, possibly numbering the victims.

Morphology of the object:

The green-greyish coloured pebble, has an ellipsoidal shape and the carved figure of a mammal on one of its flat sides. The shape of the muzzle and of the ear, and the location of the eye suggests the raffiguration of a canid: the squat built, the skull’s shape and the fur’s pattern highly suggests a wolf. The animal is depicted with a downward muzzle, a half-opened mouth, the front and back legs overlapping and its fur is decorated with small indentations. In front of the wolf’s muzzle an intentional line of difficult interpretation is carved. On the other face of the pebble, especially in the middle area, there are rectilinear, longitudinal or oblique lines oriented along to the pebble’s longer axis.The absence of a clear picture makes interpretation very difficult. The pebble’s sides are decorated by many different indentations of different size which do not seem to form a pattern. Orienting the pebble along the wolf’s depiction there are 14 indentations on the left short side, 12 on the upper margin, 4 on the right short side and 12 on the lower margin. These indentations are mostly continuous and are present along the whole outline of the pebble, on both sides.

The animal has been depicted with a firm and deep continuous carved line even if in some areas, such as the fore-head, the tool left some marks outside of the main carving. There are no traces of a preparatory drawing and the carved line representing the wolf’s layout is discontinuous especially on the tip of the ear, between the ear and the shoulder, on the back and the tail. The line representing the legs is also open giving the impression of an animal without feet.

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Naturalistic carved depictions are numerous. In Italy the oldest depiction is of a wild goat, from the Grotta Pagliacci in Puglia, and can be dated back to the Gravettiano Period (circa 22,000 years ago). Numerous pebbles, limestone and travertine slabs, fragments of cervix and bovid shoulder blades with mammal incision depictions( cervids, bovids, equids, hares, pigs) have also been recovered within the Grotta Polsini. Depictions of wolves, canines in general are however rare in Paleolithic art and in most cases their identification seems dubious. Among the most certain raffigurations we can point out the French ones at the caves of Les Cambarelles in Dordogna where depictions of irregular squared muzzles of wolves have been found.

According to Radmilli (1954-55, 1974) the depiction may represent a wolf wounded to death while falling down or already dead and seen from above. The second interpretation can be supported by the relaxation of the wolf’s lips, the position of the head, the overlapping legs of the animal. The wolf might have been killed by spears or harpoons represented by the numerous round marks carved on the stone’s surface, some of which within the wolf’s layout. This interpretation has been recently disproved by many scholars (Mussi, Zampetti 1993) which interpreted the indentations as by-products of natural alterations of the limestone and therefore present on the pebble’s surface before the incision of the animal. As proof of this further analysis through the use of a stereomicroscopy attested the presence of some of the indentations preceding the wolf’s depiction. The indentation pattern present along the margins of the pebble has commonly been found on bone tools (zagaglia arrow points, knives and spatulas) as well as on pebbles lacking depiction decorations. It is not unrealistic to think that in the case of the wolf’s pebble the indentations represent a “hunting mark” as could be the number of animals killed rather than only a decorative pattern.

MUSSI M., ZAMPETTI D., 1988, Frontiera e confini del Gravettiano, Scienze dell’Antichità, 2, pp.46-78 RADIMILLI M.., 1954-55, Un’opera d’arte di magia venatoria, Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana, 64, pp.47-56 RADMILLI M., 1974, Gli scavi nella grotta Polsini a Ponte Lucano di Tivoli e la più antica arte nel Lazio, Firenze TAGLIACOZZO A., FIORE I., 2001, Il ciottolo inciso con figura di canide di Grotta Polesini, in Donne, uomini e animali. Oggetti d’arte e di culto nella preistoria. Roma-Firenze, pp.11-12