Grotta di Fumane
Grotta di Fumane Site Features
Last updated on September 8, 2026Site Features
The stratigraphy
The visible section is the point: fine layers stacked in order, with the Neanderthal levels below the modern human ones.
The painted stones
Ochre-painted slabs from the collapsed roof, around forty thousand years old and among the earliest figurative images in Europe. The originals are not on site.
The shelter itself
A wide overhang in the limestone valley side, which is what made it habitable in the first place.
The valley setting
The site sits above the Fumane valley, with the Valpolicella vineyards below and the Lessini above.
Landscape
The shelter opens in the limestone side of the Fumane valley, at around 350 metres, above the vineyards of the Valpolicella Classico zone and below the karst plateau of the Lessini.
The rock is the same karstic limestone that produced the Ponte di Veja higher up the same valley system -- and the two sites belong to a single prehistoric landscape of caves and shelters along these slopes.
The position is the reason people used it: a south-facing overhang, dry, above the valley floor, with water and game below and the plateau above.