Prehistoric Lighting Strategy Revealed in Italy's Bàsura Cave

Key facts

• Footprints from approximately 14,400 years ago in the Bàsura Cave of northwestern Italy reveal the movement of five Epigravettian hunter-gatherers and a canid.
• Research published in ScienceDirect indicates that these prehistoric humans used small branches of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), generally under two to three centimetres in diameter, for lighting.
• Experimental results showed that two burning twigs provided visibility up to 10 metres for a five-person group, with each twig losing about 4 centimetres of length per minute.
• A full round trip through the cave system was estimated to take two hours, requiring approximately 20 twigs of about 30 centimetres in length.
• The group coordinated movement by placing one light source at the front and another at the rear, while middle members maintained formation through physical contact.