Neanderthal who fell into well gives oldest DNA sample

Story highlights Scientists in southern Italy have known about him since 1993 Researchers worried that rescuing the bones would shatter them

The Altamura Man became the oldest Neanderthal to have his DNA extracted by researchers. It took them more than 20 years to get around to doing it.

Scientists in southern Italy have known about him since 1993, when spelunkers spied his skull staring blankly back at them from its nook in the Lamalunga cave, deep under the town of Altamura.

The cave explorers told researchers at the University of Bari what they'd found, according to their report published in March in the Journal of Human Evolution and Phys.org.

A man looks at an exhibit comparing modern humans to Neanderthals

Altamura Man's intact skull and jumbled pile of bones made for a great specimen, but they were wedged into a panoply of stalactites and stony globules deposited by water dripping over them for tens of thousands of years.

Researchers decided not to rescue the bones for fear that trying to ease them out of the cave's calcified grip would shatter them and ruin Altamura Man. So, they left him forever a cave man.

Calcite pebbles line the Neanderthal's eye sockets, nose bone and an upper jaw like a hundred decorative piercings. Analysis of the calcite has shown the bones to be 128,000 to 187,000 years old.

Scientists believe Altamura Man wound up in the cave at least that long ago after falling into a prehistoric well, then died in the caverns at its bottom of thirst or hunger.

Statue displays what scientists believe a Neanderthal man may have looked like

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Neanderthal who fell into well gives oldest DNA sample