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then stated: “On the dorsal apophysis of an almost complete lumbar vertebra, I have moreover marked the presence of intersecting cutmarks and next to them one sees tiny oysters, evidence that indicates the deposition took place in very shallow water not far from the shore. One should not forget that the entire region formerly occupied by the sea in the environs of Siena has been raised and lowered many times, which accounts for the alternation of marine, brackish, and freshwater deposits one is able to observe and study at Siena.” These alternations are indications of a littoral, or shoreline, area, which is important. Some critics believed the marks had been made by the teeth of sharks, and according to their analysis this would necessitate deep water.

For example, in his book Le Préhistorique, de Mortillet (1883, p. 59) stated that some Italian naturalists (Strobel and de Stefani) were of the opinion that the beds yielding bones of Balaenotus were not littoral but deep ocean. This seems to be at variance with the firsthand observations of Capellini, who was himself an experienced geologist. In his review, de Mortillet does not mention the evidence that Capellini cited in support of his conclusion that the location where the Balaenotus bones were found represented the shallows along the beach of the Pliocene sea.

“Having surveyed the excavations of the remains of the skeletons of Balaenotus in the environs of Siena,” Capellini (1877, pp. 49–50) went on to say, “I was able to easily account for the existence of the marks on only one side, and always the same side. In effect, it is evident that for the specimen in question the marks were made by a human being that came upon the animal beached in shallow waters, and by means of a flint knife or with the aid of other instruments attempted to detach pieces of flesh.” Capellini (1877, p. 50) added: “From the position of the remains of the Balaenotus of Poggiarone, I am convinced that the animal ran aground in the sand and rested on its left side and that the right side was thus exposed to the direct attack of humans, as is demonstrated by the places in which marks are found on the bones.” The fact that only the bones on one side of the whale were marked would tend to rule out any purely geological explanation as well as the action of sharks in deep water.

Capellini (1877, p. 50) noted: “That which happens at present to the Balaenopteridae and cachalots [sperm whales] that from time to time become beached on our shores also happened to the Balaenotus of Poggiarone and to other small whales on the shores of the islands of the Pliocene sea.” Capellini (1877, p. 50) then made an important observation: “After an attentive examination of skeletons found in the majority of Europe’s museums of natural history, it is very easy to convince oneself that all of these, which were prepared by humans, present the same kinds of markings as those on the bones you have seen and others which I will show you.” Comparison with examples of undoubted human work is still one of the main methods scientists use in determining whether incisions on bones are of human origin.

Capellini (1877, p. 51) then reported that he had found examples of the kind of tool that might have made the cuts on the bones: “In the vicinity of the remains of the Balaenotus of Poggiarone, I collected some flint blades, lost in the actual beach deposits.” He added: “with those same flint implements I was able to reproduce on fresh cetacean bones the exact same marks found on the fossil whale bones” (Capellini 1877, p. 51).

“Before leaving the environs of Siena,” Capellini (1877, p. 51) went on to explain, “I should point out that the remains of a human being found in 1856 by the Abbé Deo Gratias in the marine Pliocene clays of Savona in Liguria can be referred to approximately the same geological horizon as Poggiarone and other locales in Tuscany where I have found numerous cetacean remains.” The details of the discovery of human skeletal remains in the Pliocene at Savona will be discussed at length in Chapter 6, which also