Papasidero, Calabria
Fog hangs low between the trees as I walk toward Romito Cave. The air is cool. My steps echo off the valley walls. My guide walks beside me. We don’t speak.
We stop beneath a low rock ledge. On a boulder near the entrance: an aurochs carved into stone. Long legs. Head lowered. The lines are steady. Someone worked here a long time.
When the light shifts, the animal appears, then fades back into shadow.
Near the carving, my guide shows me the plaster casts. Nine burials, twelve thousand years old. She points to one two meters from the aurochs. Two bodies. A teenager with severe dwarfism and an older woman. His head rests on her shoulder. Her left arm holds him.
Someone placed them this way. Took the time to show their bond.
My guide tells me he couldn’t have survived alone.
As we leave, I look back. The aurochs has disappeared into shadow again.
Walking back up the path, I keep seeing those two bodies. Her arm. His head on her shoulder.
