![\"natgeocollage3\"](\"https:\/\/www.nardosalento.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/natgeocollage3.jpg\")
Journalist Julia Buckley has written a marvelous article in NatGeo Traveller last summer, where she\u00a0mentions Nard\u00f2 in an original way. Here a\u00a0quote, thanking her for being mentioned : “…I had thought there\u2019d be little more to Nard\u00f2 than the baroque architecture that makes it a mini Lecce. But the next morning, Niccol\u00f2 introduces me to archaeologist Dr Filomena Ranaldo. She tells me about Porto Selvaggio, a nearby natural park whose eight cliffside caves were once home to prehistoric man. Excavations are ongoing and there are plans to open a museum in Nard\u00f2 showcasing the findings later this year and to run guided tours of one of the caves in 2018. What\u2019s been unearthed so far has been extraordinary. The 45,000-year-old teeth found here point to Porto Selvaggio being the earliest-known home of Homo sapiens in Europe. They weren\u2019t the first to dwell here, though.\nThe excavations have confirmed that Neanderthals probably lived here as far back as 120,000 years ago. What\u2019s also clear is that this land of canyons and ravines has been inhabited ever since. At Massafra, near Mottola, people still live in cave homes carved out of the limestone…”<\/p>\n