The excavation campaign undertaken by the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco in the Grotto del Principe (Grimaldi di Ventimiglia), aimed to provide closer dating for the area on the rocky spur that was under investigation (Br 2).
To start with the area was fenced off in order to avoid rock falls, and later, as there were three unstable blocks of stone on the rocky outcrop covered by the vegetation above the scaffolding, the latter was reinforced.
The dispersion of the finds over the area meant that no structures or successive occupation levels were identified. Evidence of stone tool working included serrated implements and stone scrapers, coarse flakes of stone and sandstone, a bi-pyramidal stone core still bearing traces of Microdium pudding stone, of the late Eocene period, from Ciotti (Mortola Superiore) at about one kilometer as the crow flies from the Grotta Grimaldi.
Amongst the faunal remains collected there was a predominance of cervus mandibles , the remains of deer, ibex and roe deer in the form of very fragmented bone splinters. Sedimentary analysis permitted J. Chaline to examine samples of rodent microfauna which do not always belong to the Riss period (250,000-120,000 years ago) and thus affirm that the presence of the dormouse suggests an Atlantic influence rather than a Mediterranean one. (MiBAC)