The Sperlinga Shelter of San Basilio, known in the local dialect as ‘A Spiinga (“the cave”), was identified in 1942 and reported by the engineer Domenico Ryolo to Luigi Bernabò Brea, Superintendent of Syracuse. Shortly after the tough war years, the brief archaeological dig carried out in 1951 focused on the northernmost shelter of the limestone escarpment, an isolated rock formation marking the final outcrops of the Quaternary valley system in the Peloritani mountains. The excavation revealed a stratigraphic sequence dating from the Mesolithic to the Copper Age. The first room in the MANoS is dedicated to the transitional phases of Sicilian prehistory, from the later activities of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to the early Neolithic period, when humans began producing their own food. Scholars agree that the shelter was not used as a permanent dwelling, but rather as a temporary stopping place associated with hunting activities and, during the Neolithic period, with the seasonal movement of flocks. Evidence for this interpretation comes from the microfaunal remains recovered in the layers of the dig. These attest to the presence of endemic species during the Mesolithic period, which are no longer found in the area (deer and roe deer) as well as sheep and goat remains from the Neolithic period.