The fossil was discovered by archeologist Italo Biddittu and was nicknamed "Ceprano Man" after a nearby town in the province of Frosinone, eighty-nine kilometers southeast of Rome, Italy.

The age of the fossil is estimated to be between three hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred thousand years old.

An adjacent site, Fontana Ranuccio, was dated to 487,000 +/- 6000 years and Muttoni, et al., suggest that Ceprano is most likely four hundred and fifty thousand years old.

The cranial features on the bone seem to be intermediate between those found on Homo erectus and those of later species such as Homo heidelbergensis, which dominated Europe long before Homo neanderthalensis.

There is yet not enough material to make a complete analysis of the individual.