In 1972, archeologists found in a cave, near the Bonifacio port, the skeleton of a 35 years old woman who lived 7,000 years before our era. Baptized 'Lady Bonifacio', she is a testimony of human presence on the island since prehistoric times. The origin of the citadel is dated 828 A.D. The etymology of Bonifacio could come from the Marquis of Tuscany Boniface, or from the Italian phrase 'bona factio' according to the historian Pierre Antonetti.