C. Jéquier

Detecting human presence at the border of the northeastern Italian Pre-Alps. 14C Dating at Rio Secco Cave as expression of the first Gravettian and the late Mousterian in the northern Adriatic region

In the northern Adriatic regions, which include the Venetian region and the Dalmatian coast, late Neanderthal settlements are recorded in few sites and even more ephemeral are remains of the Mid-Upper Palaeolithic occupations. A contribution to reconstruct the human presence during this time range has been produced from a recently investigated cave, Rio Secco, located in the northern Adriatic region at the foot of the Carnic Pre-Alps. Chronometric data make Rio Secco a key site in the context of recording occupation by late Neanderthals and regarding the diffusion of the Mid-Upper Palaeolithic culture in a particular district at the border of the alpine region. As for the Gravettian, its diffusion in Italy is a subject of on-going research and the aim of this paper is to provide new information on the timing of this process in Italy. In the southern end of the Peninsula the first occupation dates to around 28,000 14C BP, whereas our results on Gravettian layer range from 29,390 to 28,995 14C years BP. At the present state of knowledge, the emergence of the Gravettian in eastern Italy is contemporaneous with several sites in Central Europe and the chronological dates support the hypothesis that the Swabian Gravettian probably dispersed from eastern Austria.

The De Nadale Cave, a single layered Quina Mousterian site in the North of Italy

This article presents the results of archaeological exploration at De Nadale Cave, a new Late Middle Palaeolithic site recently discovered in the Berici Hills, a karstic plateau in the north-east of Italy. A first survey and field campaigns have brought to light a small cavity almost totally filled with sediments embedding one single Mousterian layer sandwiched by sediments avoid of any relevant archaeological remains. A large herbivore tooth has been U-Th dated, with a minimum age of 70.2 +1/-0.9 ky BP. Several economic and cultural aspects make this site peculiar with respect to the others at the regional scale. The faunal remains record the abundance of large ungulates, mostly Megaloceros giganteus, but also Cervus elaphus and Bos/Bison. Their bone surfaces bear traces of human modification produced during skinning, dismembering, and fracturing of the carcasses and the long bone shafts for marrow recovery. There is a high number of bone retouchers in proportion to the fragmented shafts, used for shaping and rejuvenating different types of scrapers. The lithic industry shows typical Quina characteristics in its technology and typology, with several thin and thick scrapers made of non-local flint due to its absence in proximity of the site. On-going research will investigate in more detail a so specific evidence in the Middle Palaeolithic of the North-Adriatic rim. Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag stellt Ergebnisse von Sondagen in der neu entdeckten De Nadale Höhle vor. Es handelt sich um eine Fundstelle des späten Mittelpaläolithikums in den Berici-Bergen, einem Karstplateau in Nordostitalien. Im Rahmen einer ersten Ausgrabung wurde die vollständig mit Sediment gefüllt Höhle untersucht. Eingebettet in sterile Schichten wurde eine moustérienzeitliche Fundschicht angetroffen. Der Zahn eines großen Herbivoren aus der Fundschicht konnte mit Hilfe der Uran-Thorium-Methode auf ein Mindestalter von 70 200 +1 000/900 Jahre BP datiert werden. Einige technologische und kulturelle Besonderheiten zeichnen den Fundplatz im Vergleich zu anderen Fundplätzen in der Region aus. Die Faunenreste belegen das Vorkommen von großen Huftieren, hauptsächlich Megalocerus giganteus sowie Cervus elaphus und Boviden. Die Oberflächen der Knochen zeigen deutliche Schnittund Schlagspuren vom Häuten und Zerlegen der Tiere sowie vom Aufschlagen der Langknochen zur Markgewinnung. Im Vergleich zu den vorhandenen Schaftfragmenten liegt eine hohe Zahl von Knochenretuscheuren vor, die offenbar zur Formgebung und Nachschärfung verschiedener Schabertypen eingesetzt wurden. Das Steingeräteinventar weist typische Merkmale des Moustérien vom Typ Quina auf mit mehreren dünnen und dicken Schabern aus nicht-lokalem Silex. Weitere Untersuchungen sind geplant, um mehr Daten zur Beurteilung dieses mittelpaläolithischen Fundplatzes des nordadriatischen Bogens zu gewinnen.

New evidence for the Mousterian and Gravettian at Rio Secco Cave, Italy

Abstract The dearth of evidence for late Neanderthals in Europe reduces our ability to understand the demise of their species and the impact of the biological and cultural changes that resulted from the spread of anatomically modern humans. In this light, a recently investigated cave in the northern Adriatic region at the border between the Italian Alps and the Great Adriatic Plain provides useful data about the last Neanderthals between 46·0 and 42·1 ky cal b.p. Their subsistence is inferred from zooarchaeological remains and patterns in Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology. Unexpected evidence of the ephemeral use of the cave during the early Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian period shows a change in lithic technology.