Cristiani (eds) Cristiani & Borgia PALAEOLITHIC ITALY PALAEOLITHIC ITALY ADVANCED STUDIES ON EARLY HUMAN ADAPTATIONS IN ADVANCED STUDIES ON EARLY HUMAN ADAPTATIONS IN THE APENNINE PENINSULA THE APENNINE PENINSULA The picture of the Palaeolithic adaptations in the Italian Peninsula ITALY PALAEOLITHIC has always been coarse-grained compared to various well-researched regional hotspots in central and western Europe, as a result of historical research bias preventing the application of new research methodologies. Nonetheless, discoveries regarding Neanderthal extinction and edited by behavioural complexity, the dispersal of Anatomically Modern Humans Valentina Borgia & as well as the origin and diffusion of modern technologies and symbolic behaviour in Europe have brought Italy into focus as an ideal region for Emanuela Cristiani understanding the evolutionary development of various hominin species that inhabited the continent in the Late Pleistocene. In particular the dynamics of the earliest human peopling of Europe, the reasons and timing of Neanderthals demise and how environmental factors affected human prehistoric behaviour, rates of technological innovation and connectivity of hunter-gatherer groups in Europe. The edited volume “Palaeolithic Italy” aims to contribute to our better understanding of the previous, still open, research questions. This will be achieved by presenting the latest advances in Palaeolithic research in Italy due to the application of a variety of modern analytical methods and cutting-edge techniques when studying numerous collections of materials from both old and new excavations as well as the latest results of field research in the country. The volume is intended for the international academia, representing a key reference for all archaeologists and readers interested in Early Prehistory of the Mediterranean region. Sidestone ISBNSidestone 978-90-8890-583-4 Press ISBN: 978-90-8890-583-4 9 789088 905834 Source Reference Borgia, V. and Cristiani, E. (eds.) 2018: Palaeolithic Italy. Advanced studies on early human adaptations in the Apennine peninsula, Leiden: Sidestone Press. SIDESTONE PRESS This is a free offprint – as with all our publications the entire book is freely accessible on our website, where you can also buy a printed copy or pdf E-book. WWW.SIDESTONE.COM © 2018 Individual authors Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Imprint: Sidestone Press Academics Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photograph cover: image concept: Valentina Borgia and Emanuela Cristiani. ISBN 978-90-8890-583-4 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-584-1 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-585-8 (PDF e-book) Contents Foreword 9 Introduction 11 Valentina Borgia & Emanuela Cristiani The Italian case in the context of the first European peopling 15 Marta Arzarello Small Tools and the Palaeoloxodon - Homo interaction in the 27 Lower Palaeolithic: the contribution of use-wear analysis C. Lemorini Blade and bladelet reduction systems in the Italian Middle 37 Paleolithic. The case of Grotta del Cavallo, (Nardò – Lecce) Leonardo Carmignani & Lucia Sarti The Lower Tyrrhenian Versant: was it a techno-cultural area 59 during the Middle Palaeolithic? Evolution of the lithic industries of the Riparo del Molare sequence in the frame of Neanderthal peopling dynamics in Italy Daniele Aureli & Annamaria Ronchitelli Neanderthal mobility pattern and technological organization 95 in the Salento (Apulia, Italy) Enza Elena Spinapolice The socio-economic significance of Neanderthal shell 125 technology: a new perspective on Middle Palaeolithic adaptation to intertidal zones from disregarded tools Francesca Romagnoli The Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition interpreted through 147 the Italian human remains Stefano Benazzi From Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans in 161 Liguria (Italy): the current state of knowledge Fabio Negrino & Julien Riel-Salvatore Human exploitation of avifauna during the Italian Middle and 183 Upper Paleolithic Monica Gala Ivana Fiore & Antonio Tagliacozzo Lithic raw material circulation and settlement dynamics in the 219 Upper Palaeolithic of the Venetian Prealps (NE Italy). A key-role for palaeoclimatic and landscape changes across the LGM? Stefano Bertola, Federica Fontana & Davide Visentin Laminar tools with sinuous profile from Grotta Continenza 247 (Trasacco – AQ, Italy): a specialized production from the Late Epigravettian levels Marco Serradimigni An overview of early Epigravettian techno-economic behavior 265 in northern and western Adriatic area Emanuele Cancellieri Re-colonising the Southern Alpine fringe: diachronic data on 287 the use of sheltered space in the Late Epigravettian site of Riparo Tagliente (Verona, Italy) Federica Fontana, Laura Falceri, Alessia Gajardo, Stefano Bertola, Maria Giovanna Cremona, Fabio Cavulli, Antonio Guerreschi & Davide Visentin Epigravettian osseous technology from the eastern Alpine 311 region of Italy. The case of Riparo Dalmeri (Trentino) E. Cristiani New Insights into the Paleolithic Chronology and Funerary 335 Ritual of Caverna delle Arene Candide Julien Riel-Salvatore, Claudine Gravel-Miguel, Roberto Maggi, Gabriele Martino, Stefano Rossi & Vitale Stefano Sparacello Changing mobility patterns at the Pleistocene-Holocene 357 transition: lower limb biomechanics of Italian Gravettian and Mesolithic individuals Vitale Stefano Sparacello, Sébastien Villotte, Colin N. Shaw, Federica Fontana, Elisabetta Mottes, Elisabetta Starnini, Giampaolo Dalmeri & Damiano Marchi The role of aquatic resources in ‘Italian’ hunter-gatherer 397 subsistence and diets Marcello A. Mannino & Michael P. Richards Afterword: About Italian Prehistory 427 New Insights into the Paleolithic Chronology and Funerary Ritual of Caverna delle Arene Candide Julien Riel-Salvatore1, Claudine Gravel-Miguel 1,2, Roberto Maggi3, Gabriele Martino4, Stefano Rossi 4,5 & Vitale Stefano Sparacello6 Abstract This paper presents preliminary results of renewed field research conducted at Caverna delle Arene Candide, with a specific focus on the implications of these new field -ob servations for our understanding of the heretofore underappreciated richness of the funerary ritual of the cave’s Epigravettian occupants. The paper begins with a review of the work undertaken at the site during the 2008-13 field program. Specific attention is given to the chronology and site formation history of the cave’s Pleistocene deposits. These new data definitively confirm the Gravettian age of the burial known as the “Young Prince” and have implications for the age of Level P1, which is shown to date to ca. 15-15.5 ky BP. Additionally, the oldest exposed deposits at the site are confident- ly shown to be coeval with the Classic Aurignacian at the Balzi Rossi. Finally, the paper presents some results from our recent field research at the site. This includes, for the Epigravettian levels, the discovery of new human remains and of artifacts suggesting 1 Département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, 3150 Rue Jean-Brillant, Montréal, QC, H3T 1N8, Canada. E-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author). 2 School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872242, Tempe, AZ, 85281-2242, USA. 3 Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, sez. Tigullia, via Costaguta 4, 16043 Chiavari, Italy. 4 Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Genova e le province di Imperia, La Spezia e Savona, Via Balbi, 10, 16126 Genova, Italy. 5 DISTAV, Università di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132 Genova, Italy. 6 UMR5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux – CNRS, Bâtiment B8, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac cedex, France. in: Borgia, V. and E. Cristiani (eds.) 2018: Palaeolithic Italy. Advanced studies on early human adaptations in the Apennine peninsula, Sidestone Press Academics (Leiden), pp. 335-356. 335 that a complex and multifaceted ritual, perhaps shamanistic in nature, accompanied the burial of dead ones at the site. We summarize here evidence that this ritual included the ceremonial ‘killing’ of ochred pebble tools used to prepare and apply ochre to the dead bodies. Keywords: Arene Candide, Final Epigravettian, Gravettian, Upper Paleolithic, radio- carbon dates, burials, funerary rituals, pebble tools. 1. Introduction In a review of Upper Paleolithic burials, two of us recently suggested that research on Paleolithic burials should be “focusing on teasing out information about the socioritual and economic contexts of burials [and] trying to understand how they articulate with other forms of mortuary ritual” (Riel-Salvatore and Gravel-Miguel 2013: 336). While we did not discuss further how this may be accomplished, one approach would be for active projects to develop integrated research protocols that explicitly incorporate the analysis of material not directly associated with burials. For burials found in older excavations, however, this often entails re-excavating those parts of the site located im- mediately next to the area where the original excavation focused. A challenge inherent to this second approach is that of directly associating the new and old excavations, which can be achieved through a combination of absolute dating, geoarchaeological observation and archival work. One site that has afforded such a possibility is Caverna delle Arene Candide. Recent targeted fieldwork at the site has yielded a wealth of new information that not only allows us to gain a finer understanding of its occu- pation dynamics