Human occupation continuity in southern Italy towards the end of the Middle Palaeolithic: a palaeoenvironmental perspective from Apulia

The Oscurusciuto rock shelter, located in southern Italy (Puglia), has yielded a long Middle Palaeolithic stratigraphy rich in lithic assemblages, fireplaces and faunal remains, attesting Neanderthal occupation during the MIS 3. This paper is focused on the stratigraphic unit 13, consisting of a sandy compact deposit mixed with pyroclastic sediment above a thick level of tephra-US 14, identified as Mt. Epomeo green tuff (dated Ar/Ar ~ 55 ka).Level 13 represents the first stable human occupation after the deposition of tephra. Our goal was to examine the lithic assemblage of this stratigraphic unit by means of an interdisciplinary approach (technology, RMU, refitting program) in order to identify the economic behaviour and technical strategies of Neanderthals occupying the stratigraphic unit 13 of Oscurusciuto.The technical strategies applied indicate fragmentation of the reduction processes, as well as probable events of importation and exportation of objects. The lithic material were introduced at different stages of manufacturing. Pieces were introduced in the form of rough objects (pebbles), as well as semi-finished items, and as finished tools. This fragmentation of the chaîne opératoire also demonstrate the palimpsest nature of the level which is made up of different events happening one after another.The main concept of debitage was Levallois, generally realized on local jasper and siliceous limestone pebbles or cortical flakes. Jasper and siliceous limestone flakes, backed flakes and convergent flakes were the technological objectives of the debitage. A marginal volumetric debitage aimed at producing bladelets was also attested.

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The Neolithic Site of Serra Cicora: Results of the AMS Radiocarbon Dating

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200019706 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 207-210 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

G Quarta ◽

M D'Elia ◽

E Ingravallo ◽

I Tiberi ◽

L Calcagnile

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Ams Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Neolithic Site ◽

New Information ◽

Definition Of

Bone and charcoal samples from the Neolithic site of Serra Cicora in the Salento Peninsula (southern Italy) have been dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Measurements appear to support other archaeological evidence and have shown that 2 distinct phases of human occupation of the site can be identified: the first occupation in the Early Neolithic and a second occupation in the Middle-Late Neolithic. The results provide new information and are a fundamental contribution to the definition of the absolute chronology of the Middle-Late Neolithic in this part of Europe.

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Settlement and Economy in Southern Italy in the Neothermal Period

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/s0079497x00013931 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 332-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Ruth D. Whitehouse

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Subsistence Economy ◽

History Of ◽

The Bronze Age ◽

Made In

The post-Pleistocene archaeology of southern Italy is a rapidly developing study and for this reason, while many facets of it are still little known, others are undergoing fundamental changes as new discoveries are made. Particularly notable contributions have been made in the last 20 years by, among others, L. Cardini, P. Graziosi, A. Palma di Cesnola, E. Borzatti von Löwenstern, O. Cornaggia Castiglioni and F. Zorzi in the palaeolithic and mesolithic field, R. B. K. Stevenson, L. Bernabò Brea, D. Trump and S. Tinè in the Neolithic sphere and D. Trump, S. M. Puglisi, R.Peroni, F. G. Lo Porto and H. Muller-Karpe for the bronze age. As a result of this work it is now possible for us to reconstruct in outline the later prehistory of southern Italy. Most of the work that has been done has been on individual topics, and, while some attempts at synthesis have been made (most notably those of A. M. Radmilli, D. Trump and R. Peroni), these have taken the form of a culture-by-culture description, as it were a commentary upon a vast composite stratigraphy of the area. No attempt, however, has yet been made to produce a history of the human occupation of the land and it is towards this aim that my paper is directed.The emphasis in this paper is on settlement and economy in relation to environment. It is through the techniques of his subsistence economy that man deals with (or in evolutionary terms, adapts to) his environment, and in this sense it can be regarded as the most important factor contributing to the nature and development of society.

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The Eneolithic/Bronze Age Transition at Tegole di Bovino (Apulia): Geoarchaeological Evidence of Climate Change and Land-Use Shift

Quaternary ◽

10.3390/quat3020014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 14

Author(s):

Guido S. Mariani ◽

Italo M. Muntoni ◽

Andrea Zerboni

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

Sedimentary Deposits ◽

The Bronze Age

Human communities at the transition between the Eneolithic period and the Bronze Age had to rapidly adapt to cultural and climatic changes, which influenced the whole Mediterranean. The exact dynamics involved in this crucial passage are still a matter of discussion. As newer studies have highlighted the key role of climatic fluctuations during this period, their relationship with the human occupation of the landscape are yet to be fully explored. We investigated the infilling of negative structures at the archaeological site of Tegole di Bovino (Apulia, Southern Italy) looking at evidence of the interaction between climate changes and human strategies. The archaeological sedimentary deposits, investigated though geoarchaeological and micromorphological techniques, show the presence of natural and anthropogenic infillings inside most structures. Both human intervention and/or natural events occurred in the last phases of occupation of the site and its subsequent abandonment. The transition to unfavorable climatic conditions in the same period was most likely involved in the abandonment of the site. The possible further impact of human communities on the landscape in that period, testified by multiple other archives, might have in turn had a role in the eventual change in land use.

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A multidisciplinary study of an exceptional prehistoric waste dump in the mountainous inland of Calabria (Italy): Implications for reconstructions of prehistoric land use and vegetation in Southern Italy

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620919974 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (9) ◽

pp. 1310-1331

Author(s):

Jan Sevink ◽

Wieke de Neef ◽

Mauro A Di Vito ◽

Ilenia Arienzo ◽

Peter AJ Attema ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Occupational History ◽

Late Imperial ◽

Multidisciplinary Study ◽

History Of

The mountainous inland of northern Calabria (Southern Italy) is known for its sparse prehistoric human occupation. Nevertheless, a thorough multidisciplinary approach of field walking, geophysical survey and invasive research led to the discovery of a major archaeological archive. This archive concerns a rich multi-phased dump, spanning about 3000 years (Late Neolithic to Late Imperial Roman Age) and holding two Somma-Vesuvius tephra. Of these, the younger is a distinct layer of juvenile tephra from the Pompeii eruption, while the older concerns reworked tephra from the Bronze Age AP2 eruption (ca. 1700 cal. yr BP). The large dump contains abundant ceramics, faunal remains and charcoal, and most probably originated through long-continued deposition of waste in a former gully like system of depressions. This resulted in an inversed, mound-like relief, whose anthropogenic origin had not been recognized in earlier research. The tephras were found to be important markers that support the reconstruction of the occupational history of the site. The sequence of occupational phases is very similar to that observed in a recent palaeoecological study from nearby situated former lakes (Lago Forano/Fontana Manca). This suggests that this sequence reflects the more regional occupational history of Calabria, which goes back to ca. 3000 BC. Attention is paid to the potential link between this history and Holocene climatic phases, for which no indication was found. The history deviates strongly from histories deduced from the few, but major palaeorecords elsewhere in the inlands of Southern Italy (Lago Grande di Monticchio and Lago Trifoglietti). We conclude that major regional variation occurred in prehistoric land use and its impacts on the vegetation cover of Southern Italy, and studies of additional palaeoarchives are needed to unravel this complex history. Finally, shortcomings of archaeological predictive models are discussed and the advantages of truly integrated multidisciplinary research.

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Human occupation of Northwest Africa: A review of Middle Palaeolithic to Epipalaeolithic sites in Morocco

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.017 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 274 ◽

pp. 158-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Jörg Linstädter ◽

Josef Eiwanger ◽

Abdessalam Mikdad ◽

Gerd-Christian Weniger

Keyword(s):

Middle Palaeolithic ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Northwest Africa

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An Apennine Bronze Age Settlement at Petrella, Molise

Papers of the British School at Rome ◽

10.1017/s006824620001134x ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 133-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Graeme Barker

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Middle Palaeolithic ◽

Major Phase ◽

Early Settlement ◽

Abundant Evidence ◽

Total Project ◽

The Bronze Age

In 1974 I began a survey and excavation project in the province (or Regione) of Molise, southern Italy. Until 1974, comparatively little research had been carried out on the prehistoric archaeology of this province compared with the rest of Italy, but the 1974 survey produced abundant evidence (over four hundred sites) for early settlement, from the Middle Palaeolithic until the Italic or Samnite Iron Age (Barker, 1976a). The survey concentrated on three areas: at the head, midway down, and in the lower part of the Biferno valley, the principal valley of Molise. The Bronze Age site discussed in this paper was discovered in the second area midway down the valley (Fig. 1).The goal of the Molise project is the study of the changing relationship between man and his environment in the Biferno valley from palaeolithic times until the classical period. It is hoped to achieve this goal by (i) excavating settlements of each major phase of occupation, (ii) combining the economic and environmental data from the excavations with the survey evidence showing the distribution of sites in each period, and (iii) integrating the archaeological evidence with geomorphological and related studies of environmental change in the valley. The Petrella excavation discussed in this paper is therefore just one part of the total project, but the importance of the site—the first Bronze Age site to be excavated in Molise—justifies the publication of the preliminary results achieved to date.

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Cave clastic sediments as a tool for refining the study of human occupation of prehistoric sites: insights from the cave site of La Cala (Cilento, southern Italy)

Journal of Quaternary Science ◽

10.1002/jqs.3038 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (5) ◽

pp. 586-596 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Ivan Martini ◽

Annamaria Ronchitelli ◽

Simona Arrighi ◽

Giulia Capecchi ◽

Stefano Ricci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southern Italy ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Clastic Sediments

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Stone Tools in the High Molise Mountains (Italy): a first Report

Journal of Lithic Studies ◽

10.2218/jls.2928 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Vittorio Mironti ◽

Melissa Vilmercati ◽

Enrico Lucci ◽

Rachele Modesto

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Raw Material ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

Archaeological Materials ◽

Material Procurement ◽

Mountainous Landscape ◽

Molise Region ◽

University Of Rome

In the last decades, several researches focused on the inland areas of Molise Region (Central-Southern Italy) to investigate the occupation and exploitation of this environment during Pleistocene and Holocene. The “Molise Survey Project” started in 2015 with the aim to explore, through systematic surveys, an area of 60 square kilometres, chiefly characterized by a mountainous landscape and part of the Central-Southern Italy Apennines. The project seeks to investigate the patterns of human occupation in the mountainous landscape between the provinces of Campobasso and Isernia. The surveys, carried out during the last four years, allowed the identification of 19 prehistoric sites ranging from Palaeolithic to Bronze Age: the archaeological materials belonging to the latter period are being studied by the team of “Paletnologia” of Sapienza University of Rome. This work aims to show the preliminary results of the analysis of the lithic assemblage acquired during the summer of 2016 surveys, focusing on raw material procurement and the related chaîne opératoire, also considering post-depositional agents. The obtained data allowed to reassess the human presence over inland and high-altitude areas of Molise during prehistoric times, stressing a seasonal use of the territory, from Palaeolithic to Late Prehistory, with different patterns of occupation and exploitation.

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