Autore: wp_1882185

POSTH C., RENAUD G., MITTNIK A., DRUCKER D.G., ROUGIER H., CUPILLARD C., VALENTIN F., THEVENET C., FURTWÄNGLER A., WIßING C., FRANCKEN M., MALINA M., BOLUS M., LARI M., GIGLI E., CAPECCHI G., CREVECOEUR I., BEAUVAL C., FLAS D., GERMONPRE´ M., VAN DER PLICHT J., COTTIAUX R., GÉLY B., RONCHITELLI A., WEHRBERGER K., GRIGOURESCU D., SVOBODA J., SEMAL P., CARAMELLI D.,  BOCHERENS H., HARVATI K., CONARD N. J., HAAK W., POWELL A., AND KRAUSE J., 2016 – Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest a Single Major Dispersal of Non-Africans and a Late Glacial Population Turnover in Europe, Current Biology, 26, 827-833.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(16)00087-7.pdf

Abstract

How modern humans dispersed into Eurasia and Australasia, including the number of separate expansions and their timings, is highly debated. Two categories of models are proposed for the dispersal of non-Africans: (1) single dispersal, i.e., a single major diffusion of modern humans across Eurasia and Australasia; and (2) multiple dispersal, i.e., additional earlier population expansions that may have contributed to the genetic diversity of some present day humans outside of Africa. Many variants of these models focus largely on Asia and Australasia, neglecting human dispersal into Europe, thus explaining only a subset of the entire colonization process outside of Africa. The genetic diversity of the first modern humans who spread into Europe during the Late Pleistocene and the impact of subsequent climatic events on their demography are largely unknown. Here we analyze 55 complete human mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs) of hunter-gatherers spanning _35,000 years of European prehistory. We unexpectedly find mtDNA lineage M in individuals prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This lineage is absent in contemporary Europeans, although it is found at high frequency in modern Asians, Australasians, and Native Americans. Dating the most recent common ancestor of each of the modern non-African mtDNA clades reveals their single, late, and rapid dispersal less than 55,000 years ago. Demographic modeling not only indicates an LGM genetic bottleneck, but also provides surprising evidence of a major population turnover in Europe around 14,500 years ago during the Late Glacial, a period of climatic instability at the end of the Pleistocene.

Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes

MARIOTTI LIPPI M., FOGGIA B., ARANGUREN B., RONCHITELLI A., REVEDIN A. (2015) – Multistep food plant processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 cal B.P., Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 112/39, 12075-12080.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1505213112

Abstract

Residue analyses on a grinding tool recovered at Grotta Paglicci sublayer 23A [32,614 ± 429 calibrated (cal) B.P.], Southern Italy, have demonstrated that early modern humans collected and processed various plants. The recording of starch grains attributable to Avena (oat) caryopses expands our information about the food plants used for producing flour in Europe during the Paleolithic and about the origins of a food tradition persisting up to the present in the Mediterranean basin. The quantitative distribution of the starch grains on the surface of the grinding stone furnished information about the tool handling, confirming its use as a pestlegrinder, as suggested by the wear-trace analysis. The particular state of preservation of the starch grains suggests the use of a thermal treatment before grinding, possibly to accelerate drying of the plants, making the following process easier and faster. The study clearly indicates that the exploitation of plant resources was very important for hunter–gatherer populations, to the point that the Early Gravettian inhabitants of Paglicci were able to process food plants and already possessed a wealth of knowledge that was to become widespread after the dawn of agriculture.

REVEDIN A., LONGO L., MARIOTTI LIPPI M., MARCONI E., RONCHITELLI A., SVOBODA J. ANICHINI E., GENNAI M., ARANGUREN B., 2015 – New technologies for plant food processing in the Gravettian, Quaternary International, 359-360, pp. 77-88.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618214007241

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.09.066

Abstract

“Plant Resources in the Palaeolithic” is a research project focused on the technologies for plant food processing as documented by use-wear traces and plant residue on grinding tools found in European sites. Many researchers have been involved in the project, which encompasses the fields of archaeology, botany and food processing technologies, within the context of the history of European Prehistoric societies.

The first study was carried out on use-wear traces and plant remains recovered from grinding tools from the sites of Bilancino (Italy), Kostienki 16 (Russia) and Pavlov VI (Czech Republic), dating to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (Gravettian and Gorotsovian) around 28,000e30,000 cal BP. The results demonstrated that vegetable food processing and the production of flour was a common practice across Europe from at least 30,000 years ago and that flour, a high-energy food, was a component of the food economy of mobile hunter gatherers. Flour production and consumption imply multi-step processing from harvesting to cooking to obtain a suitable and digestible food, and that this was part of an Upper Paleolithic behavioural package. This paper presents new data from two Gravettian pestles, found at Grotta Paglicci e level 23a (Southern Italy) and at Dolni Vestonice I (Czech Republic), which furnish further information about plant exploitation and the technologies related to plant food processing.

RONCHITELLI A., MUGNAINI S., ARRIGHI S., ATREI A., CAPECCHI G., GIAMELLO M., LONGO L., MARCHETTINI N., VITI C., MORONI A., 2015 – When technology joins symbolic behaviour: The Gravettian burials at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico – Foggia – Southern Italy), Quaternary International, 359-360, 423-441.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laura-Longo-7/publication/342901413

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.038

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618214006004?via%3Dihub

https://www.academia.edu/15099309

Abstract

In 1971, a complete burial of an adolescent male (Paglicci II) was found in the Evolved Gravettian layers at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, Southern Italy). Nearly 20 years after (1988e1989), the burial of a young woman belonging to the same cultural complex (Paglicci III) was brought to light. The re-examination of ochre and grave goods/parures from both burials provided new insights about the ritual behaviour and the technological know-how in raw material processing of the Gravettian groups. Analyses were carried out by means of 3D optical microscopy, polarized light microscopy in thin section, XRD, ICP-OES, SEM, TEM, HPLC and ToF-SIMS. Investigation was performed on a fragment of manganese oxides bearing deep incisions (discovered between the ankles of Paglicci II), which is nearly unique in the Upper Palaeolithic funerary contexts. Use-wear observations on this block suggested that it was used to obtain black pigment with different kinds of actions. Ochre materials were analysed in order to identify their nature and their processing techniques. This study was integrated with the study of a sample of natural local reddish soil and with experimental analyses carried out by grinding coarse hematites under various operative conditions. Results detected the characteristics of raw materials: a nanosized hematite-rich clayey natural material, likely technologically ready for use (Paglicci III ochre), and a mixture of a clayeye-silty sand with a natural earthy-micaceous hematite (Paglicci II ochre). New inferences from the behavioural standpoint (such as the use/non-use of the grave goods, the connection between the parure shells and the sex of the dead and the hairstyling of the woman) as well as a range of possible raw material procurement sources are discussed.

Ricci S., Capecchi G., Boschin F., Arrighi S., Ronchitelli A., Condemi S., 2014 – Toothpick use among Epigravettian humans from Grotta Paglicci (Italy), International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26, 281–289.

DOI: 10.1002/oa.2420

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oa.2420

Abstract

This paper deals with two teeth (an upper right M1 and an upper right dM2) from the Epigravettian found in the site of Paglicci (Southern Italy) showing interproximal grooves that are situated below the crown, on the root walls just apical to the cementum–enamel junction. These grooves have been examined on a digital microscope which displays 3D images of the analysed surfaces. The images obtained made it possible to interpret these interproximal grooves as tooth picking activities that can be interpreted as an attempt to alleviate sore gums. The comparison with experimental images from available literature made it possible to form hypotheses concerning the nature of the probes that might have been used by the humans.

CONDEMI S., CAPECCHI G., MONTI L., VOISIN J.L., MOUNIER A., RICCI S., RONCHITELLI A., 2014 – I resti umani rinvenuti a Paglicci (Rignano Garganico-FG): nota preliminare, Annali dell’Università di Ferrara – Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, 10/2, 233-238.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268208529

Riassunto

Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico–FO), con il suo deposito di 12 m che racchiude (oltre all’Acheuleano e alle fasi antiche del Paleolitico medio) l’intera sequenza del Paleoitico superiore (dall’Aurignaziano all’Epigravettiano finale) rappresenta una risorsa preziosissima per la conoscenza delle antiche popolazioni di Homo sapiens in Europa e della loro evoluzione. Accanto alla grande quantità di reperti antropici, fra cui numerose opere d’arte, nel corso degli scavi condotti dall’Università di Siena, sono stati rinvenuti 146 resti ossei umani, che vanno ad aggiungersi alle ben note sepolture della donna (Pa25) e del bambino (Pa12). In questo lavoro si presenta l’elenco di questi rinvenimenti, oggetto di uno studio sistematico e multidisciplinare attuato con metodologie moderne da parte dei ricercatori dell’Università di Siena in collaborazione con ricercatori di altri Enti e Università con competenze diverse. Lo studio è iniziato dall’analisi dei crani, di cui presentiamo alcuni risultati preliminari.

Abstract

Paglicci Cave (Rignano Garganico-FO), with its deposit of 12 m, contains (in addition to the Acheulean phases and those of the ancient middle Paleolithic), the entire sequence of the upper Paleolithic (from the Aurignacian to the final Epigravettian culture). It is an invaluable resource for knowledge of the ancient populations of Homo sapiens in Europe and of their evolution. Beside the large amount of man-made artifacts, including numerous works of art unearthed during the excavations conducted by the University of Siena, 146 human remains were found. The discovery of these latter remains supplements the Paglicci human sample including well-known burials of women (Pa25) and of a child (Pa12). In this paper we present the list of these findings, which are the topic of a broad systematic and multidisciplinary study undertaken on the basis of modern methodologies by researchers from the University of Siena, in collaboration with researchers from other institutions and universities whose proficiencies lie in a variety of fields. This broad study took the analysis of the Paglicci skulls as its starting point, and our purpose here is to present some of its preliminary results.

FU Q., MITTNIK A., JOHNSON P.L.F., BOS K., LARI M., BOLLONGINO R., SUN C., GIEMSCH L., SCHMITZ R., BURGER J., RONCHITELLI A., MARTINI F., CREMONESI R.G., SVOBODA J., BAUER P., CARAMELLI D., CASTELLANO S., REICH D., PÄÄBO S. AND KRAUSE J., 2013 – A revised timescale for human evolution based on ancient mitochondrial genomes, Current Biology, 23, 553–559.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(13)00215-7

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.044

Abstract

Background: Recent analyses of de novo DNA mutations in modern humans have suggested a nuclear substitution rate that is approximately half that of previous estimates based on fossil calibration. This result has led to suggestions that major events in human evolution occurred far earlier than previously thought.

Results: Here, we use mitochondrial genome sequences from ten securely dated ancient modern humans spanning 40,000 years as calibration points for the mitochondrial clock, thus yielding a direct estimate of the mitochondrial substitution rate. Our clock yields mitochondrial divergence times that are in agreement with earlier estimates based on calibration points derived from either fossils or archaeological material. In particular, our results imply a separation of non-Africans from the most closely related sub-Saharan African mitochondrial DNAs (haplogroup L3) that occurred less than 62–95 kya.

Conclusions: Though single loci like mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) can only provide biased estimates of population divergence times, they can provide valid upper bounds. Our results exclude most of the older dates for African and non-

African population divergences recently suggested by de novo mutation rate estimates in the nuclear genome.

WIERER U., 2013 – Variability and standardization: The early Gravettian lithic complex of Grotta Paglicci, Southern Italy, Quaternary International, 288, 215-238.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618212003217

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.04.043

Abstract

Lithic assemblages contribute to gather insights into past human populations, their technical know-howand behaviour. The present research focuses on the period of the first Gravettian, dated between 29,000 and 27,000 BP, by analysing the technological aspects of the lithic industry recovered from layer 23 of Grotta Paglicci at Rignano Garganico (Apulia, Southern Italy). Stone tool production is characterized by the twofold concept of variability and standardization: blade débitage, one the one hand, is finalized at the manufacture of a differentiated set of tools for domestic activities, whose variability is determined by size, shape and edges, and sometimes by retouch and functional fractures, whilst bladelet production, on the other hand, aims at obtaining standardized backed tools referable to armatures hafted onto throwing weapons. Standardization of the backed points is determined both by débitage and by intensive modification. Different modalities for bladelet production are documented, among which prevails the exploitation of burin cores on thick blades. The flintknappers’ technical choices show several similarities to contemporaneous industries of Central and Western Europe. The evident change in armature manufacture which took place after 30,000 BP, represented throughout Europe by the diffusion of straight and pointed backed armatures, was most likely related to the development of new hunting technologies.

LARI M., RIZZI E., BALSAMO C., GHIROTTO S., TASSI F., RONCHITELLI A., FISCHETTI A., GRUGNI V., SEMINO O., DE BELLIS G., BARBUJANI G., CARAMELLI D., 2012 – Genomic selection by Oligo-Capture and next generation sequencing for genetic characterization of Ancient Human remains from Italy, Journal of Biological Research, 85 (1), 151-155.

https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/jbr/article/view/4089

https://doi.org/10.4081/jbr.2012.4089

 

BENAZZI S., FORNAI C., BUTI L., TOUSSAINT M., MALLEGNI F., RICCI S., GRUPPIONI G., WEBER G. W., CONDEMI S., AND RONCHITELLI A., 2012 – Cervical and Crown Outline Analysis of Worn Neanderthal and Modern Human Lower Second Deciduous Molars, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 149 (4), 537-546.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.22155

https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22155

Abstract

Despite the general increase in digital techniques for dental morphometric analyses, only a few methods are available to study worn teeth. Moreover, permanent dentitions are studied much more frequently than deciduous teeth. In this study, we address both issues by providing a taxonomic classification of Neanderthal and modern human (MH) lower second deciduous molars (dm2s) through the analysis of crown and cervical outlines. Crown and cervical outlines were obtained from a three-dimensional (3D) digital sample of uniformly oriented dm2s. Both outlines were centered on the centroid of their area and represented by 16 pseudolandmarks obtained by equiangularly spaced radial vectors out of the centroid. We removed size information from the oriented and centered outlines with a uniform scaling of the pseudolandmark configurations to unit Centroid Size. Group shape variation was evaluated separately for the dm2 crown and cervical outlines through a shape–space principal component (PC) analysis.

Finally, quadratic discriminant analysis of a subset of PCs was used to classify the specimens. Our results demonstrate that both outlines successfully separate the two groups. Neanderthals showed a buccodistal expansion and convex lingual outline shape, whilst MHs have buccodistal reduction and straight lingual outline shape.

Therefore, we confirmed that the cervical outline represents an effective parameter for distinguishing between the two taxa when dealing with worn or damaged dm2s.