Categoria: Online

CREZZINI J., BOSCATO P., RICCI S., RONCHITELLI A., SPAGNOLO V., BOSCHIN F., 2016 – A spotted hyaena den in the Middle Palaeolithic of Grotta Paglicci (Gargano promontory, Apulia, Southern Italy), Archaeological Anthropological Sciences, 8/2, 227-240.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-015-0273-0

DOI 10.1007/s12520-015-0273-0

Abstract

The Palaeolithic sequence of Grotta Paglicci (Gargano promontory, Apulia, Southern Italy) is one of the most important in the Mediterranean area: It comprises the whole Upper Palaeolithic cultural sequence known for the region, as well as Early Middle Palaeolithic and Lower Palaeolithic levels. These earlier phases are best represented in a collapsed room located outside the present-day cave (the so called external rock shelter). In this area, a new excavation, started in 2004, brought to light Middle Palaeolithic animal remains associated with evidence of spotted hyaena (SU 64 and 53). The spatial distribution analysis of remains from SU 53 revealed the presence of a bone accumulation area and a wider dispersal of hyaena coprolites. Three main ungulate species (aurochs, fallow deer and red deer) as well as carnivores (spotted hyaena, wolf, fox, wild cat and lynx) and lagomorphs have been identified. The majority of aurochs remains are located in the main accumulation; among these specimens, a complete metatarsal connected with three tarsal bones has been found; a talus and a complete tibia, probably belonging to the same limb, have also been identified. The multidisciplinary study carried out in this paper highlights a specific bone accumulation and scattering pattern in a spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) den. In addition, taphonomy of lagomorph remains indicates the presence of other depositional agents.

BOSCHIN F., BOSCATO P., 2016 – Equus ferus e Equus hydruntinus nella serie epigravettiana di Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico – Foggia), Annali dell’Università di Ferrara – Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica (a cura di U. Thun Hohenstein, M. Cangemi, I. Fiore, J. De Grossi Mazzorin), 12/1, 307-312.

https://annali.unife.it/museologia/article/view/1296

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/1296

Riassunto

La caccia agli equidi ha rappresentato un’importante fonte di sostentamento a Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia) nel corso dell’Epigravettiano. Il cavallo risulta in alcuni casi la specie più abbondante, come nel livello 10e, attribuito alle fasi finali dell’Epigravettino antico, dove è presente tra gli ungulati con oltre il 50% dei resti. Questo equide viene sostituito dall’idruntino in occasione di oscillazioni climatiche più temperate. Questa alternanza risulta ben evidente soprattutto a partire dal taglio c del livello 6 (17386±288 cal. 2σ BP, Epigravettiano finale) fino al tetto della sequenza (13313±191 cal. 2σ BP). La presenza dei resti di idruntino non raggiunge però percentuali elevate (al massimo 29 % nel taglio b dello strato 4, datato 13816±276 cal. 2σ BP). Nei livelli in cui è stato possibile eseguire un confronto, dati preliminari mostrano per il cavallo una maggiore quantità di denti definitivi emergenti e di denti decidui rispetto all’idruntino. Nel taglio a3 del livello 16 riferito all’Epigravettiano antico (19843±208 cal. 2σ BP) ad esempio, il 27,8% dei denti isolati e delle mandibole di cavallo è riferibile a soggetti giovani e subadulti, mentre per l’idruntino le stesse due classi di età non superano il 6,6%. Ciò farebbe supporre una diversa modalità di sfruttamento delle due specie.

Abstract

 

During the Epigravettian, horse (Equus ferus) and Equus hydruntinus represented important resources for the human subsistence at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia). Horse is sometimes the most abundant species, such as for instance in level 10e (final stage of the Early Epigravettian) where its remains represent the 50% of NISP among ungulates. This species was replaced by E. hydruntinus during more temperate climatic oscillations. This phenomenon can be appreciated for istance from level “c” of layer 6 (17386±288 cal. 2σ BP, Final Epigravettian) to the top of the sequence (13313±191 cal. 2σ BP). E. hydruntinus remains are never very abundant (the maximum, 29%, is reached in level “b” of layer 4, 13816±276 cal. 2σ BP). When a comparison was possible, preliminary data show that deciduous teeth, or erupting permanent theet, are more abundant among horse remains than E. hydruntinus ones. It was observed for istance in level A3 of layer 16 (Early Epigravettian, 19843±208 cal. 2σ BP), where the 27,8% of horse isolated teeth and jaws belong to juvenile and subadult individuals, whilst only the 6,6% of the same kind of specimens of E. hydruntinus can be attributed to these age classes. This fact could be related to different exploitation strategies of the two species.

CREZZINI J., BOSCHIN F., 2016 – 3D digital microscopy and taphonomy: two examples from Palaeolithic sites (Grotta dei Santi–Grosseto and Grotta Paglicci-Foggia), Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Ferrara – Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, (U. Thun Hohenstein, M. Cangemi, I. Fiore, J. De Grossi Mazzorin eds.),12/1, 3-10.

https://annali.unife.it/museologia/article/view/1311

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/1311

Riassunto

L’Unità di Ricerca di Ecologia Preistorica dell’Università di Siena sta portando avanti un ampio studio volto alla realizzazione di nuove metodologie di analisi tafonomiche, condotte attraverso l’utilizzo della microscopia digitale 3D. Le modificazioni sulle superfici ossee (scores, punctures, cut marks, alterazioni chimiche) possono essere infatti analizzate da un punto di vista morfometrico permettendo l’individuazione di caratteri diagnostici che possono essere elaborati statisticamente, evitando l’esclusivo utilizzo di osservazioni soggettive. In questo contributo vengono presentati alcuni dati riguardanti strie di macellazione ottenute in prove sperimentali, strie provocate da carnivori moderni e tracce rilevate su resti di macromammiferi provenienti da due siti paleolitici: la Grotta dei Santi (Grosseto) e Grotta Paglicci (Foggia). Lo scopo è quello di mettere a confronto tracce lasciate da diversi agenti e capire, testando il metodo su campioni archeologici, verso quale direzione possa essere sviluppato questo tipo di ricerca in modo da favorire in futuro una migliore interpretazione di alcune evidenze tafonomiche.

Abstract

The Research Unit of Prehistoric Ecology of the University of Siena is testing the potentiality of a digital microscope that captures 3D images of the bone surface. The aim of this research is to develop new methods for understanding the origin of different bone modifications (e.g. scores, punctures, cut marks, chemical corrosion) using morphometry. It allows to find diagnostic criteria that can be processed through statistics, avoiding the exclusive use of subjective observations. In this paper different bone modifications have been analysed: cut marks produced during butchery experiments, modern tooth marks and striae located on macromammal remains coming from two Palaeolithic sites: Grotta dei Santi (Grosseto) and Grotta Paglicci (Foggia). The aim is to compare bone modifications of different origin and to test the method on archaeological samples, in order to understand how this can be employed to better interpret the taphonomic evidences in future works.

BORGIA V., BOSCHIN F., RONCHITELLI A., 2016 – Bone and antler working at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, Southern Italy), Quaternary International, 403, 23-39.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618215013646

DOI:10.1016/J.QUAINT.2015.11.116

Abstract

In this article we present evidence of the hard animal tissue exploitation at Paglicci Cave (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, southern Italy).

The analysis of the 104 bone and antler tools found in the Upper Palaeolithic sequence of the cave, as well as recent studies on faunal remains, have allowed us to reconstruct the choices made by the prehistorichunters both in terms of hunting and exploitation of hard animal materials for tool fabrication. Most of the archeozoological sequence is characterized by the abundance of remains of species related to open or steppe environments, such as caprines (especially ibex), horses and aurochs.

Starting from Final Epigravettian (about 17.000 BP cal.) these taxa decrease in favor of deer, wild boar and hidruntinus, reflecting an important climatic change leading to more humid and temperate conditions. Only some hunted animals bones were chosen for making the tools: deer, horse, aurochs and wild boar. A noteworthy observation concerns the lack of an interconnection between the kinds of species represented in the faunal assemblages and those used for the production of bone (and antler) tools.

Even though the small number of pieces in each individual layer did not allow for statistical inferences, we could draw some interesting conclusions on the morpho-technological features of the artifacts, finding that some tool types appear to be linked to particular periods.

FU Q., POSTH C., HAJDINJAK M., PETR M., MALLICK S., FERNANDES D., FURTWANGLER A., HAAK W., M. MEYER, MITTNIK, NICKEL B., PELTZER A., ROHLAND N., SLON V., TALAMO S., LAZARIDIS I., LIPSON M., MATHIESON I., SCHIFFELS S., SKOGLUND P., DEREVIANKO A.P., DROZDOV N., SLAVINSKY V., TSYBANKOV A., GRIFONI CREMONESI R., MALLEGNI F., GELY B., VACCA E., GONZALEZ MORALES M.R., STRAUS L.G., NEUGEBAUER-MARESCH C., TESCHLER-NICOLA M., CONSTANTIN S., MOLDOVAN O.T., BENAZZI S., PERESANI M., COPPOLA D., LARI M., RICCI S., RONCHITELLI A., VALENTIN F., THEVENET C., WEHRBERGER K., GRIGORESCU D., ROUGIER H., CREVECOEUR I., FLAS D., SEMAL P., MANNINO M.A., CUPILLARD C., BOCHERENS H., CONARD N.J., HARVATI K., MOISEYEV V., DRUCKER D.G., SVOBODA J., RICHARDS M.P., CARAMELLI D., PINHASI R., KELSO J., PATTERSON N., KRAUSE J., PAABO S. & REICH D., 2016 – The genetic history of Ice Age Europe, Nature, 534, pp. 200-205.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature17993

DOI 10.1038/nature17993

Abstract

Modern humans arrived in Europe ~45,000 years ago, but little is known about their genetic composition before the start of farming ~8,500 years ago. Here we analyse genome-wide data from 51 Eurasians from ~45,000–7,000 years ago. Over this time, the proportion of Neanderthal DNA decreased from 3–6% to around 2%, consistent with natural selection against Neanderthal variants in modern humans. Whereas there is no evidence of the earliest modern humans in Europe contributing to the genetic composition of present-day Europeans, all individuals between ~37,000 and ~14,000 years ago descended from a single founder population which forms part of the ancestry of present-day Europeans. An ~35,000-year-old individual from northwest Europe represents an early branch of this founder population which was then displaced across a broad region, before reappearing in southwest Europe at the height of the last Ice Age ~19,000 years ago. During the major warming period after ~14,000 years ago, a genetic component related to present-day Near Easterners became widespread in Europe. These results document how population turnover and migration have been recurring themes of European prehistory.

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.