This study aims to provide a general model of one of the settlement/mobility dynamics adopted by human groups during the very early Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. Two lithic assemblages - coming from the base of the Proto-Aurignacian layer (Unit G) and from the top of the semi sterile Unit H - located in the east sector (1959 excavation) of the well-known Italian prehistoric key-site, Riparo Mochi (Grimaldi caves, Balzi Rossi) have been dated to about 41 500 calBP. Both assemblages are analyzed from a petrographical, technological, and functional perspective. The data suggest the existence of a large territory from the Rhone valley to central Tyrrhenian Italy where the earliest Proto-Aurignacian human groups developed their adaptations, moving raw material inside a system of long-distance mobility. Moreover, the archaeological evidence provides different chronological frames of human behavior; accordingly, the first Proto-Aurignacian human groups, while crossing the Liguro-Provençal Arc, gathered and used available resources in a similar way, but with different intensity and effectiveness in time. Two interpretations are possible: either this change in the raw material spectrum reflects a difference in the role played by the Riparo Mochi site within the territory or it documents populations who were better organised to supply rocks of greater suitability

Raw material procurement and land use in the northern Mediterranean Arc: insight from the first Proto-Aurignacian of Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Italy).

Grimaldi, Stefano;Santaniello, Fabio
2014-01-01

Abstract

This study aims to provide a general model of one of the settlement/mobility dynamics adopted by human groups during the very early Upper Palaeolithic in Western Europe. Two lithic assemblages - coming from the base of the Proto-Aurignacian layer (Unit G) and from the top of the semi sterile Unit H - located in the east sector (1959 excavation) of the well-known Italian prehistoric key-site, Riparo Mochi (Grimaldi caves, Balzi Rossi) have been dated to about 41 500 calBP. Both assemblages are analyzed from a petrographical, technological, and functional perspective. The data suggest the existence of a large territory from the Rhone valley to central Tyrrhenian Italy where the earliest Proto-Aurignacian human groups developed their adaptations, moving raw material inside a system of long-distance mobility. Moreover, the archaeological evidence provides different chronological frames of human behavior; accordingly, the first Proto-Aurignacian human groups, while crossing the Liguro-Provençal Arc, gathered and used available resources in a similar way, but with different intensity and effectiveness in time. Two interpretations are possible: either this change in the raw material spectrum reflects a difference in the role played by the Riparo Mochi site within the territory or it documents populations who were better organised to supply rocks of greater suitability
2014
Grimaldi, Stefano; G., Porraz; Santaniello, Fabio
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/100201
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