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Neandertal camps and hyena dens. Living floor 150A at Grotta dei Santi (Monte Argentario, Tuscany, Italy)

Spagnolo, Vincenzo ; Crezzini, Jacopo ; Marciani, Giulia ; Capecchi, Giulia ; Arrighi, Simona ; Aureli, Daniele ; Ekberg, Isak ; Scaramucci, Sem ; Tassoni, Laura and Boschin, Francesco , et al. (2020) In Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 30.
Abstract

Grotta dei Santi represents a very suitable investigation field for carrying out an inquiry into the Neandertal behaviour at a high-resolution time scale, in order to obtain data useful for the “functional” reading of the economic and settling strategies. This cave opens into the Monte Argentario Promontory (southern coast of Tuscany, central Italy), almost at sea-level, at the base of a limestone falaise about 50 m high. During MIS 3, when Neandertals occupied the site, there was a wide plain in front of the cave. Excavations carried out by the University of Siena over the last 13 years brought to light several Mousterian occupation phases represented, most of the times, by thin living floors separated from one another by sterile... (More)

Grotta dei Santi represents a very suitable investigation field for carrying out an inquiry into the Neandertal behaviour at a high-resolution time scale, in order to obtain data useful for the “functional” reading of the economic and settling strategies. This cave opens into the Monte Argentario Promontory (southern coast of Tuscany, central Italy), almost at sea-level, at the base of a limestone falaise about 50 m high. During MIS 3, when Neandertals occupied the site, there was a wide plain in front of the cave. Excavations carried out by the University of Siena over the last 13 years brought to light several Mousterian occupation phases represented, most of the times, by thin living floors separated from one another by sterile sediments. However, another “occupant”, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), left clear traces in the cave in layers other than those occupied by humans. Although there usually is a clear-cut stratigraphic separation, a partial overlapping between the human and hyena occupations is sometimes documented, owing to their closeness in time. This is the case for the uppermost “living floor” of layer 150, which is the object of our study. A multidisciplinary integrated analytic methodology was applied, including lithic technology, taxonomic analysis of faunal remains, taphonomy, use-wear analysis and spatial analysis by means of a GIS platform. This approach allowed us to detect a set of parameters useful for identifying activities due to each of these two predators individually, which provided substantial information about their behaviours.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Activity areas, Crocuta crocuta, GIS, Lithic technology, MIS 3, Neandertal behaviour, Taphonomy
in
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
volume
30
article number
102249
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85081010450
ISSN
2352-409X
DOI
10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102249
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
31dff72b-d18e-46f3-802d-97d1d2d8044f
date added to LUP
2020-03-17 11:52:41
date last changed
2022-04-18 21:03:15
@article{31dff72b-d18e-46f3-802d-97d1d2d8044f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Grotta dei Santi represents a very suitable investigation field for carrying out an inquiry into the Neandertal behaviour at a high-resolution time scale, in order to obtain data useful for the “functional” reading of the economic and settling strategies. This cave opens into the Monte Argentario Promontory (southern coast of Tuscany, central Italy), almost at sea-level, at the base of a limestone falaise about 50 m high. During MIS 3, when Neandertals occupied the site, there was a wide plain in front of the cave. Excavations carried out by the University of Siena over the last 13 years brought to light several Mousterian occupation phases represented, most of the times, by thin living floors separated from one another by sterile sediments. However, another “occupant”, the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), left clear traces in the cave in layers other than those occupied by humans. Although there usually is a clear-cut stratigraphic separation, a partial overlapping between the human and hyena occupations is sometimes documented, owing to their closeness in time. This is the case for the uppermost “living floor” of layer 150, which is the object of our study. A multidisciplinary integrated analytic methodology was applied, including lithic technology, taxonomic analysis of faunal remains, taphonomy, use-wear analysis and spatial analysis by means of a GIS platform. This approach allowed us to detect a set of parameters useful for identifying activities due to each of these two predators individually, which provided substantial information about their behaviours.</p>}},
  author       = {{Spagnolo, Vincenzo and Crezzini, Jacopo and Marciani, Giulia and Capecchi, Giulia and Arrighi, Simona and Aureli, Daniele and Ekberg, Isak and Scaramucci, Sem and Tassoni, Laura and Boschin, Francesco and Moroni, Adriana}},
  issn         = {{2352-409X}},
  keywords     = {{Activity areas; Crocuta crocuta; GIS; Lithic technology; MIS 3; Neandertal behaviour; Taphonomy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports}},
  title        = {{Neandertal camps and hyena dens. Living floor 150A at Grotta dei Santi (Monte Argentario, Tuscany, Italy)}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102249}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102249}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}