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| Pàgina inicial > Articles > Articles publicats > The palaeoenvironmental context of MIS 3 and the use of plants by Neanderthal groups in southern Italy : |
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria) (Universidad de Murcia. Departamento de Biología Vegetal) (Università degli Studi di Siena. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente) (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Departamento de Biología) (Università degli Studi di Siena. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente) (Università degli Studi di Siena. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente) (Università degli Studi di Siena. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, della Terra e dell'Ambiente)
| Data: | 2025 |
| Resum: | Neanderthal populations occupied caves and rockshelters across the Mediterranean, leaving behind evidence of their daily activities, including plant remains. By studying these remains, we can gain a better understanding of how these populations used plant resources and adapted to their environment. A critical period for studying Neanderthal behaviour is Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) which was characterized in Europe by millennial-scale climatic instability involving fluctuations between warming and cooling events. These changes may have impacted the dispersal and dynamics of Neanderthal populations, prompting new behavioural, subsistence and settlement adaptations. A key site for studying Neanderthal groups in southern Italy during MIS 3 is Riparo l'Oscurusciuto in the Ginosa Ravine. The site's long stratigraphic sequence and well-preserved faunal and material culture remains, including hearths, span the period from ∼55 ka to ∼42. 8 ka BP. This makes the site central to our understanding of Neanderthal life and how they adapted to the environment until their disappearance from the region. Here, we present the results of a high-resolution study of plant microremains (phytoliths and pollen) and aquatic siliceous microremains (diatoms and chrysophyte cysts), alongside the mineralogical characterisation of their sedimentary contexts using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The ∼12,200-year long reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment reveals a changing landscape starting with semi-open woodlands and forests at ∼55 ka and changing to more open woodland steppe environments starting sometime before ∼52 ka. The woody vegetation was composed of evergreen and deciduous oak woodlands with a continued presence of other mesophytes and Mediterranean woody taxa, including gymnosperms. The grasses (mostly C Pooid), are associated with a wide range of herbaceous species, probably reflecting the opening up of the landscape. Neanderthals responded to these changes by adapting their activities to the surrounding vegetation, by for example using grasses for the hearths, the ashes of which were later spread around the site. |
| Ajuts: | Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2020-119773GB-100 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2022-136832NB-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación 809 Agencia Estatal de Investigación 20.06.2022 |
| Nota: | Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB |
| Nota: | Phytolith research at Oscurusciuto has been funded by SSHRC grant number 435-2022-0834 to FBe, FBo, and RMA and by the MICRO-PAST project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to RMA (PID2020-119773 GB-100). Palynological research at Oscurusciuto has been funded by the HOMEDSCAPE PID2022-136832NB-I00, funded by FEDER/Ministry of Science and Innovation\u2013Agencia Estatal de Investigaci\u00F3n. We would like to thank J.A. Ru\u00EDz for his support on the phytoliths stats and graphics and to G.A. Prado Barragan for the laboratory work. We would like to express our special thanks to the Soprintendenza Nazionale per il Patrimonio Culturale Subaqueo (MIBACT excavation permits: DDG rep. N\u00B0 809, 20.06.2022) for supporting our research and fieldwork over the years. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the Municipality of Ginosa, which provided financial and logistical support for the excavation. |
| Drets: | Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.  |
| Llengua: | Anglès |
| Document: | Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
| Matèria: | Phytolith analysis ; Pollen analysis ; FTIR ; Zooarchaeology ; MIS 3 ; Paleoenvironment ; Italian Peninsula |
| Publicat a: | Journal of archaeological science: reports, Vol. 67 (november 2025) , p. 105399, ISSN 2352-4103 |
