Sur les contactes entre la Campanie et les Pouilles au passage du IIIème au IIème millénaire av. J.-C.

Cette note analyse, à partir des données chronologiques (dates radiocarbone) et du matériel archéologique, les possibles contacts entre la Campanie, y compris l’Hirpinie (Ariano Irpino), les Pouilles au cours du Bronze ancien et dans la transition à la période successive (Protoappenninique). De récentes fouilles faites dans la région de Foggia, en particulier à Posta Rivolta, en dehors des retombées des produits de l'éruption des Ponces d'Avellino (3550±20 BP; soit 1952-1778 BC cal 2σ), ont livré des fragments de céramique que l'on peut attribuer à des formes présentes dans le faciès de Palma Campania et des sépultures en vases d'enfants ou de fœtus (enchytrismoí) assimilables à celles découvertes en contexte du Bronze ancien campanien (Nola-Croce del Papa). Dans la région de la Haute Murge, et jusqu’à la province de Bari (Garagnone en particulier), dans des secteurs éloignés des retombées de l'éruption, il est possible de reconnaitre des formes de céramique et d’autres objets qui se rattachent au faciès campanien. Des contacts directs ou indirects entre les régions confinantes et non, en partie à travers des étendues facilement accessibles mais principalement par les voies fluviales, pourraient être à l’origine d’échanges entre les communautés que liaient leurs modes de vie à des contextes économiques complémentaires

New researches on the ”Altamura man”: morphology of the scapular glenoid cavity of a Neanderthal skeleton

In 1993 an archaic (i.e., non modern) human skeleton was discovered inside the Lamalunga karstic system, in the countryside nearby Altamura, Southern Italy (Bari, Puglia). The conditions of preservation of the skeleton are exceptional, so that each bony element belonging to a single adult male are virtually preserved. Most of the visible skeletal features – observed with the bones still in situ – are close to the Neanderthal morphology (e.g., Manzi 2011). In the past couple of decades, unfortunately, with the exception of some photographic and laser 3D documentations (eg, Pesce-Delfino and Vacca 1993a, 1993b, 1994; Vacca and Pesce-Delfino, 2004; Vacca, 2006; Manzi et al. 2010a), no direct studies have been carried out so far on the Altamura skeleton, due to the fact that its remains are yet incorporated within a curtain of calcite concretions of various thickness, which prevent from any direct intervention and hide the genuine morphology of bones and teeth. It follows that the international scientific community has been less and less concerned about this important finding and its significance for human evolution. However, in 2008-2009 a new scientific endeavour coordinated by a new commission of experts (appointed by the Direzione Re- gionale per i Beni Culturali e Pa-esaggistici della Puglia, in col-laboration with the Soprinten-denza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia and assisted by speleo-logists of the Centro Altamura-no Ricerche Speleologiche) allowed to perform a survey in the cave with the aim to physically remove a skeletal fragment to be used for high-quality investigations (including aDNA extraction and dating attempts). The choice of the specimen to be extracted fell among those identified after a previous photographic recognition (Micheli et al. 1996) within the small empty space behind the so called “apse of man” (i.e., the small chamber where the main skeletal remains are enclosed). This choice was justified as follows (Manzi et al. 2010b): 1) the need to obtain a bony element with a minimum contamination due to the human presence in the cave after the discovery; 2) the need to not touch (as requested by the Authorities) the human skeletal remains enclosed in the apse; 3) the relative simplicity of sampling, intrinsic to the fact that the selected specimen appeared to lie without any contact with concretions like those present on the “apse of man”. The fossil specimen was removed from the cave in sterile condition and revealed to be free from any important calcite concretions; it represents a portion of the right scapula, where the glenoid cavity (showing only a modest fracture along the axillo-ventral margin), the neck, and both the roots of the acromion and the coracoid process are preserved. After the extraction, while maintaining sterile conditions, the portion of scapula was subjected to professional photographic documentation and medical tomographic scan (CT), performed in order to preserve its morphology before it was submitted to paleogenetic and dating analyses. A total of 119 slices in DICOM format were recorded with a resolution of 0.25 mm and an increment of slice of 0.65 mm. From these, 3D high-resolution (mm slicing 0.25) digital and stereolithograpic replicas were also obtained. The virtual reproduction was analyzed with ordinary morphometric methods, using the length (GAL), the breadth (GAB), and the maximum depth (GFD) of the glenoid cavity, selected as variables to be compared with data available from the literature (Vrba 1979; Churchill and Trinkaus 1990; Carrettero et al. 1997); comparative samples include: A. africanus (STS 7), H. heidelbergensis (Atapuerca - Sima de los Huesos), H. neanderthalensis (Near-Eastern and European Würmian Neanderthals), and H. sapiens (Upper Paleolithic and recent) specimens. A 2D geometric morphometrics a-nalysis was also performed on the outline of the gle-noid cavity, using 60 sliding landmarks and semilandmarks, treated according to the methodology described in Di Vincenzo and colleagues (2012). The Altamura glenoid cavity was compared with those of 66 specimens belonging to the following OTUs: A. africanus, H. floresiensis, H. georgicus (Dmanisi), H. heidelbergensis (Atapuerca SH), H. neanderthalensis, H. sapiens (Upper Paleolithic and recent), having distinguished the Neanderthal sample from Krapina (> 100 ka) from the European Würmian and Near-Eastern Neanderthals. Overall, the results of these morphometric analyses (see figures) show that the scapula from Altamura – as regards both metric (GAB/GAL ratio and GFD) and geometric (shape) available variables – falls within or in continuity with the variability of H. neanderthalensis, in accordance with general observations on the morphology of the skeleton still in situ. In addition, phenetic relationships obtained from the Euclidean distances of the Procruste’s coordinates of the glenoid outline intercept an additional phylogenetic signal, suggesting the scapula from Altamura as interposed between the early Neanderthals from Krapina and more derived Neanderthal samples. References: Carretero J.M. et al. 1997. Journal of Human Evolution 33:357-408 – Churchill S.E., Trinkaus E. 1990. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 83:147-160 – Di Vincenzo F. et al. 2012. Journal of Human Evolution 62:274-285 – Manzi G. et al. 2010a. DiRe, Direzione Regionale BCA della Puglia 2:35-39 – Manzi G. et al. 2010b. DiRe, Direzione Regionale BCA della Puglia 2:41-46 – Manzi G. et al. 2011. Quaternary Science Reviews 30:1420-1438 – Micheli M. et al. (a cura di). 1996. L'Uomo di Altamura e la Grotta di Lamalunga ABACO, Forlì. Pesce Delfino V., Vacca E. 1993a. Rivista di Antropologia 71:249-257 – Pesce Delfino V., Vacca E. 1993b. Anthropologie (Brno) 31:157-158 – Pesce Delfino V., Vacca E. 1994. Human Evolution 9:1-9 – Vacca E. 2006. Ricerche Speleologiche 1:28-54 – Vacca E., Pesce Delfino V. 2004. Collegium Antropologicum 28:113-119 – Vrba E.S. 1979. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 51:117-129

The Neanderthal in the karst. First dating, morphometric, and paleogenetic data on the fossil skeleton from Altamura (Italy)

In 1993, a fossil hominin skeleton was discovered in the karst caves of Lamalunga, near Altamura, in southern Italy. Despite the fact that this specimen represents one of the most extraordinary hominin specimens ever found in Europe, for the last two decades our knowledge of it has been based purely on the documented on-site observations. Recently, the retrieval from the cave of a fragment of bone (part of the right scapula) allowed the first dating of the individual, the quantitative analysis of a diagnostic morphological feature, and a preliminary paleogenetic characterization of this hominin skeleton from Altamura. Overall, the results concur in indicating that it belongs to the hypodigm of Homo neanderthalensis, with some phenetic peculiarities that appear consistent with a chronology ranging from 172 +/- 15 ka to 130.1 +/- 1.9 ka. Thus, the skeleton from Altamura represents the most ancient Neanderthal from which endogenous DNA has ever been extracted