An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age

Data and Scripts for A Description and Sensitivity Analysis of the ArchMatNet Agent-based Model

Supplemental information for the paper A Description and Sensitivity Analysis of the ArchMatNet Agent-based Mode

Human remains from Arma di Nasino (Liguria) provide novel insights into the paleoecology of early Holocene foragers in northwestern Italy

We report the discovery and analysis of new Mesolithic human remains—dated to ca. 10,200–9000 cal. BP—from Arma di Nasino in Liguria, northwestern Italy, an area rich in Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic attestations, but for which little information on Early Holocene occupation was available. The multi-proxy isotopic profile of the two individuals reveals that—despite the proximity of the site to the Mediterranean seashore and the use of shellfish as decorative elements in burials—the ecology of these foragers was based on the exploitation of high-altitude resources, presumably in the nearby western Alps. This constitutes the first direct evidence in northwestern Italy of a significant ecological shift towards higher altitudes following deglaciation, especially when compared to isotopic data of the Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the nearby site of Arene Candide Cave, who exploited terrestrial resources nearer to the coast and at lower altitudes. While the biochemistry of Nasino’s skeletal assemblage revealed new details on Early Holocene lifeways in the area, the osteobiography of one individual offers glimpses into the life experience of a specific female forager, depicting a scenario of early skeletal trauma, developmental disturbances, long-term impairments, and resilience amongst the last European hunter-gatherers.</p

Human remains from Arma di Nasino (Liguria) provide novel insights into the paleoecology of early Holocene foragers in northwestern Italy

We report the discovery and analysis of new Mesolithic human remains—dated to ca. 10,200–9000 cal. BP—from Arma di Nasino in Liguria, northwestern Italy, an area rich in Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic attestations, but for which little information on Early Holocene occupation was available. The multi-proxy isotopic profile of the two individuals reveals that—despite the proximity of the site to the Mediterranean seashore and the use of shellfish as decorative elements in burials—the ecology of these foragers was based on the exploitation of high-altitude resources, presumably in the nearby western Alps. This constitutes the first direct evidence in northwestern Italy of a significant ecological shift towards higher altitudes following deglaciation, especially when compared to isotopic data of the Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the nearby site of Arene Candide Cave, who exploited terrestrial resources nearer to the coast and at lower altitudes. While the biochemistry of Nasino’s skeletal assemblage revealed new details on Early Holocene lifeways in the area, the osteobiography of one individual offers glimpses into the life experience of a specific female forager, depicting a scenario of early skeletal trauma, developmental disturbances, long-term impairments, and resilience amongst the last European hunter-gatherers.</p

Understanding hunter–gatherer cultural evolution needs network thinking

Hunter–gatherers past and present live in complex societies, and the structure of these can be assessed using social networks. We outline how the integration of new evidence from cultural evolution experiments, computer simulations, ethnography, and archaeology open new research horizons to understand the role of social networks in cultural evolution.This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC-CoG-2015) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 683018) to J.F.-L.d.P. Additionally, F.R. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC-CoG-2018, grant agreement no. 817564), S.L. acknowledges suport from Generalitat de Catalunya through the grant no. 2017 SGR 1466 , M.D. acknowledges IAST funding from the French National Research Agency (ANR) under grant no. ANR-17-EURE-0010 (Investissements d'Avenir programme), and J.F.-L.d.P. acknowledges the CIDEGENT programme of Generalitat Valenciana (reference no. 2018/040)

Human remains from Arma di Nasino (Liguria) provide novel insights into the paleoecology of early Holocene foragers in northwestern Italy

We report the discovery and analysis of new Mesolithic human remains—dated to ca. 10,200–9000 cal. BP—from Arma di Nasino in Liguria, northwestern Italy, an area rich in Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic attestations, but for which little information on Early Holocene occupation was available. The multi-proxy isotopic profile of the two individuals reveals that—despite the proximity of the site to the Mediterranean seashore and the use of shellfish as decorative elements in burials—the ecology of these foragers was based on the exploitation of high-altitude resources, presumably in the nearby western Alps. This constitutes the first direct evidence in northwestern Italy of a significant ecological shift towards higher altitudes following deglaciation, especially when compared to isotopic data of the Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the nearby site of Arene Candide Cave, who exploited terrestrial resources nearer to the coast and at lower altitudes. While the biochemistry of Nasino’s skeletal assemblage revealed new details on Early Holocene lifeways in the area, the osteobiography of one individual offers glimpses into the life experience of a specific female forager, depicting a scenario of early skeletal trauma, developmental disturbances, long-term impairments, and resilience amongst the last European hunter-gatherers

New human remains from the Late Epigravettian necropolis of Arene Candide (Liguria, northwestern Italy): Direct radiocarbon evidence and inferences on the funerary use of the cave during the Younger Dryas

International audienc

Using cryptotephra to link Neanderthal and AMH Middle Paleolithic sites in NW Italy.

Establishing robust and reliable chronologies at archaeological sites is essential for understanding the sequence and timing of past events. At Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites like Arma Veirana and Riparo Bombrini, robust chronologies are especially important for answering questions regarding the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe. Arma Veirana is located in the Ligurian pre-Alps of northwest Italy and Riparo Bombrini is located along the Mediterranean coast, about 80 km away. Both sites have deposits that overlap in age and contain cultural industries attributed to Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMH). Stratigraphic evidence suggests that Neanderthals may have been present at Arma Veirana while AMHs were present at Riparo Bombrini, making it an ideal area to understand the interactions and dynamics of these two species during a key transitional phase. Cryptotephra, also known as microscopic volcanic ash, were recently identified at Arma Veirana in a stratigraphic unit known as the Black Mousterian (BM). AMS radiocarbon dates of charcoal samples collected in the BM, range from 43,781 to 43,121 (68.2%) cal. Yr. BP. Because these dates are close to the measurement limit of radiocarbon, the presence of cryptotephra provides a way to test these existing dates as well as establish a precise isochron to correlate with other sites. Major element chemistry obtained by electron microprobe indicate that the shards found in the BM layers are high silica rhyolite (>75 wt. %) with FeO < 1 wt.%. Trace elements by LA-ICP-MS show depletions in Ba, Sr, and Eu and an enrichment in Th, U and Pb. Both major and trace chemistries show unique geochemical signatures and are rare for volcanoes in the central Mediterranean region. The source volcano is currently unknown; however, this unique chemistry eliminates volcanoes from Iceland, North America, Canaries or Azores, and Aeolian Islands. Potential source volcanoes are located in Turkey (Acigol Dagi Volcano), the Carpathian Mountains (Ciomadul Volcano) and Greece (Nisryos volcano and Santorini Caldera). To test the hypothesis that Neanderthals were displaced from the coast when modern humans arrived in the region, I will take cryptotephra samples at Riparo Bombrini in the summer of 2018 with the goal of directly linking both sites. Identifying the same cryptotephra horizon at Riparo Bombrini will provide an unprecedented temporal correlation between the two sites. This will lead to a better understanding of Neanderthal and AMH interactions during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age