Human influence on faunal turnover during Early Holocene in Sicily

Session: Environment, climate and human impact: the archaeological evidence AIQUA CONGRESS 2012 February 15-17 Pisa, Italy 71 HUMAN INFLUENCE ON FAUNAL TURNOVER DURING EARLY HOLOCENE IN SICILY Petruso D., Sineo L. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale e Biodiversità, University of Palermo, Via Archirafi, 18, 90123 Palermo, Italy The faunistic analysis at the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Sicily allows to understand the ecologic and/or human role in the faunal turn over of the island. Following the work of Petruso et al. (in press) we assessed that at the Pleniglacial-Late Glacial interval, in supposed absence of human occurrence, were already extinct the last endemites (the middle sized elephant, the endemic sicilian subspecies of red deer, auroch and bison) and the large predators (the spotted hyena and the cave bear) surviving in Sicily from the late Middle Pleistocene. Otherwise some other taxa already arrived during the Interpleniglacial still occur, such as the steppe ass and some small mammals (the common field mouse while the shrew and the Terricola vole arrived slightly before), and others belonging to the long resident taxa (such as the red fox, the wolf, the wild boar and the hedgehog) of the early Middle Pleistocene. The newly arrived fauna accompanied by humans is composed by an heterogeneous group of mammals such as the lynx, the auroch, the roe and red deer, the marten, the weasel, the hare and the wild cat. All these cohort of taxa seem not to be influenced by consistent human presence with the exception of the wild ass and of the linx that become extinct at the transition with Holocene. We conclude that the faunal turn over in Sicily have been driven mostly by climatic fluctuations and geodynamic events (that modulated the connection or isolation phases of Sicily with the mainland) while the ecologic role of humans seems to have been very low until the recent Holocene. During the course of Holocene human have influenced faunal composition with massive hunting but mostly with the active and passive introduction of alien species. Petruso D., Sarà M., Surdi G., Masini F., in press. Le faune a mammiferi della Sicilia tra il Tardoglaciale e L’Olocene. In: La Biogeografia della Sicilia. Biogeographia, 30

Il popolamento umano della Sicilia: una revisione interdisciplinare

Riassunto — La questione del popolamento umano pleistocenico della Sicilia e delle coste del Mediterraneo occidentale implica la ricostruzione delle rotte migratorie seguite dall’uomo e dalle faune e delle complesse dinamiche geologiche del bacino del Mediterraneo centrale. Anche se la più accreditata via di migrazione comune di faune e uomo è quella settentrionale, che prevede il superamento dell’area dello stretto di Messina, diversi autori, sulla base di dati archeologici, hanno ipotizzato un popolamento precoce ed una direttrice meridionale, dall’Africa, attraverso momenti di percorribilità del Canale di Sicilia. Questa ipotesi è stata più volte esplorata per poi essere accantonata, anche se diversi reperti paleontologici e archeologici, in particolare industrie attribuite nel tempo a Modo 1 e 2, provenienti dalla Sicilia meridionale, riportino continuamente l’attenzione su questa rotta potenziale. La maggior parte delle testimonianze archeologiche suddette sono dubbie in quanto mancano di un contesto stratigrafico trattandosi di ritrovamenti di superficie. Se i dati antropologici non forniscono ad oggi evidenze contestuali, poiché relativi solo al Paleolitico superiore, indicando una migrazione di H. sapiens dalla penisola italiana, i dati paleontologici e paleogeografici invece, non escludono la possibilità di un popolamento umano nel Pleistocene Medio. In questo lavoro proponiamo una revisione critica dei dati disponibili (paleontologici, paleoetnologici, paleogeografici, paleoantropologici) relativi alla problematica del primo popolamento umano della Sicilia attraverso un approccio interdisciplinare, in modo da offrire una visione globale della questione. Intendiamo riaprire una discussione critica sulle evidenze litiche, sulla georeferenziazione dei siti da cui provengono manufatti litici e resti faunistici durante il primo Pleistocene Medio e presentiamo un tentativo di ricostruzione paleogeografica delle linee di costa della Sicilia durante il Pleistocene Medio, sulla base della localizzazione degli stessi siti georeferenziati. I dati attuali non escludono la possibilità che siano avvenuti durante il Pleistocene Medio diversi e sporadici popolamenti umani legati alla variabile accessibilità dello Stretto di Messina. Una tendenza altalenante di fasi di dispersione e di estinzione contraddistingue d’altronde gli esseri umani in Sicilia, almeno fino alla transizione con il Mesolitico.Summary — The question of the human peopling of Sicily and Western Mediterranean shores during Pleistocene times is centred on the reconstruction of human and faunal migration routes and of the complex geological dynamics of the Central Mediterranean basin. Even if the common route of faunal and human movement is considered from North, related to the crossing of Messina strait area, several authors, on the base of archaeological evidences, hypothesized an earlier peopling and an African provenance through the Sicilian Channel. This hypothesis has been several times explored and mostly rejected, even if diverse palaeontological and especially archaeological findings of Modus 1 and 2 artefacts, from Southern Sicily, renew continuously the attention on this potential route. However most Sicilian archaeological evidences are spotty and frequently dubitative, as they lack of stratigraphic context. Direct anthropological data are scarce and relative only to the Upper Palaeolithic and indicate a H. sapiens migration from Italian mainland. Nevertheless, palaeontological and palaeogeographic data do not exclude the possibility of a Middle Pleistocene human peopling. We faced the problem through diverse perspectives, on the main intent of a critical revision of all the available data from palaeontology, archaeology, palaeogeography and physical anthropology. We propose a critic discussion of the industrial evidences, the georeference of lithic and faunal retrieval sites during Middle Pleistocene and a tentative palaeogeographic reconstruction of Middle Pleistocene coastal lines of Sicily on the base of the georeferred sites. The state of art do not exclude the possibility of several sporadic human peopling related to the Messina Strait accessibility since the Middle Pleistocene. A pulsating trend of dispersal and extinction characterized humans in Sicily at least until Mesolithic transition

Origination and extinction patterns of mammals in three Central Western Mediterranean islands from the Late Miocene to Quaternary.

An overview of the population histories of three insular realms (Gargano palaeo-archipelago, Sardinia–Maritime Tuscany palaeobioprovince and the Sicilian insular complex) during the Late Miocene and Quaternary are here presented. The complexity of biodiversity changes in the islands is analysed to propose an interpretation of origination and extinction patterns. The study highlighted several important aspects of insular faunas. Evolutionary radiations were found to contribute significantly only to the Gargano faunal diversity, likely because the area was an archipelago at the time. Another interesting result is that large and small mammals do not disperse and become extinct all at the same time on each island. In fact, because of their distinct body sizes, large and small mammals have different dispersal ability and therefore different chances to cross-filtering barriers. But distinct body sizes means also different influence on diversity, resistance to environmental changes and likelihood of extinction. Another important point is that large mammalian carnivores at the top of the trophic net are quite more fragile and susceptible to become extinct than other predators. The study finally shows the clear influence that the intense Middle and Late Pleistocene climate-driven environmental changes had on island communities. The reconstruction of the faunal histories of Sardinia and Sicily shows that without exchanges with the mainland the island system represents a rather stable refuge area not too affected by the changes in the ‘‘physical’’ parameters of the environment. In contrast, if the island is frequently connected with the continent, insular faunal assemblages tend to behave as their mainland counterparts

Ambiente e clima della Sicilia durante gli ultimi 20 mila anni

Environment and Climate in Sicily over the last 20, 000 years. (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2010). A series of recent studies shed light on the central Mediterranean, and Sicily, climate and environment, starting from the last glacial maximum (about 20 ka cal BP). In the present paper, we examine most of these works, in order to unravel environmental changes of the past, mainly in terms of temperature, atmospheric pattern, precipitation, vegetation and faunal associations. The climate of the last glacial maximum was characterised by very low temperature and by repeated northerlies penetration, even during summer. Low precipitation values led to a steppe- or semisteppe-like vegetation pattern, dominated by herbs and shrubs. Episodes of climatic anomaly, characterised by lower temperature and strengthened wind activity, could have occurred during the Holocene, as testified by micropaleontological and geochemical investigations carried out on the southern Tyrrhenian Sea and in the northern Sicily Channel. In the terrestrial record, there is evidence of drought at 8.2 ka cal BP, from the isotopic composition of a stalagmite recovered near Palermo, and of prolonged drought intervals during the Little Ice Age in the Erice village (Trapani). The vegetation pattern shows the development of Mediterranean Maquis in coastal sites and deciduous forests in sub-montane and montane regions, approximately from the Holocene base. The human impact is the main factor that forced the present vegetation pattern, as a consequence of intensive land-use, which started about 2.7 ka cal BP, when Greek colonies were first established. Human activity is however superimposed on a natural trend towards aridity, with climatic forces still not fully understood