Early Levallois and the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic in central Italy.

Sylvain Soriano,Paola Villa,Michael D Petraglia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186082

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century Pleistocene faunas were discovered in two sites, Sedia del Diavolo and Monte delle Gioie, contained in deposits of the Aniene River in the area of Rome (Latium, Italy). Fieldwork by A.C. Blanc in the late 1930’s proved the association of fauna and lithic industry within fluvial deposits interbedded with volcanoclastic layers. A human femoral diaphysis and a metatarsal were later identified in the faunal assemblage from Sedia del Diavolo and evaluated as Neandertal. The lithic assemblages from these two sites were the basis of the definition of the Protopontinian by M. Taschini, which she viewed as a late Middle Pleistocene industry very similar to the later, Upper Pleistocene Pontinian industries, thought to be characteristic of the Latium Mousterian. The chronostratigraphic framework of the Aniene river deposits has been recently updated and the lithic assemblages from these two sites are now confidently dated between 295 and 290 ka, close to the transition from MIS 9 to MIS 8. They fit chronologically between the industries of layers m and d from Torre in Pietra, a site 26 km northwest of Rome. The presence of the Levallois debitage is indisputable yet it occurs within an original technical context, different from what is known in other early occurrences of the Levallois. The date confirms the proposed chronology for the early Levallois in Europe. More importantly these two assemblages demonstrate that this technology can emerge in more diversified contexts than usually described. This suggests that its dispersal in Europe may have been rapid.

Highlights

Monte delle Gioie and Sedia del Diavolo (SdD; 41 ̊ 55’46"N; 12 ̊31’22"E) are the two oldest known archaeological sites within the city of Rome (Latium, Italy). They are located on the same middle terrace of the Aniene River, a left bank tributary of the Tiber, on opposite sides of the valley, in the north-east suburbs of Rome (Fig 1) They were discovered late in the 19th century and further surveyed and studied by A.C
As pointed by Malinsky-Buller [61], in Lower and Middle Paleolithic industries some cores can be confused with Levallois cores because they share some but not all characters
Our analyses indicate that all three “Pontinian” assemblages are characterized by the frequent use of a particular variant of the bipolar technique, which is absent at SdD and MdG

Summary

Introduction

Monte delle Gioie (hereafter MdG; 41 ̊56’45"N; 12 ̊30’44"E) and Sedia del Diavolo (SdD; 41 ̊ 55’46"N; 12 ̊31’22"E) are the two oldest known archaeological sites within the city of Rome (Latium, Italy). They are located on the same middle terrace of the Aniene River, a left bank tributary of the Tiber, on opposite sides of the valley, in the north-east suburbs of Rome (Fig 1) They were discovered late in the 19th century and further surveyed and studied by A.C. Blanc from 1935 onward [1,2]. The pieces are individually bagged in zipper bags with pre-printed labels and are stored in one plastic box

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