Neanderthal occupation during the tephra fall-out: Technical and hunting behaviours, sedimentology and settlement patterns in SU 14 of Oscurusciuto rock shelter (Ginosa, southern Italy)

Abstract

The Oscurusciuto rock shelter (southern Italy) is crucial for the understanding of Neanderthals’ subsistence and settlement strategies as it contains a ~ 6-m-thick reliable deposit made up of several Middle Palaeolithic levels. This paper focuses on level SU 14, a 60-cm-thick deposit of volcanic tephra containing traces of human occupation only in the few upper centimetres. Geochemical and mineralogical features of SU 14 deposits allowed their correlation to the ‘Mount Epomeo Green Tuff’ eruption, which came from Ischia volcano and dated to ~ 55,000 years bp. The pyroclastic materials injected into the atmosphere caused an ash fall-out over a large part of southern Italy, resulting in the alteration of ecosystems. Sedimentological data demonstrate that the formation of SU 14 is attributable to a short-term event. Moreover, the lithic behaviour indicates that Neanderthals used the shelter mainly to perform specific activities related to the first phases of the reduction sequence (i.e. selection and import of pebbles into the site, initialisation and production of the first generation of debitage objectives, and introduction of already finished tools). Consequently, the layer SU 14 raises questions regarding the impact of deposition of volcanic ash on human communities, offering the opportunity to investigate the settlement and technological choices made by Neanderthals who were constrained by such an adverse environmental event.