What roots for the Uluzzian? Modern behaviour in Central-Southern Italy and hypotheses on AMH dispersal routes

Abstract

In Central-Southern Italy, several cave sites yielded deposits dating back to MIS3, containing a Mousterian/Uluzzian/Proto-Aurignacian sequence. Changes within these sequences are synthetically examined on the basis of the main stratified sites. Subsistence strategies, raw material procurement, territory exploitation, production and behavioural activities and migratory movements are discussed. The Uluzzians can be considered, in many respects, economically and behaviourally closer to the Proto-Aurignacians than to the Mousterians. This pattern fully agrees with the recent attribution to AMH of two deciduous teeth from the Uluzzian layers of Grotta del Cavallo (Lecce, Southern Italy). Such a new insight directly involves the problem of the origin of the Uluzzian techno-complex. By integrating archaeological, genetic and demographic data, the hypothesis of dispersal from an East African source into Europe, through the so-called Southern route, is proposed. As for Southern Italy, the available data indicate that relationships between the indigenous Neandertals and the newcomers were most probably sporadic, given the possibly low demographic density of these populations and the limited time span of co-existence.