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Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant's grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant's community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bones and teeth are biological archives, but their structure and composition are subjected to alteration overtime due to biological and chemical degradation postmortem, influenced by burial environment and conditions. Nevertheless, organic fraction preservation is mandatory for several archeometric analyses and applications. The mutual protection between biomineral and organic fractions in bones and teeth may lead to a limited diagenetic alteration, promoting a better conservation of the organic fraction. However, the correlation between elemental variations and the presence of organic materials (e.g., collagen) in the same specimen is still unclear. To fill this gap, chemiluminescent (CL) immunochemical imaging analysis has been applied for the first time for collagen localization. Then, Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) and CL imaging were combined to investigate the correlation between elemental (i.e., REE, U, Sr, Ba) and collagen distribution. Teeth and bones from various archeological contexts, chronological periods, and characterized by different collagen content were analyzed. Immunochemical analysis revealed a heterogeneous distribution of collagen, especially in highly degraded samples. Subsequently, LA–ICP–MS showed a correlation between the presence of uranium and rare earth elements and areas with low amount of collagen. The innovative integration between the two methods permitted to clarify the mutual relation between elemental variation and collagen preservation overtime, thus contributing to unravel the effects of diagenetic alteration in bones and teeth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of forensic identification of missing individuals is frequently reliant on the superimposition of cranial remains onto an individual's picture and/or facial reconstruction. In the latter, the integrity of the skull or a cranium is an important factor in successful identification. Here, we recommend the usage of computerized virtual reconstruction and geometric morphometrics for the purposes of individual reconstruction and identification in forensics. We apply these methods to reconstruct a complete cranium from facial remains that allegedly belong to the famous Italian humanist of the fifteenth century, Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494). Raw data was obtained by computed tomography scans of the Poliziano face and a complete reference skull of a 37-year-old Italian male. Given that the amount of distortion of the facial remains is unknown, two reconstructions are proposed: The first calculates the average shape between the original and its reflection, and the second discards the less preserved left side of the cranium under the assumption that there is no deformation on the right. Both reconstructions perform well in the superimposition with the original preserved facial surface in a virtual environment. The reconstruction by means of averaging between the original and reflection yielded better results during the superimposition with portraits of Poliziano. We argue that the combination of computerized virtual reconstruction and geometric morphometric methods offers a number of advantages over traditional plastic reconstruction, among which are speed, reproducibility, easiness of manipulation when superimposing with pictures in virtual environment, and assumptions control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the rarest prehistoric bones found by archaeologists are enormously precious and are considered to be part of our cultural and historical patrimony. Radiocarbon dating is a well-established technique that estimates the ages of bones by analysing the collagen still present. However, this method is destructive, and its use must be limited. In this study, we used imaging technology to quantify the presence of collagen in bone samples in a non-destructive way to select the most suitable samples (or sample regions) to be submitted to radiocarbon dating analysis. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) that was connected to a camera with hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was used along with a chemometric model to create chemical images of the distribution of collagen in ancient bones. This model quantifies the collagen at every pixel and thus provides a chemical mapping of collagen content. Our results will offer significant advances for the study of human evolution as we will be able to minimise the destruction of valuable bone material, which is under the protection and enhancement of European cultural heritage and thus allow us to contextualise the valuable object by providing an accurate calendar age., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The causes of Neanderthal-modern human (MH) turnover are ambiguous. While potential biocultural interactions between the two groups are still little known, it is clear that Neanderthals in southern Europe disappeared about 42 thousand years ago (ka) after cohabitation for ~3,000 years with MH. Among a plethora of hypotheses on Neanderthal extinction, rapid climate changes during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (MUPT) are regarded as a primary factor. Here we show evidence for stable climatic and environmental conditions during the MUPT in a region (Apulia) where Neanderthals and MH coexisted. We base our findings on a rare glacial stalagmite deposited between ~106 and ~27 ka, providing the first continuous western Mediterranean speleothem palaeoclimate archive for this period. The uninterrupted growth of the stalagmite attests to the constant availability of rainfall and vegetated soils, while its δ 13 C-δ 18 O palaeoclimate proxies demonstrate that Apulia was not affected by dramatic climate oscillations during the MUPT. Our results imply that, because climate did not play a key role in the disappearance of Neanderthals in this area, Neanderthal-MH turnover must be approached from a perspective that takes into account climatic and environmental conditions favourable for both species.

Microscopic analysis of backed lithic pieces from the Uluzzian technocomplex (45-40 thousand yr ago) at Grotta del Cavallo (southern Italy) reveals their use as mechanically delivered projectile weapons, attributed to anatomically modern humans. Use-wear and residue analyses indicate that the lithics were hunting armatures hafted with complex adhesives, while experimental and ethnographic comparisons support their use as projectiles. The use of projectiles conferred a hunting strategy with a higher impact energy and a potential subsistence advantage over other populations and species.

Understanding the reason(s) behind changes in human mobility strategies through space and time is a major challenge in palaeoanthropology. Most of the time this is due to the lack of suitable temporal sequences of human skeletal specimens during critical climatic or cultural shifts. Here, we present temporal variations in the Sr isotope composition of 14 human deciduous teeth and the N and C stable isotope ratios of four human remains from the Grotta Paglicci site (Apulia, southern Italy). The specimens were recovered from the Gravettian and Epigravettian layers, across the Last Glacial Maximum, and dated between 31210-33103 and 18334-19860 yr cal BP (2σ). The two groups of individuals exhibit different 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios and, while the Gravettians are similar to the local macro-fauna in terms of Sr isotopic signal, the Epigravettians are shifted towards higher radiogenic Sr ratios. These data, together with stable isotopes, can be explained by the adoption of different mobility strategies between the two groups, with the Gravettians exploiting logistical mobility strategies and the Epigravettians applying residential mobility.