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The tempo and mode of Homo sapiens dispersal in Eurasia and the demise of Neanderthals has sparked debate about the dynamics of Neanderthal extinction and its relationship to the arrival of H. sapiens. In Italy, the so-called ‘Transition’ from Neanderthals to H. sapiens is related to the Uluzzian technocomplex, i.e. the first archaeological evidence for modern human dispersal on the European continent. This paper illustrates the new chronology and stratigraphy of Uluzzo C, a rock shelter and Uluzzian key site located in the Uluzzo Bay in southern Italy, where excavations are ongoing, refining the cultural sequence known from previous excavations. Microstratigraphic investigation suggests that most of the deposit formed after dismantling of the vault of the rock shelter and due to wind input of loess deflated by the continental shelf. The occasional reactivation of the hydrology of the local karst system under more humid conditions further contributed to the formation of specific layers accumulating former Terra Rossa-type soil fragments. Superposed on sedimentary processes, strong bioturbation and the mobilization and recrystallization of calcite have been detected. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from Uluzzo C Rock Shelter are congruent with previously published radiocarbon ages obtained on shell beads and tephrachronology from adjacent sites preserving the Uluzzian technocomplex such as Grotta del Cavallo, confirming the onset for the Uluzzian in the area to ca. 39.2–42.0 ka. The OSL chronology from Uluzzo C also provides a terminus post quem for the end of the Mousterian in the region, constraining the disappearance of the Neanderthals in that part of Italy to ≥46 ± 4 ka.

This paper provides a detailed assessment on the impact of dams on archaeological sites in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and emphasizes the lack of established protocols for documenting and preserving cultural heritage at the local, national and international level. We considered four case studies at different scales – Turkey, the Euphrates river, the two Aswan dams and the planned Makhul dam – in order to identify different issues related to the construction of dams as well as to propose some best practices for pre-flooding assessment of dam impact on cultural heritage. Our method integrates archaeological and geo-spatial open-access datasets, organized in a GIS environment made available through the online platform http://www.orientlab.net/orientdams/ in order to foster data sharing and research replicability. We have mapped almost 2500 flooded archaeological sites and approximately 1300 km of ancient rivers submerged by dam reservoirs in the selected case studies across the MENA area. These numbers are actually incomplete, since large portions of the reservoir areas have not been systematically investigated. We conclude by underlining the urgent need for strategies for the documentation and protection of archaeological sites and monuments in the planning of hydraulic infrastructures at the international, national and local levels, as well as the need for a general operative protocol. Funders of development works, first and foremost the World Bank, should review their current policies, which do not offer sufficient protection of cultural heritage.

The region of Apulia, southern Italy, is especially interesting during early prehistory. Due to its fertile soils and its abundance of valuable raw materials, especially high-quality flint and obsidian sources off the coast, the density of settlements is very high from the earliest Neolithic onwards. In a selected area in this region, an ongoing project situated at the universities of Münster, Germany, and Bologna, Italy, and the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Barletta-Andria-Trani e Foggia, Italy, is currently dealing with the comprehension of how prehistoric communities moved in their territory and how they exploited the landscape during the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. The region was chosen because it played an important role as a bridge between the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the inner peninsular areas during pre- and protohistoric times, thus permitting a mutual exchange of ideas, artefacts, and people. Since the landscape and human presence are linked via site distribution, the investigations comprise visibility analysis and least-cost path analysis in order to understand the networks of ties and relationships between sites. This will be fundamental to comprehend how the ancient communities exploited the landscape, and to determine the reasons for choices of settlement, also in relation to local and foreign influences that began to emerge from the Late Neolithic onward. Hence, the research aims to introduce new ways to analyse the landscape in relation to human frequentation and ways of communication, both terrestrial and aquatic. The landscape is viewed as a repository for natural resources, and its analysis can be tied to questions regarding the exchange of cultural resources like ideas, practices and techniques.

Since ancient times, Central Asian economy has been based on a combination of irrigated agriculture and pastoralism. While research on ancient irrigation systems is relatively abundant, zooarchaeological studies in Central Asia are rather scarce. This paper presents the results of the zooarchaeological study of animal bones found at the citadel of Kafir Kala during the Uzbek-Italian excavations. In the Early Middle Ages (sixth–seventh centuries AD), this site was a major administrative center located along the local Silk Road routes. After the Arab conquest at the beginning of the eighth century AD, the site was settled for residential purposes. Preliminary zooarchaeological analysis was conducted on over 6,000 faunal remains retrieved from the 2001–2014 excavation seasons. Domestic animals were predominant. Sheep and goats represent ca. 80% of the total, followed by cattle and a small number of equids, pigs, dogs, and cats. A limited number of bird bones—Galliformes—were also recognized. Among the wild animals, fox is the most common, followed by wild boar and scant remains of small to medium ungulates. Evaluation of the age-at-death provides important infor- mation about the diet and the production/processing of secondary products.

The systematic zooarchaeological study of faunal assemblages from the excavations carried out between 2011 and 2016 by the Joint Turco–Italian Archaeological Expedition at Karkemish (province of Karkamış, Gaziantep, Turkey) is based on a sample of about ten thousand osteological remains. Data derive from different sectors of the urban settlement, including administrative, cultic, productive, residential, and funerary areas from the beginning of the Late Bronze Age down to the Iron IV/Achaemenid period. The faunal assemblage presents a good level of preservation with 30% of the sample determined to species level. Domestic animals were predominant in all periods, with sheep and goats covering almost half of the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP), followed by cattle and equids—both donkeys and horses— while pigs, dogs, and camels are rather scarce. The animal economy of Karkemish was evidently based on pastoralism, including the exploitation of both primary and secondary products as showed by the estimation of age-at-death. Wild animals were rare but included deer, fallow deer, and gazelle, and some exceptional examples of exotic animals.

The Notarchirico site, discovered in 1979, has yielded a 7-m thick sequence of fluvial sediments within eleven archaeological levels. The early excavations yielded a rich fossil sample, including a hominin femur fragment in the upper part of the sequence (level a). The faunal assemblage, mainly collected from the upper part of the sedimentary succession, was attributed to the Isernia faunal unit. 40Ar/39Ar ages and electron spin resonance dates have revised the chronology of the entire sedimentary sequence and constrained between ca. 610 and 675 ka all the archaeological levels from the upper part of the sequence, excavated by M. Piperno in the 1980s. Since 2016, a new excavation campaign was initiated at Notarchirico. New fieldwork focusing on the unknown base of the sequence permitted the team to recognize four additional units (G, H, I, and J), all older than 668 ± 6 ka. The 40Ar/39Ar ages calculated for levels I and J (695.2 ± 6.2 ka and 690.3 ± 5.8 ka, respectively) are indistinguishable, suggesting a rapid deposition of the mainly fluvial sediments during MIS 17 and the transition to MIS 16 (Moncel et al., 2020). In this paper a fossil macaque from recent fieldwork at Notarchirico (Venosa basin, southern Italy), which represents the southernmost and easternmost occurrence of Macaca in the Italian fossil record, is described for the first time.

Since 2011 the Sapienza-University of Rome has started a territorial research project in the Conca Velina and in the Piediluco lake aimed at the diachronic reconstruction of the human population. An in-depth focus for protohistory is the excavation of the lakeshore settlement of Paduli (Colli sul Velino, RI) already identified in the eighties of the twentieth century. Surface research and a initial first excavation trench, highlight a continuity of the site’s life from the Middle Bronze Age to the early Iron Age. From the Late Bronze Age, household structures and craft areas have been based on timber platform. Between BF 3 and I Fe1 an important metallurgical production, formally integrated with the facies medio-tirrenica, seems to be the spy of phenomena of social complexity behind which nascent local elites could be hidden, capable of managing, or directly controlling, the mechanisms of acquisition of the raw material and production of artefacts.

Notarchirico (Southern Italy) has yielded the earliest evidence of Acheulean settlement in Italy and four older occupation levels have recently been unearthed, including one with bifaces, extending the roots of the Acheulean in Italy even further back in time. New 40Ar/39Ar on tephras and ESR dates on bleached quartz securely and accurately place these occupations between 695 and 670 ka (MIS 17), penecontemporaneous with the Moulin-Quignon and la Noira sites (France). These new data demonstrate a very rapid expansion of shared traditions over Western Europe during a period of highly variable climatic conditions, including interglacial and glacial episodes, between 670 and 650 (i.e., MIS17/MIS16 transition). The diversity of tools and activities observed in these three sites shows that Western Europe was populated by adaptable hominins during this time. These conclusions question the existence of refuge areas during intense glacial stages and raise questions concerning understudied migration pathways, such as the Sicilian route.

This article describes the results of the first campaign of documentation of the archaeological evidence on the island of S. Nicola (Tremiti islands). This paper intends to acquire data on the archaeological potential of the islands to plan future research. The state of knowledge on the ancient population is rather incomplete and is based on old archaeological research. Thanks to this first campaign, it was possible to identify a structure known only from archive sources (a coastal military tower). Furthermore, new hypotheses have been advanced about the period of construction of the main archaeological elements of the island: the necropolis, the water basin, the cistern and the rustic cryptoporticus. These findings shed new light on the island’s history. The article closes with a series of historical problems that we will try to solve through a careful planning of future research (survey, geophysical prospecting, remote sensing and excavation).

The work aims to present the first results of the excavation conducted at the Terramara of Pragatto and illustrate the related research project. The area under investigation encompassed a wide strip of about 7,000 square meters corresponding to the southern portion of the settlement. The explorations, conducted by the Archeosistemi AR/S Cooperative, began in May 2016 and are currently being finalized. Excavation reached the settlement’s limits toward both east and west. In the western area, the archaeological stratigraphy resulted progressively decreasing and the presence of a natural slope suggested the existence, already in the Bronze Age, of a watercourse coinciding with the present-day Rio Carpineta. A more complex and articulated system of perimetric delimitation was instead defined in the eastern side, which included a moat, the edges of the embankment’s colluvium, and traces of a palisade and wooden gabions towards the inhabited area. Both structures, the palisade and the gabions, present a gap in correspondence with what could be interpreted as one of the accesses to the village and, although preserved only at the basal level, they appear strictly comparable with those discovered by Pigorini at Castione Marchesi. For what concerns the stratigraphy of the settlement, the materials collected on the surface after that agricultural works have removed the upper levels of the archaeological deposit, date the last occupation to the recent phases of the Bronze Age. The underneath deposit is fully preserved starting from levels dating to the Middle Bronze Age 3 – early Late Bronze Age and it has two distinct phases of well-characterized and regularly spaced heaped dumps. The basal level revealed the existence of a first settlement phase which, in the explored area, seems having included no dwellings, while long palisades delimitating empty areas, as well as holes and stumps, have instead been found. In parallel with the beginning of the excavations, a team was set up to address the research questions related to the geoarchaeological, palaeobotanical, palynological, and zooarchaeological data, as well as to explore potential analyses of metals, objects in animal hard tissues, and macro-lithic tools. The constitution of this team aimed not only at conducting laboratory analyses but also at supporting archaeologists during field investigations. Therefore, in addition to defining proactive protocols for the correct sampling and treatment of artifacts and samples, targeted interventions have been carried out during excavations in response of specific needs emerged during the progress of exploration.

This contribution presents the preliminary results of an ongoing investigation undertaken by the Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project (AKAP), in collaboration with the Combined Prehistoric Expedition Foundation (CPEF) and the PaleoResearch Institute, on a Late Palaeolithic site found in Wadi Kubbaniya, in Egypt. The main occupation at this site (WK26) is radiocarbon dated to the final phase of the Late Palaeolithic period, while a possible Early Holocene occupation is hinted by some surface findings. Paleobotanical research based on the microscopic analysis of residue on grinding equipment identified pollen and phytoliths, providing further evidence for the role of plants in the subsistence pattern of Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene communities along the Nile.

Despite the hostile climate, since the Bronze Age the populations of Southern Turkmenistan have been able to create, through an impressive network of canals, an artificial agricultural territory with villages and large towns. Between 2400 and 1950 BCE, the Murghab alluvial fan was characterised by the presence of complex urban societies. This period was followed by a deep crisis that led to the disappearance of the largest sites. At the beginning of the Iron Age (1300 BCE), the water flow in the Murghab River decreased, resulting in a southward movement of settlements and the abandonment of a large portion of the territory by sedentary farmers. At the same time, new groups of mobile pastoralists began to settle in the area and started to interact with farmers. The excavations of Togolok 1 are providing vital data on the integration between sedentary and mobile pastoralist cultures, as well as on the birth and evolution of urbanism during the later Iron Age.

In a selected area in the region of Apulia, Italy, an ongoing project is currently dealing with the comprehension of how prehistoric communities moved in their territory and how they exploited the landscape during the Neolithic and the early Bronze Age. Apulia is especially interesting in early prehistory. It is characterized by fertile soils, a favourable climate and an abundance of valuable raw materials, especially high-quality flint, and obsidian sources off the coast. Thus, the density of settlements is very high through all of prehistory, and it is not surprising that the region played an important role as a bridge between the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the inner peninsular areas during pre- and protohistoric times. Ideas, artefacts and people travelled from east to west and from north to south. The scope of the work presented here is based on a collection and re-evaluation of sites from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in northern Apulia. We outline the results of first GIS analysis (visibility analysis and least-cost path analysis) which were conducted in order to understand the networks of ties and relationships between sites. Furthermore, we describe the results of surveys undertaken to verify the position of sites, their chronological setting and their placement in the landscape. The high percentage of finds, mostly pottery sherds and a modest quantity of flint, confirms the placement of settlements recorded during the 70 s and allows examine the relationship between the sites in depth in the course of time and how the communities related with their landscape.

Il contributo intende trattare l’analisi dei resti ossei di due sepoltue: un suino (Sus domesticus) e un bovino (Bos taurus), rinvenuti nel 2016 durante lo svolgimento di sondaggi archeologici preventivi nei pressi di Ascoli, in località Lu Battente. La ricerca è stata condotta ponendo particolare attenzione al trattamento ed alle modalità di deposizione dei due scheletri, poiché la documentazione materiale, recuperata a poca distanza dagli animali, suggeriva una connotazione sacra dell’area, assiduamente frequentata fra la fine del IV e gli inizi del III sec. a.C. I fotopiani e le foto di dettaglio dei singoli distretti ossei prodotti in fase di scavo sono stati funzionali per evidenziare la connessione anatomica del suino e le fasi di smembramento del bovino. Tali strategie di deposizione sono state successivamente osservate in relazione alle dimensioni delle fosse e alle tracce antropiche riscontrate sui resti ossei, al fine di individuare le cause della morte e il trattamento delle carcasse. L’analisi delle ossa, in particolare della dentatura, ha permesso di appurare la giovane età dei due esemplari (6-7 mesi per il suino e 7-10 per il bovino); questo dato ha reso difficile la determinazione del loro genere, permettendo di avanzare ipotesi solamente per il bovino.

In the summer of 2016 a series of preventive archaeological investigations due to the construction of a commercial and residential complex along the Via Piceno-Aprutina, about 4 km southeast of the center of Ascoli Piceno, led to the discovery of a large open area, bounded by rows of wooden palisades and next to the course of the Scodella stream. The area was characterized by an intense attendance that can be placed between the end of the IV and the beginning of the III century BC. The archaeological deposit is made up of pottery cores: black-glazed pots and achromatic bowl intentionally fractured around one or more whole and straight kneading pans. The picture is completed by a good number of miniaturistic pots, some spearheads and numerous loom weights. A short distance from the ceramic deposit, two distinct pits containing bone remains belonging respectively to a young pig and a calf, characterized by very special deposition methods. The site can be interpreted as a sacred area that has hosted religious rituals performed in the open air, probably in honor of a female deity connected with the cycle of the seasons and fertility. This is the first context of the genus stratigraphically excavated in the Piceno area, whose chronology, at the turn of the Roman «conquest», stimulates interesting food for thought.

The Aswan-Kom Ombo Archeological Project (AKAP) is a joint venture between the University of Yale and the University of Bologna, working in the region of Aswan and Kom Ombo since 2005. With the aid of different methodologies (satellite images, survey, drillings, rescue excavations, documentation of rock art) and thanks to updated technologies (SRTM, photogrammetry, laser scanner), many sites have been documented so far spanning from the Paleolithic period to Roman times. This brief paper aims at giving a comprehensive overview of the last four years’ achievements and activities. We report on the discovery of Neolithic tumuli in the Wadi el-Lawi, in the desert east of Kom Ombo; of a series of Pan-Grave sites and Paleolithic locales, both on the West Bank Aswan and in the Wadi Kubbaniya; the excavation of predynastic storing features and a Late Paleolithic campsite, again in the area of Kubbaniya; the documentation of rock art and its surrounding landscape using digital methodologies and the discovery of human remains from the predynastic village of Nag el-Qarmila pertaining of a child with scurvy disease.

The full release and circulation of excavation results often takes decades, thus slowing down progress in archaeology to a degree not in keeping with other scientific fields. The nonconformity of released data for digital processing also requires vast and costly data input and adaptation. Archaeology should face the cognitive challenges posed by digital environments, changing in scope and rhythm. We advocate the adoption of a synergy between recording techniques, field analytics, and a collaborative approach to create a new epistemological perspective, one in which research questions are constantly redefined through real-time, collaborative analysis of data as they are collected and/or searched for in an excavation. Since new questions are defined in science discourse after previous results have been disseminated and discussed within the scientific community, sharing evidence in remote with colleagues, both in the process of field collection and subsequent study, will be a key innovative feature, allowing a complex and real-time distant interaction with the scholarly community and leading to more rapid improvements in research agendas and queries.

Le indagini archeozoologiche mirano a far luce su alcuni aspetti proprio del rapporto uomo-animale nel corso del tempo e per tale ragione il complesso archeologico dell’insula IX 8, non si presenta un contesto di facile indagine. I numerosi rimaneggiamenti subiti nei secoli scorsi non consentono, infatti, analisi faunistiche dettagliate, a causa dei probabili rimescolamenti degli strati di terreno, che non permettono una attribuzione cronologica sicura ai reperti faunistici in essi contenuti. Si è dunque preferito in questa sede privilegiare alcune situazioni chiave, particolarmente importanti per una nuova lettura diacronica dell’insula.

Dog domestication is still largely unresolved due to time-gaps in the sampling of regions. Ancient Italian canids are particularly understudied, currently represented by only a few specimens. In the present study, we sampled 27 canid remains from Northern Italy dated between the Late Pleistocene and Bronze Age to assess their genetic variability, and thus add context to dog domestication dynamics. They were targeted at four DNA fragments of the hypervariable region 1 of mitochondrial DNA. A total of 11 samples had good DNA preservation and were used for phylogenetic analyses. The dog samples were assigned to dog haplogroups A, C and D, and a Late Pleistocene wolf was set into wolf haplogroup 2. We present our data in the landscape of ancient and modern dog genetic variability, with a particular focus on the ancient Italian samples published thus far. Our results suggest there is high genetic variability within ancient Italian canids, where close relationships were evident between both a similar to 24,700 years old Italian canid, and Iberian and Bulgarian ancient dogs. These findings emphasize that disentangling dog domestication dynamics benefits from the analysis of specimens from Southern European regions.

Tra i materiali provenienti dai livelli di Grotta San Biagio (Ostuni-BR), indicatori di varia natura avvalorano l’ipotesi che il sito fosse frequentato per scopi cultuali e rituali in un periodo compreso tra la metà del VI e la metà del III millennio. In questa comunicazione si presentano alcuni dati riferibili alla frequentazione neolitica della grotta acquisiti durante i recenti scavi condotti dall’università di Bologna. Le ricerche hanno consentito di individuare, oltre alla presenza di focolari e buche, un grande recinto di pietra -sulla scorta dei noti esempi di Cala Scizzo e Grotta Pacelli. La presenza della raffinata ceramica di facies serra d’Alto, in associazione con i già noti oggetti estranei alla sfera del quotidiano come la pintadera, l’idoletto a testa di papero e le accettine in pietra verde, insieme al nuovo rinvenimento di un pozzetto di carattere rituale, costituiscono una chiara testimonianza dell’utilizzo della cavità a scopi cultuali. Among the artifacts found in San Biagio’s Cave (Ostuni - Brindisi - Italy), specific indicators are supporting the hypothesis of a ritual and cultic use of the cave between the half of the VI millennium BC and the half of the III millennium BC. This paper will show and discuss the data coming from the most recent excavations season, leaded by the University of Bologna. Beyond a series of hearths and pits, a huge stone fence has been found, showing a possible connection with Cala scizzo and Cave Pacelli in Apulia sites. Other than that, the presence of serra d’Alto fine pottery, together with other unusual objects such as a pintadera, a zoomorphic idol interpreted as a “bird head”, several green stone-hatchets and the new ritual pit, are supporting again the cultic use hypothesis for this cave.

Attraverso il riesame di alcuni complessi ceramici dall’Italia centro-meridionale, si propone un’analisi degli aspetti a solcature riferibili alle fasi più antiche dell’età del Rame. Le recenti indagini di scavo condotte a Grotta San Biagio (Ostuni, BR), la cui frequentazione eneolitica copre le fasi antica e media, introducono il quadro degli aspetti riscontrabili in puglia, con particolare riferimento alle aree centrali e nord-orientali della regione. viene quindi analizzato un cospicuo numero di complessi fra calabria e campania, a testimonianza dell’intensa circolazione di idee e modelli che caratterizzano i versanti ionico, tirrenico e adriatico tra IV e III millennio a.C.: una vivace rete di relazioni comprovata dalle rilevanti affinità riscontrabili nelle evidenze di cultura materiale ed in particolare nel record ceramico. In conclusione, emerge chiaramente la presenza di direttrici privilegiate e di una fitta rete di percorsi che sembrano interessare le aree a ridosso delle coste e le contigue fasce rilevate, fra tirreno, ionio e adriatico, sino al subappennino dauno. Le evidenze a disposizione lasciano fra l’altro intravedere la possibilità di distinguere, in Puglia centrale, momenti diversi nell’ambito dell’eneolitico antico e medio, ben rappresentati dalla sequenza di Grotta San Biagio. Through the analysis of some relevant ceramic contexts from Central-Southern Italy, the work shows a pattern of the linear carved ceramic productions during the ancient phases of the Copper age. The recent excavations at Grotta San Biagio (Ostuni, BR), where the sequence covers the Early and Middle Eneolithic, are an introduction to analyze the situation in Apulia, in particular in the Central and North-Eastern areas of the region. A sample of complexes among Calabria and Campania shows well the intensive circulation of ideas and cultural models through the whole district during the IV and the III millennium BC: a lively net of relationships testified by relevant similarities in the artifacts and mostly in the ceramic productions. In conclusion, we observe the emergence of specific routes and of a dense network of trails along the coasts and the adjacent foothill areas, between the thyrrenian, the adriatic and the ionian seas, until the Daunian sub-appennines. In Central Apulia, during the Early and Middle Copper age, we may also assume, through the analysis of the archaeological record, different chronological phases, well represented by the sequence of Grotta San Biagio.

Riassunto - In anni recenti, in seguito alla programmazione di attività edili nell’ambito dei piani di sviluppo urbanistico della città di Foggia, sono state condotte nuove ricerche archeologiche che hanno ampliato le conoscenze sulla frequentazione neolitica dell’area urbana tra il VI e il V millennio a.C. In particolare sono stati oggetto di indagini stratigrafiche i villaggi di Masseria Pantano e della Palestra ex GIL, dei quali sono state intercettate porzioni dei fossati perimetrali, dalla articolata sequenza stratigrafica, e alcuni tratti di fossati a C interni. Per entrambi i siti è stato condotto lo studio dei resti faunistici che ha evidenziato una esclusiva attestazione di animali domestici (prevalentemente ovicaprini, maiali e buoi) e l’assenza di specie selvatiche. Il campione faunistico proveniente dal sito della Palestra ex GIL risultava connotato anche da una cospicua presenza di cannolicchi, molluschi bivalvi colonizzatori di bassi fondali sabbiosi-fangosi litoranei o lagunari. L’analisi archeozoologica ha interessato anche le modalità di abbattimento degli animali tramite il riconoscimento delle età di morte offrendo un quadro generale relativo allo sfruttamento delle risorse animali durante il primo Neolitico nel Tavoliere di Puglia. Summary - New archaeozoological data about Neolithic Settlements of Apulian Tavoliere: the villages of Masseria Pantano and Palestra ex GIL. During the last years new archaeological researches have been carried out in Foggia for the planning of building activity related to the urban plans of development. The investigations gave new data for the knowledge of the Neolithic settlement in the urban area between VI and V millennium BC. Particularly, the researches interested the villages of Masseria Pantano and of Palestra ex-GIL and sections of the perimetral ditches, with an articulated stratigraphic sequence, and some portions of the internal compounds have been investigated. For the two sites the study of the faunal remains highlighted a specific and exclusive presence of domestic animals (in prevalence sheep/goats, pigs and cattle) and the absence of the wild species. The fauna from the site of Palestra ex-GIL is also characterized by the abundance of sea clams typical of a sandy and muddy habitat or of lagoon. The zooarchaeological analysis concerned also the patterns of the animal killing through the observation of the age of death, offering a general view on the animal exploitation during the Early Neolithic of the Apulian Tavoliere., Sezione di Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, Vol 12, N° 1 (2016): Atti del 7° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia - Comunicazioni

La Bioarcheologia indaga sulle attività economiche, rituali, e sociali dei gruppi umani in varie epoche. In realtà quella che spesso viene definita come una scienza sussidiaria all’archeologia non è altro che una delle numerose fonti di informazione sulle quali la ricerca archeologica deve essere costruita. Nel presente volume si presentano i risultati del Progetto di Ricerca denominato “Le discipline bioarcheologiche per la ricostruzione del quadro economico-ambientale dell'Italia padana nell'Età del Bronzo” dove si affronta il tema dell'interazione uomo-ambiente in un area campione della pianura padana, compresa tra le conche intermoreniche dei laghi del Garda e l’Appennino emiliano, e si analizzano le strategie di sussistenza che stanno alla base della costante predilezione delle comunità del Bronzo antico e medio nella fascia sub-alpina e di alta pianura per ecosistemi tipicamente umidi. In particolare il lavoro è suddiviso in tre parti che riguardano aree geografiche ben distinte: l’area delle palafitte lombarde con i contributi relativi alle ricerche archeozoologiche condotte nell’insediamento del Lavagnone (BS), l’area delle terramare emiliane e l’area romagnola.

Bone remains of camel (Camelus dromedarius) have been found in several sites of south-eastern Arabia, dating from the Late Holocene period to the Bronze Age, and generally attributed to wild animals. The new camel finds from the Early Bronze Age site of Ra's al-Hadd (HD-6) - dated with radiocarbon technique between 2890-2580 BC - are the oldest camel evidence in the Sultanate of Oman. This discovery represents an opportunity for a critical review of all available data in the Arabian Peninsula. These remains are important because widen our knowledge about camel spreading trajectory and raise an obvious question about its domestication or wild status. This study contributes to the debate about camel status and the relationship between late prehistoric communities and this animal.

This is a brief report.

The presence of animal bones in human graves may often represent the ritual deposition of alimentary offerings for the dead. In fact, several ancient cultures believed in the perpetuation of earthly life activities and necessities in the afterlife. This essay presents the methodological aspects and the results of the archaeozoological analyses carried out on the 39 graves examined so far in the Etruscan-Celtic necropolis of Monterenzio Vecchio (Bologna, Northern Italy). The study of the animal bone remains points to a very high standardization of meat offering preparatory practices and their presentation inside the graves. The meat portions were always composed of a few adjoining ribs from a single young porker (Sus domesticus). The distribution of the bone remains and the lack of manifest stripping traces on the surface, in spite of evidence for meat cooking, exclude any possible interpretation of these findings as refuse from a hypothetical funerary banquet. The spatial and functional correlation between data from faunal and taphonomic analyses, the burial features and grave goods denote obvious symbolic connotations related to funerary rituals. The generalized presence in the Monterenzio Vecchio graves of highly standardized alimentary offerings, generally placed in funerary pottery, seems to demonstrate the existence of a well-defined “food of the dead”.