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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.

Because of the close relationship among soils features and their forming factors, soils and paleosols are a useful archive both to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to gather information on the morphodynamic processes affecting landscape evolution through time. The formation of complex paleosols sequences is deeply affected by the combined effect of different soil forming factors that, shaping pedogenesis, leave marks that can be interpreted and used to reconstruct the climatic and environmental history of the landscape.By integrating geopedological, geomorphological and geoarchaeological data gathered in over 20 years of research, we aimed to reconstruct the environmental Holocene history of the Mt. Cusna area (Northern Italian Apennines). We collected chemical, physical and micromorphological data of about 70 soil profiles into a georeferenced database, which maps different soil characteristics from both modern soils and paleosols. The integration of soil data with other types of available data, as geomorphological map, previous paleoenvironmental and geoarcheological reconstructions, allowed to highlight natural and anthropogenic trends and model the dynamics of past climate history, past environmental conditions, and the reciprocal distribution of landforms and paleosurfaces.We have defined the occurrence of different phases of biostasy, characterized by the absence of erosion and/or deposition on the slope, the presence of vegetation cover, and the soil development, alternated with phases of rhexistasy, characterized by slope instability and soil erosion and burial. The soil and paleosols variability across the study area mirrors the different impact of soil forming factors on pedogenesis (e.g., vegetation cover, human impact, slope dynamics), supporting a detailed characterization of the succession of different environments conditions through space and time.These results highlight how soils can represent an important archive for paleoenvironmental information as well as geomorphological dynamics and demonstrate that a multi-disciplinary approach is necessary to properly characterize soils and retrace environmental changes.

The interaction of human dispersal patterns with landscape features can in many cases provide useful information on the sustenance strategies of past communities. Mapping the present landscape is a necessary step in recognizing the nature, impact, and diffusion of the processes which drive the behaviour of past populations and modify palaeolandscapes. We constructed a map of the land units in the southwestern corner of Sardinia and compared them with the distribution of known Bronze Age megalithic towers called nuraghes. The vast majority of nuraghes are near the plains or at mid elevations close to the river network, in areas with the highest landscape diversity. The occurrence of nuraghes also seems to be related to elevated outcrops giving the advantage of a raised position and stable foundations. Denudation processes, Late Holocene sea level rise, and anthropogenic disturbance seem to be the most important factors driving changes in the palaeolandscape.

Chemical characterization of cryptotephra is critical for temporally linking archaeological sites. Here, we describe cryptotephra investigations of two Middle–Upper Paleolithic sites from north‐west Italy, Arma Veirana and Riparo Bombrini. Cryptotephra are present as small (75 wt.%) with low FeO ( 1 and P2 is also a high silica rhyolite (>75 wt.%) but with higher FeO (2.33–2.65 wt.%). Shards at Riparo Bombrini (P3) are of the same composition as P1 shards at Arma Veirana, providing a distinct link between deposits at both sites. Geochemical characteristics suggest three possible sources for P1 and P3: eruptions from Lipari Island (56–37.7 ka) in Italy, the Acigöl volcanic field (200–20 ka) in Turkey and the Miocene Kirka‐Phrigian caldera (18 Ma) in Turkey. Eruptions from Lipari Island are the most likely source for P1,3 cryptotephra. This study highlights how cryptotephra can benefit archaeology, by providing a direct link between Arma Veirana and Riparo Bombrini as well as other deposits throughout the Mediterranean.

Located along the Tigris River in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the Mosul Dam reservoir is the second biggest dam of the Near East, and represents an important water storage for local human activities. The Dam was built between 1981 and 1988 north of the village of Eski Mosul; along this part of the Tigris River several archaeological sites were inundated. Analysis of historical images derived from Declassified Corona satellite acquired between December 1967 and August 1968 reveals seasonal changes of the Tigris riverbed, shifting across the hydrological year from meandering to anastomosing. The geomorphological mapping was carried out on the December 1967 and. in August 1968, Corona images were taken, in order to estimate the modification of several fluvial geomorphological elements such as floodplain and point, middle and longitudinal bars. Here, such evidence is compared with Landsat data collected between the 1990ies and today, in order to detect the first phases of filling of the basin and the control of inherited Tigris channel belt over the reservoir. Moreover, we also noticed an influence of the ancient Tigris course on is recent insertion into the lake. Our work permitted to reconstruct the ancient fluvial landscape below the Mosul Dam Lake, and its evolution in response to seasonal variation of the discharge.

International audience; Complex sequences of paleosols are often formed by the interaction between pedogenesis and geomorphological evolution. Their study, particularly in mountain areas, is useful to reconstruct past environmental conditions as well as climate shifts, and to gather information on the morphodynamical processes affecting the landscape through time.Since the combined role that all different factors can play in the soil formation and evolution through time and space influences the formation and evolution of those complex paleosol sequences, a multidisciplinary study was conducted at the NW slope of Mt. Cusna (Northern Apennines, Italy). This work aims to reconstruct and to evaluate how the interactions between the geomorphological context, the Holocene climate variations, and the modification of the vegetation cover and composition influence the soil development of this area.A combination of routine soil analyses (i.e., grain-size distributions, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, pH, and Fe/Al extractions), soil micromorphology and the Rock-Eval® pyrolysis allowed to characterize and to correlate the different soil units constituting a toposequence of six soil profiles.The presence of different pedological units that can be correlated along the slope underlines the occurrence of separate events of pedogenesis, spatio-temporally linked to recognizable stability phases at slope scale. These phases of biostasy, characterized by vegetation cover and soil development, alternate to phases of rhexistasy, characterized mainly by slope instability (i.e., aggradation/degradation).In detail, in the Mt. Cusna toposequence three different soil units, linked to three different stability phases, have been identified: the earliest stability phase, characterized by the presence of well-developed Luvisols, the subsequent stability phase typified by less expressed Luvisols, and the ongoing stability phase with Leptosols. This latter pedogenetic phase, in some cases, is superimposed to the previous one, so affecting the exhumed paleosols.In this light, the Mt. Cusna toposequence characterization allowed to enlighten the complexity of soil polygenesis in higher detail than the previous studies, not only reconstructing the past environmental conditions but also inferring the succession of phases of slope stability and phases characterized by erosion and deposition processes.

The interaction between human societies and the physical landscape is deep and widespread since the dawn of civilisation. The development of different cultures always had to take into account their physical and geological surrounding, in order to adapt to their features and exploit them in the most efficient fashion. Cultural and geological heritage are therefore often tightly linked in a relationship enhancing the meaning of both to society in many ways. Tapping into these cultural archives can provide a useful way of communicating geoheritage to the wider public through the history of human-landscape interactions. Such landmarks would effectively act as witnesses of Earth history from a human point of view and become beneficial in spreading knowledge about past and current geological processes such as climate change. With the help of archaeogeosites, integrated reconstructions where the geological and geomorphological evidence with the elements of archaeological heritage could provide an effective way of communicating to the larger public sea level dynamics at a longer scale and the effects of climate change in the present and near future.As a case study, the late ancient city of Nora is particularly effective. Located in southwestern Sardinia (Italy), it was a seaport of great importance during the Punic and Roman periods. Its surrounding landscape is deeply influenced by the marine transgression happening since the Last Glacial Maximum. Along the coast, many landforms and stratigraphic sequences bear evidence of sea level fluctuations and the related changes in the landscape revealing the larger context in which the city was developed. Beach deposits dated to MIS5 are buried by fluvial deposits and soils indicating a much lower sea level during later stadial periods. Since the passage to the Holocene the area, dominated by fluvial and slope dynamics, is interested by the progressive rise of the coastline and the consequent land loss. The city itself was not spared from this process. While its strategic coastal position was instrumental in its rise to prominence, the exposure to a rising sea level had a great impact on its history, both during its development and later as an abandoned settlement and an archaeological site. Several human structures possibly show the necessity of shielding against a progressively more damaging wave action.

In the Northern Apennines the effects of the Little Ice Age (LIA) on the mountain landscape are poorly known. A pedosedimentary sequence on the northern slope of Mt. Cusna (Tuscan-Aemilian Apennines) and its geomorphological setting were investigated in order to assess the influence of the LIA on the soils and the geomorphological processes. The upper portion of the described sequence could be interpreted as colluvial deposits burying an old paleosurface. The LIA climatic effects acted on the sequence in two distinct phases: in a first moment, partial denudation of the surfaces allowed direct daily and seasonal freeze-thaw cycles (i.e. frost action) to produce ice-related relict microscopic pedofeatures in the soil horizons constituting the paleosurface, and absent on modern surfaces. Afterwards, a slope instability phase, possibly caused by the change to wetter conditions, promoted the widespread colluvial deposits, which were later partially reworked by frost in solifluction lobes. The triggering of these events seems to be influenced by the presence of pastoral communities, too: charcoals found on the paleosurface point to the use of fire events for clearance practices and, possibly, later pasture exploitation of the surfaces. In this light, the environmental history recorded by the Mt. Cusna pedosedimentary sequence highlights how LIA was fundamental in shaping the modern landscape of the N Apennines and suggests a complex relationship between climate and human forcing on mountain environments.

The Estimation of the relative intensity of different cold periods occurring during the Late Quaternary is a difficult task, particularly in non-glaciated mountain landscapes and where high- to medium-resolution archives for proxy data are lacking. In this paper, we study a Holocene polycyclic soil sequence in the central Alps (Val Cavargna, Northern Italy) to estimate climatic parameters (specifically Temperature) changes in non-glaciated, high altitude environments. We investigate this key site through palaeopedological and micromorphological analyses in order to understand phases of soil development and detect hidden evidence of cold conditions during its formation. Three phases of pedogenesis can be recognized and attributed in time to different periods during the Holocene. Pedogenetic phases were separated by two truncation and deposition episodes related to the reactivation of slope processes under cold conditions at the onset of the Neoglacial and the Iron Age Cold Epoch, respectively. Micromorphological evidence of frost action in the soil can instead relate to pedogenetic processes acting in the Little Ice Age. The different expression of these three cold periods corresponds to changes in climatic conditions, pointing to the Little Ice Age as a cooler/drier period in comparison to the preceding ones.

The aim of this work is to investigate paleoenvironment at treeline quotas through the help of soil micromorphology. It also assesses how the micromorphological approach can provide information in paleoenvironmental studies where paleosols are available as proxy archives. Nine soil profiles are described across the treeline, between 1723 and 1860 m, on Mt Cusna slope (2121 m a.s.l., Northern Apennines, Italy). Undisturbed samples from selected soil horizons are collected in Kubiëna boxes. From field observations, all the profiles appear to be composed of two main pedogenetic units: the upper one, composed of a recent soil of colluvial origin, and the deeper one, consisting of an underlying more developed buried paleosol. Thin sections give detailed information about the nature and the origin of both pedological units. Four principal phases of paleosol development are detected. A first period of temperate climate with forest cover and contrasted seasons is followed by a phase of change and then by a successive decrease of forest cover. In a last phase, the soil experiences frost action under the effect of a colder climate. The final deposition of colluvium seems to be very recent (historical time). Moreover, multiple colluvial layers are identified. Colluvial material of different origins could be identified as part of dismantled soils similar to the preexisting paleosol. In conclusion, with the help of soil micromorphology, it is possible to assess the existence of past stable forest at least 100 m above the present treeline. The micromorphological approach represents a powerful tool in multidisciplinary paleoenvironmental studies due to its high level of resolution in outlining the individual and successive phases of soil evolution.