Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The region of Liguria, located in NW Italy, has recently regained prominence in several of the central questions in Old World prehistory. These include, among others, Neanderthal adaptations, an early appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens, Gravettian lifeways, Epigravettian funerary rituals and the adoption of an agricultural way of life in the sixth millennium BCE. Given this recent surge of research, including the re-excavation and revision of old sites and the discovery of new ones both in Liguria and immediately neighboring regions (Provence, Monaco, Piemonte, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany), this session proposes to bring together members of the teams actively working on the prehistory of the region to present an up-to-date overview of the state of research there. It will follow the 53rd annual meeting of the Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria that will have been held in October 2018 in Genoa for the first time since 1977, and help broadcast and synthesize some of this cutting-edge research to an English-speaking audience as well.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)

Documents
  • Detecting Transitions: Cultural and Environmental Changes Preserved in Archaeological Sediments from Western Liguria (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrea Zerboni. Guido S. Mariani. Sahra Talamo. Fabio Negrino. Julien Riel-Salvatore.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The reconstruction of Pleistocene human peopling along the Tyrrhenian coastline of Liguria is of critical importance. This region has yielded among the most recent evidence of Neanderthal occupation and the most ancient traces of modern humans in southern Europe. The reconstruction of the subsistence strategies of...

  • First Insights on Proto-Aurignacian Subsistence Behaviors at Riparo Bombrini (Liguria, Italy) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Genevieve Pothier Bouchard. Julien Riel-Salvatore. Fabio Negrino. Michael Buckley.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Balzi Rossi Paleolithic site complex, Riparo Bombrini documents the oldest Proto-Aurignacian occupations in Liguria, Italy along with the neighboring site of Riparo Mochi. Bombrini itself is the sole site to have been entirely excavated and documented with modern archaeological methods. This makes it a...

  • Forensic Methods for the 3D Reconstruction of an Infant Burial in Arma Veirana Cave, Liguria, Italy (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Danylo Drohobytsky. Dominique Meyer. Julien Riel-Salvatore. Jamie Hodgkins. Caley Orr.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Spatio-temporal models can function as detailed digital surrogates of archaeological sites, providing the context and content needed to enable analytical reasoning by means of interactive visualization. The starting point is often surveying techniques based on light detection and ranging as well as photogrammetry,...

  • A Geoarchaeological Study of Site Formation Processes at Arma Veirana, A Palaeolithic Cave in Liguria, Italy (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Miller. Jamie Hodgkins. Fabio Negrino.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Arma Veirana is a cave situated along the steep flanks of the Neva river valley, ca. 14 km from the modern-day Mediterranean coast in the mountainous interior of Liguria. The cave formed tectonically within marble, schist and other metamorphic rocks and presents a large but relatively short cavity. Excavations since...

  • A High-Resolution Investigation of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition at Riparo Bombrin (Balzi Rossi, Liguria) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Julien Riel-Salvatore. Fabio Negrino.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents an overview of the results of the 2015-2018 field seasons at Riparo Bombrini, a collapsed rock shelter part of the storied Balzi Rossi site complex in Liguria, immediately next to the border with France. The excavation has sought to capitalize on the insights of the 2002-05 excavations at the site...

  • An In-Depth Study of the Arma Veirana Pierced Shells and Pendants used as Grave Goods (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudine Gravel-Miguel. Julien Riel-Salvatore. Jamie Hodgkins. Caley Orr. Fabio Negrino.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 2017 excavation season at Arma Veirana, a cave site located in the Italian pre-Alps, a Final Epigravettian burial was discovered. Careful excavation of the feature has uncovered an important number of grave goods comprised of over 80 perforated marine shells. The majority of these ornaments were made from...

  • An Investigation into Ochres from Arene Candide Cave: Implications for Mineralogical Properties and Provenance Studies in the Liguria Region (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ivano Rellini. Roberto Cabella. Roberto Maggi. Gabriele Martino. Marco Firpo.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Arene Candide Cave, a key sequence for western Mediterranean prehistory, became famous in 1942 after the discovery of a Gravettian adolescent buried in a pit filled with ochre and spectacularly ornamented. At the end of the last glaciation, with a similar choice, at least 20 Final Epigravettian burials were...

  • Monaco in Prehistoric Times and Further Investigations (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elena Rossoni-Notter. Olivier Notter. Suzanne Simone. Matteo Romandini.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology has conducted excavations and research in the Principality of Monaco and surroundings for more than 100 years. In this contribution, we tackle the issue of the prehistoric Liguro-Provencal panorama, including some major comparative items and new results obtained through the...

  • New Discoveries on Late Upper Paleolithic (Final Epigravettian) Funerary Behavior at Arene Candide (Finale Ligure, Italy) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Vitale Sparacello. Stefano Rossi. Julien Riel-Salvatore. Irene Dori. Alessandra Varalli.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Epigravettian "necropolis" at Arene Candide Cave (Finale Ligure), excavated in the 1940s, yielded a large Late Upper Paleolithic skeletal series consisting of 10 primary burials and six clusters of bones in secondary deposition, accumulated during two distinct phases separated by a few centuries (AMS dates spanning...

  • New Multi-disciplinary Studies Re-shape our Understanding of Neolithic Peopling and Biocultural Adaptations in Western Liguria (Northwestern Italy) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stefano Rossi. Chiara Panelli. Irene Dori. Alessandra Varalli. Goude Gwenaëlle.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beginning in the mid-1800s, about 200 burials and an undefined number of scattered human remains have been reported from several caves and rock shelters in western Liguria. The skeletal series, excavated following the methodology of the time, were considered likely/probably/possibly "Neolithic" or "Middle Neolithic",...

  • An Overview of the Mousterian and Final Epigravettian at Arma Veirana (Liguria, Northwestern Italy) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jamie Hodgkins. Fabio Negrino. Caley Orr. Julien Riel-Salvatore.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents preliminary results of the first four years of archaeological investigation at the cave site of Arma Veirana, located near Erli (Savona), in western Liguria. The site has yielded in situ Middle and Upper Paleolithic deposits containing a variety of artifacts. One of the project’s principal goals to...

  • Strategies and Tools for Managing Change. What Lithic Artefacts Tell about Neandertals and First Anatomically Modern Humans in Liguria (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Fabio Negrino. Stefano Bertola. Julien Riel-Salvatore.

    This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Liguria is an arch of land overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with mountain areas, very rare coastal planes and steeply sloping valleys. In spite of this peculiar orography this region represented an important passageway between France and central-northern Italy, allowing the diffusion of human groups, ideas, artefacts...