Caves overlooking the Bay of Uluzzo.
Caves overlooking the Bay of Uluzzo.
Bay of Uluzzo in relation to the Gulf of Taranto.

The Uluzzian Culture is a transitional archaeological culture between the Middle paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic, found in Italy and Greece.

A team led by archaeological scientist Katerina Douka has dated the Uluzzian as lasting from shortly before 45,000 to around 39,500 years before present (BP), at a similar date or slightly earlier than the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption.[1]

Geographical extent: In Italy: Apulia (the Grotta del Cavallo and the Uluzzo cave), Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, Tuscany, and Fumane (the northernmost point).[2] Outside of Italy, only in Argolis, Greece (the cave of Klissoura).[3]

Discovery

Entrance to the Grotta del Cavallo (photo: Thilo Parg, 2019).

Excavations by 1963 Arturo Palma di Cesnola of the Grotta del Cavallo ("Cave of the Horse") in southern Italy uncovered the first remains later called "Uluzzian".[4] The cave is on the Salento peninsula in Apulia, overlooking the Gulf of Taranto. The only human remains were two deciduous teeth (Cavallo B and Cavallo C) from the Uluzzian deposit of Grotta del Cavallo identified as human by (Benazzi et al., 2011).[5] These teeth, dated to 43,000–45,000 BP, are the oldest currently-known remains of modern humans in Europe.[5]

Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition

Stratigraphy of deposits on the floor of the Fumane Cave (photo:Thilo Parg, 2014).

The Uluzzian is one of several techno-complexes considered to be "transitional assemblages": Uluzzian, Châtelperronian, Szeletian, and Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician.[6]

Culture

The Uluzzians made and used beads from shells of marine molluscs such as scaphopods, snails (Columbella rustica, Cyclope neritea), and other species.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Douka, Katerina; Higham, Thomas FG; Wood, Rachel; Boscato, Paolo (2014). "On the chronology of the Uluzzian". Journal of Human Evolution. 68: 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.12.007. PMID 24513033.(registration required)
  2. ↑ Peresani, M., 2012. Fifty thousand years of flint knapping and tool shaping across the Mousterian and Uluzzian sequence of Fumane cave. Quaternary International 247, 125–150
  3. ↑ "Klissoura cave" often appears in the literature, but the archaeologists themselves use the spelling "Klisoura" or the phrase "Cave 1 in Klisoura Gorge (Western Peloponnese)". Koumouzelis, M., Ginter, B., Koz1owski, J.K., Pawlikowski, M., Bar-Yosef, O., Albert, R.M., Litynska-Zajac, M., Stworzewicz, E., Wojtal, P., Lipecki, G., Tomek, T., Bochenski, Z.M., Pazdur, A., 2001. The early Upper Palaeolithic in Greece: the excavations in Klisoura cave. J. Archaeol. Sci. 28, 515–539.
  4. ↑ Palma di Cesnola, Arturo (1964). "Seconda campagna di scavo nella grotta del Cavallo". Riv. Sci. Preist.: 23–39.
  5. 1 2 Benazzi, Stefano; Katerina, Douka; Fornai, Cinzia; Bauer, Catherine C. (2011). "Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour". Nature. 479 (7374): 525–528. Bibcode:2011Natur.479..525B. doi:10.1038/nature10617. PMID 22048311. S2CID 205226924. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  6. ↑ Hublin, J-J. (2015). "The modern human colonization of western Eurasia: when and where?". Quaternary Sci. Rev. 118: 194–210. Bibcode:2015QSRv..118..194H. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.08.011. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0024-11F6-F.
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