Grotta de Nadale

Grotta de Nadale
	Grotta de Nadale (2019)
Location:	At Zovencedo , Vicenza Province , Veneto Region , Italy
Height :	80 m slm
Geographic ; location:	45 ° 25 '43 " N , 11 ° 30' 15" E Coordinates: 45 ° 25 '43 " N , 11 ° 30' 15" E
Geology:	Oligocene Limestone
Discovery:	2006
Lighting:	no
Website:	[1] (Italian)

The Grotta de Nadale , also Cuoléto de Nadale , engl . De Nadale Cave is a karst cave located in the municipality of Zovencedo in the center of the Colli Berici ridge .

During the archaeological excavations carried out since 2014, a single anthropogenic layer was found in the largely sterile cave sediments , which is attributed to the Middle Paleolithic Quina-Moustérien due to the typological characteristics of the stone artifacts and the age of around 70,000 years .

From the analysis of the numerous and well-preserved finds and findings , scientists new insights into the lifestyle and eating habits of hope Neanderthal populations that which at the beginning marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 in what is now Region Veneto have stopped.

Geographical location and topography

The Grotta de Nadale is located in the lower third of the towering Monte Spiadi near the municipality of Zovencedo . The altitude is given in various sources as 50, 80 or 130 m slm . The cave is only a few meters deep, its approximately 8 m wide entrance faces south. To the west, the Covolo de Vecio Possibile - in which the remains of the wall indicate an earlier use as a residential cave - and a narrow rock overhang . The space in front of the caves used to be used as agricultural cultivation area, for this purpose the slope was terraced in two stages over a width of about 75 m.

Finding

In 2006 , G. Baruffato, an employee of the University of Ferrara , found several bones and stone tools in the field in front of the cave that a burrowing badger had brought into the plow horizon. At that time, the Grotta De Nadale was almost at ground level filled with sediment and only recognizable as a small rock overhang. In 2013 further finds came to light when the upper soil horizon was removed, and two archaeological excavations were carried out the following year. In the western area, a 1.5 m × 1.5 m area was first excavated down to the rock. In the resulting profile, eight geological horizons could be distinguished, of which only layer 7 shows anthropogenic influences. It is clearly visible from the other strata as a dark brown-gray loamy layer with medium-sized, slightly rounded limestone rubble.

Fauna and organic devices

Similar retouchers to this one from the Neandertal were also used in the Grotta de Nadale.

Apart from a few charcoal crumbs layer 7 contains a variety of bone fragments of large mammals such as elk , red deer , steppe bison , aurochs , ibex and chamois , which, combined with the actions taken pollen analysis on a Paleoenvironment with kaltgemäßigtem climate and sparse boreal forests and partly open grasslands suggests. Cave bears , wolves , red foxes as well as various birds and small mammals are present in small numbers. Almost half of all Huftierknochen shows the Zerwirken occurring cutting and of rubbing , impact marks or signs of spiral fracture . The inventory contains 224 bones (as of 2019), which can be addressed as retouchers due to characteristic scar areas and which were used to re-sharpen stone tools. On a bison tooth, the minimum age of the find layer was determined to be 70,200 + 1000 / -900 years BP by means of uranium-thorium dating .

Stone artifacts

The lithic inventory so far comprises 386 artefacts, including numerous scrapers , points and retouched, perforated pieces. It is referred to as a quina-type moustérien because of the techniques used and its form-based properties . Most of the raw material used was flint from Biancone and Scaglia Rossa formations , such as those found in the Euganean Hills and the Lessini Mountains a few kilometers away .

Human remains

A tooth ( Nadale 1 ) uncovered in the first year of the excavation near the northern wall of the cave could be identified as the lower right 1st milk molar (tooth 84 or approx. ₁ ) of a Neanderthal based on its morphological features . The root of the tooth has largely dissolved, the crown is badly worn and streaked with cracks that only appeared after it fell out. On the buccal side facing the cheek, an incipient caries disease, which has so far only been detected in a few cases, can be seen . This suggests that the diet of the individual included carbohydrate foods.

literature

Alessandra Livraghi, Gabriele Fanfarillo, Maurizio Dal Colle, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Neanderthal ecology and the exploitation of cervids and bovids at the onset of MIS4: A study on De Nadale cave, Italy , in: Quaternary International, November 13, 2019, Pp. 1–18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.11.024

Camille Jéquier, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Same but different: 20,000 years of bone retouchers from northern Italy. A diachronologic approach from neanderthals to anatomically modern humans , in: The origins of bone tool technologies: "Retouching the Palaeolithic: Becoming Human and the Origins of Bone Tool Technology", RGZM - Tagungen, Volume 35, Heidelberg 2018, pp. 269–285 https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.408.590

Juan Manuel Lopéz Garcia, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Environmental and climatic reconstruction of the Neanderthal site of De Nadale cave (Zovencedo, Berici Hills, Northeastern Italy) through the small mammal assemblages (Abstract), in: Conference proceedings for the 60. Annual meeting of the Hugo Obermaier Society in Tarragona, Erlangen 2018, pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-3-946387-12-1

Julie Arnaud: Analisi di denti decidui di due siti del Paleolitico medio dell'Italia nord-orientale , in: Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica, IV Incontro Annuale di Preistoria e Protostoria, Vol. 13, Ferrara 2017, pp. 47-49. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/1496

Julie Arnaud, Stefano Benazzi, Matteo Romandini, Alessandra Livraghi, Daniele Panetta, Piero A. Salvadori, Lisa Volpe, Marco Peresani: A Neanderthal deciduous human molar with incipient carious infection from the Middle Palaeolithic De Nadale cave, Italy , in: American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Vol. 162, Issue 2, 2017, pp. 370-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23111

Camille Jéquier, Marco Peresani, Matteo Romandini, Davide Delpiano, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Giuseppe Lembo, Alessandra Livraghi, Juan Manuel Lopéz Garcia, Marija Obradovic´, Cristiano Nicosia: The De Nadale Cave, a single layered Quina Mousterian site in the North of Italy , in: Quaternary International Yearbook on Ice Age and Stone Age Research. Vol. 62, Rahden / Westfalen 2015, pp. 7–21. ISBN 978-3-86757-928-5

Web links

Commons : Grotta de Nadale - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Alessandra Livraghi, Gabriele Fanfarillo, Maurizio Dal Colle, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Quaternary International . November 13, 2019, Neanderthal ecology and the exploitation of cervids and bovids at the onset of MIS4: A study on De Nadale cave, Italy , p. 2, 8 .

^ Camille Jéquier, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: The origins of bone tool technologies: "Retouching the Palaeolithic: Becoming Human and the Origins of Bone Tool Technology" . Ed .: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Leibniz Research Institute for Archeology, Jarod M. Hutson et al. tape 35 . Propylaeum, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-947450-21-3 , Same but different: 20,000 years of bone retouchers from northern Italy. A diachronologic approach from neanderthals to anatomically modern humans, S. 269-285 .

↑ Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Proceedings of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution . Ed .: European Society for the study of Human Evolution ESHE. tape 5 , 2016, ISSN 2195-0776 , Giant deers and large-sized bovids exploited by Quina Neanderthals in the North of Italy, p. 144 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c Camille Jéquier, Marco Peresani, Matteo Romandini, Davide Delpiano, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Giuseppe Lembo, Alessandra Livraghi, Juan Manuel Lopéz Garcia, Marija Obradovic´, Cristiano Nicosia: Quartar International Yearbook on Ice Age and Stone Age Research . Ed .: Hugo Obermaier Society. tape 62 . Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden / Westf. 2015, ISBN 978-3-86757-928-5 , The De Nadale Cave, a single layered Quina Mousterian site in the North of Italy, pp. 7-21 .

^ Juan Manuel Lopéz Garcia, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Conference proceedings for the 60th annual meeting of the Hugo Obermaier Society in Tarragona . tape 60 , 2018, ISBN 978-3-946387-12-1 , Environmental and climatic reconstruction of the Neanderthal site of De Nadale cave (Zovencedo, Berici Hills, Northeastern Italy) through the small mammal assemblages (abstract), pp. 29-30 .

↑ Julie Arnaud, Stefano Benazzi, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini: American Journal of Physical Anthropology . tape 162 , 2017, A Neanderthal deciduous human molar with incipient carious infection from the Middle Palaeolithic De Nadale cave, Italy, p. 370-376 .

[QI2019-1] Alessandra Livraghi, Gabriele Fanfarillo, Maurizio Dal Colle, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Quaternary International . November 13, 2019, Neanderthal ecology and the exploitation of cervids and bovids at the onset of MIS4: A study on De Nadale cave, Italy , p. 2, 8 .

[RGZM2018-2] Camille Jéquier, Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: The origins of bone tool technologies: "Retouching the Palaeolithic: Becoming Human and the Origins of Bone Tool Technology" . Ed .: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Leibniz Research Institute for Archeology, Jarod M. Hutson et al. tape 35 . Propylaeum, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-947450-21-3 , Same but different: 20,000 years of bone retouchers from northern Italy. A diachronologic approach from neanderthals to anatomically modern humans, S. 269-285 .

[ESHE2016-3] Alessandra Livraghi, Matteo Romandini, Marco Peresani: Proceedings of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution . Ed .: European Society for the study of Human Evolution ESHE. tape 5 , 2016, ISSN 2195-0776 , Giant deers and large-sized bovids exploited by Quina Neanderthals in the North of Italy, p. 144 .

[Quartär2015-4] Camille Jéquier, Marco Peresani, Matteo Romandini, Davide Delpiano, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Giuseppe Lembo, Alessandra Livraghi, Juan Manuel Lopéz Garcia, Marija Obradovic´, Cristiano Nicosia: Quartar International Yearbook on Ice Age and Stone Age Research . Ed .: Hugo Obermaier Society. tape 62 . Marie Leidorf GmbH, Rahden / Westf. 2015, ISBN 978-3-86757-928-5 , The De Nadale Cave, a single layered Quina Mousterian site in the North of Italy, pp. 7-21 .