Program > By author > Berto Claudio

The passage between the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene is considered a moment of abrupt climate changes that marked the end of Late Glacial and the beginning of the current Interglacial. These fluctuations drove large and small mammals to adapt to the new environments forcing cold-climate species moving northward or searching ecological niches suitable for them. The southwestern Italian peninsula can be considered a key area to study mammal adaptation to the environment changes happened during this period and to investigate the subsequent changes in both settlement strategies and resources exploitation by Paleo-Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. In this area, one of the most important sequences that allow to study the passage between Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is Grotta del Romito (Northern Calabria, 275 m a.s.l.) in the southern area of the Pollino massif. The recent archaeological investigations carried on this site had detected a very detailed chrono-cultural sequence spanning from Late Epigravettan to Sauveterrian (ca. 15-11.000 cal. BP).

Changes in large and small mammal communities at Grotta del Romito reflect transformations happened in the whole region during the end of the Late Glacial: the afforestation and the consequent disappearance of open habitats. In southwestern Italian peninsula, the abrupt warming oscillation of the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial and the subsequent climate variability have been also detected in other sequences. This moment is characterized by the rapid increase of forest areas and the decrease of open and dry meadows.

The study of large and small mammal remains from Grotta del Romito allowed us to reconstruct the local and regional climate and environment. Information about variation in faunal association combined with data on stone tool assemblages, particularly as regards raw materials procurement, are useful to understand changes in human-environment relationship in Southern Apennines from Late Epigravettian to Sauveterrian.