Between the Venetian Alps and the Emilian Apennines (Northern Italy): Highland vs. lowland occupation in the early Mesolithic

The territory extending between the Venetian Alps and the Emilian Apennines is formed by a mosaic of environments which span from high mountains to hilly and plain areas. These present rather varied features from one extreme (Alpine watershed) to the other (Emilian Apennines watershed). In the early Holocene, the plain area included between the two mountain chains – the Venetian-Po plain – was extended some tens km to the south with respect to the present day coast. This vast territory has been the object of research since the 1970s and 1980s. Field activities have allowed identifying a rich set of sites that occupy different topographic and geographic locations, thus composing an articulated mosaic characterised by a much wider variability with respect to the well-known case of the Adige basin, located at the western limit of the examined area, which is exclusively included within a mountain territory. In this paper, we analyse for the first time the rich record from this area in its whole with the aim of investigating the territorial organisation of hunter–gatherer groups on a wide scale. This research has allowed us to set hypotheses on the mobility and occupation strategies of human groups and on the key-aspects that may have favoured the extensive and intensive occupation of this area. Besides the supposed presence of a biomass compatible with the demographic increase that has characterised this period, we also suggest that the “pragmatic” Sauveterrian technological systems played an important role in the adaptation of early Mesolithic hunter–gatherers to the varied ecosystems offered by this area.