Uluzzian vs Uluzzian: implications of a new site discovered in the north of Italy.

In the intricated context of the Middle - Upper Palaeolithic transition in western Eurasia, the Uluzzian technocomplex is crucial for investigating the cultural and economic changes occurred in the Neanderthal and Modern Human populations. In recent years, several studies have only partially increased our understanding of the chronology, taxonomy, material culture and subsistence of the Uluzzian in Italy [1, 2] and generated an evergreen debate mostly revolved around its anthropological attribution [3, 4]. Yet, more data are required especially from stone technology, which reveals an ensemble of innovations. Persistence in flake production, use of splintering technique and of blade-bladelet making, and appearance of new types of implements characterise the Uluzzian whereas new formal tools define bone technology. The social significance of such improvements should be assessed on a wider, supraregional scale, through a comparison with previous, contemporaneous and later technocomplexes. In the North of Italy, a recent assessment on the Uluzzian technology in relation to the cultural complex that immediately precedes it has been proposed on the base of the lithic and bone tool assemblages at the key site of Grotta di Fumane [5]. This cultural record, sandwiched between the final Levallois Mousterian and the Proto-Aurignacian shares elements of continuity and discontinuity with the Mousterian and the Proto-Aurignacian complexes and roots in the Levallois context [5]. Despite the Uluzzian at Fumane reveals it is a flake-dominated technology that brings together a set of innovations, according to works in progress, it seems that its features only partially match those expressed from Castelcivita, Grotta del Cavallo and other sites of the core-area in the south of the Peninsula [3]. Shedding light on the significance of changes recorded across the Fumane sequence is hence of key relevance for disentangling the intricate cultural dynamics occured before the Aurignacian. A new contribution comes from the Uluzzian sequence of a recently discovered site, Riparo del Broion positioned 60 km East of Fumane. Besides Fumane, which does not represent anymore an isolated case in a so geographically limited district, Riparo Broion firmly confirms the more typical Uluzzian cultural marks in the use of splintering technique, flake making, design of backed pieces and lunates, worked bones and molluscan marine shells. At the same time, Riparo Broion shares only partially this set of features with layers A4 and A3 from Fumane. Although the chronological frame of Riparo Broion stands still in construction and the relation between the Uluzzian and the Mousterian underlied is far from being assessed, we discuss the implications of this scenario.