The Laminar Levallois of units A10 - A11 of Grotta di Fumane (VR).

Grotta di Fumane (VR), with its dense cultural sequence spanning from 80 ky BP to 30 ky BP plays, a pivotal role in studies concerning the late Middle and the early Upper Palaeolithic. Here, a Late Mousterian Levallois unipolar recurrent assemblage is presented. It belongs to the units A10-A11, which underlie unit A9, dated to a minimum of 47,6 ky cal BP, and constitute the base of the Late Mousterian sequence. Paleoclimatic data inferred from micro and macromammals suggest a temperate interstadial period before the H5 event (48 ky cal BP) [1]. Late Mousterian is here intended as the Mousterian technocomplexes that are recorded during MIS 3, meaning a temporal span of 20 k years between 60-40 ky cal BP; particularly, Italian Late Mousterian is portrayed as dominated by the occurrence of recurrent unipolar Levallois assemblages with elongated blanks. The studied assemblage from units A10-A11 consists of 461 items selected due to recognition of basic Levallois technological requirements, in particular as defined for recurrent unipolar mode, and the presence of unipolar negatives on the dorsal face. Measurements have been performed only on complete items, dividing retouched and unmodified blanks. The entire operative sequence is represented. Raw material procurement is local, in fact the flint varieties of Maiolica grigia and Scaglia Rossa, available in a <5 kms radius from the site, account for the three quarters of the assemblage, with a clear predominance of Maiolica grigia. Reduction took advantage of natural convexities; it involved brief decortication and convexities shaping phases, both performed through the removal of unipolar and unipolar core-edge blanks, before the main production of predetermined and predetermining unipolar blanks. The entire assemblage shows a laminar morphometry, gathering main production around 36-51 mms in length and 1,7-2,5 in elongation. Formal tools represent 20% of the assemblage, chiefly blanks belonging to the first part of the production (i.e. the most elongated), and the retouch is mostly direct, on a single lateral edge, short, semi-abrupt and scaled or stepped in morphology: producing, then, single scrapers. Concerning retouched items, selection towards longer and more elongated blanks is showed. Fumane A10-A11 main production and retouched tools morphometric data have been compared with those published for the same technological classes of later Fumane units A5-A6 [2] as well as other Italian Late Mousterian Levallois unipolar assemblages such as Riparo l’Oscurusciuto (TA) unit 1 [3], Grotta Reali (IS) US5 [4] and Riparo del Poggio (SA) units 9-10 [5]. A stark difference is plotted between Fumane units A10-A11 and the other assemblages: the length is less constrained and the elongation is well under the 2 threshold, stopping towards 1,5, thus showing a more heterogeneous and non-laminar production. Despite being treated altogether in Italian Late Mousterian dissertations, these sites are younger in age (46-43 ky cal BP) than Fumane units A10-A11. Therefore, the study shows the application of morpho-technological constraints in one Late Mousterian recurrent unipolar Levallois assemblage in order to produce blades and blade-like blanks; the focus on blade-making is showed also by the selection towards the most elongated blanks for retouched tools. Moreover, a similar laminar production is not noticed in other Italian younger recurrent unipolar Levallois assemblages, showing that they might represent a different technological tradition. A new dating program and new comprehensive analyses of all Italian Late Mousterian recurrent unipolar Levallois assemblages are advocated to better understand the existing cultural variability.