Rediscovering the Uluzzian in Italy.

Innovations and cultural replacements are key topics in the study of human evolution. Our project focuses on one of the most hotly debated issues deriving from the palaeoanthropological record concerned with the spread of Anatomically Modern Human (AMH) outside Africa, and their possible interactions with local populations. In Western Eurasia, investigations on the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition and the behavioural differences between Neanderthal and modern populations have assumed key importance in the last decades. Indeed, the emergence of modern behaviour is an argument of large interest in anthropology, because it involves as many as different aspects related to human biology, ecology and all the facets of the past human societies. In this vast scenario, the role of cultural technocomplexes (Chatelperronian, Szeletian, Neronian, Bohunician, Lincombian, Uluzzian) in the reconstruction of human behaviour, economic strategies, and the impact of innovations remains thus indisputable (Higham et al., 2014; Hublin, 2014). To this end, the present project seeks to gather new data for the reconstruction of behavioural dynamics across this technocomplex, through exploration of recently discovered Uluzzian sites as well as the re-opening and excavation of partially investigated sites across Italy. Expectation is to discover new human remains at contexts with high standards of archaeological integrity, fine stratigraphic resolution, and abundance of anthropological signatures. These selective criteria limit the records under consideration to the sites taken into account for this project.