Analisi archeozoologica, tafonomica, paleontologica e spaziale dei livelli Uluzziani e tardo-Musteriani della Grotta di Fumane (VR). Variazioni e continuità strategicocomportamentali umane in Italia Nord Orientale: i casi di Grotta del Col della Stria (VI) e Grotta del Rio Secco (PN).

In the North of Italy, the Grotta di Fumane is the only site from which faunal data are presently available from a Mousterian – Uluzzian – Aurignacian sequence. The picture is still suffering from limited and discontinuous data, especially concerning the Uluzzian, a cultural complex spread in central and southern Italian peninsula and Greece and recently attributed to the first Anatomically Modern Humans on the basis of a thorough reexamination of some teeth (Benazzi et al. 2011). This work contributes to the data set related to the Uluzzian and Mousterian hunting and food provisioning patterns by presenting the results of the archaeozoological and taphonomic study of a sample of an estimated 295,00 bone remains recovered in the Uluzzian (Layer A3-A4) and late Mousterian (A5 and A6; A8 and A9) occupation levels at Fumane and from the late Mousterian at Rio Secco Cave and Col della Stria Cave. The goal is to reconstruct the subsistence practices and provide a basis for further study of the relationship between economic changes connected to the spread of different human populations and make comparisons with other evidence from the latest Mousterian occupations in the Mediterranean rim. Signatures such as butchering traces, burned bones, fragmentation type and scanty carnivore traces prove that the faunal remains from the Uluzzian and late Mousterian layers are the product of intensive human activity. Human hunting was adressed to red deer, roe deer, ibex, and also on giant deer, bison and chamois. At Grotta di Fumane predation concerned all age classes of red deer, adult ibex and roe deer in all the levels. Young ungulates suggest that the cave was used also all over the year. The faunal assemblage of the final Uluzzian layers chronicles climatic cooling with respect to the previous Mousterian period, and modifications in game hunting comparable to the Aurignacian occupation. The comparison of taphonomic data with other Uluzzian and Mousterian sites further demonstrates the importance of the faunal remains from Fumane in reconstructing the exploitation of ungulates and carnivores. Moreover, currently Fumane is the only Italian site where traces of butchering have also been identified on remains of carnivores (wolf, fox, bear) and birds. Inferred from spatial paterning, the anthropic activity mostly occurred in the rear of the cave (Discoid-Levallois) and at the entrance (Uluzzian), where evident structures and carnivore or ungulates remains altered by combustion there are. Therefore, this contribution provides useful information for detailing our knowledge on behavioural variability tied to technological change of the last Neanderthal groups in the Italian peninsula. Also in the Fumane case, the site provides valuable evidence to carry out a comparison with the first European Modern Humans.