Environmental and climatic reconstruction of the Neanderthal site of De Nadale cave (Zovencedo, Berici Hills, Northeastern Italy) through the small mammal assemblages.

De Nadale cave, located at an altitude of 130 m a.s.l. in the Berici Hills in northeastern Italy, is a site with a single archeological layer (Unit 7). Unit 7 is formed by dark brown-gray silt loam with crumbly soil structure and medium-small sized stones and has yielded a deciduous Neanderthal tooth, a large mammals assemblage mainly composed by herbivores, such as giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and bovids (Bos primigenius and Bison priscus) with scarce carnivores. Knapped stone assemblage in association to the abundant bone tools recovered during four field-work seasons from this layer has been attributed to the Quina-Mousterian culture. Then, a data has been obtained based on Uranium series (U-Th) on a bison tooth providing a minimum age of 70.2 +1/-0.9 Ka for this Unit 7. In this context we present for the first time a palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of this layer based on small-mammal assemblages. This assemblage includes a total of 201 identified specimens, corresponding to a minimum of 112 individuals, representing at least 13 taxa: 4 insectivores (Talpa europaea, Sorex gr. araneus-samniticus, Sorex minutus and Neomys cf. anomalus); one bat (Myotis sp.) and 8 rodents (Arvicola amphibius, Microtus arvalis, Microtus agrestis, Microtus (Terricola) gr. multiplex-subterraneus, Chionomys nivalis, Cletrhionomys glareolus, Apodemus sylvaticus and Apodemus flavicollis). Coupled with the absolute dating together with previous studies on large mammals and the few pollen studies in terrestrial sequences for this time-span in Italy and the sea cores of Mediterranean basin, results enable us clearly to identify a cold climatic period with a landscape dominated by open woodland formations and open-dry habitats, probably related with the beginning of the Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS 4).