Exploring Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic diet in the Eastern Alpine Region of Italy through multiple proxies

Objectives: The analysis of prehistoric human dietary habits is a key for understanding the effects of paleoenvironmental changes on the evolution of cultural and social human behaviours. After the Last Glacial Maximum, the climate amelioration triggered a general withdrawal of the main glaciers in the northern hemisphere and, in turn, caused the repopulation of mountain areas, both by animals and human groups. In this study, we compare results from zooarchaeological, stable isotope and dental calculus analyses as well as lower second molar macrowear patterns in order to gain a broader understanding of the diet of three Paleolithic individuals who lived in the time span between the end of the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene (ca. 17–8 ky cal BP) in the Eastern Alpine region of Italy. Materials and Methods: We analyze individuals who were buried at the sites of Riparo Tagliente (Verona), Riparo Villabruna and Mondeval de Sora (Belluno). The three burials provide a unique dataset for diachronically exploring the influence of climatic changes on human subsistence strategies. Results: Isotopic results indicate that all individuals likely relied on both terrestrial and freshwater animal proteins. Even though dental calculus did not provide definitive results, tooth macrowear analysis seems to indicate that their dietary habits were also enhanced by the addition of plant foods. Macrowear patterns in lower second molars also differ between Neanderthals to modern humans in the present sample, due to a prevalence of Buccal wear among the former as opposed to higher values of Lingual wear in modern human teeth. Discussion: The contribution of animal proteins in prehistoric diet has been emphasized by isotopic analyses. Even though there it was not possible to appreciate the role of plant foods in the three individuals’ dietary strategies through dental calculus analysis, the signal of macrowear analysis seems to support the potential role of plant-food resources in the diet of the analyzed modern humans. Moreover, the latter method indicates that the distribution of macrowear in lower second molars (M2s) allows us to discriminate between Neanderthals and modern humans within the present reference sample. Overall, our results show these three prehistoric hunter-gatherers were well adapted to the enviroment in which they lived exploiting many natural resources.