Fumane sampling

The Grotta di Fumane is a site in Italy that is being excavated by a team from the Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona currently led by our collaborator, Marco Peresani (left). The cave comprises a sedimentary deposit about 12 m thick iand includes Middle and Upper Palaeolithic living floors rich in artefacts, faunal remains and archaeological combustion features as well as an Uluzzian and Proto-Aurignacian occupation, two key technocomplexes of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition. The Uluzzian was recently attributed to the earliest diffusion of AMH in Mediterranean Europe. Fumane is thus extremely important for understanding the significant biological and cultural changes in human evolution which occurred around 40,000 years ago. The very well contexted sequence of Mousterian to Aurignacian levels allows archaeologists to document the lifestyles of both Neanderthals and early modern humans.

Our team is working in collaboration with various laboratories in Italy (Milan and Lecce) and in European research centres (Paris, Utrecht) in order to date the deposits.

Marine went to the site this August to collect samples for luminescence dating. She spent one day sorting ~90 burnt flints coming from Mousterian, Uluzzian and Aurignacian layers. They will be dated by TL method and their surrounding sediments will be dated by OSL methods.