%0 Journal Article
%A Oxilia, Gregorio
%A Bortolini, Eugenio
%A Marciani, Giulia
%A Menghi Sartorio, Jessica Cristina
%A Vazzana, Antonino
%A Bettuzzi, Matteo
%A Panetta, Daniele
%A Arrighi, Simona
%A Badino, Federica
%A Figus, Carla
%A Lugli, Federico
%A Romandini, Matteo
%A Silvestrini, Sara
%A Sorrentino, Rita
%A Moroni, Adriana
%A Donadio, Carlo
%A Morigi, Maria Pia
%A Slon, Viviane
%A Piperno, Marcello
%A Talamo, Sahra
%A Collina, Carmine
%A Benazzi, Stefano
%+ Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Direct evidence that late Neanderthal occupation precedes a technological shift in southwestern Italy  : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-D177-4
%R 10.1002/ajpa.24593
%7 2022-07-20
%D 2022
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Ariani 1, 48121, Ravenna, Italy.
<br><br>Email: gregorio.oxilia3@unibo.it
<br><br>
<br><br>Abstract
<br><br>Objectives: During the middle-to-upper Paleolithic transition (50,000 and
<br><br>40,000 years ago), interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens varied across
<br><br>Europe. In southern Italy, the association between Homo sapiens fossils and non-
<br><br>Mousterian material culture, as well as the mode and tempo of Neanderthal demise,
<br><br>are still vividly debated. In this research, we focus on the study of two human teeth
<br><br>by using 3D geometric morphometric approaches for a reliable taxonomical attribu-
<br><br>tion as well as obtaining new radiometric dates on the archeological sequence.
<br><br>Material and Methods: This work presents two lower deciduous molars uncovered
<br><br>at Roccia San Sebastiano (Mondragone-Caserta, Italy), stratigraphically associated with Mousterian (RSS1) and Uluzzian (RSS2) artifacts. To obtain a probabilistic attri-
<br><br>bution of the two RSS teeth to each reference taxa group composed of Neanderthals
<br><br>and Homo sapiens, we performed and compared the performance of three supervised
<br><br>learning algorithms (flexible discriminant analysis, multiadaptive regression splines,
<br><br>and random forest) on both crown and cervical outlines obtained by virtual morpho-
<br><br>metric methods.
<br><br>Results: We show that RSS1, whose Mousterian context appears more recent than
<br><br>44,800–44,230 cal BP, can be attributed to a Neanderthal, while RSS2, found in an
<br><br>Uluzzian context that we dated to 42,640–42,380 cal BP, is attributed to Homo
<br><br>sapiens.
<br><br>Discussion: This site yields the most recent direct evidence for a Neanderthal pres-
<br><br>ence in southern Italy and confirms a later shift to upper Paleolithic technology in
<br><br>southwestern Italy compared to the earliest Uluzzian evidence at Grotta del Cavallo
<br><br>(Puglia, Italy).
%K deciduous human molars, Mediterranean Europe, Neanderthal, supervised learning algorithms, Uluzzian, virtual analysis
%J American Journal of Biological Anthropology
%V 179
%N 1
%& 18
%P 18 - 30
%@ 2692-76912692-7691