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This article focuses on the Mesolithic record of northeastern Italy, one of the key European regions for studying the last prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups. Most specifically, it aims to compare the rich Early and Late Mesolithic evidence, trying to shed some light on the shift between these two periods. Such a topic is approached at a regional scale, that is to say, by comparing the overall record and trying to identify similarities and divergences concerning different aspects of past lifeways such as settlement strategies, technology, exploitation of faunal resources, ornamental traditions and burial rituals. Overall, by providing an updated regional synthesis, the presented data highlight aspects of continuity and discontinuity between these two periods and contribute significantly to the debate concerning the modalities in which this transition took place in Southern Europe.

The Quina Mousterian is one of the well-defined Middle Paleolithic techno-complexes. Despite the pivotal research carried out in south-western France, the presence of this techno-complex across the rest of Europe is still poorly documented. Here we apply a techno-functional approach, combining technological and use-wear analyses, for reconstructing lithic core-reduction, tool-reduction, and tool use at De Nadale Cave, a single-layered Mousterian site with Quina features located in northern Italy and dated to the early MIS 4. Our results indicate that the flexible core reduction strategies identified at De Nadale show some similarities with the Quina knapping method, in addition to the adoption of centripetal methods on single surfaces. Variations of this scheme identified at De Nadale are the exploitation of lateral and narrow fronts which are aimed to the production of elongated, small blanks. A parallel, ramified reduction is applied to limace cores and Quina or demi-Quina scrapers having diversified purpose (mixed matrix). These blanks are exploited as tools and cores-on-flakes from which thinner, usable flakes or bladelets are detached. The use-wear identified on both scrapers and reaffutage flakes further confirm this behavior, demonstrating the use of both tools, albeit for different tasks (i.e., scraping and cutting). We discuss the ecological implications of this behavior within the Quina Mousterian. The high frequency of retouched tools and Quina or demi-Quina scrapers seems to accompany the highly mobile human groups associated with this techno complex and their seasonally organized subsistence strategies. Finally, by combining available multidisciplinary data on paleoenvironment, subsistence, and chronology, we were able to embed the neanderthal settlement of De Nadale in a regional and Western European frame, underlining the importance of the Quina Mousterian in Western Eurasia between MIS 4 and early MIS 3.

Early Holocene hunter-gatherer settlements are spread throughout Italy and testify to the exploitation of very different landscapes. Nonetheless, their preservation state is not always exceptional. This is not the case for Contrada Pace, an archaeological site recently discovered on a terrace of the Chienti river in central-eastern Italy. This paper reports on the geomorphological, pedo-stratigraphic, and archaeological record of one of the most complete and well-preserved Early Mesolithic open-air sites in Italy and southern Europe. Micro-stratigraphic excavations extended over more than 500 square meters have exposed a buried paleosol with anthropogenic features, which contained thousand lithic artefacts and organic remains framed in the context of a primary forest. These findings appear clustered in different functional areas that yielded multiple structured features. The field evidence integrated by radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical, archaeomalacological and zooarchaeological data allowed to propose a first interpretation of the general structure of the site and the most significant features

L’Épigravettien a été défini dans les années 1960 pour rendre compte de l’originalité des industries lithiques postérieures au Gravettien en Italie. L’extension progressive de cette entité à une grande partie de l’Europe méditerranéenne et orientale s’est également appuyée essentiellement sur les industries lithiques. Au cours des dernières d´ecennies, le développement de l’approche technologique dans l’étude des industries lithiques, associé à une meilleure prise en compte des contextes archéologiques et des séquences stratigraphiques, a fortement renouvelé la perception de l’Épigravettien, de sa sériation et de son emprise chrono-géographique. Dans plusieurs régions, des travaux portant sur les transferts lithiques documentent des r´eseaux de d´eplacement et de contact s’établissant à différentes échelles. En parallèle, les recherches portant sur d’autres domaines techniques et culturels ont considérablement progress´e au cours des dernières décennies et ont concerné des matériaux variés (parures, faunes, art pari´etal et mobilier, sépultures...). Pourtant, ces recherches ont été généralement menées à l’intérieur du cadre fixé par les industries lithiques et n’ont que rarement conduit à une rediscussion de ce dernier. Dans cette communication, nous proposons une première tentative de synthèse des données acquises et nous tentons de poser les bases d’un dialogue non hiérarchisé entre ces différents domaines de la culture matérielle. Cette position nous conduit à éprouver d’abord la consistance de l’entité épigravettienne en dehors des seules pratiques techniques lithiques et à évaluer les recouvrements et les écarts existant entre les séquences de changements identifiés au sein des différentes composantes des systèmes techniques. Cette discussion est menée en s’appuyant d’abord sur un noyau de connaissances établies autour de deux grands domaines géographiques: le nord-est de l’Italie et l’arc liguro-proven¸cal. Nous élargissons ensuite la réflexion vers le sud et

The Piave drainage system is one of the widest in north-eastern Italy. Starting from its source in the northeastern Dolomites, it reaches the Venetian Plain and flows into the Adriatic Sea to the north of the Venice Lagoon. It represents one of the most important natural routes connecting the northern Adriatic coast with the inner Alps. Over the last couple of decades, a large number of Mesolithic sites have been discovered along its course, and a few sites have also been excavated, such as Mondeval de Sora in the Belluno Dolomites and the settlements of the Cansiglio Plateau in the pre-Alpine fringe. Recent research focused on this rich dataset, which includes sites extending across a wide variety of natural morphologies and landscapes, has allowed for some preliminary considerations to be made about the territorial organization and settlement strategies adopted by Early Mesolithic (Sauveterrian) hunter-gatherer-fisher groups. Further investigations across this area are in progres.