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The paper provides new data on the age and formation processes of Garba I (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia). The site, one of the largest handaxe accumulations of the African Acheulean, was extensively excavated in the 1960s of the last century by J. Chavaillon but left largely unpublished. The chronology was also poorly constricted. Quartz grains dated through electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry now provide a minimum age of 538 ka for the archaeological layer. In addition, we make available new data allowing an updated interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence and spatial distribution, as well as a detailed taphonomic study of the lithic assemblage. Additional information on the archaeozoological and palaeobotanical record are integrated in the discussion. We conclude that the extensive accumulation of large cuttings tools (LCTs) is not the result of major sedimentary disturbance processes but rather the outcome of a distinct hominin behaviour, which possibly was not focused on the processing and consumption of large mammals. New research at Garba I allows new insights on the Acheulean sites with similar large accumulations of handaxes. Additionally, it contributes to a better understanding of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa, an under-researched period of the Early Stone Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of fieldwork in the Frosinone-Ceprano basin (Latin Valley, Latium, central Italy) have shed light on numerous open-air Lower Palaeolithic localities, delivering a human fossil calvarium, thousands of scattered faunal remains and a large collection of lithic industries, including core-and-flake type lithic series (mode 1) and Acheulean assemblages (mode 2). The continuously growing number of available geochronological data (obtained by 40Ar/39Ar on volcanic minerals, ESR/U-series on large mammal teeth and ESR on bleached fluvial quartz) allow today the construction of a reliable and precise chronological framework for the Lower Palaeolithic sites of this area of the Latin Valley. The archaeological horizons with bifaces all appear to belong to a relatively short Middle Pleistocene time range, between about 410 and 350 ka, coeval to the end of the interglacial MIS 11 and to the beginning of the following glacial MIS 10. The Acheulean tools are often associated with cores and flakes. Bifaces are mainly made on limestone, secondary flint and quartz. The archaeological corpus also yielded tools on fragments of large herbivore bones. Comparisons between technological strategies and palaeo-anthropological data at the global scale are now meaningful and enable us to decipher hominin behaviour at a more regional scale. Such careful work is becoming essential in the frame of the recent discoveries showing that the MIS 11–10 period was a pivotal period characterized by the appearance of several new archaeological features later associated with the Neanderthal lineage in Western Europe. We present here the first in-depth technological study of the Acheulean lithic corpus from the major archaeological sites from the Frosinone-Ceprano basin including the Campogrande localities (CG9 and CG10, intermediate and upper levels), Colle Avarone, Selvotta, Isoletta (level 4), Lademagne (upper and lower levels) and Masseria Castellone. For this work, we focus on biface shaping strategies and demonstrate technological features suggesting the existence of networks connecting the different human occupation sites. Technological data are compared with other penecontemporaneous Italian sites to discuss the hypotheses and characteristics of such early evidence of regionalization in Europe in this specific area of Central Italy. It seems to indicate that glacial conditions characterized by millennial rapid climatic oscillations could have been favourable to the development of specific vegetation propitious to human settlement in South-western Europe. European vegetation, as it drives the biomass availability for large herbivores, seems hence to have played a crucial role in the mobility and settlement of human groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Namibia is one of the southern African countries hosting the richest rock art heritage, with thousands of rock paintings. Although numerous studies investigated their distribution, style, and possible meaning, few are known about the materials used to perform these paintings. Our in situ study aimed at identifying the diversity of pigments and alterations of some rock paintings in the northwestern part of the Erongo (Namibia). It relies on extensive pXRF analyses of 35 figures from eight rock art sites of the area. Despite common limits of in situ pXRF analyses, the extensive number of figures analyzed and the original data treatment that we performed pioneered the first scientific analyses of the pigments from rock painting sites in the Erongo Mountains. Furthermore, the study also confirmed the presence of iron oxide pigments on a portion of wall exposed during the excavations carried out at the archeological site of Leopard Cave and of possibly datable alterations over several paintings, paving the way to future chronological analyses of past tradition of rock paintings in Central Namibia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]