Ice Age Camp in Italy Dated 2,000 to 3,000 Years Older Than Thought
Radiocarbon dates on shells at Riparo Mochi show Noaillian hunter-gatherers reached northern Italy 2,000 to 3,000 years earlier than believed.
Marine shells from a hearth at Riparo Mochi, a rock shelter near the border of France and Italy, are between 30,000 and 30,800 years old, according to radiocarbon dating reported by Archaeology Magazine. That pushes back the presence of the Noaillian culture in northern Italy by some 2,000 to 3,000 years.
The Noaillian people were hunter-gatherers from Spain, and the new dates indicate they entered Italy earlier than archaeologists had thought. Archaeology Magazine, citing Phys.org, said the excavation was led by Fabio Santaniello of the University of Trento and his colleagues. The research appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
An intact hearth and more than 7,500 artifacts
The recent dig at the shelter turned up more than 7,500 artifacts. The finds include an intact hearth surrounded by marine shells, Noailles burins and other tools.
A Noailles burin is a pointed stone tool that an earlier excavation at the site had already uncovered. Researchers think the Noaillian people used burins to engrave or carve grooves in hard materials such as bone and antler. The team also found blades that had been fitted onto shafts, along with scrapers and wedges used to shape wooden shafts and split bone.
What the wear on the burins shows
Under the microscope, the sharp tips of the Noailles burins from the new dig showed no signs of wear. Wear marks appeared on the sides of the tools instead, and those edges are thought to have been used to cut animal skin and meat.
The age estimate comes from radiocarbon dating, a method that measures the decay of radioactive carbon in organic material such as shell. The shells from the hearth gave the range of 30,000 to 30,800 years. The same result brings the northern Italian dates into line with radiocarbon dates for Noaillian culture in southern Italy, which fall between 31,000 and 30,000 years ago.
Why it matters for the story of Ice Age migration
Earlier dates in the north change the timeline for when people from Spain reached Italy. Around this time, Europe’s climate turned cold and dry. The researchers suggest this likely pushed human migration eastward, toward milder climates. That climate link is the authors’ interpretation of the timing.
The result comes from one rock shelter and its dated hearth, so it describes this site in particular. The full details of the excavation and the dating are in the scholarly article in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Source: Archaeology Magazine
