Human remains from Arma di Nasino (Liguria) provide novel insights into the paleoecology of early Holocene foragers in northwestern Italy (original) (raw)

We report the discovery and analysis of new Mesolithic human remains-dated to ca. 10,200-9000 cal. BP-from Arma di Nasino in Liguria, northwestern Italy, an area rich in Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic attestations, but for which little information on Early Holocene occupation was available. The multiproxy isotopic profile of the two individuals reveals that-despite the proximity of the site to the Mediterranean seashore and the use of shellfish as decorative elements in burials-the ecology of these foragers was based on the exploitation of high-altitude resources, presumably in the nearby western Alps. This constitutes the first direct evidence in northwestern Italy of a significant ecological shift towards higher altitudes following deglaciation, especially when compared to isotopic data of the Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers from the nearby site of Arene Candide Cave, who exploited terrestrial resources nearer to the coast and at lower altitudes. While the biochemistry of Nasino's skeletal assemblage revealed new details on Early Holocene lifeways in the area, the osteobiography of one individual offers glimpses into the life experience of a specific female forager, depicting a scenario of early skeletal trauma, developmental disturbances, long-term impairments, and resilience amongst the last European hunter-gatherers. Between the beginning of the Holocene (11,700 cal. BP 1) and the diffusion of the Neolithic in Europe, Mesolithic foragers adapted to the rapidly warming climate by modifying the subsistence patterns that had characterized the preceding Upper Paleolithic, or by adopting new ones altogether 2,3. As the land was freed from ice by the warming climate, new high-altitude hunting grounds began to be exploited in mountainous areas such as the Alps, while in coastal areas of the Atlantic façade and in the southern Baltic region, the exploitation of coastal resources-primarily shellfish-became important 3. However, our knowledge about the paleoecology of Early Mesolithic foragers (ca. 1100-8500 cal. BP) is often limited and biased by the facts that most sites are surface artifact scatters 2 , and that most of the coastal sites occupied in the earlier phases are now under water 3,4. In this context, human remains and burials can provide rare glimpses of direct information on several aspects of human biocultural adaptations that most sites cannot, such as diet 5,6 , mobility and activity patterns 7-9 , and social complexity 3,10 .