The Late Pleistocene clastic deposits in the Romito Cave,southern Italy: a proxy record of environmental changes and human presence |
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| Authors: | Massimiliano Ghinassi Andrè C Colonese Zelia Di Giuseppe Lisa Govoni Domenico Lo Vetro Giulia Malavasi Fabio Martini Silvia Ricciardi Benedetto Sala |
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| Institution: | 1. Dipartimento di Geoscienze, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità G. Pasquali, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy;3. Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy;4. Dipartimento delle Risorse Naturali e Culturali, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Centro di Ricerche Archeobotaniche‐Archeoflorae, Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Clastic sediments deposited in caves and rock shelters bear peculiar sedimentological characteristics and have seldom been considered as a high‐resolution proxy record of climatic or environmental changes. The Romito Cave has its entrance at 275 m above sea level, about 25 km from the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria, southern Italy. New archaeological excavation performed since 2000 has revealed a sedimentary succession spanning the record of Gravettian to Late Epigravettian cultures (Late Pleistocene). The present study focuses on the lower part (2.5 m thick) of the succession, where three main unconformity‐bounded stratigraphic units have been recognised (labelled RM1–3). Each unit consists of water‐lain deposits indicating high‐ to low‐competence flow, capped with anthropogenic deposits. The gradual deactivation and reactivation of the water drainage between 23 475 ± 190 and 16 250 ± 500 cal. a BP is correlated with regional precipitation changes due to the onset of dry climatic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum. However, the deactivation of cave drainage after the deposition of unit RM3, around 15 400 ± 500 cal. a BP, deviates from the regional hydrological trend of progressively increasing water discharges and is attributed to the drainage cut‐off by probable cave wall collapses. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | cave sediments Late Pleistocene climate geoarchaeology LGM |
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