We revise the chronostratigraphy of several sedimentary successions cropping out along a 5 km-long tract of the Aniene River Valley in Rome (Italy), which yielded six hominin remains previously attributed to proto- or archaic Neanderthal individuals, as well as a large number of lithic artefacts showing intermediate characteristics somewhere between the local Acheulean and Mousterian cultures. Through a method of correlation of aggradational successions with post-glacial sea-level rises, relying on a large set of published 40Ar/39Ar ages of inter-bedded volcanic deposits, we demonstrate that deposition of the sediments hosting the human remains spans the interval 295-220 ka. This is consistent with other well constrained ages for lithic industries recovered in England, displaying transitional features from Lower to Middle Paleolithic, suggesting the appearance of Mode 3 during the MIS 9-MIS 8 transition. Moreover, the six human bone fragments recovered in the Aniene Valley should be regarded as the most precisely dated and oldest hominin remains ascribable to Neanderthal-type individuals in Europe, discovered to date. The chronostratigraphic study presented here constitutes the groundwork for addressing re-analysis of these remains and of their associated lithic industries, in the light of their well-constrained chronological picture.
CITATION STYLE
Marra, F., Ceruleo, P., Pandolfi, L., Petronio, C., Rolfo, M. F., & Salari, L. (2017). The aggradational successions of the aniene river valley in Rome: Age constraints to early neanderthal presence in Europe. PLoS ONE, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170434
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