The End of the Middle Paleolithic in the Italian Alps: An Overview of Neanderthal Land Use, Subsistence and Technology

Abstract

The Italian Alps were a familiar region for the last Neanderthals. Evidence from several sheltered and open-air sites prove that these humans exploited mineral and animal resources, and that these ways of organizing economic activity were deeply rooted in their social systems since early times. Human occupation spans from lowland to highland in the fringe between the Alps and the plain, a belt where the geographic and ecological contexts differ at a very small scale. Chronometric, ecological, economic and cultural evidence reveal how archaic humans adapted to climatic shifts, used different sites for different targets, and above all improved and refined lithic technology at the very end of their existence.