From Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans in Liguria (Italy): the current state of knowledge

Liguria is a coastal region in northwest Italy bordered by high mountains that descend sharply toward the Mediterranean Sea and that has very limited expanses of coastal plain. The Eastern Ligurian record is known only from open-air sites, while several deeply strat- ified caves and shelters exist in the Western part of the region. The Mousterian is quite well known throughout Liguria while the earliest Upper Palaeolithic record, in contrast, is known from only a few Protoaurignacian assemblages, an industry indisputably as- sociated with anatomically modern humans. With the possible exception of the assem- blage from Via San Francesco (Sanremo), characterized by laminar débitage and Upper Palaeolithic-like formal tools, to date, no Uluzzian or other “transitional” industries have been reported. Recent radiocarbon dates place the disappearance of the Neanderthals in Liguria around 42 ky cal. BP, and the most recent Mousterian deposits are clearly separated by sedimentary discontinuities from the oldest Protoaurignacian ones that date back to about 41.5 ky cal. BP, as highlighted at the Riparo Mochi and Riparo Bombrini (Balzi Rossi). There is no evidence of contact or admixture and the transition between these two cultural worlds is sharp and seemingly very rapid, as if modern humans perhaps colonised an empty land. After the Protoaurignacian, the Classic Aurignacian is documented at the Balzi Rossi from about 35-36 ky BP to 30 Ky cal. BP, again in a situation that marks a probable discontinuity between the two cultural phases.