Human adaptations to drastic climatic change in Liguria across the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition

There has been much focus on the disruptive effects of dramatic climatic shifts on Paleolithicpopulation dynamics, but the topic of cultural continuity across such events has been less intensely investigated,despite its importance to the way archeologists think about the ways humans have interacted with theirenvironment in the past. This paper presents data from western Liguria (Italy) and especially the site of RiparoBombrini, to investigate the nature of the apparent resilience of the Proto-Aurignacian technocomplex in the faceof the Phlegrean Fields super-eruptionca.40000 cal aBPand the general climatic instability during Marine IsotopeStage 3. While the Proto-Aurignacian shows some internal variability that could reflect an adaptation to changingenvironmental conditions, overall it remains very stable in terms of its techno-typology and social geography acrossthese events. Additionally, the radiocarbon chronology for the site clearly shows that the Proto-Aurignacian outlastsboth the super-eruption and Heinrich Event 4 as a whole, by as much as 2000 years. Comparisons with theregional Mousterian record indicate that the Proto-Aurignacian marks the advent of a new way for humans torespond to climatic change, which opens up new avenues to reflect on the disappearance of the Mousterian.Copyright#2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.