Margherita Mussi

ISMEO - The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies

Garba XIII is a new Acheulean site, recently excavated at Melka Kunture (2000 m asl), in the Upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia. The investigated archaeostratigraphic unit is located along the Garba gully and belongs to the Lower to basal Middle Pleistocene Melka Kunture Formation. In this paper, we discuss the evidence from a level discovered directly...

Garba III, in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia, is one of the many sub-sites of Melka Kunture, where the overall archaeological record starts at c. 1.8 Ma. Garba III was excavated over several years in the 1970s, under the direction of Francis Hours, who was able to publish only preliminary reports before his untimely death. At the base of the se...

Marmots in the Epigravettian of central Italy: Grotta Mora Cavorso (Latium) and Grotta di Pozzo (Abruzzo) - Marmots are currently found in the Alps, Carpathians and Tatra Mountains and have been reintroduced in the Pyrenees and the northern Apennines, where they live at the upper limit of the forest. During the late Pleistocene, this animal was wi...

In order to investigate seasonal changes in diet, environment and climate, we analyzed the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of intra-tooth sequential profiles (14 teeth, 282 enamel samples) of Hippopotamidae, Equidae, Bovidae and Suidae from Melka Kunture, Upper Awash Valley, central Ethiopian Highlands (2000 – 2200 m a.s.l.). We found...

Ancient funerary rituals have been documented in a natural cavity at S'Omu 'e S'Orku Mesolithic site (SOMK), along the south western coast of Sardinia (Arbus). In a collapsed rock shelter, evolved in the Pleistocene eolianites, 4 individuals were found with grave goods in a lithostratigraphic sequence dated between 9500 and 8000 cal BP (X-IX millen...

Pleistocene environments are among the most studied issues in paleoecology and human evolution research in eastern Africa. Many data have been recorded from archaeological sites located at low and medium elevations (≤ 1500 m), whereas few contexts are known at 2000 m and above. Here, we present a substantial isotopic study from Melka Kunture, a com...

This is a point-to-point reply to Gossa et al. (2024), who suggest that Muttoni et al. (2023) establish the magnetochronology of Melka Kunture and extend it to c. 2,000,000 years ago using a simple linear age-depth model, with poorly defined paleomagnetic polarity interpretations, within a succession presenting significant gaps. They further sugges...

The late Pleistocene/rock art sites of Italy spread from the pre-Alps to Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. Altogether, some 20 caves and rock-shelters are decorated by engravings ranging from linear and abstract to naturalistic ones. Some large engraved and painted rocks buried in the deposits help with the chronology. Portable art is found in caves and...

In this paper, we present stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of fauna tooth enamel from Garba IVD (1.95 Ma) and Gombore IB (1.66 Ma), two Early Acheulean sites of Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia), and discuss faunal taxonomy and fossil pollen. Our aim is to infer the diet and habitat of the fossil fauna, as well as the environment of bo...

In Africa, the scarcity of hominin remains found in direct association with stone tools has hindered attempts to link Homo habilis and Homo erectus with particular lithic industries. The infant mandible discovered in level E at Garba IV (Melka Kunture) on the highlands of Ethiopia is critical to this issue due to its direct association with an Oldo...

Referring to Levantine rock art there are still many open questions which are most relevant in the case of rarely depicted species, such as the canids. In contrast to most-frequently represented animals, the depictions of ‘minor’ species, were less realistic, smaller and with few anatomical details. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to make a d...

Palaeolithic tools were first discovered in Somalia by G. Revoil in 1880, i.e. earlier than in most African countries. Then, at the end of the 19th century, H.W. Seton-Karr, while on a hunting trip, collected along the Tug Issutugan of northern Somalia a large amount of Acheulean lithic implements, now widely dispersed in museums all over the world...

Melka Kunture is a vast cluster of archaeological sites in the Upper Awash valley, on the western shoulder of the Main Ethiopian Rift. It is located at 2000 m above sea level (asl), c. 60 km south of Addis Ababa at 8.7° N, 38.6° E. Throughout most of the Early and Middle Pleistocene, fluvial deposits accumulated, intermingled with volcanic ones, in...

Melka Kunture es un clúster de yacimientos prehistóricos situados en el altiplano etíope, a 2.000-2.200 m sobre el nivel del mar, en la cuenca alta del río Awash. El clima es más bien fresco (temperatura media anual de 17° C) y lluvioso. Los resultados palinológicos demuestran que la vegetación durante el Pleistoceno era de tipo afromontano y, por...

While the emergence of the Acheulean is well documented in East Africa at ~1.7 Ma, subsequent developments are less well understood and to some extent controversial. Here, we provide robust evidence regarding the time period between 1.6 Ma and 1.2 Ma, based on an interdisciplinary approach to the stratigraphic sequences exposed in the Gombore gully...

We present a geomorphological map of the southwestern coast of Sardinia encompassing inland and offshore areas of the S'Omu e S'Orku Mesolithic site. The submerged area was documented by high-resolution multibeam bathymetry combined with Side-Scan Sonar data. The emerged coastal area was surveyed using Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle Remote Sensing and fie...

Pleistocene archaeology records the changing behaviour and capacities of early hominins. These behavioural changes, for example, to stone tools, are commonly linked to environmental constraints. It has been argued that, in earlier times, multiple activities of everyday life were all uniformly conducted at the same spot. The separation of focused ac...

RESUMEN: Melka Kunture es un clúster de yaci-mientos prehistóricos situados en el altiplano etíope, a 2.000-2.200 m sobre el nivel del mar, en la cuenca alta del río Awash. El clima es más bien fresco (temperatura media anual de 17° C) y lluvioso. Los resultados palino-lógicos demuestran que la vegetación durante el Pleis-toceno era de tipo afromon...

Melka Kunture is a cluster of Pleistocene sites discovered in 1963, located 50 km south of Addis Ababa on the Ethiopian highlands. Since then, annual archeological research has always involved a number of local workers from the nearby village of Awash. This collaboration led to the development of a team of workers specialized in archeological inves...

The Balzi Rossi caves and shelters originally were one of the richest cluster of sites in Europe. Sadly, with a few exceptions most of the deposits were destroyed before the age of scientific archaeology. Through time residual deposits were discovered and archaeological materials emerged, eventually providing evidence related to most of the Middle...

The Venus figurines of the Balzi Rossi in an Eurasian Perspective - The 15 Gravettian figurines from the Balzi Rossi were discovered in the Nineteenth century by Louis Alexandre Jullien at the Barma Grande and at Grotte du Prince. Jullien was a French amateur and, at the time, the estimated dealer of collections which were acquired by major museums...

A palaeolithic lamp found at Arma degli Zerbi (Finale Ligure, SV) – We describe a possible Palaeolithic lamp from the collections of Museo Archeologico del Finale, which was originally discovered in a disturbed deposit of Arma degli Zerbi. It is a small limestone piece with a concave surface, showing macroscopic traces of reddening and burning resi...

Melka Kunture on the highlands of Ethiopia has provided evidence for the early peopling of the Ethiopian highlands (>2000 m asl). At site Garba IV, an Oldowan technocomplex was retrieved in levels E-F located shortly below the base of the Olduvai subchron, with a currently accepted age of 1.925 Ma, while the early Acheulean was found in level D loc...

The Upper Awash runs across a volcano-sedimentary succession dated from the Early to Middle Pleistocene and located on the western margin of the northern portion of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). The succession lies above Late Miocene to Pliocene lava flows, domes and large volume ignimbrites. The succession formed within a fluvial system that deve...

In this paper, we present carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis of fauna tooth enamel from Garba IVD (~1.95 Ma) and Gombore IB (~1.66 Ma), two Early Acheulean sites of Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia) and discuss faunal taxonomy and fossil pollen. Our aim is to infer the diet, habitat, and environment at both sites and provide a broader pa...

The MS is a 5m high and 15m long cliff with a sequence of Acheulean levels exposed in full view, the last remnants of what was once much more extensive Lower Pleistocene deposits. The environment was of alluvial plain facies, with interbedded volcanic deposits. Then a major tectonic event, the Kella Formation or Kella Event, dated ~1.2 Ma years [1]...

The MS is a 5m high and 15m long cliff with a sequence of Acheulean levels exposed in full view, the last remnants of what was once much more extensive Lower Pleistocene deposits.

Despite its fragmentary nature, which often precludes precise identification, the fauna from Melka Kunture is quite interesting because many mammals are distinct at specific or subspecific levels from contemporaneous forms in the Turkana Basin or at Olduvai. This is true for the alcelaphins, the large hippo, and probably for most of the equids. Bec...

The flint pebble from Maschio dell’Artemisio, a mountain near Velletri (South-East of Rome), is one of the earliest complex artefacts from the Upper Palaeolithic of the Colli Albani possibly displaying a symbolic/artistic value. It has been used as a stone-striker and retoucher, to create or modify lithic implements. It shows a diffuse and intense...

Early Palaeolithic archaeological sites are very often in open-air fluvial environments. Sedimentary features have important consequences for the degree of conservation of the archaeological record. Following these constraints, sites on gravel beds (i.e., stone lines) which imply high-energy water deposition, have traditionally been considered exte...

Grotta di Pozzo is a small cave at 720 m asl and 42° N in the Apennine range of Abruzzo (Central Italy), formerly opening on the edge of a now drained large lake, the Lake Fucino. The archaeological sequence starts on the top of a fluvial-lacustrine deposit at 23,000 cal. BP, with layers including lithic industry of the Early Epigravettian. Later o...

The paper provides new data on the age and formation processes of Garba I (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia). The site, one of the largest handaxe accumulations of the African Acheulean, was extensively excavated in the 1960s of the last century by J. Chavaillon but left largely unpublished. The chronology was also poorly constricted. Quartz gr...

This is an overview of the events and polemics at the time of the discovery of the magnificent Gravettian figurines of the Balzi Rossi, in the late XIXth century, with some updated interpretation

Paolo Graziosi's long-standing and widely accepted theory for the interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic rock art of Southern Europe and the Mediterranean region is here briefly summarized and then discussed at the light of a recent re-assessment of the Sicilian Lateglacial art record. In conclusion, the Sicilian art appears to fit well within the We...

Simbiro III, comprising the Monumental Section (MS) and the gully, is part of the Melka Kunture cluster of prehistoric sites, located in the Ethiopian highland at ~2000 m a.s.l. The MS, discovered in the Sixties and then not extensively investigated, looks like a ~5 meters high cliff and includes the impressive remnant of deposited multiple layers...

Melka Kunture is a cluster of Pleistocene sites, extending over ⁓100 km² between 2000 and 2200 m asl, in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia. Starting around 2 million-years ago, the archaeological sequence includes sites with lithic productions of the Oldowan, Early Acheulean, middle Acheulean, final Acheulean, Early Middle Stone Age, Middle Stone...

We report new excavations (2017-2019) at Riparo Blanc, a rockshelter of Monte Circeo on the western coast of central Italy. A sequence of 6Mesolithic layers, with archaeological and anthropological remains, is dated 10,500-9,500 cal BP Published in Rivista di Preistoria e Protostoria, Notiziario

Grotta di Pozzo (AQ) is a Lateglacial cave site of central Italy, where a well-dated stratigraphic sequence accumulated between 23,000 and 9,000 cal BP. Early Epigravettian, Final Epigravettian and Sauveterrian industries were all discovered. Human activity is especially well documented with the Final Epigravettian. During the Lateglacial, the most...

In two publications from 1967 and 1971, M. Masali described human skeletal remains presumed to have been found in the Balzi Rossi caves (Ventimiglia, Italy), based on a signed note dated to 1908. Since then, the remains - dubbed "Conio's Finds" and preserved at the University of Torino - had not been further studied. We performed a multidisciplinar...

We present new magnetostratigraphic results from the Melka Kunture sedimentary sequence outcropping along the Gombore and Garba gullies in the Upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia that provide a new temporal framework for human presence in this area of the Ethiopian plateau in the Pleistocene. We obtained a time-diagnostic sequence of normal and reverse...

Childhood is an ontogenetic stage unique to the modern human life history pattern. It enables the still dependent infants to achieve an extended rapid brain growth, slow somatic maturation, while benefitting from provisioning, transitional feeding, and protection from other group members. This tipping point in the evolution of human ontogeny likely...

The Pleistocene deposit of Casal de’ Pazzi (CdP) is located along the lower Aniene Valley, in the suburbs to the northeast of Rome (Italy). The excavations (~1.200 m2) revealed part of a paleo-river channel, notably a small tributary of Aniene river. The deposit overlies a tuff-bed, dated around 360 ka, filled up by fluvial sediments, consisting of...

Stable isotope analysis in mammal teeth from Pleistocene archaeological sites has proven highly informative regarding paleodiet and paleoenvironment in eastern Africa (Lee-Thorp et al., 2010). Here, we present measurements of 13 C/ 12 C and 18 O/ 16 O isotopic ratios on fossil mammal teeth from Melka Kunture prehistoric site, located along the uppe...

Stable isotopes and phytoliths analysis have been widely used in archaeological research, providing key information in the study of paleoclimate and paleoecology, and allowing to test hypotheses on adaptation and habitat changes in Africa during human evolution. Here, we report on both stable isotopes (13C, 18O) (14 fossil teeth samples) and phytol...

Stable isotopes and phytoliths analysis have been widely used in archaeological research, providing key information in the study of paleoclimate and paleoecology, and allowing to test hypotheses on adaptation and habitat changes in Africa during human evolution. Here, we report on both stable isotopes (13C, 18O) (14 fossil teeth samples) and phytol...

Garba IV level D (Garba IVD) and Gombore I level B (Gombore IB) are archaeological levels which are part of the Melka Kunture (MK) cluster of prehistoric sites, located on the western edge of the Main Ethiopian Rift at˜2000 m a.s.l. Both have been dated at˜1.6 Ma and record a high-density distribution of lithic artifacts, pebbles, and faunal remain...

Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies (https://sites.google.com/view/isoecol-video/home/poster-presentations/terrestrial)

Melka Kunture (MK) is a cluster of prehistoric sites located in Ethiopia at high altitudes, ~2000 m a.s.l. The chronological sequence spans from ~1.8 Ma to the early Holocene. The archaeological record yielded several fossil hominins (H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis, and H. sapiens), lithic industry, faunal remains and fossil footprints. Palynologic...

Chamois hunting and chamois exploitation in Italy at the time of the Epigravettian – Over 30 sites were analysed, where the two species of chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata and Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra) were both discovered. Chamois prevails at Riparo Soman and at three cave sites (Maritza, di Ortucchio, and di Pozzo). At five sites the perc...

The stratigraphic sequence of Grotta di Pozzo in the mountains of Central Italy includes a relevant part of the Late Glacial period, starting from the LGM, and the early Holocene as well . The calibrated dates range between 23,000 and 9,000 cal BP, in association with Epigravettian and Sauveterrian industries. Various types of fireplaces were in ex...

This article presents the results of the technological and functional analysis carried out on the exceptional repertoire of Columbella rustica and Cypraea sp. ornaments as well as artefacts on large Charonia lampas shells recovered at the Late Mesolithic burial site of S’Omu e S’Orku (Sardinia, Italy). Our study established the modalities of orname...

New ichnological data are available at the prehistoric site of Melka Kunture, Upper Awash Valley in Ethiopia. Excavation of new test pits enabled us to explore the volcanic and fluvio-lacustrine sequence at the Gombore II Open Air Museum archaeological site (ca. 0.85 Ma). This has allowed a detailed reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment and of th...

Single-carcass sites of Lower and Middle Pleistocene age have attracted much attention since they were first recorded. They have been the focus both of science and of museum displays, with reconstructions of “hominins-feasting-on-a-carcass” purposefully illustrating a major step in human evolution. Here we report the Acheulean site Gombore II-2 in...

Title: L'uso dell'ossidiana nella preistoria: una prospettiva est-africana While in the Mediterranean obsidian occurs exclusively in islands, in East Africa the outcrops are in the mainland and were extensively used during the MSA and the LSA. Melka Kunture, a cluster of Palaeolithic sites in the Upper Awash valley of Ethiopia, is the only area wh...

The landscape of the surroundings of the Melka Kunture prehistoric site, Upper Awash Basin, Ethiopia, were studied intensively in the last decades. Nonetheless, the area was mainly characterized under a stratigraphic/geological and archaeological point of view. However, a detailed geomorphological map is still lacking. Hence, in this study, we iden...

This is a map of geomorphological processes, forms and features in the surroundings of the Melka Kunture Palaeolithic site, Ethiopia which has to be read in conjunction with the paper by the same authors in Journal of Maps, 15:2, 797-806, DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2019.1669497

We present previously unpublished pictures of the rock shelter and the painting at the prehistoric site known as Arnalo dei Bufali (Sezze, LT). The photos were taken by A. C. Blanc in 1936, when the site was discovered and studied for the first time; they are currently stored in the Blanc-Aguet archive, in Rome. The picture of a schematic anthropom...

MK 81 GAR IVE 0043 (henceforward GAR IVE) is a juvenile early Homo represented by a fragment of mandible and a partial mixed dentition. It has been unearthed at Garba IV (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia), in layer E, dated to ∼1.8 Ma. This is one of the very few juvenile fossils of Early Pleistocene age. It is also one of the not many hominin...

To assess the integrity of Pleistocene archaeological sites is crucial in the analysis of human behaviour. Most of the Early Palaeolithic sites are in active fluvial environments where it is necessary to understand the degree of sedimentary disturbance. The analysis of the formation processes through geoarchaeological and geostatistical techniques...

The Neanderthal skull Circeo 1 was found by chance in 1939 in a cave of Mount Circeo, on the western coast of central Italy, supposedly in the middle of a circle of stones. The cave entrance opened unexpectedly when works were in progress to lay the foundations of a building. Alessandro Guattari, who owned the place, first entered the cave and noti...

Forewords to a volume by Francesca Borruso, who explores the fascination for prehistoric art of Henry Moore, the great XX century sculptor. Moore notably reproduced Venus figurines in his sketch notes, while the Black Venus of Dolni Vestonice inspired his Three Standing Figures.

The poster provides an updated summary of research at Melka Kunture

The poster is a critical reassessment of the rare representations of wolves so far discovered in Palaeolithic art

The wolf (Canis lupus) in Palaeolithic art It is well known that carnivores (and other potentially aggressive large species) are poorly represented in Palaeolithic art. This is also the case for genus Ursus and genus Panthera, each of them recorded by 100-200 representations dating from 40,000 to 10,000 cal BP, compared to several thousand herbivo...

This is a report on the rich ichnological record of Gombore gully (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia).

The emergence of the Acheulean is a major topic, currently debated by archaeologists researching all over East Africa. Despite the ongoing discussion and the increasing amount of available data, the mode(s) of the technological changes leading to this emergence remain(s) largely unexplained. Overall, there is a dearth of continuous stratigraphic se...

We review below the Acheulean of East Africa from two perspectives: the history of research and the current state of the art. The definition of Acheulean industries has changed considerably over 150 years and since the earliest research in Africa. A brief presentation of the main discoveries, of the many theories, and of the various methods used in...

In this paper, we present and discuss pollen data from the Early Pleistocene (1.8 to 1.6 Ma) – we use the revised timescale approved by IUGS, in which the base of the Pleistocene is defined by the GSSP of the Gelasian Stage at 2.588 (2.6) Ma (Gibbard et al. 2010) – and from the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (0.9 to 0.6 Ma) at Melka Kunture (Upper Awas...

This edited volume presents current archaeological research and data from the major early Acheulean sites in East Africa, and addresses three main areas of focus; 1) the tempo and mode of technological changes that led to the emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa; 2) new approaches to lithic collections, including lithic technology analyses; an...

Supplementary Information related to the paper: Archaeology and ichnology at Gombore II-2, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia: everyday life of a mixed-age hominin group 700,000 years ago.

We report the occurrence at 0.7 million years (Ma) of an ichnological assemblage at Gombore II-2, which is one of several archaeological sites at Melka Kunture in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia, 2000 m asl. Adults and children potentially as young as 12 months old left tracks in a silty substrate on the shore of a body of water where ungulates,...

The Acheulean is the longest-lasting human cultural record, spanning approximately 1.5 Ma and three continents. The most comprehensive sequences are found in East Africa, where, in large-scale syntheses, the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean (LPA) has often been considered a uniform cultural entity. Furthermore, the emergence and development of Acheulean...