Late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in the Central Mediterranean: new archaeological and genetic data from the Late Epigravettian burial Oriente C (Favignana, Sicily)

Abstract

25 26 Grotta d’Oriente, a small coastal cave located on the island of Favignana (Sicily, Italy) is a key site 27 for the study of the early human colonization of Sicily. The individual known as Oriente C was 28 found in the lower portion of an anthropogenic deposit containing typical local Late Upper 29 Palaeolithic (Late Epigravettian) stone assemblages. Two radiocarbon dates on charcoal from the 30 deposit containing the burial are consistent with the archaeological context and refer Oriente C to a 31 period spanning about 14,200-13,800 cal. BP. Anatomical features are close to those of Late Upper 32 Palaeolithic populations of the Mediterranean and show strong affinity with Palaeolithic individuals 33 of San Teodoro. Here we present new ancient DNA data from Oriente C. Our results, confirming 34 previous genetic analysis, suggest a substantial genetic homogeneity among Late Epigravettian bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/692871; this version posted July 4, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. 35 hunter-gatherer populations of Central Mediterranean, presumably as a consequence of continuous 36 gene flow among different groups, or a range expansion following the Last Glacial Maximum 37 (LGM). 38 39 40 Keywords: Mediterranean, Late Epigravettian, Hunter-gatherers, LGM, ancient DNA, Grotta d’Oriente 41 42