Neandertals on the beach:
Use of marine resources at Grotta dei Moscerini (Latium, Italy)
Paola Villa cs 2020 PLoS One 15:e0226690
doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0226690.

Excavated in 1949, Grotta dei Moscerini (MIS-5 to early MIS-4) is 1 of 2 Italian Hn sites with a large assemblage of retouched shells (n=171) from 21 layers.
The other occurrence is from the broadly contemporaneous layer L of Grotta del Cavallo, S-Italy (n=126).
8 other Mousterian sites in Italy & 1in Greece also have shell tools, but in a very small number.
The shell tools are made on valves of the smooth clam Callista chione.
The general idea that the valves of Callista chione were collected by Hn on the beach after the death of the mollusk is incomplete.
At Moscerini, 23.9 % of the spms were gathered directly from the sea-floor as live animals by skin diving Hn.
Archaeological data from sites in Italy, France & Spain confirm that shell-fishing & fresh-water fishing was a common Hn activity, as indicated by anatomical studies recently published by E.Trinkaus.
Lithic analysis provides data to show the relation between stone tools & shell tools.
Several layers contain pumices derived from volcanic eruptions in the Ischia Island or the Campi Flegrei (prior to the Campanian Ignimbrite mega-eruption). Their rounded edges indicate: they were transported by sea-currents to the beach at the base
of the Moscerini sequence.
Their presence in the occupation layers above the beach is discussed.
The most plausible hypothesis is that they were collected by Hn. Incontrovertible evidence that Hn collected pumices is provided by a
cave in Liguria. Use of pumices as abraders is well documented in the Upper Paleolithic.
We prove: the exploitation of submerged aquatic resources & the collection of pumices common in the UP were part of Hn behavior well before Hs arrival in W-Europe.

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