Brunella Muttillo

The Romanelli Cave in south-east Italy is an important reference point for the so-called ‘Mediterranean province’ of European Upper Palaeolithic art. Yet, the site has only recently been subject to a systematic investigation of its parietal and portable art. Starting in 2016, a project has recorded the cave's interior, discovering new parietal art. Here, the authors report on a selection of panels, featuring animal figures, geometric motifs and other marks, identifying the use of different types of tools and techniques, along with several activity phases. These panels are discussed with reference to radiocarbon dating of nearby deposits, posing questions about chronology, technology and wider connections between Upper Palaeolithic cave sites across western Eurasia.

In this paper we present a review of the oldest lithic assemblages of Tibitó 1, El Abra 2, and El Abra 3 (Sabana de Bogotá, Eastern Cordillera), among the oldest and most significant sites in Colombia. The contribution of use-wear analysis on a controlled sample of materials confirms and adds new data to our previous technological review Muttillo et al. (2017. “Revisiting the Oldest Known Lithic Assemblages of Colombia: A Review of Data from El Abra and Tibitó (Cundiboyacense Plateau, Eastern Cordillera, Colombia).” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 13: 455–465). The results highlight some critical points and discrepancies with previous studies and interpretations.