Human peopling of Italian intramontane basins: The early Middle Pleistocene site of Pagliare di Sassa (L’Aquila, central Italy)

Multidisciplinary investigations at Pagliare di Sassa (L’Aquila, central Italy) suggest that the local
succession accumulated from the late Early to the early Middle Pleistocene in a lacustrine environment.
In the upper part, clastic sediments are part of an alluvial fan prograding into the lake, grading to
a braided fluvial system. The pollen record confirms that a significant glacial phase occurred just before
the onset of the Jaramillo inversion. These data, coupled with evidence from the nearby but earlier
Madonna della Strada sequence, allow reconstruction of part of the environmental evolution of L’Aquila
basin before the Jaramillo Subchron. The mammal species of Pagliare di Sassa include Stephanorhinus
hundsheimensis, mostly of open environments, already present at Madonna della Strada. The faunal
turnover characterizing the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition is indicated by the appearances of taxa
typical of the Italian early to middle Galerian faunas, such as Praemegaceros verticornis, together with
Megaloceros savini. The occurrence of Mimomys savini together with Microtus ex gr. Microtus hintonigregaloides
suggests that this assemblage is earlier than the Isernia La Pineta fauna. A flint implement and
a fragmentary herbivore femur with impact scars probably linked to human activity give evidence of the
human peopling of intramontane basins of the Apennine chain since the early Middle Pleistocene.

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