Late Neanderthal “menu” from northern to southern Italy: freshwater and terrestrial animal resources

One of the unanswered questions in Palaeolithic studies is how Neanderthals adapted their subsistence strategies by changing their diet at such a late stage of their existence. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic studies are critical to determine anthropogenic behaviour and to accurately understand the strategies used to exploit different ecological niches. In this line of research, the present paper aims to provide a thorough assessment of the unpublished faunal assemblages from two Late Mousterian Italian sites: Riparo del Broion (northern Italy) and Roccia San Sebastiano cave (southern Italy). These two sites occupy two distant and different areas of Italy, however providing late Neanderthals coeval occupations dated between 50,000–44,000 cal BP.