Depositional and post-depositional processes in rock shelters of Northern Italy during the Late Pleistocene: their Paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental significance.

The fill of seven rock shelters and caves (Riparo di Fumane, Grotta della Ghiacciaia, Riparo Mezzena, Riparo Tagliente, Grotta della Paina, Grotta di S. Bernardino and Grotta del Broion) located in the Veneto Region (Northern Italy) have been studied by means of geo-pedological techniques. The stratigraphic sequences have been dated and correlated by means of radiocarbon dating and archeological evidence included into the fills. Pollen anlayses and mammal fauna provide an independent source of information to test the reliability of the geo-pedological techniques for the paleoenvironmental reconstruction. On the basis of the stratigraphic relationships of the lithic assemblages and of some radiocarbon datings, the first cycle is dated back to the beginning of the Wurm glacial period and tentatively correlated to the stage 5 a-d of the isotopic record, the second cycle is correlated to the isotopic stages 3-4 and should represent the first pleniglacial period of the Late Pleistocene; the third cycle, correlated to stage 2, represents the second pleniglacial period. -from Author