Ripari Villabruna | |
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  Ripari Villabruna location in Italy Show map of Northern Italy Ripari Villabruna Ripari Villabruna (Italy) Show map of Italy | |
| Location | nearFeltre |
|---|---|
| Region | Cismon valley, province ofBelluno, Italy |
| Coordinates | 46°05′03.4″N11°45′51.6″E / 46.084278°N 11.764333°E /46.084278; 11.764333 |
| Type | Abri |
| History | |
| Cultures | Epigravettian, 14,000 years ago |
| Associated with | Cro-Magnon |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | late 1980s |
| Archaeologists | Giuseppe Vercellotti |
Ripari Villabruna is a small rock shelter in northernItaly withMesolithic burial remains. It contains severalCro-Magnon burials, with bodies and grave goods dated to 14,000 yearsBP. The site has added greatly to the understanding of the Mesolithic development of medical[1] andreligious practices in earlyhuman communities.[2][3]
The ablation and removal of debris in the Cismon valley, in theSovramonte municipality, province ofBelluno, Italy during the late 1980s led to the discovery of several rock shelters (abris). Located at a height of 500 m (1,600 ft) above sea level they show impressive traces of settlement by prehistoric people and their activities.The rock shelters, named after their discoverer "Ripari Villabruna", are part of a complex system of sites that reach from the lowest points of the valley to alpine heights. Excavations confirm that humans frequently occupied the site for short periods in a lateEpigravettian cultural context, carbon dated to begin around 14,000 years ago and continuing to the middle of the ensuingHolocene.[4]
A grave that contained a well-preserved skeleton was discovered at the base of the archaeological layers in 1988. DirectAMS dating of the skeletal remains revealed a date 14,160 to 13,820 years before present. The burial took place during the first stages of the human settlement in the rock shelters. The corpse was placed into a narrow, shallow pit 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) in depth, the head turned to the left with arms stretched touching the body, and were of an adult male, about twenty-five years old, characterized by a relatively tall stature for the time period.[5]
Six grave attachments were placed to the body's left. The typical equipment of a hunter-gatherer included a flint (fire stone) knife, a flint core, another stone as hammer, a blade of flint, a bone tip, a pellet ofochre andPropolis (a resinous matter, produced by bees). Limestone platelets decorated withochre drawings had been placed on top of the tomb.[6]
The excellent preservation of the Villabruna 1 skeleton helped to thoroughly investigate various aspects of skeletal biology, such as body size, craniofacial morphology, tooth wear, functional anatomy, and nutritional and pathological aspects. Comparing Villabruna 1 and similar finds with today's people widened the understanding of biocultural adjustments, the living conditions and survival strategies of the Paleolithic population of Europe.[7]
Villabruna 1 is significant in terms of thegenetic history of Europe: the remains were found to carryY-DNA haplogroupR1b1a-L754* (xL389,V88). This is the oldest documented example of haplogroupR1b found anywhere.[8]
We were surprised to find haplogroup R1b in the ~14,000-year-old Villabruna individual from Italy. While the predominance of R1b in western Europe today is owes its origin to Bronze Age migrations from the eastern European steppe9, its presence in Villabruna and in a ~7,000-year-old farmer from Iberia9 document a deeper history of this haplotype in more western parts of Europe.