Tracing the mobility of a Late Epigravettian (~ 13 ka) male infant from Grotte di Pradis (Northeastern Italian Prealps) at high-temporal resolution

www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Tracing the mobility of a Late Epigravettian (~ 13 ka) male infant from Grotte di Pradis (Northeastern Italian Prealps) at high‑temporal resolution Federico Lugli1,2*, Alessia Nava3, Rita Sorrentino1,4, Antonino Vazzana1, Eugenio Bortolini1,5, Gregorio Oxilia1, Sara Silvestrini1, Nicola Nannini6,7, Luca Bondioli1,8, Helen Fewlass9,10, Sahra Talamo9,11, Edouard Bard12, Lucia Mancini13,14, Wolfgang Müller15,16, Matteo Romandini1,7,17 & Stefano Benazzi1 We present the results of a multi-disciplinary investigation on a deciduous human tooth (Pradis 1), recently recovered from the Epigravettian layers of the Grotte di Pradis archaeological site (Northeastern Italian Prealps). Pradis 1 is an exfoliated deciduous molar (Rdm2), lost during life by an 11–12-year-old child. A direct radiocarbon date provided an age of 13,088–12,897 cal BP (95% probability, IntCal20). Amelogenin peptides extracted from tooth enamel and analysed through LC–MS/MS indicate that Pradis 1 likely belonged to a male. Time-resolved 87Sr/86Sr analyses by laser ablation mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICPMS), combined with dental histology, were able to resolve his movements during the first year of life (i.e. the enamel mineralization interval). Specifically, the Sr isotope ratio of the tooth enamel differs from the local baseline value, suggesting that the child likely spent his first year of life far from Grotte di Pradis. Sr isotopes are also suggestive of a cyclical/seasonal mobility pattern exploited by the Epigravettian human group. The exploitation of Grotte di Pradis on a seasonal, i.e. summer, basis is also indicated by the faunal spectra. Indeed, the nearly 100% occurrence of marmot remains in the entire archaeozoological collection indicates the use of Pradis as a specialized marmot hunting or butchering site. This work represents the first direct assessment of sub-annual movements observed in an Epigravettian hunter-gatherer group from Northern Italy. Following the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), glacial retreat and general climate amelioration from ~ 17,000 years ago (ka) allowed hunter-gatherer human groups to (re)expand into Northern Italy and Alpine a reas1. From the Late Glacial to the onset of the Holocene, Italy was technologically characterized by the Epigravettian 1 Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy. 2Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy. 3Human Osteology Lab, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. 4Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. 5HUMANE ‑ Human Ecology and Archaeology, Dept. Archaeology and Anthropology, Institució Milà i Fontanals de Investigación en Humanidades, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IMF - CSIC), Barcelona, Spain. 6MUSE, Museum of Science, Trento, Italy. 7Departement of Humanities, Section of Prehistoric and Anthropological Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. 8Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua, Padua, Italy. 9Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. 10Ancient Genomics Lab, The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK. 11Department of Chemistry “Giacomo Ciamician”, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. 12CEREGE, Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Collège de France, Technopôle de L‘Arbois, Aix‑en‑Provence, France. 13Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.P.A., Basovizza (Trieste), Italy. 14LINXS – Lund Institute for advanced Neutron and X-ray Science, Lund, Sweden. 15Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 16Institut Für Geowissenschaften, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 17Pradis Cave Museum, Clauzetto, Italy. *email: Scientific Reports | (2022) 12:8104 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-12193-6 1 Vol.:(0123456789) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ technocomplex, distributed across the whole peninsula and associated with a likely population replacement2. Indeed, genetic affinity with Near Eastern people from the Balkans characterizes the Villabruna cluster of Riparo Villabruna3 (ca. 14 ka) and Riparo T agliente1 (ca. 17 ka). The large number of well dated sites within the Alps across the Late Upper Paleolithic indicates a settlement network characterized by frequent logistic forays and movements, with possible contacts amongst huntergatherer human g roups4. The high dynamics in terms of both population movements and climate fluctuations is also reflected in the subsistence strategies of the Epigravettian human g roups5. Most of the previous work in Northern Italy consisted of archeozoological and archaeological analyses of settlements at several sites. Specifically, the links between variabilities in the lithic industry and site topographies indicate differential exploitation of valley floor camps and more specialized sites at higher a ltitudes4, with these latter mostly focused on specific hunting activities and frequented during summer-autumn months as attested by the faunal assemblages6,7. This is particularly evident at the onset of the Bølling–Allerød interstadial (ca. 14 ka), and the related expansion of (oak) forests when seasonal settlements moved to higher a ltitudes5. Previous studies have utilized the strontium isotopic signature (87Sr/86Sr) of tooth enamel8 to investigate mobility patterns and strategies employed by human groups during the Pleistocene9–14. Specifically, the results by Lugli et al.13 showed a distinct change in mobility strategies for Epigravettian human groups from Paglicci (Southern Italy), compared with previous (i.e. Gravettian) hunter-gatherers. Another study on Early Upper Paleolithic Italian contexts investigated sub-annual movements of three Neanderthals and an Early Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens using microchemical Sr-isotope data of deciduous t eeth12. They found different mobility patterns between the Mousterian occupants who turned out to be mostly locals, and the H. sapiens who was probably non-local. Similarly, the lack of intra-tooth isotopic variability of a Middle Pleistocene human tooth from Southern Italy was interpreted to indicate limited mobility of the whole human g roup11. All the previously mentioned studies relied on deciduous human teeth, which additionally inform on the movements of the individual’s mother, due to their mineralization timespan which starts in-utero15. More specifically, combining histomorphometry on dental thin section of deciduous enamel and micro-chemistry, it is possible to reconstruct the mobility patterns and subsistence activities of pregnant women as well as of the child during early life (namely their ‘chemohistory’) at sub-monthly/weekly r esolution10,12,16–19. Yet, information concerning human mobility during the Upper Palaeolithic is sti (...truncated)