• 作者：Marta Arzarello ; Federica Marcolini ; Giulio Pavia ; Marco Pavia ; Carmelo Petronio ; Mauro Petrucci ; Lorenzo Rook ; Raffaele Sardella
• 关键词：Fist peopling ; Early Pleistocene ; Mediterranean area ; Italy ; Lithic industry ; Vertebrate ; Biochronology
• 刊名：L'Anthropologie
• 出版年：2009
• 出版时间：January-March 2009
• 年：2009
• 卷：113
• 期：1
• 页码：47-58
• 全文大小：428 K

The site of Pirro Nord (also known as Cava Pirro or Cava Dell’Erba) is known in literature since the 1970's of the last century as a palaeontological site, of which the mammalian fossil association constitutes a reference (local) fauna for the European latest Villafranchian. This fossil association is also known for the occurrence of some African elements. During the 2005, a lithic industry has been found in three karst fissures, together with the typical elements of the Pirro Nord vertebrate assemblage. The biochronological assessment based on the vertebrate assemblage attributes it to a time interval bracketed between 1.3 Ma and 1.7 Ma. Thus the site of Pirro Nord represents the oldest human occupation of Europe so far known. The lithic assemblage, attributable to the Mode 1, is constituted by three cores and seven flakes, and is made only on flint. Lithic artefacts have been found in stratigraphic context during the preliminary surveys of the three fissures, that they will be the object of systematic excavations in the years to come.