The Lateglacial fossil avifauna from Grotta del Romito (Calabria, Southern Italy) and the exploitation of birds by the Upper Paleolithic hunters

Grotta del Romito represents one of the most relevant Upper Palaeolithic sequences of Southern Italy, spanning the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Lateglacial (GS1 and GI1) and providing remarkable insights on the Gravettian and Epigravettian lifeways and symbolic behaviours. With this work, we analyse the avian assemblage from Grotta del Romito in order to clarify the dynamics of bird exploitation by the Upper Paleolithic people and assess changes in the paleonvironment due to the Lateglacial climatic shift. Based on the bird species, the surroundings of the cave were characterized by forests alternated with open grasslands, rocky exposures and riverine or marshy habitats. Between unit E and unit D the bird taxa indicate a change from grassland-dominated habitats to forest-dominated habitats, correlated with the beginning of the GI1. The food exploitation of birds, indicated by a number of anthropic modifications, is more intense in the Final Epigravettian and involves Galliformes, Anatidae, Rallidae, Otidiformes, Strigidae, Accipitridae, Falconidae, Corvidae and Passseriformes. The Final Epigravettian hunter-gatherers of Grotta del Romito were also interested in the wings of large Accipitridae ( Aquila chrysaetos , cf. Gyps fulvus ) for utilitarian purposes or symbolic-mediated behaviour.