A crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Alps: Lithic technology, raw material procurement, and mobility in the Aurignacian of Riparo Bombrini
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Riparo Bombrini is a collapsed rockshelter within the Balzi Rossi site complex, located at the intersection of the Maritime Alps, Northern Apennines, and Ligurian Sea. This unique environmental setting served as a crucial biogeographical corridor for human mobility along the Liguro-Provençal Arc during the Paleolithic. Multidisciplinary research at Bombrini identified three archaeological layers (i.e., A2, A1, and A0) overlying a semi-sterile Mousterian level. This paper explores the internal variability of the Protoaurignacian by analyzing lithic assemblages from layers A2 and A1, as well as a previously undescribed Early Aurignacian assemblage from layer A0. An analysis of assemblage integrity, lithic technology, and raw material procurement reveals distinct mobility and land-use strategies, despite technological uniformity. Remarkably, lithic production and use in both Protoaurignacian and Early Aurignacian layers frequently involved exogenous materials sourced from distances exceeding 150 km, with some reaching up to 450 km, spanning from the Rhône Valley to the Central Apennines. Variability in the procurement distance of discarded lithics and their changing reduction intensities highlight distinct patterns of logistical and residential mobility. Comparative analysis with regional sites indicates that foragers possessed sophisticated territorial knowledge, challenging the traditional view of the Protoaurignacian as the outcome of pioneering groups entering unfamiliar landscapes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".