Marta Arzarello
Biographic Data
| ID | 633392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marta Arzarello |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marta |
| FAMILY NAME | Arzarello |
| SIGNATURE | ARZARELLO M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ferrara |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3379-1112 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 59 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 602 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 55 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Italy before the Neanderthals: Cultural pathways of early humans
What Is the Acheulean
The Acheulean represents the longest cultural period known to human history, lasting globally for more than 1.75 million years. It may have emerged as early as 1.95 Ma in Africa, spreading throughout much of the continent and then into Eurasia and lasting up to 350–200 ka in western Europe and South Asia, and even later in eastern Asia. Originally defined in the 1870s, the term Acheulean is one of the earliest and most contested classifications i…
Decision Revise: Applying statistical and causal modeling to interpret thermal alteration in observational lithic data. Round#1
Wildfires constitute a pervasive agent of postdepositional disturbance in many openair archaeological settings.Within this context, the contribution by Cardillo and Carranza (2025) represents an important step forward in the formal analysis of thermally induced modifications affecting lithic assemblages in semiarid environments of northern Patagonia, Argentina.The authors employ a causal inference framework to model the relationships between fire…
Recommendation of: Applying statistical and causal modeling to interpret thermal alteration in observational lithic data. Round#2
Recommendation of: How depositional environments impact the microwear preservation of quartz artifacts: insights from the Oldowan of the Shungura Formation (Ethiopia). Round#2
A recommendation of: Aline Galland, Ignacio Clemente-Conte, Jean-Renaud Boisserie, Anne Delagnes How depositional environments impact the microwear preservation of quartz artifacts: insights from the Oldowan of the Shungura Formation (Ethiopia) https://doi.org/10.31233/osf.io/9k8p3_v3
Technology and taphonomy of the Middle Paleolithic assemblage from the Uzun Mera site in Macedonia
The open-air site of Uzun Mera in eastern North Macedonia provides new insights into Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal behavior and site formation processes in the understudied Balkan Peninsula. Discovered in 2017, the site spans over 1.5 km2 and contains lithic artefacts affected by both cultural and post-depositional processes. Technological analysis of 33 selected artefacts reveals a Middle Paleolithic industry featuring opportunistic, Levallois,…
Technological Strategies and Diversity of Management of Limestone Pebbles at the Site of Terra Amata (southeast, France) in the Context of MIS11 in Western Europe
Ugly stones sharpen the wits: The Middle Palaeolithic of Piedmont in the context of Western Europe
This study examines Middle Palaeolithic lithic technology in Piedmont, with a focus on the use of quartz as the primary raw material. Due to the scarcity of local chert, the region’s lithic industries are dominated by quartz, which is mainly available in secondary deposits along watercourses. The stratified reference site is the Ciota Ciara cave, but surface lithic assemblages from Trino, Vaude Canavesane, and Baragge Biellesi were also considere…
From excavation to analysis: Experimental insights on the impact of wet sieving processes on lithic use-wear traces
Lithic microscopic use-wear analysis plays a crucial role in reconstructing past human behaviour, offering insights into tool use, site function, and subsistence strategies. However, its reliability depends greatly on the identification of genuine use traces and is therefore continuously challenged by contamination, either in post-depositional conditions or in handling post-recovery. This study aims to investigate the impact of a common procedure…
Decision Revise: How depositional environments impact the microwear preservation of quartz artifacts: insights from the Oldowan of the Shungura Formation (Ethiopia). Round#1
A recommendation of: Aline Galland, Ignacio Clemente-Conte, Jean-Renaud Boisserie, Anne Delagnes How depositional environments impact the microwear preservation of quartz artifacts: insights from the Oldowan of the Shungura Formation (Ethiopia) https://doi.org/10.31233/osf.io/9k8p3_v3
Earliest Evidence in the Philippines of Life Under the Canopy: Plant Technology and Use of Forest Resources by Our Species
Middle Pleistocene Hippopotamuses from the Italian Peninsula: An Overview
Our work presents an updated overview of the Italian Middle Pleistocene records of hippopotamuses, including the two species Hippopotamus antiquus and Hippopotamus amphibius. In addition to reviewing several well-known fossils in the literature, a large number of samples are described herein for the first time. Following the recent results published in the literature, where the skull from the Middle Pleistocene of Cava Montanari (ca. MIS 13) was …
Through Time: Reconstructing Palaeolithic Occupations Through Use-Wear Analysis in the Middle Palaeolithic Site of Ciota Ciara (Borgosesia, Italy)
Lithic use-wear analysis, through defining site function and allowing reconstructing of patterns of human occupation, can contribute to our understanding of archaeological palimpsests. The Ciota Ciara cave represents an excellent case study for this methodology. Multidisciplinary research so far conducted on the materials recovered from the atrial sector of the cave distinguishes three archaeological units from a Middle Palaeolithic occupation of…
Planning a trip during Middle Palaeolithic. The mobile toolkit debate and some considerations about expedient vs curated technologies in the light of new data from the Ciota Ciara cave (NW Italy)
With Impressions Chosen from Another Time: Core Technologies and Debitage Production at the Lower Palaeolithic Site of Notarchirico (670–695 ka; layers F to I2)
The earliest evidence of bifaces in western Europe is dated to the initial phase of the Middle Pleistocene (la Noira, Notarchirico, Moulin Quignon, 700-670 ka), with the findings of Barranc de la Boella (1.0-0.9 Ma) considered to be an earlier local evolution. No transition assemblages are recorded during this time frame, and the "abrupt" appearance of bifaces during this time frame is associated with significant cognitive shifts in human technol…
Techno-economy of lithic raw materials in Piedmont (north-western Italy): A first life-like scenario
Data about Palaeolithic peopling, settlement dynamics and techno-economy of the south-western margin of the Alpine region are sketchy. In this area, the lack of systematic research and the scarcity of lithic raw materials, spread the idea that Piedmont was not inhabited during Palaeolithic. In 2009, the re-starting of the excavations at the Ciota Ciara cave, gave rise to new questions and to the development of research projects at a regional scal…
Brief interviews with hideous stone: A glimpse into the butchery site of Isernia La Pineta - a combined technological and use-wear approach on the lithic tools to evaluate the function of a Lower Pala…
The onset of the Middle Pleistocene (780 ka) in the European continent is associated with significant environmental variations (Middle Pleistocene Revolution), innovative behavioural strategies (bifacial productions, land-use patterns, raw material management) and a global increase in the archaeological evidence from 600 ka onward. Whether these changes are related to the rise of the Acheulean, the informative potential carried by these contexts …
A taphonomic and spatial distribution study of the new levels of the middle Pleistocene site of Notarchirico (670-695 ka, Venosa, Basilicata, Italy)
For Our World Without Sound: The Opportunistic Debitage in the Italian Context—a Methodological Evaluation of the Lithic Assemblages of Pirro Nord, Cà Belvedere di Montepoggiolo, Ciota Ciara Cave and …
The informative potential taken on by lithic artefacts has increased over the years. They gradually grew into proxies to detect the most relevant features of human material culture, including cognitive abilities to realise stone tools or, in other words, to track down the delineation of behavioural complexity. Consequently, notions like predetermination, standardisation (morphologically likewise) and hierarchisation have been intensely used in li…
A myth debunked. The Porosphaera globularis beads and their relation to the onset of symbolic thinking in prehistory
Because of their inherent symbolic significance, personal ornaments gained a key role in the scientific debate regarding the emergence and evolution of symbolic behaviour; the presumed Acheulean beads discovered in the nineteenth century in northern Europe's sites are considered crucial evidence of this. The fossils of the sponge Porosphaera globularis, because of their morphological characteristics, have been interpreted by some archaeologists a…
Potential of a large-scale functional analysis to reconstructing past human activities at the Final Palaeolithic site of Lommel-Maatheide
A recommendation of: Sonja Tomasso, Dries Cnuts, Justin Coppe, Marijn Van Gils, Ferdi Geerts, Marc De Bie, Veerle Rots A closer look at an eroded dune landscape: first functional insights into the Federmessergruppen site of Lommel-Maatheide https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/pf3sm
From the Earliest Occupations of Europe to Recent Bifacial Productions
Expedient behaviour and predetermination at the Ciota Ciara cave (north-western Italy) during Middle Palaeolithic
The means of complexity in a lithic reduction sequence
The definition and the study of human cognitive abilities during the Lower Palaeolithic it has always been a complex field of investigation. The relation between the technical skills (lithic production) and the emergence of the linguistic abilities is not easy to investigate due to the difficulty of finding objective data to refer to. The proposition, made by C. Gaucherel and C. Noûs, of a formal grammar of knapping as a method to study the synta…
International educational project “Nature and Society in Prehistoric Europe”
The history of prehistoric Europe is relatively short if compared to Africa
Evidence of an Early Pleistocene hominin presence at Pirro Nord (Apricena, Foggia, southern Italy): P13 site
Lower and middle Pleistocene human settlements in the Middle Loire River Basin, Centre Region, France
Early Levallois core technology between Marine Isotope Stage 12 and 9 in Western Europe
Out of Africa: The first evidence of Italian peninsula occupation
Stratigraphical and palaeontological data from the Early Pleistocene Pirro 10 site of Pirro Nord (Puglia, south eastern Italy)
The Middle Pleistocene site of Guado San Nicola (Monteroduni, Central Italy) on the Lower/Middle Palaeolithic transition
The Pirro Nord site (Apricena, Fg, Southern Italy) in the context of the first European peopling: Convergences and divergences
The first European peopling and the Italian case: Peculiarities and “opportunism”
The need for a taphonomic perspective in spatial analysis: Formation processes at the Early Pleistocene site of Pirro Nord (P13), Apricena, Italy
A taphonomic and spatial distribution study of the new levels of the middle Pleistocene site of Notarchirico (670-695 ka, Venosa, Basilicata, Italy)
A reexamination of the Middle Paleolithic human remains from Riparo Tagliente, Italy
The Mousterian lithic assemblage of the Ciota Ciara cave (Piedmont, Northern Italy): Exploitation and conditioning of raw materials
The Ciota Ciara cave is situated in Monte Fenera’s karst (Borgosesia – Vercelli), at 670 metres above sea level. It is the most important evidence of a Middle Palaeolithic settlement in Piedmont: the cave was used by Homo neanderthalensis during the OIS 5, in a mild-humid period, as proven by faunal remains. The environment was characterized by deciduous woodland and glades. The intersection between different habitats, the presence of lithic raw …
The Hoslteinian period in Europe (MIS 11-9)
The use of blades and pointed tools during middle palaeolithic, the example of Riparo Tagliente (VR)
Expedient behaviour and predetermination at the Ciota Ciara cave (north-western Italy) during Middle Palaeolithic
Raw materials procurement strategies at the Ciota Ciara cave: New insight on land mobility in north-western Italy during Middle Palaeolithic
Talking stones: Taphonomy of the lithic assemblage of Pirro Nord 13 (Apricena, FG, Italy). A new approach to the study of the post depositional alterations on lithics tools
Brief interviews with hideous stone: A glimpse into the butchery site of Isernia La Pineta - a combined technological and use-wear approach on the lithic tools to evaluate the function of a Lower Pala…
The onset of the Middle Pleistocene (780 ka) in the European continent is associated with significant environmental variations (Middle Pleistocene Revolution), innovative behavioural strategies (bifacial productions, land-use patterns, raw material management) and a global increase in the archaeological evidence from 600 ka onward. Whether these changes are related to the rise of the Acheulean, the informative potential carried by these contexts …
Grotta Reali, the first multilayered mousterian evidences in the Upper Volturno Basin (Rocchetta a Volturno, Molise, Italy)
Tracing Fire in Early European Prehistory: Microcharcoal Quantification in Geological and Archaeological Records from Molise (Southern Italy)
Between “vintage” and “avant-guard”, the Lower Palaeolithic settlements in Molise region (Italy)
Variabilité de l’Acheuléen de plein air entre Rhône et Loire (France)
A myth debunked. The Porosphaera globularis beads and their relation to the onset of symbolic thinking in prehistory
Because of their inherent symbolic significance, personal ornaments gained a key role in the scientific debate regarding the emergence and evolution of symbolic behaviour; the presumed Acheulean beads discovered in the nineteenth century in northern Europe's sites are considered crucial evidence of this. The fossils of the sponge Porosphaera globularis, because of their morphological characteristics, have been interpreted by some archaeologists a…
Middle Paleolithic occupation of the Moroccan Sahara: Open air sites of the Tafilalt
Techno-economy of lithic raw materials in Piedmont (north-western Italy): A first life-like scenario
Data about Palaeolithic peopling, settlement dynamics and techno-economy of the south-western margin of the Alpine region are sketchy. In this area, the lack of systematic research and the scarcity of lithic raw materials, spread the idea that Piedmont was not inhabited during Palaeolithic. In 2009, the re-starting of the excavations at the Ciota Ciara cave, gave rise to new questions and to the development of research projects at a regional scal…
Evidence of earliest human occurrence in Europe: The site of Pirro Nord (Southern Italy)
L’industrie lithique du site Pléistocène inférieur de Pirro Nord (Apricena, Italie du sud): Une occupation humaine entre 1,3 et 1,7 Ma
Lower and middle Pleistocene human settlements in the Middle Loire River Basin, Centre Region, France
Out of Africa: The first evidence of Italian peninsula occupation
Stratigraphical and palaeontological data from the Early Pleistocene Pirro 10 site of Pirro Nord (Puglia, south eastern Italy)
Lower and Middle Pleistocene human settlements recorded in fluvial deposits of the middle Loire River Basin, Centre Region, France
Le gisement acheuléen de plein air de La Garde (Loire). Remarques sur une série lithique acheuléenne entre Rhône et Loire
Evidence of an Early Pleistocene hominin presence at Pirro Nord (Apricena, Foggia, southern Italy): P13 site
Middle Paleolithic occupation of the Moroccan Sahara: Open air sites of the Tafilalt
The Mousterian lithic assemblage of the Ciota Ciara cave (Piedmont, Northern Italy): Exploitation and conditioning of raw materials
The Ciota Ciara cave is situated in Monte Fenera’s karst (Borgosesia – Vercelli), at 670 metres above sea level. It is the most important evidence of a Middle Palaeolithic settlement in Piedmont: the cave was used by Homo neanderthalensis during the OIS 5, in a mild-humid period, as proven by faunal remains. The environment was characterized by deciduous woodland and glades. The intersection between different habitats, the presence of lithic raw …
The Pirro Nord site (Apricena, Fg, Southern Italy) in the context of the first European peopling: Convergences and divergences
Variabilité de l’Acheuléen de plein air entre Rhône et Loire (France)
The first European peopling and the Italian case: Peculiarities and “opportunism”
The Middle Pleistocene site of Guado San Nicola (Monteroduni, Central Italy) on the Lower/Middle Palaeolithic transition
Caractéristiques techno-économiques de l’industrie lithique d’un site acheuléen de surface: Aïn Dfali, Ouazzane, Maroc
The Hoslteinian period in Europe (MIS 11-9)
Between “vintage” and “avant-guard”, the Lower Palaeolithic settlements in Molise region (Italy)
The need for a taphonomic perspective in spatial analysis: Formation processes at the Early Pleistocene site of Pirro Nord (P13), Apricena, Italy
A reexamination of the Middle Paleolithic human remains from Riparo Tagliente, Italy
Prospections systématiques d’une vallée entre Rhône et Loire (France). Une cartographie de l’occupation à la fin de l’Acheuléen
Les plus anciens peuplements de la Péninsule italienne
La péninsule italienne constitue un important point de repère pour la reconstruction des données \nchronologiques et culturelles qui sont à la base de la diffusion du genre Homo en dehors de l’Afrique. \nPlusieurs sites attestent une occupation précoce de l’Italie et corroborent la théorie selon laquelle la sortie \nd’Afrique aurait eu lieu à partir du Proche-Orient. Le site le plus ancien est celui de Pirro Nord (Apricena, \nFoggia, Italie du su…
Dental phenotypic shape variation supports a multiple dispersal model for anatomically modern humans in Southeast Asia
New insights on the Monte Fenera Palaeolithic, Italy: Geoarchaeology of the Ciota Ciara cave
Monte Fenera is a mostly carbonate hill at the southern border of the Western Alps. It hosts several archaeological sites, among them karstic caves bearing evidence of Palaeolithic occupation. These sites have a long history within Alpine archaeology—having been explored since the 19th century—but information on their stratigraphy, chronology, and formation remains incomplete. They are among the few cave‐sites occupied before the Alpine Last Glac…
Tracing Fire in Early European Prehistory: Microcharcoal Quantification in Geological and Archaeological Records from Molise (Southern Italy)
Middle Palaeolithic stone-tool technology from the Central Balkans: The site of Uzun Mera (eastern Republic of Macedonia)
Geography (50 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (50 works) · Archaeology (46 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (37 works) · Geology (36 works) · Paleontology (27 works) · Pleistocene (23 works) · Archaeological and Geological Studies (17 works) · Lithic technology (16 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (12 works)