At the upper Palaeolithic - Mesolithic Boundary: revision of the human remains from Riparo Fredian (Molazzana, Lucca, Italy)

Pleistocene and early Holocene human fossils in Tuscany are very few and poorly described. Any new information is thus an important contribution to our knowledge of the peopling of this region. Here we present a revision of the human fossil remains from the Riparo Fredian, a site located in Garfagnana and first published by Boschian et al., (1995). The authors described the human remains of the site pointing out the presence of 39 isolated human teeth (19 maxillary and 20 mandibular) and “fragments of one adult humerus, of a child's femur and of a youngster’s ulna”, considered as belonging to six individuals at least. A reanalysis of the human remains indicated that several specimens were incorrectly identified. It was thus deemed important to revise the identification of each fossil and their interpretation. The revision of human remains from Riparo Fredian has led to several changes in their anatomical identification with respect to the original publications. Of the 39 teeth previously described, the analysis revealed that two of them belonged to non-human animals, and 18 were mistakenly identified. A new, correct identification is provided for each of them. Also, two human teeth not described in the original papers have been identified. The anatomical identification of the post-cranial remains has been confirmed for two out of the three specimens. The minimum number of individuals, based on the dental remains, is confirmed as at least 5, but most probably 6, although with a different allocation of teeth to individual specimens. The age at death of the six individuals has also been reassessed, indicating the presence of two infants, two young adults and two mature adults.