REAPPAST has investigated site formation processes from a new high-resolution, multidisciplinary perspective casting light on socio-economic strategies in southern Europe at the end of the Late Pleistocene. We have tested hypotheses on the temporal relationship between discrete intra-site activity areas as well as on the cultural, social, and economical organisation of human groups based on past human technology. The project was highly empiricist and integrated mathematic models with empirical data.
REAPPAST has addressed two research questions:
1) How did the socio-economic organisation reflect itself in the spatial and temporal organisation of technical activities in Palaeolithic residential camps?
2) Which was the group size in single occupation areas, and with which palaeodemographic implications?
The research was conducted focusing on two main topics that are central in the debate about Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition:
a) The technological behaviour of Neanderthals, with special attention to the relationships between raw materials, mobility, transmission of knowledge, and spatial organisation of the intra-site living spaces.
b) The occupation intensity and the duration of occupation at campsites.
Results have opened new perspectives on reliable archaeological measurement of time uncertainty in Prehistoric sites. We combined traditional and innovative qualitative and quantitative approach in stone tool studies and spatial analysis. Results have significantly contributed to the understanding of socio-economic dynamics at the end of MIS 3 (such as recycling, mechanisms of technological innovations, mechanisms of technological transmission, significance of different degrees of technological investment). Furthermore, results contributed to approach population density and long-term cultural dynamics in relation with the biological changes in Europe happened at the end of Middle Palaeolithic between Neanderthal and Sapiens populations.
The scientific European community has benefited from the data generated during REAPPAST thanks to an ambitious publication and presentation plan. The plan included academic conferences in European leading centres. Furthermore, REAPPAST has provided social benefits thanks to a constant implication of the beneficiary in public conferences and in educational projects aimed at increasing awareness of the importance of research and innovation in human evolution studies.
