标题：Special Issue: Early Personal Ornaments --- Marine and Freshwater Shell Exploitaiton in the Early Upper Paleolithic: Re-Examination of the Assemblages from Fumane Cave (NE Italy)
摘要：The making and use of personal ornaments has been at the center of a vibrant debate on the origin of modern
cognitive behavior associated with Anatomically Modern Humans within and outside Africa. The Aurignacian
deposits of Fumane Cave (NE Italy) offer unique archaeological records in which it is possible to observe evidence
of the main cultural symbolic features of European Anatomically Modern Humans. The aim of this contribution is
to enhance our knowledge about the ethno-cultural diversity of this period by re-examining shell assemblages associated
with personal ornaments. Taxonomical, palaeoecological, and taphonomical analyses were performed on
a rich assemblage of marine shells retrieved from the Protoaurignacian and Early Aurignacian contexts of Fumane
Cave. Over 800 shells (both perforated and unperforated) were recovered, representing 65 different taxa, including
55 gastropods, 9 bivalves, and 1 scaphopod. Direct AMS dating of some perforated shells (Homalopoma sanguineum,
Nassarius circumcinctus, and Glycymeris nummaria) show strong consistency with other 14C dates obtained
from the same sedimentary units, demonstrating that shells were collected on beaches dated to the Marine Isotope
Stage 3 (MIS3). A range of use-wear traces and ochre residues observed at stereomicroscope and scanning electron
microscope levels on well-preserved perforation edges indicates that the shells were systematically manufactured
and used as personal ornaments. Although no clear differences have been observed between the two assemblages,
comparisons within the techno-complex confirm that the Aurignacian of Fumane Cave was under the influence of
the Southern European ethno-linguistic group.
