Contesti, risorse e variabilità della presenza umana nel Paleolitico e nel Mesolitico nei Colli Euganei.

In the Alpine and Northern Po Plain scenario, the Euganean Hills were subjected for many times to human frequentations during the Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic. From the archaeological data produced from surface findings, the first peopling dates to the Middle Palaeolithic, across a very large time interval. The Neandertal frequentations were aimed to exploit flint, a raw material which abounds in the western Euganean district. This flint circulated also outside the Euganean Hills. Nevertheless, from the examination of some sites it has been inferred that a functional variability encompassed a large range of tasks like the procurement, flaking and exportation of lithic raw material and the subsistence and other activities related to the processing of perishable materials. Among such a functional flexibility, we include the earliest proof of the flaking of volcanic rocks for the production of tools. Later frequentations have been ascribed to the Upper Palaeolithic: few, but presumably Gravettian flint tools suggest the existence of a settlement system connected with the plain and the fore-alpine belt. Lastly, the latests human frequentations have been dated to the Mesolithic on typological ground, scattered along the Euganean watershed and around on the marginal lowlands. These findings, like for instance in the Valcalaona alluvian contest, allow to recognize the critera adopted for settling the camps.