BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE CENTRAL-SOUTHERN ITALIAN POPULATION THROUGH 30 THOUSAND YEARS. EPIC (Eredità della Popolazione dell'Italia Centro-meridionale)

The present volume is the product of a Conference held in Villa Mondragone, Monte Porzio Catone (RM), in November 2015 under the auspices of the Centre of Molecular Antropology for Ancient DNA Studies (Department of Biology) of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. It constituted the final Conference of the EPIC "Biological and cultural heritage of the central-southern Italian population through 30 thousand years" Project financed by MIUR (PRIN 2010-2011 - prot. 2010EL8TXP). Its aim was to undertake a wide overwiew of the results obtained and to disseminate the conclusions reached by the six research units (RUs) which worked at the project: RU of Università degli Studi di ROMA "Tor Vergata", leader Olga Rickards (national coordinator of the Project) RU of Università degli Studi di FERRARA, leader Guido Barbujani RU of Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria (CNR), leader Mauro Brilli RU of Università degli Studi di FIRENZE, leader David Caramelli RU of Università degli Studi di BOLOGNA, leader Donata Luiselli RU of Università degli Studi di SIENA, leader Lucia Sarti. The Conference had a broad partecipation of anthropologists, archaeologists, molecular anthropologists, botanists, geologists and palaeontologists coming from different Italian research Institutions. The wide range of paper submitted to and discussed by the Conference suggested the possibility of a publication which might offer a review of the current state of research in the important field of molecular archaeo-anthropology. In particular, the Conference intent was to present the multi-disciplinary approaches applied in EPIC to clarify the genetic and cultural changes, which happened in central/southern Italy in a time frame that goes from the Upper Paleolithic to the Eneolithic age, regarding subsistence strategies, state of health, social complexity and relations with the environment. The presented contributions helped fill the gaps in knowledge of certain crucial phases in human demographic history and reconstruct a highly-defined picture of the biological characteristics of the populations over time found in our terri- tory, scarcely investigated in comparison to other European countries; possibly arriving at a detailed knowledge of genetic make-up, level of mobility, type of diet and state of health of ancient Italian peoples. The archaeological samples, both human and vegetable, were selected on the basis of the importance of the context and the special quality of the site documentation with particular care on stratigraphy and taphonomy, and to complement and integrate the findings reached by some of the proposing Research Units in a previous study on the biomolecular, and cultural characterization of central/southern Italian populations from the Neolithic (PRIN 2008). In order to improve the chronology relating to the sites under study, a selection of human remains and also diagnostic short-lived samples (domestic animal bone and cereal grains) were AMS dated: more than 98% of the values obtained were highly reliable providing essential information on the chronology of key non dated contexts The authors of the chapters in this volume provided interesting perspectives in attaining the goals proposed in EPIC: 1. To describe the evolutionary change in Italians over a wide time range. 2. To test the hypothesis of genealogical continuity between pairs of ancient and modern populations, by means of serial coalescent simulations and Approximate Bayesian Computations. 3. To reconstruct the paleo-diet through studying some stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur obtained from the collagen of human and animal bones. 4. To establish the level of mobility and to identify every migratory event through analyzing isotopes of strontium, lead and oxygen, starting from the bone and tooth enamel. 5. To verify by simulations on the calculator what rates of mutation, which demographic phenomena, and which levels of migratory exchange are compatible with the genetic variation observed in the different periods. 6. To reconstruct the life styles of ancient human groups, their organization, social structures, the relations with the eco-regions they belonged to and the interaction with environmental. 7. To carry out paleo-botanical analysis at a morpho-biometric and molecular level to explain the spread of cultivation and its impact on human life (diet, commerce, customs). Our primary pleasure in organizing and putting together this volume has been the association with the various contributors whose intellect, alacrity, knowledge, and good temper made this a relatively easy task. We wish sincerely thank them for a job well done. A final thank to Cristina Martinez-Labarga who helped organize the Conference and made a great effort to put this book in a fine form, to the University of Rome Tor Vergata which provided financial support for the Conference organization (Bando per Convegni e Congressi Villa Mondragone Anno 2015), to Franco Giannini, Roberta Abbate, and all the Staff of Villa Mondragone for their professional coordination, and to 3V Chimica and UniversItalia which made funds available for the publication of this volume.