Grotta del Romito (Cosenza, Calabria) is located at the southern margin of Pollino National Park, in the inner region of the Low-Tyrrhenian side of Italy. During the recent archaeological researches carried out by the University of Florence, new excavations performed in the rock-shelter area, brought to light a pre-Neolithic sequence which attests a human frequentation during the Early Holocene. The stratigraphic succession consists of several Early Mesolithic levels overlaying an Upper Palaeolithic (Late Epigravettian) deposit.

Mesolithic stone assemblages show “typical” Sauveterrian techno-typological features; some elements seem to be rooted in the local Late Epigravettian tradition.

At Romito the uninterrupted sequence from Palaeolithic to Mesolithic, supported by several AMS radiocarbon dates (from ~13,3 to ~11 Ky cal. BP), allows us to follow the evolution of the chipped stone productions (tools typology, technical systems, raw materials procurement) at the Late Epigravettian-Sauveterrian transition.

New data from Romito provide new insights on both the emergence of Sauveterrian technocomplex in Southern Italy and the role, in its formational process, of the local Epigravettian tradition, also in order to reconsider the model of a North to South diffusion of Sauveterrian in Italy