XXI INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) Congress- time for change

The preservation of in situ open-air archaeological contexts is often rare, especially for arid landscapes. In East Africa erosion caused by environmental phenomena is one of the principal events that make difficult the preservation of organic and, sometimes, inorganic remains. Moreover, these phenomena may affect the conservation of archaeological stratigraphies making extremely hard the analysis of human occupations. For this reason, when found, organic remains in arid eroded landscapes represents an extremely important proxy for the reconstraction of past human behaviour and occupation dynamics. However, it is still difficult to combine the data with the lack of a secure stratigraphic archive to compare with. The site named GOT10, in the Gotera area, southern Ethiopia, shows a stratigraphic deposit located in a depression of modern savannah environment rich in artefact and faunal remains in primary deposition in association with fireplaces, dated to MIS 3 (ca. 45-42 ka, AMS). The analysis of the GOT10 archaeozoological record - one of the few open-air sites that have faunal remains fairly conserved in the savannah environment - is fundamental to include Ethiopia in the broader debate about site functionality and seasonality, mobility, and environmental exploitation during the late Pleistocene. The faunal remains from GOT10 site come both from the stratigraphic layers (2018 and 2022 fieldwork) and from the collection of surface material (2017, 2018 and 2022 fieldwork) within the Gotera area. Despite the difficult conservation of the faunal remains due to the weathering and the surface contexts, the state of preservation of these materials is good. We propose the case study of GOT10 faunal assemblage for the reconstruction of past human occupation dynamics in a problematic context characterized by both deposits in situ and surface eroded materials.