Clastic successions in rock shelters commonly host important archaeological findings, especially of prehistoric and protostoric times. The understanding of depositional and post-depositional processes in these environments is crucial to understand the lifestyle settings of humans, as well as the reliability of archaeological data obtained during excavations. Rock shelters are genetically related to caves, but while depositional processes in caves are generally well known, less information is available concerning the depositional processes active in rock shelters.This paper tries to contribute to this issue, describing the sedimentary succession exposed at the Oscurusciuto rock shelter (Ginosa, Southern Italy). This is one of the most important Middle Palaeolithic sites of the Italian peninsula, and its sedimentary infill hosts witnesses of very late Neanderthal populations that lived in Italy just before their total decline and complete replacement by Modern Humans (MH).This work presents the results of a sedimentologically based study integrated with an ichnological study of selected beds. The combination of these two methodologies allowed us to: (i) define the main depositional processes active in the rock shelter environment, as well as the relationships between different processes; (ii) discuss the meaning of peculiar ichnofabrics recognized at the site, and (iii) discuss the meaning of structureless strata at an archeological site in the framework of human trampling vs bioturbation as a cause of the obliteration of primary sedimentary structures.

中文翻译：

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岩石掩体中的沉积过程和环境设置：以史前 Oscurusciuto 遗址（意大利南部）为例

岩石掩体中的碎屑序列通常具有重要的考古发现，尤其是史前和原始时代。了解这些环境中的沉积和沉积后过程对于了解人类的生活方式以及在挖掘过程中获得的考古数据的可靠性至关重要。岩石掩体在遗传上与洞穴有关，但是虽然洞穴中的沉积过程通常是众所周知的，但关于岩石掩体中活跃的沉积过程的信息却很少。本文试图为这个问题做出贡献，描述了在 Oscurusciuto 岩石暴露的沉积序列避难所（意大利南部吉诺萨）。这是意大利半岛最重要的旧石器时代中期遗址之一，及其沉积填充物见证了生活在意大利的非常晚期的尼安德特人种群，在他们完全衰退并被现代人类 (MH) 完全取代之前。这项工作展示了一项基于沉积学的研究与对选定床层的技术研究相结合的结果。这两种方法的结合使我们能够：（i）定义在岩石掩蔽环境中活跃的主要沉积过程，以及不同过程之间的关系；(ii) 讨论在现场识别的特殊结构织物的意义，以及 (iii) 在人类践踏与生物扰动的框架内讨论考古现场无结构地层的意义，作为原始沉积结构消失的原因。