This season’s excavations by Ferrara University at the Palaeolithic site of La Pineta (Isernia) investigated an area (quadrants 156-157-158-159-166-176) in quadrant 1 of sector I. Context 3 was removed (fluvial-lacustrine deposits with sands and fine gravels): from top to bottom, 3s 1-5, 3s 6-9, 3 colluvium, 3s 10 and 3b, in order to reach and expose surface 3c. This surface, excavated over an area of 52 m2 between 1980 and 1993, constitutes the first evidence for human occupation at Isernia La Pineta. It is characterised by the presence of paleontological remains and lithics within a sandy matrix a few centimetres thick, which lay immediately above the travertine layer.

The excavation of these layers produced lithic finds, mainly small flint flakes, and paleontological materials, indeterminate fragments of various sizes but also significant remains of large herbivores, including bison vertebra and horns. These materials were cleaned, consolidated, and restored. Floatation and sieving of the sediment recovered the remains of micro-fauna (mainly rodent teeth and fish vertebra), malacofauna, small fragments of macro-fauna, small flakes of flint and waste elements and sanidine crystals, which are useful for radiometric dating.

The latest results were presented during a workshop at the end of the season. Particular emphasis was given to the discovery of a human tooth found in 2014 in level 3 coll. on the site, which based on the most recent radiometric dating can be attributed to c. 580,000 years ago and at present constitutes the earliest evidence of human presence in Italy. The find, the incisor of a child of 5- 7 years of age, attributed to Homo sp., could probably be attributed to Homo heidelbergensis, who had populated continental Europe in this period.