ominins in Europe have a unique history, as the continent was occupied by various hominins, such as Homo neanderthalensis, Homo heidelbergensis, and other hominins from the Iberian Peninsula. Italy also provides many interesting remains, including a femur dated as belonging to the oldest hominin in the Italian Peninsula.

At the famous site of Notarchirico (Venosa, Basilicata), a part of a human femur was discovered in 1985, and thanks to excavations that began in 2016, some information about the site has been updated, particularly regarding dating. Thanks to 40Ar/39Ar dating, we know that the sample in question is the oldest hominin from the Italian Peninsula and one of the oldest from the Middle Pleistocene in Europe. The stratigraphy of Venosa-Notarchirico indicates that between 695.2 ± 6.2 and 614 ± 4 thousand years ago, the site was repeatedly occupied for short periods during interglacial and glacial phases, between the interglacial event MIS 17 and the glacial event MIS 16, covering almost 100,000…