The figurative motifs in the portable art of Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) within the late Pleistocene art tradition of southwestern Europe

• Grotta Romanelli has almost 200 decorated pieces of late Upper Palaeolithic. • An interdisciplinary approach was used to study the portable art collection. • The figurative themes reflect the geographic and chronological variables. • Fish, auroch, wild ass, wild boar, cave lion, and deer are the represented animals. • Among the figurative themes there is a genital representation. Grotta Romanelli (GR) has one of the richest records of Palaeolithic portable art of Italy. However, this incredible heritage is only partially published and only over the last three years has new attention been given to the study of this record, including both the previously found and the newly discovered objects. The portable art of GR uses a variety of raw materials (stone and bone), and diversities in the represented themes (zoomorphic, geometric, anthropomorphic), and decorating techniques (scratching with different tools and or points, and painting). In this paper, rock fragments decorated with figurative themes (zoomorphic and anthropomorphic subjects) are presented, analysing a) the stratigraphic setting of the finds and related chronology; b) the style of the figures and their technological features to investigate changes over time. The review updates the number of the figurative themes at GR, showing variability in the thematic choices linking GR’s graphic production to the wider shared visual tradition, posing crucial questions if they reflect long distance network system, and which role the environmental contexts and the cultural driven choices played in making symbols during the late Epigravettian.