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The Ceprano calvarium was discovered in fragments on March 1994 near the town of Ceprano in southern Latium (Italy), embedded in Middle Pleistocene layers. After reconstruction, its morphological features suggests that the specimen belongs to an archaic variant of H. heidelbergensis, representing a proxy for the last common ancestor of the diverging clades that respectively led to H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. Unfortunately, the calvarium was taphonomically damaged. The postero-lateral vault, in particular, appears deformed and this postmortem damage may have influenced previous interpretations. Specifically, there is a depression on the fragmented left parietal, while the right cranial wall is warped and angulated. This deformation affected the shape of the occipital squama, producing an inclination of the transverse occipital torus. In this paper, after X-ray microtomography (μCT) of both the calvarium and several additional fragments, we analyze consistency and pattern of the taphonomic deformation that affected the specimen, before the computer-assisted retrodeformation has been performed; this has also provided the opportunity to reappraise early attempts at restoration. As a result, we offer a revised interpretation for the Ceprano calvarium's original shape, now free from the previous uncertainties, along with insight for its complex depositional and taphonomic history.The hominid fossil calvarium discovered near Ceprano (Frosinone, Latium, Italy) represents a rather puzzling specimen in relation to other European hominins of the Middle Pleistocene 1 . For a decade after the discovery (March 13th, 1994), its chronology was considered to be around 800-900 ka 2-4 , whereas more recent data points to the beginning of MIS 11, providing a date bracketed between 430 and 385 ka 5 . This revised chronology corresponds to a time span when European cranial and postcranial samples already exhibited derived phenotypes shared with Homo neanderthalensis [6][7][8][9][10] . The absence of clear Neanderthal-like traits in the Ceprano calvarium 2-4 , combined with its unique combination of architectural and discrete features 4,11-13 , distinguishes the Italian specimen from great part of the penecontemporaneous fossil record in Europe, suggesting that its morphology probably persisted in an eco-geographic isolated refugium, while more derived morphs were spreading across the continent 1,14 .From a taxonomic point of view, since its discovery the Ceprano calvarium has been alternatively viewed as a "late" H. erectus 2 , a possible adult representative of H. antecessor 4 and even the holotype of a new species named H. cepranensis 15 . By contrast, Ceprano is more probably representative of an archaic variant of H. heidelbergensis 12 , furnishing evidence for the cranial morphology of the still poorly known stem subspecies (or paleodeme) of this taxon 1,16 .

Abstract40Ar/39Ar geochronology constraints to aggradational phases and grain size variations show that the two large gravel beds occurring in the sedimentary filling of the Liri fluvial-lacustrine basin (central Italy) recorded the occurrence of deglaciation events synchronous within uncertainties with global meltwater pulses at ca. 450 and 350 ka. In particular, we find a precise match between the ages of gravel deposition and the occurrence of moderate sea-level rise events which anticipate those more marked during the glacial termination V and IV in the Red Sea relative sea level curve, as already verified by data from the Tiber River catchment basin. Such correspondence suggests that gravel deposition is facilitated by melting of Apennine mountain range glaciers, which provide the water transport energy and a surplus of clastic input to the rivers draining the mountain regions and flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Therefore, the thick gravel beds intercalated in the sedimentary filling of the catchment basins of the major rivers in central Italy may be regarded as an equivalent proxy of large deglaciation events, similar to the ice-rafted debris in northern Atlantic. Consistent with this hypothesis, we also show the close correspondence between the occurrence of particularly mild (warmer) minima of the mean summer insolation at 65° N and these early aggradational phases, as well as with other anomalous early sea-level rises occurring c. 750 ka and 540 ka at the onset of glacial termination VIII and VI, and 40 ka at the onset of the so-called Heinrich events.