51 research outputs found
L’orso e i Neandertal: incontri ravvicinati sull’altopiano di Pradis
No full textIn Friuli la Grotta del Rio Secco ha restituito l’eccezionale documentazione dell’uso di pelli e carne del grande carnivoro da parte delle popolazioni del Paleolitico medio delle quali finora poco si conoscono le reali capacità per una pratica venatoria così impegnativa e rischiosa
Ci troviamo nell’altopiano di Pradis, sulle Prealpi Carniche, provincia di Pordenone. Fra le molte cavità di natura carsica presenti nella zona c’è la Grotta del Rio Secco, uno dei rari siti del Paleolitico medio italiano (l’epoca che, fra circa 300 mila e 40 mila anni fa, vide il popolamento del continente europeo da parte dell’uomo di Neandertal) ad aver restituito tracce certe della caccia e del consumo dell’orso nella preistoria. Si tratta di un vasto riparo sulla riva sinistra del Rio Secco, a una ventina di metri d’altezza rispetto al corso attuale del torrente. Al centro del riparo si apre un’ampia cavità che al momento della scoperta era quasi totalmente ostruita da sedimenti e detriti.
Il potenziale archeologico di questo sito venne svelato nel 2001 da un sondaggio dell’Università di Ferrara, grazie al quale vennero alla luce reperti indicativi di ripetute frequentazioni della cavità tra Paleolitico medio e superiore. Le datazioni al C14 effettuate su ossa e carboni dei livelli di Paleolitico medio danno un’età compresa fra 48 e 41 mila anni fa e fanno della Grotta del Rio Secco uno dei contesti con le testimonianze più recenti dell’uomo di Neandertal nell’Italia nord-orientale. La forma della cavità, la perfetta conservazione della volta, la presenza di un riparo esterno e l’ampiezza dello spazio utilizzabile, lasciano ipotizzare che i cacciatori neandertaliani svolgessero le loro attività (scheggiatura, macellazione, cottura delle carni, trattamento delle pelli...) sia all’esterno che all’interno della grotta. Un’ampia camera-galleria sul fondo dell’antro aumentava la disponibilità di possibili “ambienti” per usi diversificati. [...
New challenges in the study of lithic raw materials in central Italy at the dawn of metal working societies: La Pietra and other radiolarite quarry-workshops in Tuscany
No full textIn central-southern Tuscany radiolarite has been used as a lithic raw material throughout prehistory. During the Copper Age it was selected for the local production of leaf-shaped artefacts. In the area considered, the Copper Age record is almost totally restricted to burials and virtually no settlements have been investigated so far. Radiolarite artefacts are found mostly as refined arrow and, possibly javelin, heads used as grave goods.
Within this context, the discovery and recent investigation of the large radiolarite quarry of La Pietra (Roccastrada, Grosseto) and of the related workshops is of great interest. Our aim here is to integrate the record from this site with other contemporary evidence of radiolarite exploitation. A programme of surveys has thus begun on the other radiolarite outcrops of the area in order to verify the existence of further rock quarrying or working. The discovery of a previously unknown quarry-workshop and two previously unknown workshops on radiolarite outcrops is presented here for the first time. The geological and archaeological data coming from the quarry-workshops will be used, in a future stage of research, to source the radiolarite artefacts found in Copper Age graves of Central Italy. The Copper age armatures are valuable artefacts mostly kept in museums and fully non-destructive analyses must be applied to them. To tackle these challenges, we followed a methodological approach which integrates field surveys, the individuation of petrographic markers of the most exploited radiolarite horizons and geochemical analyses. For geochemical characterization, we made use of pXRF portable spectrometer and here we present some preliminary results in the light of current methodological debate.
In conclusion, even if some methodological questions remain open, we verified the feasibility of this programme of geographical, geological and geochemical characterizations and need now to increase our dataset in order to reconstruct a viable picture of Copper age lithic economy in central-southern Tuscany
Cave clastic sediments as a tool for refining the study of human occupation of prehistoric sites: insights from the cave site of La Cala (Cilento, southern Italy)
No full textLa Cala (southern Italy) is an important prehistoric cave site containing a clastic sedimentary infill recording evidence of an almost constant human occupation from the Mousterian to the Copper Age. However, a cultural gap (estimated to be approx. 10.5–6.2 ka) has been identified between the Evolved Gravettian and the Evolved Epigravettian. This study presents a sedimentological and allostratigraphic study of the cave clastic infill. The succession at La Cala can be subdivided into four allostratigraphic units (CC1–4 in stratigraphic order), each one bounded by major erosional surfaces. The most prominent erosional surface (UN1), which separates unit CC1 from CC2, has a channel‐like geometry and is directly overlaid by cross‐stratified sediments, suggesting deposition in an underground stream setting. This documents an important hydrological change in the cave drainage with the development of an important phase of sediment erosion. The erosional surface UN1 stratigraphically marks the cultural time‐gap revealed by the archaeological excavations, suggesting that this hiatus may be due to the erosion of sediments rather than to a lack in human occupation. This study confirms the importance of cave clastic sediments in archaeological cave sites as a helpful tool for refining the timeframe of human presence
The Prehistoric Quarry of La Pietra (Roccastrada, Grosseto, Tuscany) Copper Age Lithic Workshops and the Production of Bifacial Points in Central Italy
No full textThe authors present the preliminary results of the research carried out at the prehistoric quarry of La Pietra, which is located in the Farma valley (province of Grosseto, Tuscany), within the ‘Tuscan Mining Geopark’. From a geological perspective La Pietra is a Late Jurassic radiolarite outcrop belonging to the Ligurian Domain. The present paper is concerned with the lithic material collected from the surface during a field survey in the 1990s. However, an excavation project of the site is currently in progress.
Evidence for intensive exploitation of the quarry by prehistoric communities is attested to by the huge amounts of discarded material covering a large area surrounding the outcrop. Among the artefacts collected during the field survey there are different kinds of blanks and transformed products such as unifacial and bifacial preforms, abandoned at different stages of their manufacturing, slabs at an initial stage of the knapping process, a few tools, and a lot of technical flakes.
La Pietra shows characteristics that are very similar to those of the radiolarite quarry of Valle Lagorara in Liguria and it was exploited, as was Valle Lagorara, during the Eneolithic/Early Bronze age period for the manufacture of preforms devoted to the making of flat retouched artefacts, mainly projectile points for weapons. Both the large amount of processed material and the small number of unbroken and finished artefacts suggest that most of the finished preforms was produced for trade.
In the surrounding area several Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age cave sites yielded leaf-shaped points made from radiolarite, mostly associated with burial contexts. Radiocarbon dating results from these sites range from 3650 to 2351 cal. BC and form a good chronological point of reference for La Pietra. At present no archaeometric study has as yet been carried out to establish the origin of the artefacts recovered from these sites but a characterisation project of the radiolarite from the different Tuscan outcrops has been undertaken, using completely non-invasive methodologies. According to the authors, this massive production of flat retouched tools could be connected to specialised craftsmen who worked on commission, as is also suggested by the high quality of the lithic components among grave goods.
In the final discussion the authors provide a synthesis of current knowledge about Eneolithic settlements, burial contexts and lithic workshops in central Italy, extending the field of investigation to the remainder of the Italian Peninsula, as far as workshops are concerned. According to data emerging from this account a large number of sites defined in the past as ‘Campinian’ can now be identified as workshops devoted to the production of leaf-shaped arrowheads. The authors argue that a critical revision, based on technological and functional analyses, of the old concept of ‘Campinian’ is needed. Equally, the assemblages from the Gargano and the Monti Lessini areas should be revisited from a comparative perspective based on an adequate interpretative framework.
This paper highlights the way in which the new scenario that has progressively emerged from the discovery and the study of workshops such as Valle Lagorara and La Pietra could substantially change the social-economic framework related to the Eneolithic/Early Bronze Age communities from several standpoints.
Although the phenomenon of the Copper Age/Bronze Age knapping workshops needs to be further investigated, it is nonetheless obvious that the emergence of several production centres, mainly aiming at armature production from the Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic on, is recorded across the Italian territory. This innovative explanation of the function of these workshops, combined with the occurrence of a large number of weapons in the burial evidence, can be seen from a new social, behavioural, and economic perspective, with particular emphasis on the role played by the development of projectile points as a proxy for increasing bellicosity during the Copper Age and the ensuing Early Bronze Age
The regional economic impacts of biofuels: A review of multisectoral modelling techniques and evaluation of applications
No full textThe regional economic impact of biofuel production depends upon a number of interrelated factors: the specific biofuels feedstock and production technology employed; the sector’s embeddedness to the rest of the economy, through its demand for local resources; the extent to which new activity is created. These issues can be analysed using multisectoral economic models. Some studies have used (fixed price) Input-Output (IO) and Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) modelling frameworks, whilst a nascent Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) literature has also begun to examine the regional (and national) impact of biofuel development. This paper reviews, compares and evaluates these approaches for modelling the regional economic impacts of biofuels.biofuels; economic modelling; input-output; social accounting matrix; computable general equilibrium.
Middle and early upper Pleistocene human occupations in Southern Italy. A reassessment of the assemblages from Cala d’Arconte, Capo Grosso and Cala Bianca
No full textIn southern Italy, the number of Acheulean sites in a secure stratigraphic context is small and sites with control over the age of the deposit and of the artefacts are even less. The open-air sites of Cala d’Arconte, Capo Grosso and Cala Bianca, located along the Italian south-west coastline, represent, in this context, an important source of information for the Lower Paleolithic. These sites were discovered and preliminarily studied in 1967–70 by A. Palma di Cesnola and P. Gambassini of the University of Siena, who ascribed them to the Acheulean due to the recovery of several handaxes associated with flaking reduction systems part of which attributed to the Levallois technology. A small number of the handaxes was recovered in its stratigraphic position while Levallois artefacts were collected exclusively on surface, leaving the question about the relations between these two groups unsolved. Here, the sites of Cala d’Arconte, Capo Grosso and Cala Bianca and their lithic collections are reinvestigated by re-evaluating the stratigraphy at each locality and by analyzing the techno-typology of the available artefacts. During a test trench carried out at Cala Bianca, several Levallois artefacts were discovered in situ in the uppermost part of the sequence in a layer located above a tephra recently attributed to the X-6 marker of the Monticchio series dated to 108.33 ± 1.08 ka. We suggest that these in situ Levallois artefacts belong to a Mousterian layer that must be considered as the most plausible origin for the Levallois assemblage previously collected out of context at this site. In turn, we also suggest that the Levallois and biface components collected from the surface at Cala Bianca and Capo Grosso derive from distinct occupations in time.NWOVI.C.191.070European Prehistor
Le potenzialità del GIS nella ricostruzione delle strutture sociali e delle strategie economiche ed insediative degli accampamenti musteriani in Italia centro-meridionale
No full textLe potenzialità del GIS nella ricostruzione delle strutture sociali e delle strategie economiche ed insediative degli accampamenti musteriani in Italia centro-meridionale. GIS potentialities in reconstructing social structures and economic and settling strategies in Mousterian sites of Central-Southern Italy
No full textLo studio mediante sistemi GIS del comportamento
neandertaliano in Italia centro-meridionale è
una delle linee di ricerca dell’U.R. di Preistoria
e Antropologia (DSFTA) dell’Università di
Siena. Protocolli analitici multidisciplinari
integrati sono attualmente adottati sui contesti
stratigrafici di Grotta Grande e Riparo il Molare
(San Giovanni a Piro, SA; Ronchitelli et al. 2011,
Boscato et al. 2002), Riparo l’Oscurusciuto
(Ginosa, TA; Marciani et al. 2016, Spagnolo et
al. 2016) e Grotta dei Santi (Monte Argentario,
GR; Spagnolo 2017). Le caratteristiche di tali
siti offrono la possibilità di osservare i fenomeni
insediativi in una prospettiva multi-scalare:
dall’alta risoluzione temporale alla lettura
diacronica dei processi storici, dall’intra-site alla
scala geografica territoriale.
Le strategie insediative dei cacciatori-raccoglitori
neandertaliani sono argomento di un intenso
dibattito scientifico che vede attivi, su vari livelli,
studiosi afferenti a diverse discipline. Questo,
oltre ad evidenziare la vastità della problematica,
mostra altresì la necessità di adottare metodi
di studio sempre più integrati. La dimensione
contestuale e multi-scalare della Spatial
Archaeology diviene pertanto un ambiente ideale
in cui realizzare l’integrazione dei risultati della
Ricerca preistorica.
A scala intra-site nel campione finora indagato
è stato possibile cogliere diversi modi di
gestione degli accampamenti. Questo, se
da un lato potrebbe essere espressione divariabili genuinamente spaziali (es. superficie
indagata rispetto all’accampamento), in taluni
casi sembrerebbe piuttosto riflettere strategie
insediative differenti (es. occupazioni brevi vs
occupazioni protratte nel tempo). Il grado di
“visibilità archeologica” delle aree di attività
è direttamente proporzionale alla risoluzione
temporale dei contesti, per cui living floors
e short palimpsests offrono letture molto più
chiare rispetto ai palinsesti lunghi. D’altro canto,
la disponibilità di serie stratigrafiche articolate
in diversi livelli di occupazione, spesso con un
eccellente stato di conservazione, è un fattorechiave
per cogliere continuità e discontinuità
dei modelli insediativi. Le fluttuazioni di
tali cambiamenti, oltre ad esprimere forme
di adattamento ai contesti ambientali locali,
costituiscono una sorta di proxy delle strutture
sociali e di uno dei silenziosi motori della Storia:
il rapporto dialettico tra “memoria del gruppo” e
“Longue durée”.
A scala geografica territoriale, infine, le
analisi spaziali, integrate con i parametri
paleoambientali, i dati tecno-economici dei
complessi litici e le composizioni tassonomiche
degli insiemi faunistici, offrono un contributo
alla definizione delle strategie di mobilità e alla
ricostruzione dei “play ranges” dei gruppi di
cacciatori-raccoglitori.The study of Neandertal behaviour in Central-
Southern Italy using GIS systems is one the
research topics explored by the R.U. of Prehistory
and Anthropology (DSFTA) of the University of
Siena. Multidisciplinary and integrated analytic
protocols have been applied in a number of
stratigraphic contexts of Central-Southern Italy:
Grotta Grande and Riparo del Molare (MIS 5;
San Giovanni a Piro, SA; Ronchitelli et al. 2011,
Boscato et al. 2002), Riparo l’Oscurusciuto (MIS
3; Ginosa, TA; Marciani et al. 2016, Spagnolo
et al. 2016) and Grotta dei Santi (MIS 3; Monte
Argentario, GR; Spagnolo 2017). These sites are
particularly suitable for being observed under a
multi-scale perspective: from the high-resolution
diachronic reading of historical processes to the
intra-site investigation at a territorial scale.
Settling strategies of Neandertal hunter-gatherers
are the pivot around which a lively scientific
debate has developed among scholars of
different disciplines, highlighting the magnitude
of the problem in terms of involved research
fields. As a consequence increasingly integrated
methodologies of study are needed. Thus, the
contextual multi-scale dimension of Spatial
Archaeology is becoming the ideal “scenario”
where the integration among single results of
prehistoric research can occur.
According to investigations carried out at an
intra-site scale, the different organization of space
in Neandertal camps of the examined sample
is probably the expression of merely spatial variables (e.g. size of the investigated area),
even if, sometimes, it seems to actually mirror
real differences in settling strategies (e.g. brief
vs. long occupations). As expected, the degree of
“archaeological visibility” of the activity areas is
directly proportional to how much the contexts
under study lasted in time. Consequently,
living floors and short-lived palimpsests can be
obviously read more clearly than long-lasting
palimpsests. Moreover, the availability of
stratigraphic sequences with several occupational
layers, often very well preserved, is a key-factor
for detecting continuity and discontinuity of
settlement patterns. Settlement fluctuations and
changes, besides representing adaptations to
local environmental contexts, work as proxies
for social structures and for one of the “quiet
motors” of history: dialectic relation between
“group memory” and “Longue durée”.
On a territorial geographical scale, spatial
analyses, integrated by palaeo-environmental
evidence and by techno-economic data from lithic
assemblages and faunal associations contribute
to the reconstruction of mobility strategies and of
“play ranges” of hunter-gatherer groups
Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Tuscan coastal area nearby Grotta dei Santi (Monte Argentario, Italy) during the Neandertal occupation
No full textThe mobility of hunter-gatherer groups is crucial in understanding Palaeolithic settlement dynamics. The concept of mobility cannot be separated from the space in which it occurs, including landscape components, localization of critical resources and of other sites, and routes between them. Nevertheless, the landscape is not constant in time due to the geomorphological changes that occurred in the long timescale of Prehistory. Here we present a paleogeographic reconstruction of the coastal area around Grotta dei Santi during the Neandertal occupation. A GIS-based approach, combining geological, bathymetric, and sea-level fluctuations data, allows us to reconstruct the landscape around the cave at about 45 ky BP. The cave today opens onto a cliff facing the sea. The Neandertal occupation occurred with a sea-level 74 m lower than present-day. Consequently, the cave faced a vast coastal plain, playing a strategic role due to its position, allowing both proximity and control of essential resources. © 2022 IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, MetroArchaeo 2022.All rights reserved
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