The so called “selci strane di Breonio”: an ethno-archaeological and social case in the Lessini Mountains (Verona) (original) (raw)

Starting from the second half of 19th century in the north-western Lessini Mountains (the area between S. Anna d’Alfaedo and Breonio), an increasing number of peculiar flint artefacts of unknown forms were documented: the so called “selci strane di Breonio”. For more than 30 years, they caused both studies and debates: some Italian archaeologists believed that were prehistoric, while other colleagues (both French and English) argued that were just fantastic fakes, made by local flintknappers. The typology of these artefacts included rough daggers, arrowheads and also tools shaped (by direct percussion) in the form of crosses, forks, combs and other anthropomorphic patterns. By the end of the 19th century, this socio-historical phenomenon was deeply investigated, but only recent studies, carried both by techno-experimental and wear traces analysis, have confirmed that those strange artefacts were made by retouching (both by percussion and rough pressure) with metal tools by local workers directly connected to the multigenerational experience of the folendàri (the local name for professional gunflints knappers).