Ground stone tool production and use in the Late Upper Palaeolithic: The evidence from Riparo Dalmeri (Venetian Prealps, Italy) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The site of Riparo Dalmeri yielded numerous flint, bone, and shell artifacts, as well as faunal and botanical remains, which are evidence of the Late Upper Palaeolithic (or Late Epigravettian culture, ca. 16,000-12,000 CAL B.P.) occupation of the Alps region. The importance of the site is related to the discovery of 267 stones painted with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric designs. Here we report on ground stone tools from Riparo Dalmeri investigated by means of an integrated technofunctional and experimental approach to reconstruct their production and use. The results support the hypothesis that the ground stone artifacts were employed in specialized activities (e.g., hide treatment, flintknapping) as well as in the production of some of the painted stone artifacts.
The Lower-Middle Palaeolithic flint workshops of the Cà Palui area (Verona, Italy)
Abstract The Cà Palui area is a dorsal ridge bound westward by the Squaranto valley and eastward by the Mezzane valley. In its middle slopes the Biancone formation (rich in vitreous flint nodules) is widely outcropping, thick up to 150 m. in its widest part (Trezzolano-Postuman). Different from most of the Eocene limestone formations in Lessinia, the one covering the Biancone limestone in Cà Palui area (wide 1,5 km west-east and 2 km north-south) is rich in non vitreous flint. Moreover along the slopes, this non vitreous flint masses are scattered in secondary deposition, both in clay soils and locally concentrated in ancient Quaternary landslides (imbedding large nodules up to 50 kilos each). These latter flint distributions also cover in some places (like in Torre di Trezzolano) the Biancone formation surfaces, so that the non vitreous flint availability spreads up to more than 3 km west-east. Both these flint qualities have been exploited since the Lower Palaeolithic up to the gunflints historical workshops. Five main Palaeolithic workshop areas have been so far discovered: three of them are located in the Cà Palui basin: just one – CP 2 – includes typical Acheulean bifacial tools, while the two others consist of preforming cores traces, including the discoidal type – up to 5-7 kilos each – like in CP7 site. In the nearby Trezzolano workshop area only one bifacial rough-out has been found, while the other diagnostic flint artefacts are few multidirectional (levallois) flakes, with some “éclat debordant” but no large discoidal cores. Since the Eocene flint is easy to recognise, a wide diffusion of artefacts made out of it could be expected, but none of these non vitreous flint implements have so far been discovered in the other open-air Palaeolithic sites (or gunflint findings) known in Verona region. The meaning of this lack is discussed, along with a techno-behavioural hypothesis concerning the Lower-Middle Palaeolithic strategies within this region and its boundaries. Keywords: Cretaceous,
2018
The Oscurusciuto rock shelter (Ginosa, Puglia, southern Italy) is a Middle Palaeolithic site characterized by a significant stratigraphy made up by several anthropic levels. The stratigraphic unit 13, consisting of a sandy compact deposit mixed with pyroclastic sediment, is a short palimpsest situated on a layer of tephra, identified as Mt. Epomeo green tuff (dated Ar/Ar ~ 55 ka BP). From a technological point of view, the aims of the production were backed flakes, convergent flakes, and other flakes obtained by means of a Levallois debitage, plus (less represented) bladelets produced by an additional volumetric reduction system. Our aim in this research was to examine a selection of the above-mentioned target objects produced by debitage in order to understand the manufacture and life-cycle of each single tool from a dynamic perspective. We integrated techno-functional and use-wear analyses: the first was implemented to globally comprehend each tool, identifying each single techno-functional unity (prehensile and transformative portions), whereas the second revealed the way in which these tools had been used, proceeding to identify the activity involved (e.g., piercing, cutting and/or scraping), and the type of material (vegetable/animal, soft/hard) on which these activities had been carried out. The combined use of these two approaches allows us to ascertain the intention of the prehistoric craftsmen, the gestures and procedures involved in making the tools, and the way they had been used. From one single object we are thus able to reconstruct a series of complex behaviours, encompassing the creation, the life-cycle and finally the ‘death’ or repurposing of the tool in question.
Technology and use of a Middle Palaeolithic toolkit. The example of the Ciota Ciara cave (NW Italy)
A technological and functional approach has been used to face the study of the lithic artefacts made in allochthonous raw materials from level 14 of the Ciota Ciara cave. The site it is the only reliable source of information about the Middle Palaeolithic peopling of north-western Italy. According to the results coming from different studies, the level 14 attests the phases of most intense frequentation of the cave, and it is the layer where allochthonous lithic raw materials are better represented. In a technological context already described as markedly opportunistic, where reduction sequences are strongly adapted to the characteristics of the local rocks available in the surrounding of the site, some tools and unretouched flake, made in raw materials collected at a distance between 2 and 30 km, have been introduced in the site. The present work is aimed to the understanding of the role of these artefacts within the technological organization of the Neanderthal groups that inhabit...
Grooved stone tools from Calabria region (Italy): Archaeological evidence and research perspectives
Since the end of the 19 th century the Calabria region in southern Italy has been known for an abundance of grooved stone axes and hammers used during late prehistory. These artefacts are characterized by a wide and often pronounced groove in the middle of the implement, thought to have aided securing the head to a wooden haft. Their widespread presence is known both in prehistoric archaeological literature and in the archaeological collections of various regional and extra-regional museums. At first, scholars did not relate these tools to the rich Calabrian ore deposits and to possible ancient mining activities; they were regarded simply as a variant of ground lithic industry of Neolithic tradition. However, between 1997 and 2012, about 50 tools were discovered in the prehistoric mine of Grotta della Monaca in northern Calabria where there are outcrops of copper and iron ore. This allowed us to recognize their specific mining value and to consider them as a sort of "guide fossil" for the identification of ancient mining districts. This paper presents the results of a study involving over 150 tools from the entire region, effectively demonstrating an almost perfect co-occurrence of grooved axes and hammers with areas rich in mineral resources, especially metalliferous ores.
Atti della Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, XVIII: 87-105. Trieste, 2013
This paper considers the lithology of 23 Neolithic greenstone tools from the Square-Mouthed Pottery settlement of Fimon-Molino Casarotto, and two other sites located in the Berici Hills (Vicenza, Northern Italy). The implements are of variable dimension and state of preservation. They consist of 21 axes/adzes and 1 chisel obtained from Alpine eclogite (13), jade (6), omphacite schist (1), glaucophane schist (2), and 1 serpentinite polisher. This association is characteristic of the northwestern Italian Neolithic greenstone assemblages, with some doubts that the serpentinite might come also from the Alpine course of the Adige riverbed. A few specific petrographic characters would suggest their provenance from the Rivanazzano workshop, in the Oltrepo Pavese, close to Piedmont, or comparable geological sources derived from oligocenic conglomerates