Techno-economy of lithic raw materials in Piedmont (north-western Italy): A first life-like scenario

  • Sara Daffara Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
  • Gabriele Luigi Francesco Berruti Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
  • Sandro Caracausi Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
  • Maite García-Rojas ArkeoGazte – Asociación de jóvenes investigadoras en arquelogía prehistórica e histórica
  • Marta Arzarello Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
Keywords: Middle Palaeolithic; Upper Palaeolithic; Piedmont; vein quartz; lithic technology

Abstract


Data about Palaeolithic peopling, settlement dynamics and techno-economy of the south-western margin of the Alpine region are sketchy. In this area, the lack of systematic research and the scarcity of lithic raw materials, spread the idea that Piedmont was not inhabited during Palaeolithic. In 2009, the re-starting of the excavations at the Ciota Ciara cave, gave rise to new questions and to the development of research projects at a regional scale.

The Ciota Ciara cave is the only Middle Palaeolithic site object of multidisciplinary and systematic investigations. Its lithic assemblage, analysed through a techno-economic approach, allows to understand in detail the technological choices and the land mobility of the Neanderthal groups on a local and sub-regional scale. Other Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are known in the region and are all issued from surface collections. They come from the northern part of the region, from Vaude Canavesane, Trino, Baragge biellesi and Colline Novaresi. The technological study of these assemblages led to the identification of strong similarities in the technological choices of the Middle Palaeolithic human groups: they based their technology on the exploitation of vein quartz, a rock diffused all over the regional territory, from time to time accompanied by other local (spongolite, rhyolite, metamorphic rocks, jasper) and allochthonous (radiolarite and flint) lithic resources, with technological adaptation to their quality and mechanical properties both when it comes to predetermined methods (Levallois and discoid) and when expedient reduction sequences are used. Concerning Upper Palaeolithic, the only lithic assemblage issued from an archaeological excavation (and therefore with a clear stratigraphic context) is that from the Epigravettian site of Castelletto Ticino. Other lithic artefacts referable on a techno-typological basis to Upper Palaeolithic are from Trino and Colline Novaresi. As for Middle Palaeolithic, the techno-economic approach used in the analysis of these lithic assemblages, allow to have, for the first time, reliable data at a regional scale.

In this work we present the data obtained after about ten years of research in Piedmont: they outline a scenario where, even in the limits of analysis mostly based on materials issued from surface collections, we can see both clear differences between the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic technological behaviours and hypothesise the land mobility of the hunter-gatherers’ groups that inhabited the region.

Author Biographies

Sara Daffara, Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte

Dipartimento di studi umanistici
Sezione di scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche
Università degli studi di Ferrara
Corso Ercole I d’Este 32
44121 Ferrara
Italy

Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
Via Lunga 38
10099 San Mauro Torinese (TO)
Italy

Gabriele Luigi Francesco Berruti, Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte

Dipartimento di studi umanistici
Sezione di scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche
Università degli studi di Ferrara
Corso Ercole I d’Este 32
44121 Ferrara
Italy

Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
Via Lunga 38
10099 San Mauro Torinese (TO)
Italy

Sandro Caracausi, Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte

Dipartimento di studi umanistici
Sezione di scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche
Università degli studi di Ferrara
Corso Ercole I d’Este 32
44121 Ferrara
Italy

Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
Via Lunga 38
10099 San Mauro Torinese (TO)
Italy

Maite García-Rojas, ArkeoGazte – Asociación de jóvenes investigadoras en arquelogía prehistórica e histórica

ArkeoGazte - Asociación de jóvenes investigadoras en arquelogía prehistórica e histórica
C/ Tomás y Valiente s/n
01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Spain

Marta Arzarello, Università degli studi di Ferrara & Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte

Dipartimento di studi umanistici
Sezione di scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche
Università degli studi di Ferrara
Corso Ercole I d’Este 32
44121 Ferrara
Italy

Associazione culturale 3P - Progetto Preistoria Piemonte
Via Lunga 38
10099 San Mauro Torinese (TO)
Italy

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Published
21-Dec-2023
How to Cite
Daffara, S., Berruti, G., Caracausi, S., García-Rojas, M., & Arzarello, M. (2023). Techno-economy of lithic raw materials in Piedmont (north-western Italy): A first life-like scenario. Journal of Lithic Studies, 10(2), 41 p. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.7322