Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy)
In the present work, more than one hundred and thirty lithic artefacts rediscovered in several archaeological sites dating from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages from Calabria (Southern Italy) were petroarchaeometrically characterised through minimally invasive techniques. In more detail, 11...
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| author | Pasquale Acquafredda Vincenzo Festa Francesca Micheletti Annamaria Fornelli |
| author_facet | Pasquale Acquafredda Vincenzo Festa Francesca Micheletti Annamaria Fornelli |
| author_sort | Pasquale Acquafredda |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the present work, more than one hundred and thirty lithic artefacts rediscovered in several archaeological sites dating from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages from Calabria (Southern Italy) were petroarchaeometrically characterised through minimally invasive techniques. In more detail, 110 specimens were found in the Grotta della Monaca site (Sant’Agata di Esaro), and the other 23 belong to a collection kept in the Museo Nazionale Preistorico ed Etnografico “Luigi Pigorini” (Roma), coming from several localities (Longobucco, Spezzano della Sila, Cicala, Gimigliano, Roccaforte del Greco, and Bova). For preservation needs, 2 small axes in polished stone and 2 obsidians collected from Grotta della Monaca were analysed by absolutely non-destructive techniques. Optical and electron microscopic investigations, sometimes integrated with wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction spectrometry, allowed us to ascertain that the source area of all the lithic tools was in Calabria, except for obsidians, which come from the island of Lipari (Messina, Southern Italy). For a small number of particularly favourable cases, it was possible to define with great precision the outcrop area of the used rocks given their textural and mineralogical features. The specific source area contained a pickaxe originating from Cetraro–Fuscaldo metabasalt (lawsonite–albite facies) outcrops and two small axes in polished stone, one derived from migmatitic metapelites from Palmi and the other from meta-ultramafic rocks from Curinga. The choice of the used lithologies, harder or softer, had to be linked to the use that humans had to make of the lithic artefacts. |
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| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:31:00Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-d242c7a5483444a09408424a48f6646c2024-02-23T15:18:28ZengMDPI AGHeritage2571-94082024-01-017262163710.3390/heritage7020030Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy)Pasquale Acquafredda0Vincenzo Festa1Francesca Micheletti2Annamaria Fornelli3Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, ItalyDipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, ItalyDipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, ItalyDipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, via E. Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, ItalyIn the present work, more than one hundred and thirty lithic artefacts rediscovered in several archaeological sites dating from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages from Calabria (Southern Italy) were petroarchaeometrically characterised through minimally invasive techniques. In more detail, 110 specimens were found in the Grotta della Monaca site (Sant’Agata di Esaro), and the other 23 belong to a collection kept in the Museo Nazionale Preistorico ed Etnografico “Luigi Pigorini” (Roma), coming from several localities (Longobucco, Spezzano della Sila, Cicala, Gimigliano, Roccaforte del Greco, and Bova). For preservation needs, 2 small axes in polished stone and 2 obsidians collected from Grotta della Monaca were analysed by absolutely non-destructive techniques. Optical and electron microscopic investigations, sometimes integrated with wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction spectrometry, allowed us to ascertain that the source area of all the lithic tools was in Calabria, except for obsidians, which come from the island of Lipari (Messina, Southern Italy). For a small number of particularly favourable cases, it was possible to define with great precision the outcrop area of the used rocks given their textural and mineralogical features. The specific source area contained a pickaxe originating from Cetraro–Fuscaldo metabasalt (lawsonite–albite facies) outcrops and two small axes in polished stone, one derived from migmatitic metapelites from Palmi and the other from meta-ultramafic rocks from Curinga. The choice of the used lithologies, harder or softer, had to be linked to the use that humans had to make of the lithic artefacts.https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/7/2/30lithic artefact provenancepetroarchaeometryabsolutely non-destructive techniquesWD-XRFX-ray diffractionSEM-EDS |
| spellingShingle | Pasquale Acquafredda Vincenzo Festa Francesca Micheletti Annamaria Fornelli Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) Heritage lithic artefact provenance petroarchaeometry absolutely non-destructive techniques WD-XRF X-ray diffraction SEM-EDS |
| title | Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) |
| title_full | Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) |
| title_fullStr | Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) |
| title_short | Provenance of Neolithic Stone Artefacts through Minimally Invasive or Absolutely Non-Destructive Petroarchaeometric Investigations: Some Cases from Calabria (Southern Italy) |
| title_sort | provenance of neolithic stone artefacts through minimally invasive or absolutely non destructive petroarchaeometric investigations some cases from calabria southern italy |
| topic | lithic artefact provenance petroarchaeometry absolutely non-destructive techniques WD-XRF X-ray diffraction SEM-EDS |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/7/2/30 |
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