The Ghiacciaia cave (Fumane, VR) opens at 250 metres a.s.l in the Southern Lessini Mounts, along a E-W oriented narrow valley. Preliminarily investigated in 1979-1980, the cave preserves a stratified deposit more than 3.5 m thick made up of four stratigraphic macro-units; among the others, the most recent units yielded evidence of anthropic occupations. During the research campaign of 2021, part of a wider project on the Neanderthal settlements in the Alps, we carried out the stratigraphic excavation of the western area of the cavity after the removal of the reworked deposit. Our research focused on the upper layers, characterized by loamy sediments and breccias accumulated by both external (aeolian and slope-washed sediments) and autogenic (cryogenic) processes. The investigated units, from the top, are UUSS 20 to 24, composed of almost sterile (21-24) breccia and an archaeological (20) layer referable to the early Upper Palaeolithic, and UUSS 31 to 36, silt-clay sequence with sterile (32) and slightly (31) or strongly (33-36) anthropized layers framed in the Middle Palaeolithic. During fieldwork we recovered thousands of lithic artefacts, bones and charcoal fragments, which allow to broaden the spectrum of human frequentations attested in the cavity to an early phase of the Upper Palaeolithic, besides the already known Neanderthal occupations. More extensive investigations of the anthropogenic levels are planned for the next campaigns.
Grotta della Ghiacciaia. Ripresa delle indagini su un sito del Paleolitico Medio e Superiore in Lessinia
Del Rio, M.;
2022-01-01
Abstract
The Ghiacciaia cave (Fumane, VR) opens at 250 metres a.s.l in the Southern Lessini Mounts, along a E-W oriented narrow valley. Preliminarily investigated in 1979-1980, the cave preserves a stratified deposit more than 3.5 m thick made up of four stratigraphic macro-units; among the others, the most recent units yielded evidence of anthropic occupations. During the research campaign of 2021, part of a wider project on the Neanderthal settlements in the Alps, we carried out the stratigraphic excavation of the western area of the cavity after the removal of the reworked deposit. Our research focused on the upper layers, characterized by loamy sediments and breccias accumulated by both external (aeolian and slope-washed sediments) and autogenic (cryogenic) processes. The investigated units, from the top, are UUSS 20 to 24, composed of almost sterile (21-24) breccia and an archaeological (20) layer referable to the early Upper Palaeolithic, and UUSS 31 to 36, silt-clay sequence with sterile (32) and slightly (31) or strongly (33-36) anthropized layers framed in the Middle Palaeolithic. During fieldwork we recovered thousands of lithic artefacts, bones and charcoal fragments, which allow to broaden the spectrum of human frequentations attested in the cavity to an early phase of the Upper Palaeolithic, besides the already known Neanderthal occupations. More extensive investigations of the anthropogenic levels are planned for the next campaigns.
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