Archaeology

During the first half of the last century many caves were investigated by Umberto Calzoni, an Italian archaeologist (1881 -1959), on the eastern slope of the Cetona mountain (Siena, Central Italy), in the aims to shed light upon the way of life of prehistoric people. A great amount of remains were found and, in three cases, in three different caves, Mousterian lithic implements has been discovered in association with faunal remnants. The Gosto cave is the most important site thanks to the presence of more than 4.000 lithic manufacts (retouched tools, cores, unretouched flakes and blades and microlithic productions). The complex has been studied for the first time by Umberto Calzoni in 1941, then in 1974 by Prof. Carlo Tozzi: these pioneering studies were really usuful to insert the materials in the Mousterian framework of Central Italy, according to a typological attitude. This was mainly possible thanks to an absolute dating obtained with U/TH ( 48.000+-4.000) in 1968 by means of carbonate samples ricovered in the archaeological layer.
The main goal of this work will be give a new definition of the Neanderthal subsistance strategies of the Monte Cetona, focusing on the lithic and faunal complexes found out in the Gosto, San Francesco and Lattaia caves during the first part of the last century, trying to get new datings and a new paleoenvironmental framework to this phase of OIS 3.

"The two preliminary excavation campaigns carried out on the Ficoncella site have yielded unexpected discoveries which allow us to open new lines of reserarch either to technical and cognitive behaviour of Lower Paleolithic Humans.
The discovery, during the first excavation campaign in 2010, of anatomical fragments of a Paleoloxodon antiquus carcass makes the site of primary interest under a paleontological point of view.  The whole fluvial context wrapping the remains was sealed by volcanic strata dated around 450 Ka. During the second excavation, in 2011, around 150 lithic artefacts localized near the elephant cranium were brought to light. This new archaeological evidence open up new research prospects either for the understanding of the technical behaviour of this pivotal moment (500 Ka) and for the cognitive and economic issues involving humans and elephants during Paleolithic ages"