Grotta Paglicci

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Grotta Paglicci

Grotta Paglicci

Grotta Paglicci
Location: At Rignano Garganico , Apulia , Italy
Height : 107  m slm
Geographic
location: 		41 ° 39 '14.6 "  N , 15 ° 36' 54.9"  E Coordinates: 41 ° 39 '14.6 "  N , 15 ° 36' 54.9"  E
Grotta Paglicci (Italy)
Grotta Paglicci
Cadastral number: PU 0300
Type: Horizontal cave

The Grotta Paglicci , an important, extremely long-used and particularly complex Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic site, is a cave near Paglicci, southeast of the municipality of Rignano Garganico in northern Apulia . The cavity and the upstream Abri on the western edge of the Monte Gargano , the 107 m above the sea level, obtained by burials, scribbles , the single larger murals Italy from the Palaeolithic and handprints, bone tools, but also the earliest detection of the production of flour considerable importance for prehistory . In the cave there were two burial places and a number of human remains from the Gravettian and the Epigravettian , which can be assigned to the Cro-Magnon man , but also to the Aurignacian (layer 24).

More than 45,000 finds from the cave are in the camps of the Soprintendenza archeologica di Taranto as well as in the Museum of Rignano Garganico . The works and artifacts are similar to those of the Grotta Romanelli .

Excavation history and results

Excavations under Francesco Zorzi (until 1963)

The cave had long been known in the region as Rotte de Jalarde , which referred to a brigand named Gabriele Galardi from San Paolo di Civitate , who had repeatedly withdrawn into this cave in the second half of the 19th century. He had allegedly left a huge treasure there, which repeatedly attracted treasure hunters. In 1955, the paleontologist and paleoethnologist Raffaello Battaglia from the University of Padua was the first to visit the Paglicci Cave in the course of prehistoric studies on the Gargano, but he did not consider it to be of sufficient value for more detailed investigations.

In 1957 the geologist Angelo Pasa, the zoologist Sandro Ruffo and Franco Mezzena succeeded in discovering paleolithic bone and stone artefacts, while the treasure hunter Leonardo Esposito had collected enormous amounts of rubble in the cave for years in search of the said treasure. After Francesco Zorzi, director of the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona , accompanied by Pasa and Fiorenzo Mancini from the University of Florence and Arturo Palma di Cesnola, Zorzi began preparations for a scientific excavation in 1960. He was supported by Angelo Pasa and Franco Mezzena. But the archaeologists found that the said robbery had continued to dig despite being advised and even used explosives, which resulted in the final collapse of the entrance area of ​​the cave. Therefore, hopes of discovering undisturbed layers were initially low when the excavation began in April 1961.

Despite the severe damage, completely undisturbed areas were found 6 m below the fallen blocks and a Upper Paleolithic sequence of layers, and it was possible to dig a way into the interior of the cave through the rubble that had been collected over the years. Until 1963, however, the excavators only dealt with the entrance area. In addition to extremely rich tool artifacts, there were animal remains, but also bone engravings and human remains.

In a hall measuring 6 by 20 meters, which could only be reached through a corridor from the low-hanging ceiling and which was far from the entrance, there were wall paintings. There were also other paintings on the left wall of the cave near the entrance. Despite these important discoveries, the death of Professor Zorzi in 1964 meant that no digging was carried out or publication for a long time, so that the findings were almost forgotten.

Excavations under Palma Di Cesnola and Franco Mezzena (from 1971)

It was not until 1971, after a local appointment the previous year, that Palma Di Cesnola and Franco Mezzena resumed the excavation after the rubble that Esposito had left behind had been cleared away. The campaign of the University of Siena extended over the month of September and also reached the first room of the cave.

The Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Era could be seen under the outer demolition , and within the cave it was possible to get eight meters below the level at which Zorzi's excavation ended in 1963. Artifacts from the early Upper Paleolithic were found there , including a bone fragment with a graffito. Above all, however, a human skeleton was found under ocher , along with jewelry and grave goods. In order not to endanger the find, because the body had only been dug up to the thorax , the excavation continued until November 1971. In total, the layers are 12 m thick.

Human remains

The Cro-Magnon Boy (Paglicci II), discovered in 1971, was estimated to be 13 years old and dated to about 25,000 years. In addition, another burial site came to light in 1988/89, also under ocher, which was only a little younger. It was a young woman aged 18 to 20 (Paglicci III) who was dated to around 23,000 years. After that, the cave was temporarily closed to keep treasure robbers away.

The two dead were classified in an investigation of 66 Upper Paleolithic (41 male, 25 female) and 289 Mesolithic skeletons (171 and 118, respectively), the results of which were published in 1999. Accordingly, the people were quite large before the last maximum of the glacier extent, while they were significantly smaller in the time after. The people of the western Mesolithic were again slightly smaller, with no regional differences being detectable. However, there is a size difference between Western and Eastern Europe in the Mesolithic, because the eastern populations were on average larger than the western ones. In addition to the remains of the buried corpses, a total of 116 other human bones were found by 2014, but they were scattered in the cave. Therefore, the thesis was put forward that there may have been class differences at the funerals, which were reflected in the way the dead were dealt with. 69 of the 116 bones could be assigned to Gravettia, 47 to Epigravettia. They belonged to at least 14 adults and 8 younger individuals. An examination carried out in 2014 on Paglicci II , the boy, found manganese oxide with deep scratches between the knuckles. It was found that various techniques had been used to extract black pigment from this small block. A different pigment was chosen for the woman.

Simplified stratigraphy

A total of 21 strata could initially be distinguished, the most recent of which (3, a) belongs to the epigravettia, which at that time dates back to about 9500 BC. The oldest (21, d) was dated to about 23,000 BC. Chr. Refinement of stratigraphy and their dating was the tephra layers relieved of which the most important is the one by the eruption of Campi Flegrei west of Naples v to 37,300th Was created. Today layer 26 is the basis of stratigraphy; This base of the sequence consists of a carbonate crust, overlaid by a thick, red, silty- loamy layer. The deepest layer dates back to the activity of the Monte Vulture volcano , which ended 130,000 years ago. One erosive surface, the upper part of layer 26, consists of light brown, silty clay. Layer 25 is also of no significance for prehistory, since it consists only of red, silty clay, which is covered by a carbonate-containing lens. Layers 24a and 24b contain pyroclastic dust.

Excavations of the University of Siena (from 1972), further results

Since 1972, the excavations at the University of Siena have focused primarily on the first room. In 1988 the second Gravettia burial was uncovered, that of a woman who had been discovered in 1971, but also other works of art. These included graffiti , symmetrical rock carvings on stone fragments, on bones and pebbles that cannot be further interpreted - preparatory smoothing work and a kind of frame formation can be demonstrated on the latter, but the use of ocher only in one single case, after all, all of them were previously objects of use before the carvings - reminiscent of archaic written forms. There were also rock carvings on a fallen block near the entrance to the cave, as well as a fragment of a limestone plate with part of a human representation.

Pollen studies in the first half of the 1980s confirmed a material from the Epigravettia dated to the younger Dryas , which indicates a dry climate.

Findings from the Epigravettian (layer 4a), which was dated to 11,950 ± 190 BP at the time, showed that the abrises and caves were primarily used as an almost exclusive slaughterhouse, where mainly skin processing left traces. It was probably an observation and hunting camp throughout.

The same applies to the much older layer 22f, which is assigned to Gravettia, where only human cuts on the animal bones could be detected, while gnawing traces of spotted hyenas were also found in the layer 23c below . This also applies to layer 24, which could already be assigned to the Aurignacien .

In 1997 a study was published on the basis of 102 tooth and bone samples from the period between 32,600 and 13,300 BP, which belonged to the species Cervus elaphus , Bos primigenius and Equus caballus . On the basis of their collagen , the proportion of which was on average only 0.5 to 15% of the collagen in a “fresh” bone, it could be shown that both red deer, aurochs and horses feed on C3 plants , with each other indicated a change from a dry to a more humid environment and a progression of forest cover towards the end of the examined epoch. In addition to the species mentioned, Equus ferus , Equus hydruntinus (European wild ass), Sus scrofa , Capra ibex , Rupicapra and Capreolus capreolus could also be detected, all of which corresponded to the hunting spectrum of the people of layers 22 and 23 at the time and which were hunted in the immediate vicinity were. The number of goat-like species increased , and the number of bones that could be traced back to aurochs or Equus hydruntinus declined, as did the number of forest inhabitants. This also indicates a strong cooling in layers 22a-c, the upper three of the five sub-layers of this stratum. In the earlier, cold and dry phase of layer 23 lived the mammals already mentioned, which were joined by smaller ones, such as Microtus arvalis , as well as cold-loving bird species. Juniper, plum trees and pistachios were found in plants. This composition of the prey spectrum was completely different on the Tyrrhenian coast of southern Italy in the Grotta della Cala , where practically only deer and deer were hunted. A study for the Aurignacien came to similar results, for which significant differences could be demonstrated on the basis of ten sites, including Paglicci, in Italy, which can be traced back to the ecological starting situation, to which new settlers had to adapt quickly, but also to the extreme low number of human inhabitants.

Since there was a decisive change in hunting technology in Gravettia with an increased number of inhabitants, where stalking was carried out much more with long-range weapons, which in turn can be demonstrated by the stone-working technique, the numerous finds from the corresponding layers attracted wide attention in research. The projectile tips were now part of composite tools, the starting point of which was the lance , but which was now fired as a projectile from a spear thrower; At the same time, the projectile tips were connected to it by means of adhesive substances and with the help of tapes made of organic substances. Consequently, the layers of the early Gravettian, i.e. strata 22 and 23, were the focus of the work. There it was found that the projectile tips now looked completely different, but also revealed signs of processing and use under the microscope. The length of the tips varied between 14 and 72 mm, their shape and size depended on the type of connection with the spear- or lance-like main part and the purpose, which in turn depended on the hunted prey. Five bones were also found, which apparently were inserted in a similar manner to the stone tips of the back.

The latest studies show that of the 104 antler and bone tools discovered in the meantime, all without exception come from deer, horse, aurochs or wild boar. Due to the relatively small number of tools made from this material, no statistical statements could be made, especially since the number of tools mentioned is distributed over a series of layers, but certain tool types can be assigned to the epochs.

The Centro Studi Paglicci , headed by Enzo Pazienza, initiated a permanent exhibition at the site of the excavation, and the Comitato di Grotta Paglicci , which has since been incorporated into the Centro Studi, also made great contributions to publicizing the extraordinary finds. The organizers also took care of other important sites such as the dolmens of Madonna di Cristo and Lamasecca, then the Grotta Spagnoli, the Grotta Trappedo, the Grotta dei Miracoli or the Grotto della Valle di Ividoro. In 2001 the committee was also responsible for the artistic treatment of the entrance area within the Parco Nazionale del Gargano . Before July 10, 2006, the cave was affected by vandalism; in July 2008, one of the walls turned out to be in danger of collapsing.

Excavations under Annamaria Ronchitelli (from 2000), most recent work

For two years, from 2000 to 2002, excavations were carried out under the direction of Annamaria Ronchitelli from the University of Siena , which in turn turned to the Abri in order to obtain further information from it using new methods. From 2004, remains of various animals came to light, including those that suggested the presence of spotted hyenas (SU 64 and 53), such as coprolites , and finally also bones that were found in a type of feeding residue typical of spotted hyenas.

The oldest evidence for the extraction of flour from starchy plants, namely from oats, was found in the gravetti layer (23A) . Corresponding traces were found on a millstone. Complex procedures in the preparation of the vegetable components for grinding could also be demonstrated, namely by heating. This could have been of particular importance in the cooling phase.

Two teeth of the epigravettia showed traces under the microscope below the crown, which indicate the use of a kind of toothpick . This may have been used to relieve sore gums.

literature

  • Giulia Capecchi, Aurélien Mounier, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli , Lucia Monit, Silvana Condemi: Human remains from Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia): re-examination of the finds and new study perspectives , in: Bulletin du Musée d'Anthropologie Préhistorique de Monaco 56 (2016) 109–111. ( academia.edu , pp. 93–189)
  • Annamaria Ronchitelli , Sonia Mugnaini, Simona Arrighi, Andrea Atrei, Giulia Capecchi, Marco Giamello, Laura Longo, Nadia Marchettini, Cecilia Viti, Adriana Moroni: When technology joins symbolic behavior: The Gravettian burials at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico - Foggia - Southern Italy ) , in: Quaternary International (2014) 1–19. ( academia.edu )
  • Ursula Wiener: Variability and standardization: The early Gravettian lithic complex of Grotta Paglicci, Southern Italy , in: Quaternary International 288 (2013) 215-238 (artifacts from layer 23).
  • Ursula Wierer, Annamaria Ronchitelli, Valentina Borgia: Aspetti della produione laminaree lamellare nel Gravettiano anticodi Grotta Paglicci , in: XLVII Riunione Scientifica Preistoria e Protostoria della Puglia. Ostuni 9 - 13 ottobre 2012 , pp. 619–624 (Wierer carried out the technological, Borgia the functional analysis, Ronchitelli controls the investigations in the cave). ( academia.edu )
  • Arturo Palma di Cesnola: L'Aurignacien et le Gravettien ancien de la grotte Paglicci au Mont Gargano , in: L'Anthropologie 110.3 (2006) 355-370.
  • Simona Arrighi: L'epigravettiano epigravettiano del strato 5 di Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico-Foggia): L'analisi delle tracce d'uso dei grattatoi e dei raschiatoi , in: Rassegna di Archeologia preistorica e protostorica 20A (2003) 43-68.
  • A. Manfredini: Analisi del DNA mitocondriale (mtDNA) relativo ad un giovane gravettiano del Paleolitico Superiore da grotta Paglicci nel Gargano: un contributo alla diatriba neandertaliani e sapiens - una o due specie? , Tesi di Laurea, University of Pisa 2002.
  • Paolo Boscato: Grotta Paglicci: la fauna a grandi mammiferi degli strati 22-24 (Gravettiano antico-Aurignaziano) , in: Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 46 (1994) 145-176.
  • Franco Mezzena, Arturo Palma di Cesnola: Oggetti d'arte mobiliare di età gravettiana ed epigravettiana nella Grotta Paglicci (Foggia) , in: Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 27 (1972) 211-224.
  • Francesco Zorzi: Pitture parietali e oggetti d'arte mobiliare del Paleolitico scoperti nella grotta Paglicci presso Rignano Garganico , in: Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 17 (1962) 123-137.

Web links

Commons : Grotta Paglicci  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Silvana Condemi, Giulia Capecchi, Lucia Monti, Jean-Luc Voisin, Aurélien Mounier, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli : I resti umani rinvenuti a Paglicci (Rignano Garganico-FG): nota preliminare , in: Annali dell'Università di Ferrara 10, 2 (2014) 233-238, here: p. 234 ( online , PDF).
  2. ↑ Arturo Palma di Cesnola: Paglicci ed il Paleolitico del Gargano , Claudio Grenzi Editore, Foggia 2003, pp. 129-147.
  3. ^ Francesco Zorzi: Palaeolithic Discoveries in the Grotta Paglicci , in: Antiquity 38,149 (March 1964) 38-44.
  4. ^ C. Mazzi, L. Bigliocca, E. Piovan: Florence Radio Carbon Dates II , in: Radiocarbon 16,1 (1974) 10-14, here: p. 12 ( online ).
  5. ↑ F. Malegni, F. Bertoldi, S. Manolis: The Gravettian female human skeleton of Paglicci caution: Paglicci 25 (Rignano Garganico, Puglia, Southern Italy) , in: Homo 50 (1999) 127-148.
  6. ^ Sotiris K. Manolis, Francesco F. Mallegni: The Gravettian Fossil Hominids of Italy , in: Anthropologie 34,1-2 (1999) 99-108, here: p. 100 f. ( online , PDF)
  7. ↑ Vincenzo Formicola, Monica Giannecchini: Evolutionary trends of stature in Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe , in: Journal of Human Evolution 36,3 (1999) 319-333.
  8. ↑ Silvana Condemi, Giulia Capecchi, Lucia Monti, Jean-Luc Voisin, Aurélien Mounier, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli: I resti umani rinvenuti a Paglicci (Rignano Garganico-FG): nota preliminare , in: Annali dell'Università di Ferrara 10, 2 (2014) 233-238, here: p. 234.
  9. ^ Margherita Mussi , Wil Roebroeks , Jiří Svoboda: Hunters of the Golden Age: an introduction , in: Dies .: Hunters of the Golden Age. The Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia 30,000– 20,000 BP , University of Leiden Press, Leiden 2000, pp. 1–10, here: p. 3 ( online , PDF).
  10. ↑ Silvana Condemi, Giulia Capecchi, Lucia Monti, Jean-Luc Voisin, Aurélien Mounier, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli: I resti umani rinvenuti a Paglicci (Rignano Garganico-FG): nota preliminare , in: Annali dell'Università di Ferrara 10, 2 (2014) 233-238, here: p. 235.
  11. ↑ Annamaria Ronchitelli, Sonia Mugnaini, Simona Arrighi, Andrea Atrei, Giulia Capecchi, Marco Giamello, Laura Longo, Nadia Marchettini, Cecilia Viti, Adriana Moroni: When technology joins symbolic behavior: The Gravettian burials at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico - Foggia - Southern Italy) , in: Quaternary International 359-360 (2015) 423-441.
  12. ^ C. Mazzi, L. Bigliocca, E. Piovan: Florence Radio Carbon Dates II , in: Radiocarbon 19.2 (1977) 165-169 ( online ).
  13. ^ C. Mazzi, L. Bigliocca, E. Piovan: Florence Radio Carbon Dates II , in: Radiocarbon 16.1 (1974) 10-14 ( online ).
  14. ↑ M. Cremaschi, F. Ferraro: The upper Pleistocene in the Paglicci Cave (Gargano, southern Italy): Loess and tephra in the anthropogenic sequence , in: Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali. Mem. Series A, 112 (2007) 153-163.
  15. ↑ Simona Arrighi, Valentina Borgia, Francesco D'Errico, Annamaria Ronchitelli: I ciottoli decorati di Paglicci: raffigurazioni e utilizzo , in: Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 58 (2008) 39-58.
  16. ↑ Stéfania Satta, Josette Renault-Miskovsky: Le paléoenvironnement et la paléoclimatologie des Pouilles (Sud de l'Italie): étude pollinique préliminaire des niveaux épigravettiens de la grotte Paglicci , in: Bulletin de l'Association française du quaternaire, 22.4 (1985) 219-227.
  17. ↑ Randolph E. Donahue: Microwear analysis and site function of Paglicci Cave, level 4A , in: World Archeology 19.3 (1988) 357-375.
  18. ↑ Paolo Boscato, Jacopo Crezzini: L'Uomo e la Iena macchiata. Tafonomia su resti di ungulati del Gravettiana antico di Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico – FG) , in: G. Malerba, P. Visentini (ed.): Atti del 4 ° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia (Pordenone, 13-15 November 2003) , Quaderni del Museo Archeologico del Friuli Occidentale 6 (2005) 67-74 ( online , PDF).
  19. ↑ P. Iacumin, H. Bocherens, A. Delgado Huertas, A. Mariotti, A. Longinelli: A stable isotope study of fossil mammal remains from the cave Paglicci, Southern Italy. N and C as palaeoenvironmental indicators , in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters 148: 1-2 (1997) 349-357.
  20. ↑ Paolo Boscato, Jacopo Crezzini: L'Uomo e la Iena macchiata. Tafonomia su resti di ungulati del Gravettiana antico di Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico – FG) , in: G. Malerba, P. Visentini (ed.): Atti del 4 ° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia (Pordenone, 13-15 November 2003) , Quaderni del Museo Archeologico del Friuli Occidentale 6 (2005) 67-74, here: p. 67 ( online , PDF).
  21. ↑ Paolo Boscato: Faunes gravettiennes à grands mammifères de l'Italie du Sud: Grotta della Cala (Salerno) et Grotta Paglicci (Foggia) , in: Paleo 19 (2007) 109-114.
  22. ↑ Margherita Mussi, Patrizia Gioia, Fabio Negrino: Ten small sites: the diversity of the Italian Aurignacian , in: Ofer Bar-Yosef , João Zilhão (Ed.): Towards a definition of the Aurignacian , Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia, Lisbon 2006, Pp. 189-209 ( online , PDF).
  23. ↑ Valentina Borgia: L'analisi funzionale degli elementi a dorso come strumento conoscitivo per ricostruire le strategie di sfruttamento delle risorse territoriali nel Gravettiano antico di Grotta Paglicci (strati 23 e 22) , in: Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 56 (2006) 1-29 , here: p. 20.
  24. ↑ Valentina Borgia, Francesco Boschin, Annamaria Ronchitelli: Bone and antler working at Grotta Paglicci (Rignano Garganico, Foggia, southern Italy) , in: Quaternary International 403 (2016) 23–39.
  25. ↑ Jacopo Crezzini, Paolo Boscato, Stefano Ricci, Annamaria Ronchitelli, Vincenzo Spagnolo, Francesco Boschin: A spotted hyaena den in the Middle Palaeolithic of Grotta Paglicci (Gargano promontory, Apulia, Southern Italy) , in: Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 8.2 ( 2016) 227–240.
  26. ↑ Marta Mariotti Lippi, Bruno Foggi, Biancamaria Aranguren, Annamaria Ronchitelli, Anna Revedin: Multistep food plant processing at Grotta Paglicci (Southern Italy) around 32,600 cal BP , in: PNAS 112 no. 39 (25 September 2015) 12075–12080.
  27. ↑ Stefano Ricci, Giulia Capecchi, Francesco Boschin, Simona Arrighi, Annamaria Ronchitelli , Silvana Condemi: Toothpick use among Epigravettian Humans from Grotta Paglicci (Italy) , in: International Journal of Osteachaeology 26 (2016) 281–289.