The Rio Secco Cave, a New Final Middle Paleolithic Site in North-Eastern Italy

Eurasian Prehistory, 5 (1): 85- 94. THE RIO SECCO CAVE, A NEW FINAL MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC SITE IN NORTH-EASTERN ITALY Marco Peresani and Fabio Gurioli University ofFerrara , Dipartimento delle Risorse Naturali e Culturali, Corso Ercole I d 'Este 32 I-44100 Ferrara, Italy; [email protected] [email protected] Abstract This article describes Rio Secco Cave, a newly discovered Middle Paleolithic site in the eastern Italian Pre-Alps. Sedimentary succession, faunal remains, lithic assemblages and one 14C date define a chronological range from OIS 3 to the Holocene with evidence of human presence at the end of the Middle Paleolithic. This site shows for the first time the presence of the last Mousterians in the central northern Adriatic region between the Venetian Alps and Dalmatia. INTRODUCTION some cases can be related to tool production tasks, The final phase of the Middle Paleolithic in due to their very close proximity to lithic raw ma northeastern Italy is documented through numer terial sources. In other cases these short-term ous sheltered sites and open-air settlements that camps were simply used as waypoints in a logisti show evidence of short-term occupations or re cal system of mobility. Segmented tool produc peated use for complex tasks mostly aimed at ex tion sequences like those recorded in the lithic as ploiting mineral, non-mineral and food resources. semblages are the most useful indicators for Large amounts of lithic raw material as well as the predicting human behavior and variability in the physical-geographical and ecological variability way these items circulated (Peresani and Porraz, at the belt between the upper Venetian-Friulian 2004). The settlement system spans from the Ve alluvial plain and the Pre-Alps depict the context netian Pre-Alps to the neighboring western and in which Neanderthal groups lived, occupied ter eastern regions, where sites are exclusively ritories and migrated according to seasonal ephemeral and reveal limited and specific evi rhythms with low residential mobility (Fiore et dence that can infer Neanderthal exploitation at a/. , 2004; Peresani, 200 I; Porraz, 2005). Accord the edge of the mountain context (i.e., Caverna ing to their topographic position, some of the Generosa, Bona et al., in press) or to specific main caves in the Venetian Pre-Alps (Grotta di situations in availability of mineral resources. Fumane, Riparo Tagliente, Riparo Mezzena) can To this backdrop a recently discovered site be considered reference sites for sites that have stands out: Rio Secco Cave on the Pradis plateau, been subjected to frequent, complex and intense with its rich scientific evidence that shows human human occupation where the lithic productions mobility indexes, territory occupation, and collec were intimately integrated with the acquisition, tion and exploitation of mineral and non-mineral processing and consumption of animal resources resources in the key region situated in the plain (Fiore et al. , 2004; Peresani, 2001 ; Thun Hohen alpine contact region. Including the neighboring stein and Peretto, 2005). These contexts were as Piedmontese transect, the Pradis plateau is located sociated with various ephemeral camps that in between distinct morphological and ecological 86 M. Peresani & F. Gurioli Fig. 1. Northeastern Italy and the position of the Pradis Plateau in the Carnic Pre-Alps areas: on the west the Venetian area rich in caves, shelters and open-air sites, some of which are relevant to Mousterian culture; at the east the Giulian Alps with Divje Babe I cave (Turk, Fig. 2. Sketch map of the Pradis Plateau showing the 1997), the Trieste Karst with several sites mostly main morphological features and the position of Rio still undated (Tozzi, 1994) or reported to the Early Secco Cave and Verdi caves: 1- very stepped slopes, 2 Wiirm (Grotta degli Orsi - Boschian, 2003), - stepped slopes, gentle slopes, 4 - sinkholes, 5 - main northwestern Croatia and Dalmatian coast where stream cuts, 6 - Paleolithic cave well-known sites and a few recently discovered archives are reported (Karavanic, 2001). steep slopes that are sometimes inaccessible. PRESENTATION OF THE SITE The plateau is enclosed by the following Rio Secco cave was discovered in 2002 dur mountains: the Pala Mount (1 ,231 m) to the east, ing a survey aimed to explore archaeological evi the Rossa Mount ridge (1,369 m) to the north, the dence and to reconstruct the earliest human his Ciaurlec Mount (1,148 m) to the west (Fig. 2). To tory of the western Friulian region. It lies at an the south it terminates above the Cosa stream cut altitude of 580 m on the Pradis Plateau in the east which runs southward dissecting the hilly land em part of the Carnic Pre-Alps (Fig. 1), an oro scape, a system formed by WSW- ENE oriented graphic unit 850 km2 bounded to the north by the crests between 250 m and 500 m with progres high water-course of the Tagliamento River, to sively decreasing elevation until they reach a clear the south by the high western Friulian plain, to the contact to the upper Pordenone alluvial plain. To east by the eastern bank of the Cavazzo Lake and the southwest, the Col Palis (374 m}--Col Vaita to the west approximately by the meridian passing (367 m) ridge rises from the Meduna fan and from through the Claut Village. Altitudes range from the Ciaurlec Mount and Castelnuovo hills, and 310 m in the Tagliamento valley at the extreme bounds to the north the Sequals marsh in proxim northeastern sector of the area to 2,479 mat Mt. ity of which a few Mousterian artifacts were re Pramaggiore. Several N- S and W- E oriented val covered from the surface. leys with 400 to 800 m elevations and high crests Almost 6 km2 in area, the·plateau elevation (2,000- 2,300 m) between them dissect the region rises from 530 m to 590 m. From its northeastern and make the landscape extremely complex with side through a threshold formed by reliefs 1,000 The Rio Secco Cave, Italy 87 m higher than the plateau it is possible to enter the Corai, 1980; Peresani, in prep). The Grotte Verdi narrow Arzino Stream valley, a tributary of the caves were almost totally emptied by uncon Tagliamento running southward from the inner trolled excavations during the 1960s and were in Pre-Alps to the plain. To the west, the Chiarza vestigated by research teams in 1970-1971 that stream valley connects with the Meduna Stream recovered several Mousterian lithic artifacts from in the Tramontina Valley, crossing the Pre-Alps the lowermost deposit in Riparo I (sections 7- 13): up to the upper course of the Tagliamento. Due to few sidescrapers, one sidescraper on a thinned its geographic setting between the upper Friulian blank, various flakes partly affected by pseudo plain and the Carnic Pre-Alps, the Pradis Plateau retouches. From the same shelter, just a few side stands at a strategic position, which may have fa scrapers and flakes damaged by pseudo-retouches cilitated human penetration into the alpine region were recovered in sections 3, 4 and 5. Additional and the upper Tagliamento basin. Middle Paleolithic artifacts were found in sec The Pradis Plateau has a gentle undulating tions 4 and 5 at Riparo II and in a reworked de landscape deriving mainly from the lightly sloped posit. carbonatic formations (Rudist Limestones and Scaglia Rossa - Cretaceous) and partly from the Flysch (Upper Paleocene- Middle Eocene) over LITHIC RESOURCES one third of the total surface (De Nardo, 1999. The stratigraphic series spanning from the The limestone bedrocks were affected by karst Upper Triassic to the Miocene in the Carnic Pre degradation processes producing an uneven mi Alps is complex due to the various sedimentary crotopography with isolated blocks, brattices and settings (platform, basins, etc.) and as a result of large dolines lined up along the main fractures or intense tectonic activity in this area since the tectonic discontinuities. The bedrock is perme Mesozoic. Rocks are mostly carbonatic - dolo ated by a dense system of more than 200 explored mites and micritic, oolitic or bioclastic lime cavities, some of which penetrate some kilome stones, marls and marly limestones - overlain by ters deep and vary in altitude by a few dozen me the Claut and Clauzetto Flysch respectively and ters (Cucchi and Finocchiaro, 1981). The few wa by the molassic succession (Carulli et al., 2000). terways dissecting the plateau run through the These formations have variable chert content: the bottom of deep and narrow gorges with several dolomites of the Monticello Formation, with rare shelters and caves opening on the walls. nodules and/or black flint lenses; the Dolomia di The Flysch outcrops on the northwestern side Forni, the most important and extended basin and connects to the karst plateau to the Pala unit, with frequent flint levels in the lower portion Mount. Due to its impermeability, a surface hy of the sequence; the Chiampomano Limestone, drographic system developed draining toward the with dark flint nodules and beds sporadically karst sector where it is almost completely ab present and becoming more frequent at the top; sorbed in the substrate. The landscape assumes the Soverzene Formation in carbonatic facies and typical fluvial features with_ several valleys, ter in dolomitic facies, in which dark/black flint nod raced surfaces and thin alluvial sheets. The Cosa ules and beds abound, flint sometimes has a yel and Rio Secco streams run in gorges almost 1,000 lowish color in the dolomitic facies; the Verzeg m deep originating from a combination of tectonic nis Encrinites Mount, containing flint beds in the uplift with karst and alluvial erosion processes encrinitic calcarenites lower portion; the Igne and which divide the plateau from the western Formation, in which dark flint beds abound dis slope of the Ciaurlec Mount.

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