International Journal of Speleology 49 (2) 87-105 Tampa, FL (USA) May 2020 Available online at scholarcommons.usf.edu/ijs International Journal of Speleology Off icial Journal of Union Internationale de Spéléologie An Epigravettian hypogeal site in the Grotta del Fiume Cave at Frasassi (northeastern Apennines, Italy): Environmental and geochronologic assessments Alessandro Montanari 1*, Artur Adamek2, Angelo Curatolo3, Marco P. Ferretti 4, Maurizio Mainiero 5, Sandro Mariani6, David McGee 7, Gaia Pignocchi 8, and Stefano Recanatini9 1Osservatorio Geologico di Coldigioco, Cda. Coldigioco 4, 62021 Apiro, Italy 2Faculty of Mining Surveying and Environmental Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology, al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland 3GECO srl. Geological Research Company, Via Osoppo 38, 60015 Falconara Marittima (AN), Italy 4Università di Camerino, Sezione di Geologia, Via Gentile III da Varano, 27, 62032 Camerino, Italy 5Studio Geologico, Via XXIX Settembre 2/O, 60122 Ancona, Italy 6Gruppo Speleologico CAI Fabriano, Via Alfieri 9, 60044 Fabriano, Italy 7Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA 8Archeologist, Via Cagli 5, 60129 Ancona, Italy 9Gruppo Speleologico Marchigiano, Via Veneto 10, 60122 Ancona, Italy Abstract: In the late fall of 1986, a team of cavers from the Gruppo Speleologico Marchigiano of Ancona reported to the regional Archeological Superintendence their discovery in a room of the Grotta del Fiume Cave (Marche region of central Italy) of archeological finds such as the charcoal remains of a bonfire, a number of ibex bones, and four chert artifacts. However, since the discovery and archival of all this material, no further research or focused studies were carried out about this important archeological site. Therefore, we engaged in a thorough re-examination of this site by mapping this part of the Grotta del Fiume Cave with modern surveying approaches, including terrestrial laser scanner and ground penetrating radar. Moreover, we have radiocarbon dated a few ibex bones and also charcoal samples from the main fireplace and other smaller charcoal deposits we found scattered around the room’s floor. The chert artifacts were examined in detail and their typology classified accordingly. U-Th dating of calcite from speleothems helped us reconstruct this hypogeal environment at the time it was frequented by man. We also studied a puzzling deposit of speleothem crust slabs piled up in a corner of the cave, which may represent a funeral earthen mound. All in all, the absence of artifacts other than the four chert blades, the few ibex bones, the one main fireplace and three other minor charcoal deposits in the room, and the probable earthen mound located tens of meters underground from a now debris-sealed entrance, lead us to hypothesize that this cave room does not represent a residential dwelling but rather a worship place sporadically utilized by few representatives of a local Epigravettian hunter community. Keywords: Frasassi caves, archeology, Paleolithic fireplace, Late Pleistocene Ibex, Epigravettian lithic industry Received 18 April 2020; Revised 11 May 2020; Accepted 11 May 2020 Citation: Montanari A., Adamek A., Curatolo A., Ferretti M.P., Mainiero M., Mariani S., McGee D., Pignocchi G. and Recanatini S., 2020. An Epigravettian hypogeal site in the Grotta del Fiume Cave at Frasassi (northeastern Apennines, Italy): Environmental and geochronologic assessments. International Journal of Speleology, 49 (2), 87-105. Tampa, FL (USA) ISSN 0392-6672 https://doi.org/10.5038/1827-806X.49.2.2324 INTRODUCTION Fuoco” (Room of Fire). In this remote and difficult- to-reach room, the cavers found a number of animal On November 15, 1986, while exploring the Grotta bones, the charcoal remains of a fireplace, and, most del Fiume Cave in the Frasassi Gorge (Marche region, striking, the skull of a mountain goat or steinbock northeastern Apennines of Italy), a team of cavers (Capra ibex; ibex from hereafter) set on the tip of a from the speleologic group Gruppo Speleologico short stalagmite (Fig. 1). These finds were dutifully Marchigiano (GSM) of Ancona, discovered a new room reported to the Archeological Superintendence of christened by them “Galleria dello Stambecco” (Gallery Marche on December 21 of the same year by Giuseppe of the Steinbock), and here referred to as “Sala del Antonini, one of the discoverers and at the time *[email protected] The author’s rights are protected under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. 88 Montanari et al. President of the GSM of Ancona (Antonini, 1986). January 29, 1990. Unfortunately, of all the material On October 30, 1987, Forestalp, a cooperative firm provided by Forestalp, only a box containing four operating outdoor activities such as on-rope aerial chert artifacts is to be found today in the archive of jobs, of which Antonini was an executive member, the Archeological Superintendence. Regrettably, the terminated the survey of Galleria dello Stambecco (cf. map and photographs, the fireplace charcoal sample, Sala del Fuoco), and delivered to the Archeological the abundant bones, and the ibex skull(s) were not to Superintendence of Marche a report, which described be found anywhere in the archive, and no indication in detail the techniques and methods used for of where else they may have been stored was given to surveying the site, and for drafting a map with the us by the archive’s attendants. location of the various archeological finds. Forestalp’s Despite its importance, the discovery of Sala del report emphasized that the cave was located no Fuoco with its little archeological treasure was never more than 10 m below the surface but the access publicized, and, as far as we know, no further scientific to the outside at the end of a narrow tunnel was investigations were made nor published about this site. obstructed by debris. The report also reiterated the Twenty years after being discovered, we revisited this original hypothesis by Antonini (1986) that the cave room while studying alluvial sediments (clay, sand, did not represent a residential dwelling but rather a and gravel) often found in near-entrance sites in the prehistoric place of worship. On November 15 of the Frasassi cave complex (e.g., Mariani, 2003; Pignocchi same year, Forestalp (1987) asked permission from & Montanari, 2016; Montanari et al., 2019). At about the Archeological Superintendence to carry out the the same time, during a study involving radiocarbon recovery of archeological finds in Sala del Fuoco, which dating of Holocene subfossil eels grounded at different included: 1) “chert artifacts”; 2) “steinbock skulls heights above present water table in a remote inner and animal bones belonging to various individuals”; region of the Grotta del Fiume Cave, we had the chance and 3) “fossilized charcoal pieces”. Permission was to have a sample of the fireplace charcoal radiocarbon granted by the chief superintendent on November dated with AMS by Klaas van der Borg (Utrecht 27 of the same year. Eventually, the recovered University), a coauthor in Mariani et al. (2007). The archeological material along with the Forestalp report charcoal yielded a radiocarbon age of 13,550 ± 90 yr was archived and stored away by the in-charge later calibrated at calendar age 16,646-16,046 yr cal. official of the Archeological Superintendence, on BP (Fig. 2), which was recently mentioned in a few abstracts (Pignocchi, 2015; Montanari et al., 2017) and in a conference proceedings volume (Pignocchi et al. 2018). Our preliminary date of ~16.3 ka for the fireplace and the associated chert artifacts in Sala del Fuoco represented one of the few radioisotopically dated evidence for an Epigravettian culture in this region of the northern Apennines (Broglio et al., 2005; Silvestrini et al., 2005, 2008), and one of the few dated archeological sites in Italy belonging to the Late Pleniglacial Stage (e.g., Ravazzi et al., 2007; Cremona, 2008; Mussi et al., 2008, and references therein). We therefore engaged in a thorough environmental study of this site including cartographic and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) mapping, speleo-geomorphologic, and sedimentologic study of the Sala del Fuoco including a ground penetrating radar survey (GPR), speleothem Fig. 1. The discovery of an ibex skull in “Sala dello Stambecco” (aka Sala del Fuoco) by a team of cavers from the Gruppo Speleologico Marchigiano in 1986. The head of the team, Giuseppe Antonini Fig. 2. Graphic output of 14C AMS analysis UtC-11486 of a charcoal (Antonini, 1986), pictured crouched down in the background. Source: sample from the main fireplace of Sala del Fuoco performed at page 77 of the speleologic guide “Il mondo sotterraneo” (Parco Utrecht in 2006 (sample name: Eels _02#DO202). Courtesy of Dr. K. Naturale della Rossa e di Frasassi, 2000). van der Borg. International Journal of Speleology, 49 (2), 87-105. Tampa, FL (USA) May 2020 Upper Paleolithic cave at Frasassi 89 U-Th dating, and 14C AMS dating of ibex bones and spectrometer (MC ICP-MS) with enhanced sensitivity charcoal samples from the main fireplace and from (ES) interface in the McGee Laboratory. U-Th ages three other small charcoal deposits we found in were calculated using the decay constants determined different places in the cave room. We also studied, and by Jaffey et al. (1971) for 238U and Cheng et al. (2013) wondered about, a puzzling deposit of speleothemic for 234U and 230Th. Corrections for initial 230Th assumed crust slabs piled up on one side of the room not far an initial 230Th/232Th atomic ratio of 4.4 ± 2.2 x 10–6 from the fireplace, which may represent an earthen (Taylor & McLennan, 1985). mound. SPELEO-GEOLOGIC SETTING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES The lower Jurassic carbonate platform limestone of The topographic survey of the Sala del Fuoco room the Calcare Massiccio Formation making up the core in the Grotta del Fiume cave was accomplished of the Valmontagnana-Frasassi blind thrust anticline with a combination of closed and open polygonals, in the Marche Apennines of central Italy, hosts the a method traditionally used in cave mapping.