This season’s aim was to extend the area opened in 2015 to the west of the “great oak”, at the centre of the Fontanassi Forest, in order to identify the extension of the palaeo-soil containing traces of occupation by groups frequenting the area in the prehistoric period.
The area was investigated by the opening of a 10 m2 area (including the completion of the 4 m2 area opened last year), dividing the surface into 50 cm squares. Each individual find visible to the naked eye was positioned using a total station. The sediment from each square was dry-sieved to recover the smallest finds.

The sequence uncovered confirmed that exposed in trench 39 in 2014 and the open area excavation of 2015, formed by three contexts. US 5 was a greyish, friable organic horizon, rich in vegetal macro remains in various stages of composition, corresponding with the surface layer; US 6 a silty horizon rich in organic substances, with a skeleton of abundant cobblestones and calcareous concretions; US 8, a clay-silt layer, incorporating a part with coarser sand, characterised by a yellowish-grey colour and the presence of ¬_calcinelli_ snails datable to the Last Glacial Maximum.

During the 2016 campaign, the excavation of US 8 in quadrants H-I/13-20 was completed, removing only the upper portion (10 cm) in order to recover the lithic artefacts present in the roof (presumably penetrated from the upper layer US 6). Subsequently, six new metre squares were opened in the adjacent area, where the sequence described above was removed to a depth of about 35 cm. The presence of lithic artefacts was documented from US 5 onwards and at the roof of US 6, with a maximum concentration between the base of US 6 and the roof of US 8. Along the south side there was a cut (US 13) interpreted as a modern drainage channel, whose fill, not recognizable at the roof, was excavated as US 6.

Overall, 621 artefacts were positioned using the total station, and several hundred were recovered from sieving, almost exclusively flints, occasional charcoal fragments or cobblestones (potential hammer stones) and fragments of later pottery (US 5 and &). Among the best diagnostic finds were three trapezia, certainly attributable to the late Mesolithic period (Castelnovan facies). A single element, a pedunculate foliate point, dates to the Copper/Bronze Age, while others could relate to a late Palaeolithic/early Holocene occupation. It is clear that in this open area where there is scarce post LGM sedimentary accumulation, more occupation phases appear compacted into a stratigraphic sequence a few tens of centimeters deep. In any case, as was noted last year, the Castelnovan occupancy seems to be the most significant.