Between the 7th and 26th July 2014 excavations were carried out on the Palaeolithic site of La Pineta at Isernia by Ferrara University, directed by Prof. Carlo Peretto.

The excavations began with a major discovery, a child’s incisor. Based on the dating of the level (c. 600,000 years old) the tooth can probably be attributed to Homo heidelbergensis. It is the oldest human remain found in Italy to date. The discovery, made by wet sieving the sediment, is of particular importance because it sheds light on a period for which human remains are rare in Europe.

Excavations continued in the same area as last year, quadrant 1 of sector I, which includes quadrants 166-169-176-177-178-179. The stratigraphic units 3s6-9 and 3 (colluvium), containing lithic and faunal remains, were removed down to US 3b that was sterile apart from a few small fragments of bone and flint that were in contact with the overlying US 3 colluvium. The removal of the sterile US 3b in quadrants 169, 178, and 179 exposed the archaeo-surface 3c, excavated between 1980 and 1993 over an area of 52 m2. The lithic and palaeontological finds,
fewer than those from archaeo-surface 3a, lay within a sandy matrix a few centimetres deep.
As well as the usual methods of excavation, analysis, cataloguing, and finds conservation, new technologies were applies to the survey and recording of the finds during the excavation phase and for the 3D imaging of the archaeo-surfaces.
With regard to the first aspect, a new method of documentation was experimented that does away with paper records, all information relating to a find being put directly on a tablet. The data is then immediately available online on a dedicated web site.

The use of a micro-drone was experimented for the photogrammetric recording of the palaeo-surfaces. The 3D recording was carried out by “ Drone Division” of the TekneHub Laboratory At Ferrara University in collaboration with GREAL (Geographic Reseach and Application Laboratory) at Rome European University. The 3D recording of archaeo-surface 3a and the area being excavated at present will be useful for teaching and scientific purposes. In fact, the model will be used for the virtual navigation of the excavation surface and will provide important data relating to the spatial distribution of the finds.