Summary (English)
The excavation concentrated on two distinct areas, one close to the centre of the cavity and the other in the eastern sector. The first intervention was undertaken in sectors F8-H8, where in H8 digging stopped at a depth of one metre in correspondence with great collapses within unit 1. In F8 and G8 only unit 0 was investigated (about 50 cm thick), constituted by a fan of clayey and organic detritus which had come from the openings along the western wall of the grotto. The finds comprised glazed and decorated wheel-made pottery and two flint flakes. Below the fan a silty deposit (unit 1) with large collapsed stones, appeared. It was disturbed at its roof by pedological activity. In this sector unit 1 produced the remains of bear, marmot, carnivore, bird and fish bones.
The second intervention was undertaken in sector H 11, where the base rock was reached at a depth of 2.85 m. H 11 is situated by the east wall, between the two main arches providing access to the grotto. The stratigraphy comprises, from the top to bottom, a disturbed deposit (RIM) situated at the roof of a deposit of hill detritus with a clay matrix, above which a surface with an active organic horizon (unit 0) had developed. The archaeological content of unit 0 was represented by finds of historical date (decorated glazed pottery). Below this was a silty deposit with collapsed material (unit 1a and 1b), with aeolian and thermo-clastic elements, rich in bone fragments and with few archaeological finds represented by a lithic industry datable to the Upper Paleolithic period.
The next deposit was mainly sandy (units 2, 2a and 3) presenting corrosive and concretionary phenomena with a mainly thermoclastic and hydraulic contribution. There was no evidence of anthropological activity but the deposit was rich in the skeletal remains of large mammals, above all Ursus spelaeus some still in anatomical connection, Alces alces, Rupicapra rupicapra, Megaloceros giganteus and Cervus elaphus. The deepest units (4, 5, 6 and 6a) constituted an ossiferous breccias with a sandy matrix, partially loosened (in particular at the base) where the matrix is carbonaceous with a doughy consistency. The deposit contained a small number of flint flakes with clear pseudo-retouches dating to the Mousterian period. Also present were a large quantity of large mammal skeletal remains blackened through the absorption of Fe/Mn. These included Canis lupus, Cervus elaphus, Bos-Bison and Alces alces and Ursus spealeus. Where it met the base rock, the breccia, like the roof of the embedding rock, was heavily altered by water corrosion.
- Mirco De Stefani - Università degli Studi di Ferrara 
Director
- Alberto Broglio - Università degli Studi di Ferrara, cattedra di Paleontologia Umana
Team
- Laurence Bouquet - Università de La Sorbonne (Parigi)
- Camille Jéquier - Università degli Studi di Ferrara
- Matteo Romandini - Università degli Studi di Ferrara
- Marco Peresani - Università degli Studi di Ferrara
- Stefano Bertola - Università degli Studi di Ferrara
- Giorgio Bartolomei - Università degli Studi di Venezia, cattedra di di Geografia Fisica
- Cesare Ravazzi - CNR-I.D.P.A., Milano
- Lucio Calcagnile - Centro di Datazione e Diagnostica dell’Università di Lecce
- Sara Ziggiotti - Università degli Studi di Ferrara
- Alberto Bizzi - C.A.I. di Vicenza
- Paolo Pretto - C.A.I. di Vicenza
Research Body
- Centro di Datazione e Diagnostica dell’Università di Lecce
- Istituto per la Dinamica dei Processi Ambientali del C.N.R di Dalmine (BG)
- Università di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione
Funding Body
- Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Verona, Vicenza, Belluno e Ancona
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