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Excavation

  • Caverna Generosa
  • Monte Generoso
  •  
  • Italy
  • Lombardy
  • Province of Como
  • Centro Valle Intelvi

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • In 2017, excavations were undertaken in quadrants P5 and P6 situated at the mouth of the “Sala Terminale”, just outside the narrow “Syphon” (Fig. 1).

    The main aim of the 2018 campaign was to slightly extend the excavations towards the centre of the “Sala Terminale” from the area immediately after the “Syphon”. The chosen area was that of quadrants O5 and O6 (continuing on from P5 and P6). Figure 2 shows the stratigraphic section of the investigated area in addition to the section from the previous year. The main aim was to check the sequence. Firstly, 50 cm of material that had been disturbed by the speleologists when they first discovered the cave had to be removed. This was stratigraphically excavated and the bone fragments present retrieved. Once this was done, a similar stratigraphic situation was arrived at as present in the adjacent quadrants excavated last year. The stratigraphic sequence, from the top downwards, was: a recent level of material that had crumbled from the vault – called level 0 – followed by a very thin layer of white lime a few millimetres thick underneath which the Pleistocene sequence began. The upper Pleistocene levels were investigated, specifically level a1 (divided into two sub-levels) and the excavation of b was begun (Fig. 2). Below are the sediment characteristics for each level. The sediments were sieved with a 1 mm mesh in order to recover the micro-fauna (Fig. 4a).

    ao – level mainly characterised by an accumulation of material disturbed by interventions in the late 1980s – early 1990s. Carbonate concretions – a very thin deposit of white lime covered the Pleistocene deposit ad Ursus speleaus. Level a1 was 2-3 mm thick and was divided into a1a and a1b. Both had a clayey-silt matrix that was light orangey red in colour for a1a but tended to be yellower for a1b. Both levels presented occasional fragments of Ursus. Occasional carbonate klasts a few centimetres in size were present together with larger ones from the vault collapse. Level a – clayey-silt, orange-yellow in colour, with the presence of carbonate klasts up to 20 cm in diameter. Level b – clay with a little silt, elevated plasticity, orange-red in colour with a few yellow variegations. Klasts almost absent, very few bone fragments.

    Very few of the fossil remains recovered during this phase of the excavations could be attributed to Ursus spelaeus. A larger number of micro-mammal remains were found and identified, which provide new information about the Upper Pleistocene climate in northern Italy (Fig. 4b).

  • Lucia Angiolini – Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra ‘A.Desio’ - Unimi  

Director

  • Lucia Angiolini – Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra ‘A.Desio’ - Unimi

Team

  • Balducci A., Brivio K.S., Dalbis B., Ferrari C., La Grasta G.C., Tagliaferri D., Sacchet J., Vignati R., Bini L., Buratti M., Preti M., Pergolizzi M., Recalcati L., Rinaldo I., Bonfanti M., Zoia M.

Research Body

Funding Body

  • Capolago (TI-CH)
  • Ferrovia Monte Generoso
  • Fondi per scavi archeologici e CCD Scienze e Tecnologie per l'Ambiente e la Natura
  • Università degli Studi di Milano

Images

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