The lithic assemblage from Ca'Belvedere di Monte Poggiolo: Stratigraphy, raw material, typology, refitting and usewear

The aim of this article is twofold : on one hand we believe it to be opport une to present a synthesis of the interdisciplinary results of the palaeoen vironmental research which has been carried out at the Palaeolithic site of Ca' Belvedere di Monte Poggiolo, as well as to provide detailed descriptio ns of the large number of refits found. These are examined from a spatial, stratigraphic, techno-typological and morpho-functional point of view. Only in this way is it possible to get a complete view of the significance of this important prehistoric site which dates to the Lower Pleistocene, an d in fact the research on the geology, stratigraphy and palaeontology as we ll as the radiometric and paleomagnetic dates all confirm this chronology. The characteristics of the lithic industry also fall within the ambit of th e most ancient industries found so far not only in Europe but also in Afric a and Asia. In particular we show how the industry is characterised by a substantial si mplicity in the flaking techniques used. The knapping of the pebbles took p lace in a rapid and opportunistic way. thus leading to the production of a large number of flakes and cores. Tools, in the classic sense of the word, are virtually absent, and the few examples discovered are almost always dif ficult to classify on a typological level because they fall within the ambi t of a chance phenomenon which is neither repetitive nor systematic. The refits, which are described analytically in this article, make it possi ble to identify the knapping techniques used by the prehistoric hominids in this ancient period and to get a better understanding of the overall morph ology of the products obtained. From this point of view we show how the mor phologies which are sometimes classified as choppers and chopping-tools are in fact the result of a morphological convergence, resulting simply from t he intensive knapping of the chert pebbles, and thus it is clear that they belong to the group of cores. The study of the lithic artifacts was accompanied by the systematic analysi s of the use wear traces present on surfaces of the artifacts with the twof old aim of identifying the activities carried out by the hominids as well a s providing a control of the techno-typological interpretation of the artif acts. It was demonstrated that in fact only the flakes bear traces of use w ear, which confirms that the latter were the real tools rather than the: kn apped pebbles. The morphology of the use wear traces enables us to establis h that the hominids carried out activities involving meat cutting and worki ng wood and vegetal matter.