Articles by Marcello Piperno

The Prehistory of the Mondragone area, in the province of Caserta, emerged in its importance thanks to the results of systematic surveys carried out since 1994 by the University of Naples “Federico II” and the Museum Biagio Greco together with the Archeological Superintendence of Naples and Caserta. Since 2001, the Museum has accomplished regular excavation campaigns of the very important Upper and Middle Palaeolithic deposit in the large cave opening in the site of Roccia di San Sebastiano, which represents the only evidence of Palaeolithic frequentation systematically and stratigraphically studied in the territory included between the Northern Campania coast and the Southern Latium coast. On the basis of such evidences, the authors illustrate a project aimed to produce a detailed territorial study to understand the dynamics of the frequentation and settlement of the area during Palaeolithic (Musterian, Uluzzian, Aurignazian and Gravettian) and the cultural behaviours of last Neanderthals and first Homo sapiens groups. The latest excavation campaigns allowed to unearth Uluzzian layers in two sectors of the cave and to investigate the Mousterian levels, from which a deciduous molar of a Neanderthal child comes. Moreover they permitted to consolidate the study of symbolic activities in the cave. Digital and tridimensional documentation techniques have been adopted for the description of the excavation surfaces and to understand the symbolic activities consisting in both parietal and mobiliary art evidences. The storage and elaboration of data is realized in a 3D application in order to elaborate detailed intra-site analysis in a predictive pattern of activities. This model allows the management of digital data in a single spatial system of representation, in which the digital copies of places, excavations areas and objects coincide with the relational matrices between the archaeological data and the possible events recorded in the physical layers.

Applicazione di un GIS intra-site al giacimento paleolitico di Garba IV – Melka Kunture (Etiopia). Spatial analysis has been widely utilised by Italian archaeologists to obtain territorial information at an inter-site level, but only a few attempts have been made to study the organisation of Early Palaeolithic paleosurfaces. The application presented here concerns the spatial analysis of the Early Palaeolithic site of Garba IV (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia). The excavation of two levels (C and D) over an area of more than 100 square metres has produced several thousand stone tools and faunal remains, which make it possible to attribute the site to the Developed Oldowan period, dated to 1.5/1.4 m.y. The entire set of data, concerning both the taphonomy and the techno-typological study of the lithic and faunal remains from level D, have been inserted in a database system (Microsoft Access and Excel). The plans of the excavation were drawn using Autocad and subsequently imported into the software Maplnfo and associated to the database. The management of the spatial data has been organised in order to meet the following goals: 1) Visualisation of the position and concentration of all the remains of the paleosurface D; 2) possibility of selecting the different classes of lithic materials and faunal remains in order to elaborate plans according to different themes; 3) application of statistical and quantitative methods together with spatial analysis to the study of each square metre of paleosurface D. The statistical and quantitative approach to the study of the frequency and density of particular tool types and faunal remains permit the identification of numerous hidden structures, which are probably related to several functionally differentiated areas of this Oldowan paleosurface.