An Epigravettian hypogeal site in the Grotta del Fiume Cave at Frasassi (northeastern Apennines, Italy): Environmental and geochronologic assessments

Abstract

In the late fall of 1986, a team of cavers from the Gruppo Speleologico Marchigiano of Ancona reported to the regional Archeological Superintendence their discovery in a room of the Grotta del Fiume Cave (Marche region of central Italy) of archeological finds such as the charcoal remains of a bonfire, a number of ibex bones, and four chert artifacts. However, since the discovery and archival of all this material, no further research or focused studies were carried out about this important archeological site. Therefore, we engaged in a thorough re-examination of this site by mapping this part of the Grotta del Fiume Cave with modern surveying approaches, including terrestrial laser scanner and ground penetrating radar. Moreover, we have radiocarbon dated a few ibex bones and also charcoal samples from the main fireplace and other smaller charcoal deposits we found scattered around the room’s floor. The chert artifacts were examined in detail and their typology classified accordingly. U-Th dating of calcite from speleothems helped us reconstruct this hypogeal environment at the time it was frequented by man. We also studied a puzzling deposit of speleothem crust slabs piled up in a corner of the cave, which may represent a funeral earthen mound. All in all, the absence of artifacts other than the four chert blades, the few ibex bones, the one main fireplace and three other minor charcoal deposits in the room, and the probable earthen mound located tens of meters underground from a now debris-sealed entrance, lead us to hypothesize that this cave room does not represent a residential dwelling but rather a worship place sporadically utilized by few representatives of a local Epigravettian hunter community.

Survey Solutions for 3D Acquisition and Representation of Artificial and Natural Caves

“…TLS allows capturing highly accurate data even at long distances but, in indoor environments and complex areas characterized by limited lines of sight and many shadow areas, it often cannot be an efficient method given the need for a high number of station points. Thanks to the high level of detail obtained with this technique, TLS has been used in many studies to detect limited portions of caves, to conduct morphological and structural analysis [27][28][29][30]. Only in some works, as mentioned by [31], TLS were used to make surveys of entire caves, with extensions greater than a few hundred meters.…”

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“…A sample of blocky calcite from the Vodeni Rat laterite was dated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) with the U-Th method (see Montanari et al, 2020, for dating method and technique), and yielded an age of 302.5 ± 6.3 ka (Table 1) indicating that karstic processes and speleothemic concretion were occurring here in the late Middle Pleistocene. This date suggests that the surface topography of the Pakleni islands did not change much since the Middle Pleistocene.…”