Neolithic greenstone in Umbria, from the Bellucci Collection. Petrography, provenance, interpretation

Abstract

Sixty-six stone tools sampled through archaeological criteria, all but six from the Bellucci Collection in the Archaeological Museum, Perugia, are presented. Sixty-four of them are axes or chisels (two) of Neolithic typology, and save a few of them all are complete and largely polished; two are Chalcolithic shaft-holed axes.Sixty tools are made of HP-metaophiolites (33 eclogites, 26 Na-px jades, 1 serpentinite), the same lithologies dominant in Neolithic implements found in Northern Italy. Their study gives the first petrographic evidence of an important supply of these lithologies from the NW Italy production areas towards Central Italy.Three implements (including one shaft-holed axe) are made of sedimentary rocks of local origin. Three others (including one shaft-holed axe), made of lavic volcanites pertaining to the Tyrrhenian Quaternary potassic volcanism of Central -Southern Italy, provide evidence of occasional sources from the South to Umbria, lasting from the Neolithic to Chalcholitic periods.

The Neolithic greenstone industry of Chiomonte (northwestern Italy): mineralogy, petrography and archaeometric implications

“…These greenstones occur in the alpine geological context as rare and small "primary" outcrops (of a few cubic metres) at high altitude, mainly in the Monviso and Voltri massifs Pétrequin et al, 2005aPétrequin et al, , b, 2006Compagnoni et al, 2007Compagnoni et al, , 2012 or as boulders, pebbles, or cobbles in "secondary" alluvial deposits, derived from dismantlement in the neighbouring downhill regions (Compagnoni et al, 2006;D'Amico and Starnini, 2006;D'Amico and De Angelis, 2009). The pioneering studies of Gastaldi (1871), Damour (1846) and Franchi (1900) have shown that these greenstones belong to the Internal Piemonte Zone, which includes meta-ophiolite units derived from the Liguria-Piemonte oceanic domain, characterised by alpine metamorphism under eclogite facies conditions (Compagnoni, 2003).…”

The Neolithic greenstone industry of Brignano Frascata (Italy): Archaeological and archaeometric study, implications and comparison with coeval sites in the Grue, Ossona and Curone valleys

“…The pioneering studies of Gastaldi (1871), Damour (1881) and Franchi (1900) first established that these greenstone lithotypes occur in the metamorphic ophiolites (meta-ophiolites) and calcschists of the Piemonte Zone, in the Western Alps. A more precise location is troublesome, as these rocks occur either as small (few m 3 ) primary outcrops at high altitude (D'Amico, 2005;Pétrequin et al, 2005aPétrequin et al, , 2005bPétrequin et al, , 2006Compagnoni et al, 2012) or boulders in secondary clastic deposits downhill, derived from erosion of the formers (Compagnoni et al, 2006;D'Amico and Starnini, 2006a;D'Amico and De Angelis, 2009). Few greenstone outcrops/deposits were discovered so far and the detailed petrographic studies are scarce.…”