Ritual use of Romito Cave during the Late Upper Palaeolithic: an integrated approach for spatial reconstruction

Grotta del Romito is one of the most significant Upper Palaeolithic sites on the Italian peninsula. The site comprises a rock shelter and a cave which would have been connected during the Palaeolithic to form a large living space. The imposing figure of an urus (Bos primigenius) and numerous linear signs are featured on two large boulders located under the rock shelter. To date, nine burials have been recovered from stratigraphic layers dating from ca. 18,000 to 11,000 BP, the majority of them refer to the Late Upper Palaeolithic. The site has a long history of excavation and therefore different types of documentation have been used in this cave context spanning from traditional distribution maps to laser scanner data acquisition. This contribution presents an overview of the technologies used to collect data and discusses the integration of them in a GIS environment. The project focuses on the spatial use of the cave as a ritual context aiming to integrate and explore in a unique analytical environment the rock art and burial evidences.