Variazioni nelle strategie di approvvigionamento e gestione delle materie prime nell’Arco liguro-provenzale durante il Neolitico come indicatori di transizione: nuovi dati dalla grotta Pollera (Savona, Alpi liguri)

The authors present the first results of a research project that regards the holistic approach to the study of the Neolithic stone industry of the Pollera Cave, located in the hinterland of Finale Ligure (SV). The materials come from excavations conducted in the 1970s, directed by prof. S. Tiné. In particular, the chipped stone industry examined was found in the levels relating to the transition from the Early Neolithic with Impresso-Cardial ceramics to the ancient phase of the of Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture, which marks the beginning of the Middle Neolithic. In order to reconstruct the human activities and the exploitation of the raw materials used for the production of the stone artifacts, both the techno-typological aspects and the wear traces, with the aid of optical microscopy, have been studied. The lithic industry includes a rather wide range of chert attributable to different paleogeographic contexts and therefore to different areas of origin. The dynamics of supply/exchange were quite articulated and diversified and contribute to interpreting the use of the territory and resources and the trajectories of cultural contacts. The study also involved the revision of the associated ceramics in the stratigraphic series and the execution of new radiometric dates on samples of domestic fauna and on charred seeds, selected to obtain an absolute chronological reference framework. From the preliminary data, it is clear that the portion of the deposit excavated in the cave actually represents a series of intermittent occupations that took place in the transition period between the Early and Middle Neolithic, during which important changes occurred in the supply of raw materials, with routes that connect Liguria to Provence, the Pô side of the Northern Apennines and the Venetian Pre-Alps.