During the fieldwork phase of this project, Dr. Luca Alessandri will revisit, together with his colleagues, as many of the known but poorly documented sites and scatters of the EBA and MBA period in the study area as possible. The goal here is to extract the missing stratigraphic and paleogeographic information by coring, as well as look for additional diagnostic pottery to firm up the cultural and chronological identification. The postdocs will collaborate to design a coring program that will systematically identify archaeological ‘indicators’ (fragments of bone, charcoal, and pottery) associated with the AV Event in the landscape zones deemed the most attractive to our postulated Early Bronze Age immigrants.
On the basis of the analysis of the coring data and desktop study, the postdoc will select a small number of archaeological sites that have the potential to demonstrate the appearance of post-AV ‘Campanian’ cultural affinities at pre-existing ‘Latial’ sites. During a second fieldwork period these will be investigated with test pits to obtain (additional) diagnostic pottery and samples for macroremains.
A crucial task of this postdoc will also be to maintain and, where necessary, develop good relations with local heritage management officers and government bodies to ensure effective planning and execution of field work. As part of this task, the postdoc will be responsible for maintaining the program’s publicity in the Italian language and ensuring that its main results will also be published in Italian.
Whilst it is possible that high-value (and therefore easily recognizable) objects were taken along by the fleeing population, a safer way to directly identify pottery transported from Campania after the AV Event would be to use petrography to identify inclusions that only occur in the Campanian geological province. For this specialist work the postdoc will work with experienced petrographers using lab facilities in Italy. A second potentially fruitful approach to proving the presence of post-AV Event Campanian immigrants in south Lazio would be to detect a ‘Campanian’ geological signature in their skeletal remains by means of Strontium (Sr) isotope analysis. This will require, firstly, the establishment of the appropriate local ‘background’ Sr signatures and, secondly, the comparison against these of the Sr signatures from carefully selected samples of human bone and teeth. Ideally, Sr signatures in teeth would then demonstrate the deceased spent his youth in Campania whereas that of the bones will attest to his adulthood in Lazio.
Caprolace project
The two islands of Caprolace lagoon had been archaeologically known since 2007 (Alessandri 2007). The ceramic was collected in ...
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Caprolace salt production
During the excavations, salt-production evidence was found in two soundings (F and G) and in many different places around the ...
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La Sassa faunal remains
The Copper Age layers of Grotta La Sassa have yielded around 1000 zooarchaeological remains. Only 288 could ...
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La Sassa human bones
Campaigns 2014 and 2015
Few human bones have been collected in 2014 and in 2015. Bones from rooms 3 and 4 have ...
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La Sassa project
Four excavation campaigns at La Sassa cave by the University of Groningen and Roma Tor Vergata took place starting from ...
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La Sassa potsherds
In 2015, some potsherds were collected inside the cave, on the surface. The potsherd n. 1 has been ...
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