La Sassa project

La Sassa project

The project

Four excavation campaigns at La Sassa cave by the University of Groningen and Roma Tor Vergata took place starting from 2016. A fifth campaign is planned for the summer of 2020. In the cave, a Copper Age burial place has been found in Room 2. A large amount of human bones (NMI, 8.) were scattered into the branch together with some canis lupus bones and few potsherds. The human bones were not in anatomical connection. A femur was radiocarbon dated to 4000±35 BP (2619-2462 calBC). Other human bones were found in Room 1 (Saggio Lella), below  a Middle Bronze Age layer. Protoappenninic potsherds (MBA1-2) were collected in Rooms 1-4. They likely refers to cultual habits, as already observed in other near caves (Alessandri, Rolfo 2016). A set of nalytical tecniques on the human bones are in progress: radiocarbon (chronology), strontium isotopes (provenance), nitrogen and carbon (diet), DNA (sex and genomics).

Late pleistocene fauna was found in Rooms 1, 3 and 6. An almost complete bear skeleton (Ursus arctos) has been recovered in Room 6. A humerus have been radiocarbon dated to 30210±180 BP (32547-32022 calBC).

A first 3D scan of the cave was made with the kind collaboration of C. Tamburri. The tridimensional data are now collected in collaboration with the University of Naples Parthenope and the University of Rome La Sapienza.

 

Video – the entrance

 

Partners

University of Tor Vergata (F. De Angelis) – N, C, DNA analyses

Istituto Nazionale Geofisica e Vulcanologia (M. Di Vito, I. Arienzo) – Sr isotope analysis

Oxford University (C. Capelli) – DNA analysis

University of Rome La Sapienza (V. Baiocchi) – 3D scan and geography

University of Naples Parthenope (S. Troisi) – 3D scan

Comune di SonninoAssociazione Vivere Sonnino – logistics.

Gruppo Grotte Castelli Romani,  Speleo Club RomaShaka Zulu Club Subiaco – explorations

Tamburri S.r.l – 3D scan

The excavation is funded by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO), the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

We wish to acknowledge the mayor of Sonnino, Luciano De Angelis, and the municipal councilors Gianni Carroccia and Gianni Celani for their support. We are also grateful to the landowners, Mariano and Marilena Manicone and Massimo Manicone, who kindly gave us the permit to enter their field.

The southern island

Caprolace project

The excavation The two islands of Caprolace lagoon had been archaeologically known since 2007 (Alessandri 2007). The ceramic was collected in ...
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Underwater collections

Caprolace salt production

The salt evidence 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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Faunal remains from SU 9: a: ox incisor; b: fragment of dog mandible; c: sheep/goat phalanx; d: deer phalanx; e: pig metapodial

La Sassa faunal remains

The Copper Age layers The Copper Age layers of Grotta La Sassa have yielded around 1000 zooarchaeological remains. Only 288 could ...
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ossa

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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5

La Sassa project

The 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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sassacoccio

La Sassa potsherds

The 2015 campaign   In 2015, some potsherds were collected inside the cave, on the surface. The potsherd n. 1 has been ...
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