Le Gravettien entre l’Italie et la France : nouvelles données sur l’industrie lithique de l’Abri Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Italie).
Authors: Santaniello Fabio , Grimaldi Stefano 
Published: June 2022

The Italian Gravettian remains rarely investigated, with about twenty known archaeological sites and available data concerning its lithic industries that mainly refer to typological analyses developed during the second half of the last century. These highlight the presence of different facies with few attempts to discuss possibilities of parallel developments or colonization processes within a European scenario. The recent studies, which are few, have focused on technological and functional analyses of the Gravettian lithic industries as well as defining the mobility strategies of these human groups. In order to collect fresh technological data and to provide an explanatory framework within which to understand the dynamics of Gravettian adaptations in Italy, we analyzed the evidences from units C and D of the Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Italy). The site, located in the center of the Liguro-Provençal arc at the Italy-France border, provides one of the most complete Middle-upper Paleolithic sequences of the Mediterranean Europe and it represents a key to study the Gravettian appearance in the peninsula. This work has demanded a punctual revision of the original field documentation (diaries, pictures, drawings), allowing the correlation of collections from the 1938-1949 excavation – previously studied by other scholars – with unpublished materials coming from the 1959 excavation. During this excavation, L. Cardini used a more standardized methodology based on 10 cm spits, which led to the excavation of the Upper Paleolithic sequence during a single campaign. The Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana (Anagni, Italy) houses the lithic collection including all the artifacts from both the excavation and the sieving, still preserved in their original boxes. As there seems to have been no previous selection of the material and/ or there are no apparent conservation problems indicates that this collection is the most reliable for this study. The use of a techno-economic perspective has defined technological adaptations occurred during the different Gravettian frequentations ; rock-supplying crops draw from a large procurement area, roughly spanning from the Rhone valley to the Italian Apennines. Furthermore, the use of statistical analysis based on both qualitative and quantitative determinations reveals the detailed interpretation of the entire Gravettian sequence spit by spit. Finally, the materials from the base and the top of the old excavations campaigns (1938-1949) have been directly studied and compared. They highlight new perspectives relating to the Gravettian of Riparo Mochi. Firstly, Noailles burins found at the base of the Gravettian sequence suggest that the Noaillian is the first Gravettian frequentation of the site. Consequently, the presence of the ancient Gravettian previously suggested by other scholars has been re-considered. Differences between raw materials and techno-typological patterns have been interpreted as different occupational phases. The latter, also highlighted by faunal and environmental studies, can be associated to changes of the site’s function within the hunter-gathers mobility. Secondly, several technical and behavioral changes occurred between the middle and final Gravettian. These relate mainly to the appearance of new lithic production at the end of the Gravettian seem the sign of variations of the social organization, which can be roughly interpreted as result of the regionalization phenomenon attested during this period in the Italian peninsula. In conclusion, a survey of available data from the north Mediterranean rim (i. e. Pyrenean area, southern France and western Italy) has been carried out, in order to evaluate the implication of our results about the Italian Gravettian within the wider perspective of a European context. We have thus been able to evaluate how the Noaillian groups spread towards Italy as well as to suggest new insights into the evolution of the Italian Gravettian.