The present study aims to understand the dynamics related to chert raw materials supply of the human groups who occupied the Cocina Cave.
Chert nodules were collected from the individuated local outcrops and a set of artefacts found during the recent fieldworks was selected in order to compare natural and archaeological samples. An archaeometric method was chosen to compare the cherts and confirm the compatibility among natural and archaeological samples. In particular, each sample was analysed by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to obtain major minor and trace elements concentrations, including rare earth elements ones, and multivariate statistics was employed for the classification.
While most of the artefacts showed elemental profiles comparable to the local chert types, few ones ones revealed different chemical features which suggested a possible origin from the area of the Serpis Valley (Alcoy, Spain), located more than 50 km south of Cocina Cave.
The present work revealed interesting insights about chert raw materials procurement and territoriality of the hunterers and gatherers groups who occupied Cocina cave during Mesolithic, and of the occupants groups of the following Neolithic and Bronze Age phases.
| Subject : | : | Oral presentations |
| Topics | : | Session: Material productions (varia) |
| Keywords | : | raw materials ; chert ; provenance study ; archaeometry ; multielement analysis ; lithic artefacts |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
