Monte Frignone 2 (San Romano in Garfagnana, Lucca) and the Neolithic Transition in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines (Italy)

This article examines the nature of interactions between the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and the first Neolithic farmers in the central and western Mediterranean. Research on ancient DNA has revealed interbreeding between local Mesolithic populations and migrants of Aegean-Anatolian origin, yet archaeological sites providing direct evidence of these contacts are rare and it is difficult to substantiate these processes in the material culture. The open-air site of Monte Frignone 2 (San Romano in Garfagnana, Tuscany), at an altitude of 1,280 m, provides new data for examining these dynamics. Excavations carried out between 2004 and 2007 have identified two Holocene stratigraphic units (pit SU3 and its fill SU2, covered by a layer SU1), both rich in lithic remains. The study of these units is based on an integrated techno-economic approach combining the detailed characterisation of the exploited silicites, the production processes and tool use. This analysis shows that local production focused mainly on standardised bladelet debitage, carried out by pressure flaking using a shoulder-crutch, on very roughly shaped prismatic blocks. The estimated deficit of central or slightly overshot bladelets suggests that a significant proportion of the products were exported from the site, as were a large part of the cores. Imports of allochthonous materials (cores, central bladelets, finished products) provide a mirror image of the above. In both of the units under consideration here (SU2 and SU1), bladelet production is partly oriented towards the manufacture of symmetrical trapezes, with oblique truncations obtained after fragmentation using the microburin process. The functional profile of the assemblages is primarily characterised by craft activities, with, in SU2, traces of processing animal materials, potentially linked to lithic production itself, whilst in SU1, traces of meticulous working of relatively soft minerals are observed, suggesting the manufacture of ornaments. These industries show clear affinities with the Castelnovian Mesolithic tradition, but they are more similar to the earliest Neolithic assemblages from the Garfagnana attributed to the Pianaccia horizon, at Verrucole – Campo Letari, Castiglione di Garfagnana – Piano di Cerreto or Pieve Fosciana – Il Muraccio, also characterised by bladelet production by pressure and symmetrical trapezes. The most plausible modelled radiocarbon dates obtained for Monte Frignone 2, around 5557–5244 BCE for the lithic assemblage of SU2 and around 5302–4841 BCE for that of SU1, are indeed synchronous with those of the earliest farming settlements in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The site would thus have functioned as a high-altitude logistics hub, specialising in the production of bladelet tools in local silicites from the Scaglia toscana, to supply Neolithic settlements located in the hilly areas. The hypothesis that Castelnovian Mesolithic technical traditions were maintained in a Neolithic context dating to the last third of the 6th millennium, several centuries after the establishment of the Impressa in the southeast of the peninsula and the colonisation of the Tuscan archipelago, the Gulf of Genoa and the Gulf of Lion, is consistent with a long period of interaction between the first farmers and the last hunters-gatherers. Mountainous areas may have provided lasting refuges for the latter who interacted very gradually with Neolithic groups widely established in the lowlands, thereby contributing to the significant diversification of material cultures evident from the end of the 6th millennium onwards.

bladelet production · Garfagnana · Mesolithic hunter-gatherers · Neolithic farmers · Neolithic transition · open-air sites · pressure flaking · Radiocarbon dating · stone tool production · trapeze · Archaeological and Geological Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology