L’anello-bracciale della Caverna dei Pipistrelli (Finale Ligure, SV): analisi archeometriche per lo studio della provenienza della materia prima e implicazioni culturali

The arm-ring of the Caverna dei Pipistrelli (Finale L., SV): archaeometric analysis for sourcing the raw material and cultural implications. The authors present the results of petro-archaeometric analyses carried out by optical microscopy, micro-fluorescence and isotopic analysis, to determine the origin of a Neolithic ring-bracelet in white marble found during excavations conducted between 1954 and 1956 by the Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología of Rome in the Caverna dei Pipistrelli. This find is a rare example among the stone arm-rings/bracelets known in northern Italy, not made in “greenstones”. The sample is constituted by a calcitic marble characterized by a fine grain-size (<1 mm) and homogeneous texture, indicating that crystallization occurred in static conditions during a low temperature metamorphic event. Even the measured isotopic values are consistent with a low-grade metamorphic imprint and fall within the Carrara (Tuscany) and Frabosa (Val Tanaro basin Piedmont) marble field. The tenors in trace elements show mean values in Sr of 223±27 ppm and of Mn equal to 101±34 ppm. The results of petro-archaeometric analysis (high Sr content, low degree of metamorphism, Oδ18/Cδ13 isotopic ratios) suggest that the artifact may have been produced with marble from the Apuan Alps, or from the Piedmontese outcrops known in Val Tanaro (Garessio or Frabosa). However, cultural considerations and petrographic constraints lead the authors to propose the Apuan Alps as the most likely area of origin, in the current state of knowledge, of this object. The work also offers the opportunity to reconstruct the operational chain for its manufacture.