La Grotta Mandurea a Borgio Verezzi (SV) tra ricerca e tutela

The Mandurea Cave at Borgio Verezzi (SV) between research and protection. Mandurea is a small cave located in the immediate inland of the town of Borgio, in Western Liguria. Discovered by chance at the beginning of the last century, the site was investigated in the 1930s by P. Barocelli and A. Mochi. During these surveys, human remains and some prehistoric potsherds were collected on the surface of the cave floor. In 1964, the excavation of a trench revealed that the archaeological deposit was still preserved in a large part of the cave. This excavation also unearthed artefacts related to major cultural horizons of the Neolithic of Liguria. More recently, after more than fifty years from the latest investigations in the site, Mandurea has once again attracted the attention of the archaeologists. In 2018, the Superintendence indeed issued a specific act for the preservation of the site. At the same time, a systematic revision of the stratigraphic context and the bioarchaeological materials from the past excavations has been carried out. This revision especially focused on the study of the techno-typological aspects of pottery, the analysis of human remains, and radiocarbon dating of human bones. The results of these studies contributed to specify the chrono-cultural framework and the nature of the different phases of occupation of the site. They also confirmed the remarkable potential of the cave deposit for the understanding of peopling dynamics, techno-economic systems and forms of land management in western Liguria during prehistoric times.