The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Trieste Karst (north-eastern Italy) as seen from the excavations at the Edera Cave

This paper is a preliminary report of excavations carried out between 1990 and 2000 at Edera Cave in the Trieste Karst. The cave is 3 Km from the present coast. It was first occupied during the Boreal period by Mesolithic (Sauveterrian) hunter-gatherers. The remains of this occupation comprise pits and hearths, abundant faunal remains, and typical chipped stone and bone tools, many of which were recovered in situ on an almost intact paleosurface (layer 3c). A hearth in layer 3a above belongs to the Late Mesolithic Castelnovian culture, and has yielded a few potsherds of nonlocal production, as well as bones and domesticated animals. Layer 2a consists of several superimposed charcoal lenses attributed to the local Early Neolithic Vlaška group on the basis of characteristic vessel shapes and a series of four radiocarbon ages that date this horizon to c. 6500 BP (5500 cal BC). Although the cave continued to be used sporadically until the Migration Period, this paper is concerned mainly with the problem of the relationship between the last hunter-gatherers and the first food producers who used the cave during the mid-seventh millennium BP. So far, layer 3a of Edera Cave is the only evidence from this part of the Adriatic of interaction between the last Castelnovian bands and the first Neolithic farmers.