Analisi archeometriche in microscopia ottica di ceramiche neolitiche dall’Arma dell’Aquila (Finale Ligure, Savona) nel quadro delle produzioni preistoriche del Finalese

The petrographic study has allowed us to recognize the majority of the ceramics of the Aquila rock shelter as productions of the Finale area, although the compositional and textural/technical variability highlights a variety of sites of production or procurement of raw materials. In these cases, the pastes are characterised by inclusions well compatible with the Permo-Carboniferous metamorphic rocks or with Mesozoic limestones outcropping locally. However, the discovery of some samples with inclusions derived from gneiss and amphibolite, absent in strictly local area, though outcropping in the neighbouring territory of the Hercynian basement, can testify instead human mobility within the region, both in the Early and Middle Neolithic. The preliminary comparison with the data available for the first ceramic productions of Liguria in general, and the Finale in particular, seems to confirm the model that demonstrates the existence, alongside a more consistent pottery production of local origin, of some ceramic containers produced in allochthonous areas, even though in this specific case long-distance provenances are not represented.