Cave Archaeology Some Examples From Sardinia (Italy)
Cave Archaeology Some Examples From Sardinia (Italy)
Cave Archaeology Some Examples From Sardinia (Italy)
Archaeology: Archeologia e Speleologia
British School at Rome, 2nd of July, 2019
(Photo: Angelo Procaccianti/Elia Marano)
ABSTRACTS
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Session 3 ‐ Natural Caves
Laura Sanna1 & Irene Sanna2
1
Institute for Biometeorology, National Research Council of Italy, Sassari ‐
sanna@ibimet.cnr.it
2
Freelance Archaeologist, Sassari
Cave archaeology: some examples from Sardinia (Italy)
Cave archaeology is a scientific discipline that lies on the border between speleology and
archaeology. It interprets the archaeological evidence found inside the caves. The common
interest of the two scientific sectors are the analysis of the deposition processes in the cave,
the features of these sediments, the reading of the stratigraphic sequences, the
geochronology and the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.
The speleology offers to the archaeologist important tools to reconstruct the context in
which the human presence occurred. Thanks to its skills in karst sciences, speleology allows
the reconstruction of the environment in which a given archaic community was settled, its
interactions with the past environment, the motivations that led to choosing a particular
site and eventually to abandon it. Moreover, highlights the erosion that time has exercised
on reminds, cave science also permits to evaluate the quality of information that has
reached to our days.
At the same time, archaeological evidences provide invaluable records for the study of
geomorphological, sedimentological and soil processes in karst environments. In fact, as
datable elements, archaeological reminds can be useful chronological indicators for
palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstructions.
The aim of this study is to focus on how the connections between archaeology and
speleology consent to better understand the relationship between man and environments
in the past, illustrating the results of some multidisciplinary excavations carried out in caves
around the town of Sassari (Sardinia, Italy) which provided new information on prehistoric
cultures dating back as far as about 6,000 years ago, the oldest in the area.
This research has highlighted that the interaction between these two specialists overcomes
some cognitive obstacles, such as the difficulties of operating in the underground
environment and interpreting the palaeoenvironmental context for archaeologists, and the
importance to preserve during explorations cultural records found within caves for the
speleologists.
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