Studio tecno-funzionale dei supporti a morfologia triangolaredell’US 8 del Riparo l’oscurusciuto (Ginosa - Taranto)

Data from many middle Paleolithic sites demonstrate that Neanderthals were able to hunt a wide range of preys and that they could use regular hunting strategies to capture also medium and large - sized animals, perhaps by killing them at a distance. In addition to the evidence of faunistic remains and of the high meat-intake diet observed by biochemical analysis, this assertion is based on the discovery of wooden javelins and thrusting spears in German and English middle Pleistocene sites. More recently scholars’ interest has been on functional interpretation of lithic points of the middle Paleolithic and the middle Stone Age and on their performance if used as spear points. These studies are especially based on morphometric (“ballistic”), residue (presence of adhesives for hafting) and use - wear (mainly impact scars) analyses. This paper focuses on 107 points and general triangular tools from US 8 of the Oscurusciuto rock shelter as part of a wider project on spear point technology related to some lithic assemblages of the middle Paleolithic of Southern italy (Castelcivita Cave and Oscurusciuto Shelter), which has been financed by Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria. The shelter opens on the northern side of a ravine in mesozoic limestone underlying Quaternary calcarenites and has accumulated more than 5 m of deposits, consisting of silty sands with stone artefacts and bone remains. The ongoing excavations began in 1998 and are being carried out by the Department of Environmental Sciences “G. Sarfatti” of the University of Siena, in co-operation with the Archaeological office of Puglia, the city of Ginosa and the local division of legambiente. Artifacts were at first analysed from a technological perspective; six groups (technological categories) have been identified based on different core reduction systems: A) convergent Levallois products; B) unipolar recurrent Levallois products; c) high transformation degree products; D) pseudolevallois blanks obtained from Levallois débitage; E) volume débitage products; F) on - edge débitage products. Some flakes (n. 14) belonging to the first group have features in common: they are unretouched, smaller, shorter and broader, with maximum length at the base. Groups B, c and E contain only deeply retouched tools. Basal thinning is always absent. Further observations underline the presence of two techno functional main groups. The first one can be identified with the A category and it is the only one which produces triangular tools directly during the reduction stage. In the second group the triangular shape is, on the other hand, due to the retouching process and elongated convex and/or concave cutting edges are pursued. The macro wear and micro wear analysis have shown that use - wear traces are on the whole seldom present and broken tips are vary rare and not very characteristic; nevertheless tip fractures are described and taken into account. Other criteria have been considered so we may test whether the US 8 triangular tools (or same of them) could be effective as spear points. These criteria included mass, cross-sectional area (TcSA) and perimeter, tip penetrating angle and length / width ratio.