Technology and use of a Middle Palaeolithic toolkit. The example of the Ciota Ciara cave (NW Italy)

Abstract A technological and functional approach has been used to face the study of the lithic artefacts made in allochthonous raw materials from level 14 of the Ciota Ciara cave. The site it is the only reliable source of information about the Middle Palaeolithic peopling of north-western Italy. According to the results coming from different studies, the level 14 attests the phases of most intense frequentation of the cave, and it is the layer where allochthonous lithic raw materials are better represented. In a technological context already described as markedly opportunistic, where reduction sequences are strongly adapted to the characteristics of the local rocks available in the surrounding of the site, some tools and unretouched flake, made in raw materials collected at a distance between 2 and 30 km, have been introduced in the site. The present work is aimed to the understanding of the role of these artefacts within the technological organization of the Neanderthal groups that inhabited the cave. The obtained results indicate that these “exotic” artefacts were part of the mobile toolkit of the human groups of the Ciota Ciara cave and that they were multifunctional tools extensively used for different activities (mainly butchering activities). The obtained data led also to some observations about the technology of these Neanderthal groups and on their capability in terms of planning and forecasting during land mobility.