Valle Lagorara (I 28): a quarry of radiolarite (jasper) exploited during the Copper and Early Bronze Ages (Liguria, Italy)

Maggi, Roberto; Campana, Nadia; Negrino, Fabio

doi:0066-5924

Planned object

Title: Valle Lagorara (I 28): a quarry of radiolarite (jasper) exploited during the Copper and Early Bronze Ages (Liguria, Italy)

Abstract:

This paper presents the Copper and Early Bronze Age quarry and workshop of the Lagorara valley, located at 750 m a.s.l. in the Apennine mountains, some 15 km inland from the coast of the Gulf of Genoa (Italy). The western, almost vertical slope of the valley is formed by a continuous sequence of hundreds of layers of radiolarite rock, varying from 5 to 20 cm in thickness. Here two main areas have been exploited by prehistoric man, where imprints of hammering to extract slabs are visible over a surface of several hundreds of square metres wide. The detritus lying at the bottom of the slope largely consists of waste flakes and debris from the quarrying and chipping activities that were carried out. Two workshops were located in rock shelters on the opposite side of the valley; they were utilised for the production of bifacial specimens with flat-sommaire retouch, which appear to have been the commonest and more characteristic artefacts manufactured in Valle Lagorara

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