Abstract
Tana di Badalucco cave is located in Imperia (Liguria, Italy), not far from the French border. This site is scarcely known and it has never been studied accurately, even though different archaeological excavations have returned really important elements, both in the archaeological and the paleoenvironmental aspects. Its stratigraphy ranges from Middle Paleolithic to Metal Ages, thus it has registered important climate and environmental variations specific to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene. From 2012, the Soprintendenza Archeologia della Liguria, the Museo di Archeologia Ligure, and DiSTAV (University of Genova) have been collaborating in order to finally study this promising and complex stratigraphy, trying to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context of the region. In this work, we present what we were able to assess thanks to the use of micromorphology, the study of undisturbed thin soil sections. This technique has proven useful in recognizing the alternating of cold and warmer conditions during the Quaternary, as well as in identifying primitive signs of human and animal occupation.
Highlights
Is well known for its valuable archaeological sites [1] and Liguria, one of its regions, has some of the most precious examples [2,3]
Sampling was performed by removing undisturbed sample blocks by excavating around the desired location and covering them with plaster [30]. This procedure was conducted in three different locations inside the cave: one sample (MTB1) (Figure 4a) was taken 4 m from the entrance in the Upper Cretaceous marly limestone, both belonging to the Dauphinois–Provençal domain [29]
It is likely that no one methodological approach could hope to completely elucidate the complex arrangement of anthropogenic, biogenic, and geogenic elements deposited in this cave, micromorphological analysis provided information complementary to that gathered by traditional field and laboratory methods
Summary
Is well known for its valuable archaeological sites [1] and Liguria, one of its regions, has some of the most precious examples [2,3]. One of these sites is the Tana di Badalucco cave [4,5]. It probably owes its name to the original owner of the area [4,5], but the toponym similarity with another cave (Tana Bertrand, in Badalucco) has created many misunderstandings over time [5]. The archaeological finds from different excavations (preserved in several museums in Liguria) include tools, ceramics, and animal and human bones [6,7]. Part of the original deposits survived the different official and unofficial archaeological excavations [7,8,9] and it was in correspondence to these that we sampled eight undisturbed, oriented blocks of sediment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
