The Neolithic greenstone industry from Valgrana/Tetto Chiappello (Cuneo Province, Northwestern Italy); A combined archaeometric and archaeological study

Abstract

The greenstone industry of Valgrana/Tetto Chiappello was studied with an archaeo-typological and mineral/petrographic approach (functional study, XRPD, polarized light microscopy and SEM-EDS), to infer the provenance of the raw materials and the role of this site in the general greenstone circulation during Neolithic. Most artifacts (mainly cutting-edge tools) are made of sensu stricto greenstones (≈ 80%), especially mixed Na-pyroxenite and eclogite in roughly equal amounts. The abundance of roughouts and broken tools, with evident use-wear traces, suggests that these implements were possibly used even before (or sometimes without) pre-shaping. Based on mineralogical and morphological ‘markers’, a dual mechanism of raw materials supplying was hypothesized for Valgrana: most tools were retrieved from the closer areas of the southern Monviso ‘massif’ (few dozens of km far, as the crow flies), though a subordinate supply channel was probably represented by commercial trades with other settlements, thus allowing the stocking of raw materials and/or artifacts also from the more distant Voltri ‘massif’ (70-to-80 km far). For what concerns the provisioning mode, a ‘secondary high-ground supplying’ mainly operated in Valgrana, according to which the raw materials were retrieved from greenstone boulders dismantled by erosion and rolled down along the Monviso ‘massif’ mountainsides; however, it cannot be excluded that direct extraction from primary outcrops may also have occurred. In the operative chain, Valgrana can be identified as a subordinate sedentary ‘satellite site’, in which specialized workers took care of raw materials gathering and preliminary tool processing – to be continued and concluded elsewhere.