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Il Mitreo del Circo Massimo fu messo in luce negli anni ’30 durante i lavori di adattamento dell’ex pastificio Pantanella a magazzino del Reale Teatro dell’Opera. In occasione della perforazione eseguita nel 1931 per l’approfondimento dei piloni che sostengono il fabbricato si rinvenne un contesto ceramico costituito da alcuni fondi di vasi in terracotta chiara, verniciati internamente di nero con iscrizioni sul fondo riferibili ad Hercules, una serie di coppette votive, un paio di fondi di vasi in terracotta verniciata con impressa nell’argilla la clava di Ercole e altri frammenti ceramici di vario tipo, fra i quali se ne segnala uno sul quale è riportato, nel centro, un profilo femminile.

Quello del risveglio di Arianna a Nasso e quindi della scoperta della nave di Teseo che si allontana è tema esclusivamente attestato dal repertorio pittorico romano in età neroniano-vespasianea: le numerose immagini rappresentano tutte Arianna desta seduta a terra, una mano portata alla bocca o ad asciugare le lacrime, o ancora a sollevare un lembo della veste all’altezza della spalla; assieme a lei è un erote e la nave è ben visibile nello scorcio di mare; talora compaiono altri personaggi, osservatori o personificazioni, e in due casi Dioniso col suo tiaso. I quadri sono già stati oggetto di acceso dibattito tra chi, come Helbig e Diepolder, ha riconosciuto nei quadri repliche di un originale ellenistico e chi, invece, come Franca Parise Badoni ha sostenuto un’origine romana delle immagini, più precisamente campana. Il contributo analizza i meccanismi di trasmissione di questa iconografia attraverso le attestazioni note per il mondo greco, magnogreco e romano. The theme of Arianna waking up at Naxos and of her discovery of Theseus’ ship leaving is exclusively attested in the Roman painting of the age of Nero and Vespasian: usually these depictions represent Arianna awake sitting on the ground, a hand brought to her mouth or to her eyes to wipe away tears, or to raise a hem of her dress; together with her is represented an erote and the ship is clearly visible in the background; sometimes other characters appear, bystanders or personifications, and in two cases Dionysus with his thiasus. The paintings have already been the subject of heated debate between those who, like Helbig and Diepolder, consider them replicas of a Hellenistic original and those who, on the other hand, like Franca Parise Badoni claimed a Roman origin of the images, more precisely from Campania. The contribution analyzes the transmission mechanisms of this iconography through its attestations in Greece, Magna Graecia and the Roman world.

Il progetto presentato in questo volume è nato da un accordo di convenzione con la Sovrintendenza Capitolina per i Beni Culturali e di collaborazione con l’Università di Venezia - Ca’ Foscari e il Politecnico di Milano ed è stato sostenuto da un Finanziamento per la Ricerca di Ateneo (FRA 2016) che ha visto coinvolti il Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e il Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura, con l’obiettivo di costruire le basi per restituire il Mitreo del Circo Massimo alla visibilità attraverso l’analisi storica e archeologica del monumento, del suo apparato decorativo e delle sue funzioni.

The ongoing LiMPH project (MSCA-IF n. 886476) is aimed at studying how final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups exploited mountain areas starting from the rich evidence of the South-Eastern Alps, one of the European sectors with the highest density of sites referable to these periods. For this purpose, the lithic assemblages of some reference sites located along the main valley bottoms and in the Dolomitic uplands are being studied following a traceological approach. Micro-wear traces and residues testify to numerous transformation activities being carried out at the sites, including both vegetal and animal material working. Along with these, consistent evidence regarding the way lithic raw materials were brought to the upland sites and exploited was identified. This kind of wear, although often overlooked, has a high informative potential for understanding raw material management strategies particularly in remote areas such as the Alpine highlands. In this paper, the data yielded by the open-air site of Casera Staulanza (1681 m asl) and by the grave goods associated to the Late Mesolithic burial of Mondeval de Sora (2130 m asl) will be presented. Thesehighlight significant changes in the way lithic raw materials were brought to the same Dolomitic upland sector between the Final Palaeolithic (Early Epigravettian), Early Mesolithic (Sauveterrian) and Late Mesolithic (Castelnovian). Keywords: Late Palaeolithic; Mesolithic; Alpine uplands; transport wear.

Antichistica

This contribution aims to provide an updated and concise overview of the main events and developments characterising the interaction between human communities and their environment in Lombardy (Northern Italy) between the Middle Paleolithic and the Late Iron Age (60,000 to 2,100 years cal BP). Within the above defined geographic and chronological context, our main goal is to highlight and summarise the role of natural factors in the development of human history, both over the long durée and within defined periods. We provide a short history of the ecosystems and socio-ecological systems in Lombardy, for which – thanks to the contribution of several research groups and scholars active in the region – we analyse specific key issues. These analyses are facilitated by chronostratigraphic tables and GIS-based cartography, and introduced by an overview of the climatic changes that affected Alpine and Po Plain landscapes across the Last Glaciation and subsequent Late Glacial times, up to the shortlasting events which influenced the development of Holocene civilisations. The structure and significance of the issues introduced in the overview will be discussed by individual research groups working within this study area

Early Holocene hunter-gatherer settlements are spread throughout Italy and testify to the exploitation of very different landscapes. Nonetheless, their preservation state is not always exceptional. This is not the case for Contrada Pace, an archaeological site recently discovered on a terrace of the Chienti river in central-eastern Italy. This paper reports on the geomorphological, pedo-stratigraphic, and archaeological record of one of the most complete and well-preserved Early Mesolithic open-air sites in Italy and southern Europe. Micro-stratigraphic excavations extended over more than 500 square meters have exposed a buried paleosol with anthropogenic features, which contained thousand lithic artefacts and organic remains framed in the context of a primary forest. These findings appear clustered in different functional areas that yielded multiple structured features. The field evidence integrated by radiocarbon dating and archaeobotanical, archaeomalacological and zooarchaeological data allowed to propose a first interpretation of the general structure of the site and the most significant features, The archaeological excavation of the site was carried out by ArcheoLAB (Macerata, Italy) in the framework of construction activities promoted by the Province of Macerata and the Municipality of Tolentino. DV has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement number: 886476 - LiMPH - H2020-MSCA-IF-2019). The archaeobotanical study and 14C dates were funded by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the Research and Innovation program of the European Community Horizon 2020 (HIDDEN FOODS no.639286 to EC).

Objectives: The analysis of prehistoric human dietary habits is key for understanding the effects of paleoenvironmental changes on the evolution of cultural and social human behaviors. In this study, we compare results from zooarchaeological, stable isotope and dental calculus analyses as well as lower second molar macrowear patterns to gain a broader understanding of the diet of three individuals who lived between the end of the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene (ca., 17���8 ky cal BP) in the Eastern Alpine region of Italy. Materials and methods: We analyze individuals buried at the sites of Riparo Tagliente (Verona), Riparo Villabruna, and Mondeval de Sora (Belluno). The three burials provide a unique dataset for diachronically exploring the influence of climatic changes on human subsistence strategies. Results: Isotopic results indicate that all individuals likely relied on both terrestrial and freshwater animal proteins. Even though dental calculus analysis was, in part, hindered by the amount of mineral deposit available on the teeth, tooth macrowear study suggests that the dietary habits of the individuals included plant foods. Moreover, differences in macrowear patterns of lower second molars have been documented between Neanderthals and modern humans in the present sample, due to a prevalence of Buccal wear among the former as opposed to higher values of Lingual wear in modern human teeth. Discussion: Isotopic analyses have emphasized the contribution of animal proteins in the diet of the three foragers from the Eastern Alpine region. The possible intake of carbohydrate-rich plant foods, suggested by the retrieval of plant remains in dental calculus, is supported by the signal of macrowear analysis. Moreover, the latter method indicates that the distribution of macrowear in lower second molars (M2s) allows us to discriminate between Neanderthals and modern humans within the present reference sample. Overall, our results show these three prehistoric huntergatherers were well adapted to the environment in which they lived exploiting many natural resources.

ITA-Dal 1988 ad oggi l’Università degli Studi di Trieste ha effettuato, su concessione della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Friuli Venezia Giulia, scavi archeologici didattici in quattro contesti della città antica. Il contributo presenta, nello specifico, le attività didattiche e divulgative organizzate nel corso delle campagne di scavo. ENG-From 1988 onwards four areas of Aquileia have been the object of an archaeological investigation undertaken by the University of Trieste under concession from the Archaeological Superintendency of Friuli Venezia Giulia. This paper presents, specifically, the educational and dissemination activities organized during the excavations.

Lithic armatures are among the elements with the highest morphological variability in Late Palaeolithic techno-complexes. As suggested by several ethnographic studies, this seems to be related to two main factors: the hunting techniques and their role as markers of ethnic and personal identities. For this reason, they have often been used as key elements to identify distinct socio-cultural traditions through time and space. Increasing our knowledge on these instruments, which for many decades have been analysed through a mere typological approach, might allow highlighting similarities and divergences across a specific territory in a diachronic and spatial perspective. In order to face this issue, we present a comparison between the armature assemblages from layers dated to the Late Glacial of two Southern European sites. Riparo Tagliente (VR, Italy) covers the span between the last part of GS-2 and the first half of GI-l (from 17,219-16,687 cal BP to 14,535-13,472 cal BP) while the sequence of Troubat (Hautes Pyr´en´ees, Fr) is dated between the last part of GS-2 (17,770-16,981 cal BP) and the GS-1 (12,115-11,766 cal BP). Thanks to a morpho-scopic analysis focused on blanks selection, backing methods and retouch techniques it was possible to identify several analogies and differences between these sites. If on one side armatures are clearly different from a morpho-typological viewpoint, the technical solutions adopted to produce them show some similarities during the time span analysed, i.e. between the Late Epigravettian sequence of Riparo Tagliente and the Middle-Upper Magdalenian-Late Azilian sequence of Troubat.