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In the hinterland of Trieste the largely prevalent limestone formations are rich in karst phenomena, such as caves, rock shelters, Karrenfeld, pits: the Classical Karst. Two of these phenomena, caves and rock shelters, have long attracted two main categories of researchers: speleologists and archaeologists, in particular prehistorians, who work in basically separate scientific environments. Nevertheless, the analysis of the relationships between these communities, both born and developed since the second half of the 19th century, has revealed that the “barriers” between these two worlds have been more permeable than previously thought, largely thanks to the action of charismatic, open-minded figures present in both fields. We could mention many of these key persons, but they are known essentially within their own discipline, while two are certainly famous also outside: Carlo Marchesetti, archeologist, and Eugenio Boegan, speleologist. The connections between archaeology and speleology have changed through time, due not only to the theoretical, methodological and technical developments in both disciplines, but also to the historical, social and economic transformations of the territory. The combination of all these elements allow to detect the main turning points in the history of the speleo-archaeological research in Karst caves, according to the authors of this reconstruction.

La possibilità che il sale avesse avuto un ruolo importante nelle dinamiche insediative del Carso e dell’Istria (Adriatico nord-orientale) fin dalla tarda preistoria è stata ipotizzata principalmente in base a indicatori indiretti, e non è stata validata finora da interventi di campo mirati. Indicatori indiretti quali l’accertato uso pastorale di parecchie grotte carsiche (pastorizia e sale sono legati dalla necessità di integrare l’alimentazione delle greggi di caprovini); la presenza di un numero alto di oggetti “esotici” in molti siti (oggetti dati / ricevuti in cambio di bestiame e sale?); dati etno-storici: presenza di impianti produttivi / saline sicuramente da epoca romana fino al secolo scorso lungo tutto il litorale (in Istria una salina è tuttora attiva). In età protostorica, alcuni materiali ceramici rinvenuti nel sito lungo costa di Stramare di Muggia e nel castelliere di Elleri sarebbero interpretabili come briquetage, e dunque costituirebbero prove dirette della produzione di sale. Nella letteratura specialistica sul sale sono considerati validi sia gli indicatori diretti sia quelli indiretti: nondimeno, la loro tipologia e l’uso esclusivo piuttosto che integrato degli stessi potrebbero costituire tema di discussione teorico-metodologica. L’individuazione di analisi archeometriche (lato sensu) tali da confermare la presenza / produzione di sale in ambienti idonei anche dal punto di vista geo-ambientale è un altro tema di possibile approfondimento, così come quello della dimensione diacronica del fenomeno sale, evidente dall’importanza che hanno in moltissimi casi i dati etno-storici.

A long-term project has allowed the provenance identification of the main groups of Neolithic and Copper Age stone axes from Caput Adriae. Stone artefacts can indeed be scientifically analysed to detect the geological origin of the raw materials and thus try to recognize ancient exchange networks. This contribution summarizes the lithology, typology, distribution and origin of the main groups of Copper Age shaft-hole axes, using their geological signature, together with other available archaeological indicators of medium- and long-distance connections, to reconstruct the main cultural developments that occurred in the investigated area. The main groups of Copper Age shaft-hole axes - Ljubljana type, serpentinite and metadolerite artefacts - were produced from raw materials outcropping in the Eisenkappler Diabaszug complex (Austria), the Hohe Tauern (Austria) and probably the Banija Ophiolite Complex (Croatia) respectively, all areas rich in copper ore deposits. These data demonstrate that since the 4th millennium BC, the exchange network responsible for the distribution of stone axes in the Caput Adriae changed from long-distance Neolithic connection systems based mainly on Italian jades and eclogites to a more complex one, characterized by a new interest for the eastern Alpine and northern Balkan world. The association of lithic raw materials used for axe production and copper minerals shows that the changes in raw material exploitation strategies between the Neolithic and Copper Age are probably related to the development of the first metallurgy. Archaeological evidence, including the distribution of Ljubljana type stone axes, S. Antonino/Kozarac copper axes, and Vučedol and Ljubljana style pottery, shows that the coastal belt of Caput Adriae, from the Friuli plain to the Istrian peninsula and beyond, was strongly connected with nowadays central Slovenia at least since the last centuries of the 4th millennium BC to the mid 3rd millennium BC.

The Deschmann’s pile-dwellings near Ig (Dežmanova kolišča pri Igu), close to Ljubljana, are probably one of the most famous pile-dwellings of the 3rd millennium BC in the Alpine region: the first excavations were carried out in the 1870s and resumed only c. 90 years later in the same and adjacent areas of the Ljubljana Marshes (Ljubljansko barje). The publication of the materials by J. and P. Korošec in 1969 opened the way to various cultural interpretations, the most recent of which is that by E. Leghissa in 2017: according to her the older phase (28th – 26th century BC), is characterised by pottery of the so-called Ljubljansko barje variant of the Vučedol Culture (redefinition of Phase Ig I after Korošec 1959 and of Late Vučedol period-Vučedol C after Dimitrijević 1979), while the younger one (26th century BC to 25th century BC) has been named Ljubljana Culture (redefinition of Phase Ig II of Korošec 1959 and of Alpine variant of the Ljubljana Culture of Dimitrijević 1979 and of Classical Ljubljana Culture of Govedarica 1989). This study stresses numerous similarities of the Slovenian materials with the pottery of contemporary central European cultures, especially of Somogyvár-Vinkovci and Makó-Kosihy-Čaka cultures, but also with the closer Italian Karst, as indicated already before by other scholars. To check hypotheses based on typological comparisons and try to determine the mechanisms of cultural interactions that connected more or less distant regions, destructive – X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy – and non-destructive analyses – Xray computed microtomography and prompt gamma activation analysis – have been carried out thanks to the collaboration of an interdisciplinary international team. The results obtained so far for the pottery materials attributed to the Ljubljana Culture will be presented at the EAA Conference in Budapest.

The results of a long-term project on the stone axes from Caput Adriae show that jade axes originating in the western Alps reached the Neolithic groups of Friuli Venezia Giulia and coastal Istria as early as the second half of the 6th millennium BC, during the Danilo/Vlaška culture. The exchange of this and other classes of lithic artefacts testifies that in this period this area was fully integrated into long-distance exchange systems that used mainly coastal routes. These systems would have continued in the 5th millennium BC, as indicated by a few oversized jade axe blades and other materials. Far from the coast, jade axes entered central Slovenia, probably reaching sites of the Sava Group of the Lengyel culture in the first half of the 5th millennium BC. In roughly the same period, shafthole axes made of Bohemian metabasites spread over central and south eastern Europe, crossed the Alps and reached Italy. According to different Neolithic traditions, during the 5th millennium BC Europe appears to be divided into a jade-using western area and a central-eastern BM-using one.

The report “Greenstone” shaft-hole axes of NE Italy, Slovenia, Croatia: a new research project presented at the 39th IIPP Scientific Conference dedicated to raw materials and exchanges in Italian prehistory, held in Firenze in 2004, reviewed the situation of the studies on this class of artefacts and presented an agenda for the future. Since then an interdisciplinary team has worked mainly on the following research lines: archaeometric analyses of artefacts – shaft-hole axes and axe blades, for programmatic reasons – found in different sites of Caput Adriae, field surveys, sampling and analyses of geological formations, planned to identify the origin of the different raw materials used to make tools different in typology and, presumably, chronology. This goal has been achieved and the significant increase in data has been used to try to reconstruct the connections and the mechanisms of exchange active from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Bronze Age. The results of the long-term project are synthesized in this paper, which also evaluates their impact on the broader cultural panorama of late prehistory.

The eastern Adriatic coast and the Caput Adriae lie along one of the main route of the spread of farming into Europe. The studied area covers Dalmatia, Istria, Karst and Friuli which present varied environmental and geomorphological peculiarities. In recent time, researches have disclosed a complex archaeological picture of Neolithic communities well adapted to different local environments. This area is also significant for the understanding of contacts and interactions between the Mediterranean world and the continental regions during the full development of the Neolithic and in the subsequent prehistoric phases. Nevertheless, only in Dalmatia long and relatively detailed pottery sequences offer a reliable cultural and chronological framework of the Neolithic in several phases between 6000 and ca 4000 BC. Full Neolithic evidence is occasionally attested here and there in Istria and Karst regions, while it is known in the western margin of Friulian plain. The Eneolithic evidence is instead not yet full attested; its recognition rests in fact almost entirely on certain stylistic traits of pottery and the first appearance of copper objects as isolated artefacts. The paper presents an outline of the emergence of Neolithic communities and their economic and social transformations between the sixth and the third millennium BC.

The (early) middle Neolithic of the Trieste Karst, known as Vlaška Group or Neolitico dei vasi a coppa, has been analysed, mainly since the 1960s onwards, by different scholars who have given often divergent interpretations. The systematic revisions of the materials from many cave deposits that had remained largely unpublished till the early 1990s have increased the data set, allowing to better define the main components of this facies. Geo-sedimentological and archaeometrical analyses carried out in the same years have contributed to connect the material culture to the presence of shepherds who visited the Karst coming from both close and more or less distant areas.

A distanza di quindici anni dalla prima raccolta sistematica di dati sui reperti preistorici/protostorici in “pietra verde” – lame d’ascia, asce forate e altri manufatti in pietra levigata – provenienti da siti del Carso triestino è stata fatta una nuova revisione, presentata analiticamente in questa sede. Il riesame è stato considerato utile anche perché un progetto interdisciplinare avviato a seguito dei primi studi sulla “pietra verde” ha portato a risultati di grande interesse soprattutto su caratterizzazione e provenienza dei vari tipi di roccia usati, e conseguentemente sui contatti culturali che i diversi luoghi di origine possono suggerire.

The prehistoric and protohistoric materials found in grotta Gialla (VG 932 / FVG 467) in the 1954-62 excavations carried out by Benno Benussi and the Commissione Grotte “Eugenio Boegan” remained unpublished – apart from a preliminary, descriptive communication by Benussi – till few years ago, when P. Egidi made all the drawings that are presented here with some critical comments. The most interesting observation is that the revision would confirm the hypothesis made in the past by Benussi on a rather discontinuous use of the cave for different purposes, still open to debate.

Il testo spiega le premesse teoriche e sintetizza i risultati di recenti studi territoriali condotti in Friuli Venezia Giulia - a carattere diacronico, dalla preistoria al medioevo, e interdisciplinare - che costituiscono la base del progetto in corso di realizzazione "Cartografia su immagini telerilevate ad alta risoluzione spaziale. Utilizzo e comparazione di strumenti eterogenei per la rilevazione di dettaglio per siti archeologici".

La possibilità che il sale avesse avuto un ruolo importante nelle dinamiche insediative del Carso e dell’Istria (Adriatico nord-orientale) fin dalla tarda preistoria è stata ipotizzata principalmente in base a indicatori indiretti, e non è stata validata finora da interventi di campo mirati. Indicatori indiretti quali l’accertato uso pastorale di parecchie grotte carsiche (pastorizia e sale sono legati dalla necessità di integrare l’alimentazione delle greggi di caprovini); la presenza di un numero alto di oggetti “esotici” in molti siti (oggetti dati / ricevuti in cambio di bestiame e sale?); dati etno-storici: presenza di impianti produttivi / saline sicuramente da epoca romana fino al secolo scorso lungo tutto il litorale (in Istria una salina è tuttora attiva). In età protostorica, alcuni materiali ceramici rinvenuti nel sito lungo costa di Stramare di Muggia e nel castelliere di Elleri sarebbero interpretabili come briquetage, e dunque costituirebbero prove dirette della produzione di sale. Nella letteratura specialistica sul sale sono considerati validi sia gli indicatori diretti sia quelli indiretti: nondimeno, la loro tipologia e l’uso esclusivo piuttosto che integrato degli stessi potrebbero costituire tema di discussione teorico-metodologica. L’individuazione di analisi archeometriche (lato sensu) tali da confermare la presenza / produzione di sale in ambienti idonei anche dal punto di vista geo-ambientale è un altro tema di possibile approfondimento (il team interdisciplinare UniTs-ICTP prevede di affrontare la questione a partire dal 2015). Da ultimo, sarebbe interessante sviluppare la dimensione diacronica del fenomeno sale, evidente dall’importanza che hanno in moltissimi casi i dati etno-storici.

In the Italian part of the Classical Karst (Venezia Giulia, north-eastern Italy) caves are the only sites with evidence of the human presence till the beginning of the Bronze Age: the strict connection between speleology and archaeology is consequently obvious, though often underestimated. The aim of this paper is to piece together the history of research since 1950 through the analysis of this relationship, which was particularly effective in the 1960-70s ca., i.e. the period of most intensive, often joint excavations, preceded by a decade of only speleological activities. Later on diggings decrease and studies increase: previous findings are examined in detail, georeferenced databases are created, and new interdisciplinary research, largely based on advanced archaeometrical techniques, is carried out.

In this study we show the result of a study concerning approximately forty axes, mainly discovered in the Copper Age pile dwellings of Ljubljansko barje (central Slovenia) and in the neighbouring areas of Caput Adriae. The studied shaft-hole axes, characterized by homogeneous typology but slightly different raw materials, have been called Ljubljana type axes (Lt). The raw materials show metamorphic and spilitization features which recall oceanic conditions and geochemistry indicates a common OIB-like signature. The typological and geochemical characteristics and the very high percentage of Lt axes among the polished stone axes assemblages of Ljubljansko barje suggest that the raw material was probably gathered from one or more relatively small outcrops close to Ljubljansko barje. Similar igneous rock-types outcrop in the presumably Palaeozoic diabase/shale complex (Eisenkappler Diabaszug), intruded by the northern Karawanken plutonic belt. A probable provenance from this area, particularly rich in copper ore deposit, would confirm the important role of Ljubljansko barje as a metallurgical district, as well as a strong relation between lithic raw materials and Cu cultivation districts during the Copper age.

Scheda analitica di uno dei siti del Carso Classico (Italia e Slovenia) indagati da Raffaello Battaglia (e Eugenio Neumann) nella prima metà del XX secolo.

L'articolo costituisce la sintesi degli interventi presentati nel volume, con un approfondimento sulle tematiche di storia degli studi e sulla rilevanza dell'apporto di Raffaello Battaglia alle conoscenze relative alla preistoria e protostoria del Carso Classico (Italia nord-orientale).

Da oltre un secolo è noto in ambiente speleologico, geologico, archeologico che il Carso triestino è un’area ad alta concentrazione di grotte, molte delle quali – 165 stando ai dati dell’Archivio Storico della Società Alpina delle Giulie – con tracce della presenza umana in antico. Le grotte hanno catalizzato l’interesse sia di ricercatori professionisti, sia di appassionati o curiosi, e questo ha comportato il susseguirsi dagli ultimi decenni dell’800 ad oggi di moltissimi interventi di scavo, sistematici e non, che hanno dato una quantità ingente di materiali rimasti largamente inediti. Al fine di recuperare e organizzare la documentazione presente in letteratura e negli archivi, e di contestualizzare le tracce dell’uomo nell’ambiente naturale, in primis nelle singole grotte, una decina di anni fa si è avviato un progetto interdisciplinare che ha coinvolto specialisti di discipline diverse dell’Università degli Studi di Trieste nella costruzione di una banca dati geo-archeologica denominata Catasto Ragionato Informatico delle Grotte Archeologiche – C.R.I.G.A. Al di là della possibilità di soddisfare gli obiettivi originari di ricerca scientifica, il C.R.I.G.A. ha grandi potenzialità anche a fini di didattica, divulgazione, tutela delle grotte e pianificazione degli interventi sul territorio. In considerazione di questi aspetti, il database è stato reso accessibile a chiunque, all’indirizzo web www. units.it/criga. Nel presente contributo si presentano brevemente la storia del C.R.I.G.A., la situazione attuale e le prospettive future. For more than a century, it is well known in speleological, geological and archaeological fields that the Karst Plateau is an area with a high concentration of caves, many of which – 165 according to data from the Historical Archive of the Julian Alpine Society – contain traces of ancient human presence. The caves have attracted the interest of both professional researchers and curious enthusiasts, resulting in a succession of excavation work, systematic and non-systematic, from the last decades of the 1800s up until today, which has produced a large quantity of material that has remained for the most part unpublished. In order to retrieve and organize the documentation found in literature and archives, and to contextualize the traces of mankind in the natural environment, primarily in the single caves, a decade or so ago an interdisciplinary program was started up involving specialists in various fields from the University of Trieste in the creation of geo-archaeological database called the Computerized Cadastre of Archaeological Caves (CRIGA – Catasto Ragionato Informatico delle Grotte Archeologiche). Aside from the possibility to meet the original objectives of scientific research, CRIGA also has great potential for teaching, promotion, cave protection and the planning of operations in the area. In view of these aspects, the database has been made accessible by the general public, at the web address www. units.it/criga. This contribution provides a brief history of CRIGA, its actual situation and its future prospects.

Introduzione generale al volume che presenta il catalogo e lo studio critico dei materiali provenienti da cavità del Carso Classico (Italia e Slovenia) indagate da Raffaello Battaglia (e Eugenio Neumann) nella prima metà del XX secolo, la biografia di Battaglia e la storia della Collezione Paletnologica dell'Università di Padova, dove sono attualmente depositati i reperti.

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Cet article représente le premier essai de raccorder les études que dès 1990 environ ont regardé la partie plus orientale de l’Italie du nord, en particulier le Karst Classique, les Préalpes Julien et Carniques, les Alpes Julien, Carniques et de Tolmezzo. Les différences physiographiques et de l’histoire de la recherche rendent très difficile la reconstruction de l’évolution culturelle dans la préhistoire récente; néanmoins, il y a des données qui pourraient lier les différents territoires, c'est-à-dire la circulation des matériaux exotiques, l’économie pastorale et la viabilité.

Here we show the results of a study concerning a small group of shaft-hole axes found in northeastern Italy, made from amphibole-rich metabasites, fine-grained and free of phenoblasts. The main mineral phases are amphibole, ranging from actinolite to hornblende, and plagioclase (An10–15 and An70–77). The amphiboles generally show a needle shape and are often radially arranged. Quartz is present in thin veinlets, while ilmenite is widespread in small patches. The petrographic and geochemical features suggest that the axes originate from the southern thermal aureole of Tanvald granite in northern Bohemia. In accordance with this provenance, the typology of the tools shows similarities with the perforated shoe-last axes spread across Central Europe during the fifth millennium BC and made from similar raw material. For the first time, these axes give evidence of long-distance (about 800 km) contacts between northeastern Italy and Central Europe during the Neolithic.

The change of raw materials used to produce stone axes during the Neolithic to Copper Age transition in northeastern Italy, central and western Slovenia and northwestern Croatia (Caput Adriae) has been recently linked to the development of early European metallurgy. Serpentinite shaft-hole axes occur commonly in the archaeological context of this region and their rounded irregular shape suggests that the raw material was mainly sourced from secondary deposits. The aim of the present study is to characterize with multiple analytical methods, including synchrotron radiation, the axes and locate the primary outcrop(s) of raw materials and related secondary exploitation areas. All the analysed artefacts are manufactured from peridotites and probably pyroxenites completely metamorphosed in greenschist facies and characterized by antigorite, diopside and magnetite, sometimes rimmed by penninite. Mineralogical and petrographic data exclude most Eastern Alps outcrops as possible raw material sources, thus limiting the research to the Hohe Tauern. Chemical data reveal a close homogeneity for the peridotite-derived axes and therefore demonstrate a selection of the most suitable raw material for axe production. Provenance from Hohe Tauern and related secondary deposits of the Drava River hydrographical system agrees with previous studies, as this region is rich in copper ore deposits, which have been exploited since prehistory.

We present results of archaeometrical research of almost 50 stone tools – mostly flat and shaft-hole axes – originating from the bed of the Ljubljanica and several sites of Ljubljansko barje, including Stare gmajne, dating to the second half of the 4th millennium BC. The majority of finds shows exploitation of local raw materials. Tuffs and tuffites, which occur in the area of northern Slovenia and in gravel deposits of the Sava not far from the Barje, can be found among them. The assemblage also includes a group of tools made of imported rocks, such as flat axes made of HP metaophiolites from north-western Italy, shaft-hole axes made of serpentinites and metaultramafites, which respectively are likely to originate from central Austria and from a still unknown area, probably located more to the East. These finds indicate that the Ljubljansko barje played a key role as a mediation place between the Po lowland and the Danubian area and between the Eastern Alps and the Balkans in the 4th

A group of Copper Age shaft-hole axes from Caput Adriae (northeastern Italy, western Slovenia and northwestern Croatia) manufactured using meta-dolerite have been analysed for major and trace elements. All the samples show magmatic textures and well recognizable relicts of primary mineralogical phases. Petrographic observations suggest an ophiolitic provenance of the protolithic source(s) while geochemical data indicate that the original magmas originated in a fore arc or pre arc tectonic setting. Strong similarity has been found with several lithotypes from the Banija Ophiolite Complex (Croatia), here indicated as the most probable source area. Considering the available archaeometric data about shaft-hole axes found in northern Italy and Caput Adriae in comparison to those of axe blades discovered in the same area, it emerges that there is a utilization of different rock types, the source of which appears to be quite close to the discovery sites. In the investigated area the shaft-hole axes are largely made from ophiolitic-related rocks which are associated with copper deposits. Consequently there may have been a relation between the localization of the geological sources of shaft-hole axes and the development of metallurgical activities.

An archaeometric study of the prehistoric polished stone tools from the Ljubljanica River (Slovenia).The archaeometric analysis of 31 polished stone tools from the Ljubljanica River near the site of Hočevarica ispresented in this article. Amongst 20 axe blades, massive sub-rectangular specimens obtained mainly from localpyroclastic rocks are the most abundant. One small triangular piece is made from jade from northwestern Italy. Fourof 7 shaft-holed axes are obtained from serpentinite whose probable origin is to be sought in the Hohe Tauern area(central Austria).

Studio nell'ambito del Progetto Interreg "Tra Natisone e Isonzo: storia e archeologia di un territorio". In collana 'Studi e ricerche sulla Gallia Cisalpina'.

Il contributo introduce le principali tematiche che stanno alla base dell'evoluzione dell'archeologia moderna e strutturano la relazione imprescindibile fra componente teorica e attività pratica. La discussione delle definizioni di archeologia, in sé e in rapporto ad altre discipline scientifiche, e del concetto di teoria vs. teoria archeologica introduce una sintetica storia degli studi, che si focalizza in particolare su New Archaeology, post-processualismo e Interpretive Archaeologies e sui rapporti di conflittualità e complementarità di queste correnti di pensiero. Da ultimo viene dato spazio a uno dei temi di più recente dibattito in archeologia, quello riguardante il rapporto fra ricerca scientifica e impegno civile.