Photo credit: J. Hodgkins
Erli, Italy
August 4th, 2018
The drive is amazing, steep cliffs and dense brush, sharp
mountains edging the skyline. We park on a narrow road, the edge of a cliff,
surrounded by the pastel hues of the commune, and the vibrant shades of vegetation.
Our hike begins on the gravel roads connecting multi-storied houses with the
fields, descending the mountain. Soon we enter a thickly forested area, hugging
the slopes as we navigate the rocky trail, a mix of pine and deciduous trees
around us. The path is carpeted alternatively with leaves and strands of
yellowed grass. At the base of the slope, a narrow wooden bridge spans a
rushing stream. It’s easy to pause here, before beginning the climb, and imagine
the shifting landscape of the past hundred thousand years. Rewind the clock, and
discover the depth of human occupation: from narrow stone streets of medieval villages,
to the roman expansions, and stretching into prehistoric times. Little is known of
this earliest era, and our team has been tasked with investigating some of the
earliest human occupations of the Arma Veirana cave. 
Once across the stream, we begin the climb to the cave,
skirting boulders, ducking under trees and scrambling up to the cliff face. The
last part is the steepest, switchbacks winding through trees and rock. The cave
is sheltered by massive boulders, hiding us from casual glance. Inside, thick
deposits of sediment fill the cave. Two trenches stretch across the front,
surrounded by lights. The walls rise, meeting in a peak high above. Lines of
speleothyms trace their way down the walls.
The earliest layers of the site contain evidence of
Neanderthal occupation (Mousterian), followed by a period where homo sapiens
moved in (late Epigravattian). Two pits bracketing the lower trench are
remnants of looting, now connected by more-professionally excavated squares.
Above them, another stepped trench bisects a washed slope. It is the open area
at the top which holds everyone’s fascination: the recently discovered burial,
one of three infant burials dated to this period, and the first to be
discovered in the last fifty years. Each day brings exciting discoveries:
fragments of bone, and grave goods in the form of pierced shells. This is amazing,
because the bones can tell us more about the biological factors (how people
lived and died, their health and diet), while the grave goods provide clues as
to the social and cultural contexts surrounding members of the society and
perceptions of life and death. Infant bones, incomplete and with softer
components than adults, are less likely to survive the effects of thousands of
years than would the bones of an adult, making this doubly exciting. 
The dense Mousterian layers offer a variety of artifacts:
lithics, bone, charcoal. We hope that analysis of this site can provide a
glimpse into the Neanderthal culture and the habitat they navigated, shortly
before their extinction. Other sediments lack the dense debris, suggesting an
open site used by a variety of animals, including fearsome cave bears.
Cave bear incisor
Like all archaeology projects, the work contains two components:
excavation and lab work. Our lab is held in the nearby village of Erli. Every day,
we hike down a mossy trail on the of slopes Erli, meandering past houses and
terraced fields. Adjacent to the church is a smaller two-story building resting
on the edge of a cliff. The sheer walls border the parking lot, overlooking the
valley. Our lab crew gathers bagged sediment, lining it up next to the heavy
iron fence. Everything must be sieved, to collect any artifacts which ended up
in the buckets. Our sieve is affixed to the outside of the fence, hovering over
a twenty-foot drop. This is a convenient way to rid ourselves of the sediments,
the water revealing smaller finds which were hidden by thick dirt. With the
start of season, our first task is to sieve all the “cleaning” buckets, loose
sediments brushed from the top of the previously excavated surface. Amazing
finds come out of these buckets, unfortunately, they have fallen from higher
locations in site and have lost all context. 
sorting sieved finds
When the finds are cleaned and dried, we move them inside
the lab and spread them out on trays. Everything is then sorted into type: bone
in one pile, lithics in another. These can then be cataloged and given to the
experts. All the plotted finds are also washed and cataloged, creating a
database which allows us to locate any artifact and its identification quickly.
artifacts waiting to be cataloged
As the weeks slip by, the work ratchets up. The site is a
collaborative effort, with researchers and students from universities in Italy,
Germany, Canada, and the USA. We removed kilos of dirt, carefully from around
the burial, and quickly in the more sterile layers. It is only the last week,
the last day of excavation when the burial is finished. The next few days are a
rush, to catalog the remaining finds and pack the lab, ensuring that
everything is ready for transport to the nearby University of Genoa. With the
end of summer, our excavations have ceased, but analysis will continue over the
course of the year. Hopefully, we will soon understand more about the complex history of Arma Veirana.
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