Sunday, August 19, 2018

Arma Veirana


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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1 comment:

  1. So cool! It looks like a gorgeous place. You are very good as describing landscapes and scene scapes!!!! Just add what it smells like lol and I feel like I was there!

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