Page 3 - Antonioli_Merizzi_2016
P. 3

“GeoSUB – Underwater geology” – Ustica, 13-17 September 2016


            THE  GROTTA  DEL  TUONO  (MARETTIMO  ISLAND)  FOSSIL  DEPOSIT  AND  NEW
            HYPOTESIS OF NAVIGATION

                                             4
                                                          5
                                    3
                         2
            1 Antonioli F.,  Merizzi J.,  Tusa S.,  Lo Presti V.,  Quarta G.,  Calcagnile L.
                                                                     5
            1 ENEA, Casaccia, Laboratory climate modelling and impact, Roma
            2 Alpine Guide
            3 Soprintendenza del Mare, Regione Sicilia, Palermo, Italy
            4 Department of Earth Sciences, University “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
            5 Centre for Dating and Diagnostics (CEDAD), Department of Mathematics and Physics-University of Salento,
            Lecce, Italy

               We  sampled  and  studied  a  30  meters  above  sea  level  fossil  deposit  in  the  Tuono  cave  (SE  coast  of
            Marettimo, Egadi, Sicily). The outcrop (partially eroded) consists of reddish coarse sands not well cemented
            containing  some  bones  and  a  deer  jaw  with  many  teeth  in  excellent  condition  (Fig  X).  The  fossils  are
            protruding  from  the  sand  because  the  outcrop  is  eroded  at  the  bottom  of  the  cave  by  the  sea.  The
            fossiliferous sand contains also some Patella Cerulea shells, the fossiliferous sand are on the roof of a well-
            cemented continental breccia that, in our reconstruction, filled the cave when the sea level was lower than
            today. As regards the results we provide a radiocarbon age to the Patellae and a tooth the analyses gave the
            same age: about 8.6 ka cal BP (late Mesolithic). At the light of the importance of these ages we aged (with a
            different 14C method, using the collagen) a second tooth. But the age was older. We are now discussing the
            reasons for this and we will provide a new age on last sample. We have interpreted the Patellae shells as a
            food remain together with the deer tooth, and this would imply an important and novel interpretation for
            the history of seafaring that for the Mediterranean sea seems to have started with the Neolithic (Mannino
            et al 2015).
























             Fig 1: Climbing for study the sample on the Grotta del Tuono at Marettimo and the deer teeths (red arrow).


            References

            MANNINO  M.A.  (2015).  The  question  of  voyaging  by  foragers  who  lived  in  the  central
            Mediterranean. Eurasian Prehistory, 11 (1–2): 165–184.








                                                           17
   1   2   3