Microstratigraphic Records as Tools for the Detection of Climatic Changes in Tana di Badalucco Cave (Liguria, NW Italy)

Abstract

Tana di Badalucco cave is located in Imperia (Liguria, Italy), not far from the French border. This site is scarcely known and it has never been studied accurately, even though different archaeological excavations have returned really important elements, both in the archaeological and the paleoenvironmental aspects. Its stratigraphy ranges from Middle Paleolithic to Metal Ages, thus it has registered important climate and environmental variations specific to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene. From 2012, the Soprintendenza Archeologia della Liguria, the Museo di Archeologia Ligure, and DiSTAV (University of Genova) have been collaborating in order to finally study this promising and complex stratigraphy, trying to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental context of the region. In this work, we present what we were able to assess thanks to the use of micromorphology, the study of undisturbed thin soil sections. This technique has proven useful in recognizing the alternating of cold and warmer conditions during the Quaternary, as well as in identifying primitive signs of human and animal occupation.

Geoarchaeology: A Review of Case Studies in the Mediterranean Sea

“…At the same time, the settlement strongly influenced the evolution of this sector in both medieval and recent times. Sessa et al [6] provide a data set on the micro-stratigraphical reconstruction of the scarcely known site of Tana di Badalucco cave, located in Imperia (Liguria, NW Italy), not far from the French border. Its stratigraphy ranges from Middle Paleolithic to Metal Ages, and thus it has registered important climate and environmental variations specific to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene periods.…”