Multiproxy study of 7500-year-old wooden sickles from the Lakeshore Village of La Marmotta, Italy

Abstract

The lakeshore site of La Marmotta is one of the most important Early Neolithic sites of Mediterranean Europe. The site is famous for the exceptional preservation of organic materials, including numerous wooden artefacts related to navigation, agriculture, textile production, and basketry. This article presents interdisciplinary research on three of the most complete and well-preserved sickles recovered from the site, yet unpublished. All the components of the tools are analysed: the stone inserts, the wooden haft and the adhesive substances used to fix the stones inside the haft. Our innovative methodology combines use-wear and microtexture analysis of stone tools through confocal microscopy, taxonomical and technological analysis of wood, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of the adhesive substances, and pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, and phytolith analysis of the remains incorporated within the adhesive. This multiproxy approach provides a significant insight into the life of these tools, from their production to their use and abandonment, providing evidence of the species of harvested plants and the conditions of the field during the harvesting.

Textiles, basketry and cordage from the Early Neolithic settlement of La Marmotta, Lazio

“…Three phases or levels have been defined, dating to between c . 7700 and 7150 BP, encompassing the Italian Early Neolithic (Mazzucco et al 2022). Level II, corresponding to the foundation of the settlement, is characterised by the presence of Impressed Ware pottery and smaller quantities of incised ware associated with painted ware.…”

“…The provenances of some of the raw materials recovered from the site demonstrate that the La Marmotta community participated in extensive and complex exchange networks with populations hundreds of kilometres away. Examples include flint from the Gargano promontory (Mazzucco et al 2022) in the Foggia region of south-eastern Italy, obsidian from the Palmarola and Lipari Islands, and Alpine stone used to make axes and adzes (D'Amico 2000).…”

The Neolithic site “La Marmotta”: DNA metabarcoding to identify the microbial deterioration of waterlogged archeological wood

“…The site dates to ca. 5,700 BC and is one of the most important Early Neolithic sites of the Mediterranean, being acknowledged for the exceptional conservation of organic materials ( Mazzucco et al, 2022 ).…”

Absolutely dating the European Neolithic through a rapid 14C excursion

“…Of these, the two most recently discovered events are in the first half of the Holocene -7176 BC and 5259 BC 17 -offering for the first time the possibility for absolute annual dating of wood from the European Neolithic and Mesolithic using annual 14 C measurements. In temperate climates archaeological wood, and organic materials in general, can be preserved only in very stable conditions -such as constant low-oxygen waterlogged sediments at wetland archaeological sites [27][28][29] . While excavated wetland sites are very numerous and often excavated in Central Europe, several wetland sites have also been found and excavated in Southeastern Europe, notably in the south-western part of the Balkans [30][31][32][33][34][35][36] .…”