New research perspectives on the lithic industry of Casal de’ Pazzi forty years after the sites’s discovery

Abstract

More than 40 years after the discovery of the Paleolithic open-air site of Casal De Pazzi (Rome, Italy), and about 35 years after the pioneering study of the lithic industry found at the site, the 2022 conference held in Rome [40 Years of Casal de’ Pazzi in the framework of Pleistocene archeo-paleontological sites (400,000-40,000 BP): current knowledge and new research perspectives] provided the much-needed opportunity to resume a research that had been suspended for too long. Studies on the lithic industry were carried out in the late 1980s on a sample of approximately one-third of the whole assemblage found at the site, and they were conducted using methods and tools quite advanced for the time; thus, the results remain valid at the present day. In an era when computer tools were still extremely rare, a database was created with a substantial number of entries, both typological and technological. In recent years much has been done in the study field of lithic assemblages, promoting and expanding both the technological and taphonomic approaches. Furthermore, many reflections and studies have allowed for the in-depth exploration of issues related to fluvial deposits, which characterize a significant portion of the Lower-Middle Pleistocene sites in Europe and beyond. Subsequent inputs for new reflections on the aforementioned topics came from a further, albeit limited, excavation campaign carried out in 2013, which unearthed a section of a bank deposit that could be fully correlated with what was documented in the first excavation campaign. The new data have prompted a discussion on depositional setting and have allowed for a better understanding of the use and origins of the raw materials used. The objective of this work, based on the previous database, is to encourage a comprehensive study of the lithic assemblage and to correlate it with updated data on stratigraphy, possible more precise dating, and necessary investigations on faunal and floral assemblages.