Field
Current Field Projects
Ethiopia
Our research in Ethiopia is focused on one region located to the west of the Chew Bahir lake, where two archaeological sites have been identified in the past: the Gotera open-air sites (Chavaillon and Chavaillon 1981) and the Yabelo rock shelter (Clark 1943, Hundie 2001).
The Yabelo site is located about 800 km south of Addis Ababa, in the Borena district of the Oromia Region. In the area, the geological bedrock consists of granitic gneiss, belonging to the typical geological formations of the Adola Belt, and related granite intrusions. As a consequence of intense weathering, the local landscape alternates inselbergs, piles of boulders, and isolated large boulders of granite (tor). Many rock shelters and small caves open along the hills and at the foot of tors.
The Gotera open air sites lie in the Sagan River basin, 50 km east of the Chew Bahir Lake and not far from Konso (Southern Nations). The area is part of a deep sedimentary basin, located in a 300km wide rift zone, between the Omo-Turkana basin to the west, and the southern sector of the Main Ethiopian Rift to the east. The Sagan River follows the Rift Valley from east to west and then it flows southward into the Chew-Bahir. Our research area covers a portion of the northeastern sector of the Sagan River catchment area, draining into the Chew-Bahir Lake.
The field in the region is ongoing and new MSA, LSA and Pastoral sites have been discovered, showing a very long lasting human occupation in this area.
Eritrea
The Anthropological, Archaeological, Paleontological and Geological Investigations of the Dandiero-Mahabele basin and surrounding areas in Buia, directed by Prof. Alfredo Coppa (Department of environemental Biology, Rome La Sapienza University) and I (since 2020).
The Buia project is mostly focused around the human presence in Eritrea in the last million year, and has been characterized by some impressive discoveries, such as the Buia cranium and, last year, human footprints dating back to 800.000 years ago.
The aim of the project started with my direction this year, co-financed by Grandi Scavi Sapienza, and started with the (H)ORIGIN project, is to focus on the ESA/MSA transition, with two main goals 1) to analyze the MSA component in the Late Acheulean, to characterize to identify whether the transition is the result of radical changes in technology or has conceptual continuity; 2) to identify and study new MSA sites in the region, unknown until now.
Italy, Uluzzo C
As a collaborator of the ERC - 724046 SUCCESS project (PI Prof. Stefano Benazzi), I am directing the excavation of Uluzzo C, a MP/UP transitional site in south eastern Italy. Grotta Carlo Cosma or Uluzzo C (40° 9’27.84″N 17°57’35.34″E), Apulia, is one of the sites of the Uluzzo bay and it is located just in front of the famous Grotta del Cavallo, where Homo sapiens associated with Uluzzian techno-complexes were found. The site was discovered during surveys from the IIPP 8IStituto Itliano di Preistoria e Protostoria) and originally excavated by Edoardo Borzatti (Borzatti von Lowerstern, 1965; 1966; Borzatti von Lowerstern and Magaldi, 1966). The Archaeological sequences goes from Mousterien to Bronze Age, passing by Uluzzian and Epigravettian. The target is to build a reliable chronological and geological setting for the layers including the Final Mousterian and the Uluzzian, with the aim to best fit the new and old excavated materials into the broader discussion about the Transition. Moreover, a complete study of the archaeological materials from the previous excavation is ongoing. For its location, the completeness of the stratigraphy, and the abundance of the archaeological record, Uluzzo C has the potential to become a reference site for the Transition in Italy.
