by Alessandra de Nardis
The clay figurine dating back to 7000 years ago (Neolithic) was found at Poggio Nativo in Sabina, in the province of Rieti and is now the subject of a study coordinated by the Sapienza Department of Ancient Sciences. This precious find will add much new information on what is proving to be a key site in the prehistory of Lazio and central Italy, a period in which the peninsula was inhabited by the first agricultural communities.
“The Battifratta cave opens onto a travertine ridge, along the valley of a small tributary of the Farfa river. – explain the scholars of La Sapienza – The current entrance to the cave corresponds to the outlet of an ancient spring, probably with a seasonal regime, which was a point of attraction for the human communities of the past. The statuette is currently the subject of a multidisciplinary study, coordinated by the Department of Ancient Sciences of Sapienza, on the technological and stylistic aspects to learn about the methods of making the artifact and to understand if it reflects iconographic models attributable to precise cultural traditions. The features of the face are outlined schematically but greater care seems to have been placed in the representation of the hairstyle and body decorations. This precious find will add much new information on what is proving to be a key site in the prehistory of Lazio and central Italy".
"The presence of ceramics, lithic industry, faunal and botanical finds on several stratified levels - explains Cecilia Conati of Sapienza - reveals the use of the spring and the cave not only for the supply of water, but also for sepulchral and ritual purposes, as evidenced by the human skeletal remains found and the clay figurine.”
The research at the Battifratta cave is conducted as part of a larger research project on the prehistoric population of the Farfa valley and neighboring territories financed by the Grandi Scavi Sapienza fund. The excavation is carried out with the concession of the Ministry of Culture, Superintendence ABAP of metropolitan Rome and the province of Rieti.
The strongly interdisciplinary setting of the research sees the participation, alongside the archaeologists, of specialists from various scientific fields (geologists, paleobotanists, archaeozoologists, anthropologists, physicists, chemists, etc.) with the aim of reconstructing ways of life, resources and environments of the past.
We await the results of the studies
Source: Archeologia Viva – interview with Cecilia Conati Barbaro – Department of Ancient Sciences
