Toirano: Bàsura revisited project
A program of archaeological research has been started in 2016 at the Bàsura Cave, located in the karstic area of Val Varatella, near the village of Toirano in western Liguria (Savona Province, northern Italy). It is an interdisciplinary and cooperation project employing high precision MICADAS radiocarbon measurements, 3D Laser scanner recording of the imprints and their ichnological study, archaeobotanical analysis of charcoal and pollens, taphonomy of the cave bear bone deposit, test excavations in the innermost hall, geoarchaeological study of the deposits filling the cave and a complete reanalysis of the whole context. The first results not only are confirming the attribution of the human traces to the end of the Upper Palaeolithic but restricted the frequentation to probably a single episode interpretable as the activity of a small group of young and very young individuals.
On the contrary, the bear bone deposit seems the result of various preceding episodes of accumulation of dead bear carcasses by karstic waters, that the new radiocarbon AMS and MICADAS measurements indicate as deposited during multiple flood events occurring after the thanatocoenoses which are dated at circa 50kyBP and 27kyBP. Avenues of future research are the recoding and interpretation of the complex and diverse track records of humans and other animals in order to shed light on individual and group level behaviour, possible human-animal relationship, and possible mode of symbolic expression left at the end of the Upper Palaeolithic.
Cooperating Institutions
- Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa
- Servizio Grotte di Toirano, Comune di Toirano (SV)
- MUSE, Museo Delle Scienze, Trento
- Laboratorio di Archeobotanica, Museo Archeologico del Finale, Finalborgo
- Sapienza Università di Roma
- Università degli Studi di Genova
- Università degli Studi di Torino
Research outputs
D. Arobba, A. De Pascale, E. Starnini, M. Zunino (eds), 2022 – Le Grotte di Toirano. Bàsura e S. Lucia Inferiore. Uno scrigno di testimonianze preistoriche e naturalistiche, Le Guide del Museo Archeologico del Finale, Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, Sezione Finalese, Finale Ligure.
M Zunino, E Starnini, D Arobba, M Avanzini, P Citton, M Firpo, F Negrino, M Romano, I Salvador, I Rellini, 2022 – New insights into taphonomic analysis of the Upper Pleistocene Ursus spelaeus bones deposit from Bàsura cave (Toirano, NW Italy), Journal of Quaternary Science, Manuscript ID JQS-21-0116, (2022), pp. 1–15, DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3417
E Starnini, M Zunino, P Dell’Amico 2021 – Toirano (SV). Grotta della Bàsura. Intervento di scavo archeo-paleontologico nella Sala dei Misteri, Archeologia in Liguria VII, 2016-2018, Genova, De Ferrari ed., pp. 85-87. ISBN: 9788855034388
Rellini I; Firpo M; Arobba D; Starnini E; Romano M; Citton P; Salvador I; Negrino F; Avanzini M; Zunino M. 2021 – Micromorphology and origin of an unusual bear fur-bearing deposit in Bàsura Cave (Toirano, NW Italy). DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2021.05.025. Quaternary International, vol. 601, pp. 82-103. ISSN:1040-6182
M. Avanzini, I. Salvador, E. Starnini, D. Arobba, R. Caramiello, M. Romano, P. Citton, I. Rellini, M. Firpo, M. Zunino, F. Negrino, 2021- Following the Father Steps in the Bowels of the Earth: The Ichnological Record from the Bàsura Cave (Upper Palaeolithic, Italy), Chapter 14. In: A. Pastoors & T. Lenssen-Erz (eds.), Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks: Methods & Material, Springer Nature, E-book ISBN 978-3-030-60406-6, Printed book, ISBN 978-3-030-60405-9
Romano M., Citton P., Salvador I., Arobba D., Rellini I., Firpo M., Negrino F., Zunino M., Starnini E., Avanzini M., 2019 – A multidisciplinary approach to a unique Palaeolithic human ichnological record from Italy (Bàsura Cave), eLife 2019;8:e45204, doi: 10.7554/eLife.45204