Lithic Raw Material Procurement and Mobility in a Geological Diversed Environmental Setting in Prehistoric Eastern Sicily

Summary

The geological constitution of Sicily is enough complex as the characteristics of the geological units are consequences of the tectonic compression that happened between the beginning of Miocene and the beginning of the Pliocene. Three structural units are basically distinguished:

1. To the north, in the western side (towards Palermo) there is prevalence of carbonatic reliefs while in the oriental side (Nebrodi Mounts and Peloritani Mounts) there are metamorphic and terrigenous deposits

2. the central part and western center, is mainly occupied from a graben terrigenous sediment

3. the Hyblean plateau, constituted by carbonate cliffs. Three distinguishable ecological and orographic units characterize the south eastern Sicily: The Aetna volcano, the plain of Catania and the Hyblean Mounts. During Prehistoric time, thanks to this geological diversity, the sourcing of efficient lithic raw material was flourishing. Volcanic glass is virtually absent.

This paper focus on the peculiar contexts of early Neolithic Sicilian sites from eastern Sicily to discuss their strategy for lithic raw material procurement, local and exotic, and their potential involvement into the development of new mobility systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22691