Bilancino, a specialized site for “latent technology”: an integrated approach

The application of an integrated methodology - connecting the archaeological record with morphological analysis, reconstruction of the operational-functional sequence, wear traces and analysis of the residues, ethnographical comparison and archaeological experimentation - to the study of latent technologies (i.e. related to the treatment of highly perishable raw materials) has allowed us to obtain different data which led to a coherent interpretative framework for the understanding of a Gravettian camp site. At Bilancino site different technological processes could be reported, all related to vegetal fibre (Typha) exploitation: while manufacture and use of specialized tools is documented for the treatment of vegetable fibres (Noailles burins), the further phases of fibres processing in order to obtain other products are to be inferred only as a working hypothesis (possible dyeing of these products with hematite dust). Nevertheless independently from the worked raw material the Bilancino grindstones, which still has no analytical and archaeometric comparisons in coeval European sites, testifies the adoption of an innovative technique - the grinding activity - in the Italian Gravettian, stressing both the importance of vegetal resources exploitation in Palaeolithic economies and the importance of the technological innovation within the development and the diffusion of the Gravettian culture in Europe.