The Javakheti Plateau: Megaliths, Villages, and Obsidian mines in the Prehistory of the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia

The surveys carried out during the last decade in the Javakheti Plateau (Lesser Caucasus, Georgia) led to the discovery of hundreds of archaeological sites among which are obsidian mining-fields, different types of megaliths and kurgans, complex villages, and basalt/andesite quarries, which were exploited mainly during the Bronze Age. All sites are located between c. 1500 and 2500 m of altitude, where present temperatures are well below 0° Celsius during the winter months. This chapter discusses the complexity of the archaeological landscapes we have investigated, their probable seasonal exploitation, and suggested complementarities between residential, funerary, and mining areas, whose archaeological remains in no case overlap. The systematic occurrence of megalithic structures and scatters of obsidian artefacts, sometimes located dozens of km from the extractive sources, poses many questions regarding their distribution and presence rarely asked by archaeologists

Lakheen-Jo-Daro, an Indus Civilization Settlement at Sukkur in Upper Sindh (Pakistan): A Scrap Copper Hoard and Human Figurine from a Dated Context

The Bronze Age settlement of Lakheen-Jo-Daro is located in the northern outskirts of the city of Sukkur, ca. 2.5 km north of the present course of the Indus, where the river narrows to flow across the northernmost limestone fringes of the Rohri Hills. The site was accidentally discovered in 1985, though the first trial trenches were opened in 1994. During the cleaning of the profile of one of the trenches excavated in 1996, one copper anthropomorphic figurine was found very close to a small charcoal lens that was radiocarbon dated to 3960  140 B.P. (GrN-23123). The result attributes the deposit to a period of development of the Mature Indus Civilization. Other finds from the same trench consist of important, unique specimens among which are a group of white “steatite” micro-beads and a probable small hoard of copper items that are the main subject of this article

Thirty Years of Achaeological Surveys and Excavations in Sindh and Las Bela (Balochistan)

This paper regards the research carried out by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sindh and Las Bela province of Balochistan (Pakistan). Until the mid '80s the prehistory of the two regions was known mainly from the impressive urban remains of the Bronze Age Indus Civilisation and the Palaeolithic assemblages discovered at the top of the limestone terraces that estend south of Rohri in Upper Sindh. Very little was known of other periods, their radiocarbon chronology, and the Arabian Sea coastal zone. Our knowledge radically changed thanks to the discoveries made during the last three decades by the Italian Archaeological Mission. Thanks to the results achieved in these years, the key role played by the north-western regions of the Indian Subcontinent in prehistory greatly improved

AN ANDESITE LEVALLOIS POINT FROM THE JAVAKHETI HIGHLAND (NORTH-WESTERN LESSER CAUCASUS, GEORGIA)

This paper describes and discusses an andesite Middle Palaeolithic Levallois point discovered on the surface of Javakheti Highland in the Lesser Caucasus of Georgia at 2130 m of altitude during the surveys carried out in the summer of 2017. Though andesite Acheulian hand-axes were already recovered along the slopes of Mt. Chikiani during the Soviet period, the new find shows that this raw material was employed also for knapping Levallois tools, despite the rich obsidian sources available from the volcano. The discovery would suggest that the tool is older than the beginning of exploitation of the obsidian sources that, according to the available data, started to be utilised around the end of the Middle Palaeolithic

The Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Italy: Problems and Perspectives

This paper considers some problems of the Late Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic periods in Northern Italy. More precisely, it deals with chronology, settlement pattern, techno-typological characteristics of knapped stone assemblages, and climatic changes that have taken place in the region from the discovery of the first sites in the 1960s and the excavations that soon followed to the present state of research. The Italian Alps, the Piedmont, and the valleys that descend from the high massifs have yielded important traces of Late Palaeolithic (Final Epigravettian) and Mesolithic (Sauveterrian and Castelnovian) sites and findspots, some of which are rock shelters that were settled throughout several millennia. This paper describes and discusses the evidence available mainly from two regions of the western and eastern Alpine arc, which are characterised by very different landscapes and yielded a great variety of archaeological features

THE AMRI CHALCOLITHIC PHASE IN SINDH (PAKISTAN): WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW

The problem of the origin of the Indus Civilisation has attracted attention of many colleagues working on the archaeology of the Indian Subcontinent and the Indus Valley in particular. What is the role played by the cultural processes preceding the origin and spread of one of the most important Bronze Age civilisations of the ancient world? This paper examines some aspects of the Amri Phase, which flourished in Sindh during the 4th millennium BC. Our knowledge in this area is very poor. It relies almost exclusively on the ceramic assemblages retrieved during excavations carried out in the type site in the 1960s. Research currently underway in Lower Sindh has led to the discovery of more sites relevant for this problem. Many of them are located close to the ancient Arabian Sea coastline or on limestone terraces which used to be islands in the Chalcolithic times. They consist of shell middens, whose surface has yielded characteristic Amri Culture knapped stone assemblage

THE AMRI CHALCOLITHIC PHASE IN SINDH (PAKISTAN): WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW

The problem of the origin of the Indus Civilisation has attracted attention of many colleagues working on the archaeology of the Indian Subcontinent and the Indus Valley in particular. What is the role played by the cultural processes preceding the origin and spread of one of the most important Bronze Age civilisations of the ancient world? This paper examines some aspects of the Amri Phase, which flourished in Sindh during the 4th millennium BC. Our knowledge in this area is very poor. It relies almost exclusively on the ceramic assemblages retrieved during excavations carried out in the type site in the 1960s. Research currently underway in Lower Sindh has led to the discovery of more sites relevant for this problem. Many of them are located close to the ancient Arabian Sea coastline or on limestone terraces which used to be islands in the Chalcolithic times. They consist of shell middens, whose surface has yielded characteristic Amri Culture knapped stone assemblage

Gender Differences in Heart Failure: Findings from Italian Internal Medicine Wards

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Forgotten Islands of the Past: The Archaeology of the Northern Coast of the Arabian Sea

The Indus Delta plays an important role in the archaeology of the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. Little was known of this region until a few decades ago. The first surveys were carried out in the 1970s and were resumed by the present author in the 2010s. They have shown the great potential of the area for the interpretation of sea-level rise and its related human settlement between the beginning of the Holocene and the Hellenistic period. In this territory, several limestone terraces rise from the alluvial plain of the River Indus, which were islands in prehistoric and early historic times. Many archaeological artefacts, along with marine and mangrove shells, have been recovered from their surface and radiocarbon dated. These discoveries help us to follow the events that took place in the region in well-defined periods and interpret some aspects of the prehistoric coastal settlement in relation to the advance of the Indus Fan and the retreat of the Arabian Sea. The following questions are addressed in this paper: who settled these islands, when and why? During which prehistoric periods were mangrove and marine environments exploited? And what were the cultural characteristics of the communities that seasonally or permanently settled some of the present ‘rocky outcrops’