THE KARST NEOLITHIC OF CAPUT ADRIAE: AN “INCOMPLETE NEOLITHIC PACKAGE” OR A SMART ADAPTIVE SOLUTION?

One of the main routes of the spread of farming into Europe follows the eastern Adriatic coast as far north as the Caput Adriae, where the Karst is located: specific physiographic conditions, history of field research and of studies make the Neolithisation of this area similar but different from that of the surrounding ones. In the Karst, since the first discovery of the Mesolithic in the Azzurra cave in the early 1960s, its presence has been detected in 18 cavities and 1 probable open-air site. The following Neolithic – named Vlaška Group, Danilo-Vlaška, Gruppo dei vasi a coppa – is recorded in 14 of these caves, but almost everywhere (with one possible significant exception at Edera cave) after a sedimentological/chronological gap. 14C dates are few but would indicate that the Neolithic started at around 5600-5500 BC and lasted for at least 1 millennium. Danilo-Vlaška materials – pottery, flaked blades and polished stone axes, faunal remains of domesticated animals (mostly ovicaprines) – are present in more than 40 caves in total, but in highly variable numbers, from one to many hundreds, presumably due to the nature of modern discovery (occasional findings vs. systematic excavations) on the one hand, and of ancient use on the other. Geoarchaeological studies have in fact demonstrated that many caves were used by shepherds with their flocks of sheep and goats for millennia, with variable intensity and continuity. Archaeometric analyses of polished stone artefacts have contributed to identifying the extent of their movements and to hypothesizing the exchange mechanisms involved, in which the availability of sea salt along the coast could have played an important role. Under current paradigms, these data would suggest an “incomplete Neolithic package”, but an alternative interpretation would value the smart site-specific adaptation of human groups to Karst areas.