PROVENANCE, TECHNOLOGY AND POSSIBLE FUNCTION OF GàTA-WIESELBURG VESSELS FROM FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA (NORTH-EASTERN ITALY)

A few sparse vessels typologically attributed to the Gàta-Wieselburg Culture are known from Friuli Venezia Giulia region in north-eastern Italy. Such Culture developed between nowadays western Austria and Hungary during the Early-Middle Bronze Age (Reinecke Br A1b and A2, 2100–1700/1600 BC). Single artefacts, generally biconical double-handled jugs with well burnished surfaces, were discovered in caves of the Trieste Karst (Ciclami, Tartaruga, Teresiana and Ossa) and the Natisone valley (Velika jama). Most of them and a similar vessel from a Gàta-Wieselburg site in Hungary (Bük) have been investigated using several destructive and non-destructive techniques. X-ray computed microtomography, portable X-ray fluorescence, optical microscopy and absorbed lipid residue analyses by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry have been applied in order to study their vessel-forming technique, provenance and probable use. According to the preliminary results the Karst vessels were probably imported and the identification of rather uncommon lipids, whose precise identification is still ongoing, opens interesting questions about their possible function.