Niccolò Mazzucco

Niccolò Mazzucco
University of Pisa | UNIPI · Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge

PhD

About

174
Publications
70,618
Reads
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1,428
Citations
Additional affiliations
November 2018 - present
Spanish National Research Council
Position
  • Fellow
October 2017 - September 2018
University Paris Nanterre
Position
  • PostDoc Position
February 2015 - June 2015
University of Siena
Position
  • Project collaborator

Publications

Publications (174)
Article
Full-text available
Abstract The reconstruction of the economy of an archaeological site is a matter of major importance within prehistoric research. In this paper, this issue is tackled from the perspective of the Traceological, or Use-Wear, analysis, showing how the lithic record can be used to approach a palaeoeconomic approximation. The principles, perspectives an...
Article
Full-text available
This article explores the changes that occurred in harvesting technology during the dispersal of the Neolithic in the Mediterranean basin. It does so through technological and use-wear analysis of flaked stone tools from archaeological sites dated between ca. 7000 and 5000 cal BCE, from the Aegean Sea to the westernmost coasts of Portugal. The main...
Article
Full-text available
The NeoNet dataset aims to provide a new research tool for the study of the pioneer farming front (i.e. Neolithisation) in the North Central and North Western Mediterranean basin by focusing on the period of transition from a foraging to a farming economy (ca. 7000 to 3500 cal BC). The complete dataset is formed by the elencoc14.tsv file, a datafra...
Article
Full-text available
North Macedonia is a crucial region for understanding the spread of agriculture into the Mediterranean and Central Europe. To date, however, the area has been subject to relatively limited archaeological research. Here, the authors present use-wear and archaeobotanical analyses on material from two Neolithic sites, Govrelevo and Vrbjanska Čuka, to...
Article
Full-text available
Harvesting low, transporting the crops in sheaves, threshing them and using the straw for different activities is a well-documented technical process in traditional agriculture. However, when did this procedure start? We have used confocal microscopy and texture analysis of cereal harvesting gloss in experimental tools to identify textural paramete...
Preprint
Full-text available
An unresolved issue within the debates on Neolithization processes concerns the role played by rivers. It is known that farmers and herders were capable of navigating, even over long distances. Still, the question arises to what extent this ability was applied in penetration processes. This research investigates the relationship of early Neolithic...
Chapter
Full-text available
An interdisciplinary team of experts in prehistoric archeology, terrestrial fauna and marine fauna of the Universities of Cadiz, Córdoba and CSIC of Barcelona, has studied sites from various prehistoric times in the Strait of Gibraltar region, both on the European and North African shore. In particular from the Neolithic period we have recently exc...
Article
Full-text available
Navigation in the Mediterranean in the Neolithic is studied here through the boats that were used, the degree of technical specialisation in their construction and, above all, their chronology. After a brief explanation of the exceptional site of La Marmotta, the characteristics and chronology of the five canoes found at the settlement and one of t...
Chapter
Klimonas is the oldest Mediterranean island village. Occupied ca. 8 800 cal BC, it postpones by several centuries the Neolithic presence in Cyprus, at that time located more than 80 km offshore. The village extended over more than 5,500 m2, facing the sea, 2 km from the famous pre-pottery site of Shillourokambos and near rich flint outcrops. Excava...
Article
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Numerous researchers point out the emergence of human symbolism is related to the evolution of the complexity of human cognition. Red mineral pigments have been used extensively, particularly with anatomically modern humans, for various purposes. However, the management and supply of these pigments during prehistoric periods remains poorly investig...
Article
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Although new to our discipline, the archaeology of high mountain areas is steadily growing, generating empirical studies and procedures that often define it. Aside from the diversity of research teams and programs, certain aspects tend to recur. One is a certain interest in long term sequences. Another is a wide spatial perspective, extending far b...
Article
Full-text available
Con este trabajo queremos llamar la atención sobre el proceso de excavación y análisis de materiales líticos provenientes de contextos calizos, como son los correspondientes a la vertiente sur de los Pirineos. La experiencia adquirida durante la excavación de Coro Trasito (Tella-Sin, Huesca) nos ha permitido distinguir entre los clastos y los fragm...
Article
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The Big Exchange project investigates large-scale exchange systems in Eurasia and Africa (8000–1 BC). We concentrate on raw materials of known origin (‘sourced finds’). Network analysis of tools and artificial intelligence methods are used to analyse the combined data sets. We invite broad collaboration on bimodal exchange networks.
Article
In the Mediterranean area, direct archeological evidence proving the existence of navigation during the Neolithic, is not frequent. The only site in the Mediterranean where this direct evidence exists is La Marmotta. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to approach the nautical technology of the first Neolithic communities through...
Book
Full-text available
e shift from a hunting and gathering economy to a productive economy, based on the domestication of plants and animals, is one of the most important changes in human history. is change, which manifested itself in diff erent forms and at diff erent times in diff erent areas of the Old and New Worlds, is still a subject of debate and discussion today...
Article
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Archaeological investigation of Circum-Alpine lake, or pile, dwellings has afforded unprecedented insight into Neolithic and Bronze Age societies. The discovery in 1989 of a submerged settlement near Rome added an early (eighth millennium BP) geographical outlier to this distribution. Two decades of excavation at La Marmotta have identified more th...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological investigation of Circum-Alpine lake, or pile, dwellings has afforded unprecedented insight into Neolithic and Bronze Age societies. The discovery in 1989 of a submerged settlement near Rome added an early (eighth millennium BP) geographical outlier to this distribution. Two decades of excavation at La Marmotta have identified more th...
Chapter
Full-text available
El desenvolupament de les activitats econòmiques inherents a la implantació de les activitats agrícoles i ramaderes del neolític comporta una creixent especialització tècnica. Sovint, aquesta és visible a partir de l’explotació de recursos específics, del desenvolupament de tècniques adients per a la manufactura dels béns de consum i de noves modal...
Conference Paper
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Burins and Technical Traditions in Northwestern Medi-terranean Arc. A Case study from the Lithic Assemblage from Tosina di Monzambano (Mantova)-During the fifth millennium cal. BC, the coastal regions extending from northwestern Italy to Catalonia (i.e. the northwestern Mediterranean arc) are characterized by an increasing complexity in the materia...
Article
Full-text available
Research on the Neolithic has until recently considered the Pyrenees as a secondary player in the process of introducing agricultural and livestock life forms as opposed to the pre- and coastal mountain ranges and the central depression. The work carried out in recent years in these territories, with a review of old collections, preventive excavati...
Article
Full-text available
The development of the economic activities inherent to the establishment of Neolithic farming activities entails an increasing technical specialization. This is often visible through the exploitation of specific resources, the development of suitable techniques for the manufacture of consumption goods as well as new ways of using and consuming them...
Article
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The lakeshore site of La Marmotta is one of the most important Early Neolithic sites of Mediterranean Europe. The site is famous for the exceptional preservation of organic materials, including numerous wooden artefacts related to navigation, agriculture, textile production, and basketry. This article presents interdisciplinary research on three of...
Article
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Se presentan los resultados del estudio tecno-morfológico y traceológico realizado sobre un conjunto de piezas líticas talladas de la ocupación neolítica de La Atalaya (Muñopepe, Ávila). Este trabajo constituye la primera caracterización del utillaje lítico tallado de las más tempranas comunidades productoras del valle Amblés, un espacio localizado...
Book
Full-text available
The introduction and spread of the Neolithic “way of life” in Europe was a process that took several millennia, followed by different rhythms and displayed singularities in each geographic area. It was therefore a very complex phenomenon that, despite highly significant advances in research in recent decades, is yet to be fully understood. To deepe...
Article
Full-text available
The introduction and spread of the Neolithic “way of life” in Europe was a process that took several millennia, followed by different rhythms and displayed singularities in each geographic area. It was therefore a very complex phenomenon that, despite highly significant advances in research in recent decades, is yet to be fully understood. To deepe...
Article
Full-text available
Este trabajo tiene como eje discursivo la información publicada sobre dos de las cinco piraguas neolíticas documentadas en el asentamiento neolítico de La Marmotta (Anguillara Sabazia, Lazio, Italia), y como este hallazgo puede darnos nuevos datos sobre la navegación y la expansión neolítica por el Mediterráneo. Se trata de un yacimiento excepciona...
Chapter
Full-text available
Archaeological research in the National Park has documented an archaeological sequence of human presence in this area of high Pyrenean mountains that covers the entire Holocene. Its earliest phases were characterized by hunter-gatherer populations with a marked mobility that occupied small rock shelters as a refuge during hunting expeditions. Durin...
Article
Full-text available
Research on the Neolithic has until recently considered the Pyrenees as a secondary player in the process of introducing agricultural and livestock life forms as opposed to the pre- and coastal mountain ranges and the central depression. The work carried out in recent years in these territories, with a review of old collections, preventive excavati...
Book
Full-text available
Cluster of Excellence ROOTS/Kiel) Social interaction creates networks. Exchange networks are archaeologically reflected in the distribution of finds in space and time. The understanding of social networks in terms of their basic structure and development is essential for the consideration of inequality, violence or knowledge transfer in the prehist...
Article
Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades through confocal microscopy. Using this method,...
Data
Esecutore: Thomas Huet, Miriam Cubas, Juan F. Gibaja, Xavier Oms, Niccolò Mazzucco Direzione scientifica: Niccolò Mazzucco The NeoNet dataset collects all available, published, radiocarbon dates associated with the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic transition in the North Central-Western Mediterranean watershed. The dataset counts 2506 radiocar...
Article
Full-text available
The identification of the use of stone tools through use-wear analysis was one the major methodological advances in Prehistoric Archaeology during the second half of the 20th century. Studies of use-wear analysis have decisively contributed to a better understanding of the cognitive capacities and the socio-economic organization of Prehistoric soci...
Article
Full-text available
Vrbjanska Čuka is a tell site in the region of Pelagonia (Macedonia) established 8000 years ago by the Neolithic communities. Later it was used as an agricultural unit during the Roman era and the Middle Ages when it was also employed as a burial area. The excavations performed in the 1980s and during the last five years indicate a Neolithic farmin...
Article
Full-text available
After years of intense fieldwork, our knowledge about the Neolithisation of the Pyrenees has considerably increased. In the southern central Pyrenees, some previously unknown Neolithic sites have been discovered at subalpine and alpine altitudes (1,000–1,500 m a.s.l.). One of them is Cueva Lóbrica, 1,170 m a.s.l., which has an occupation phase with...
Article
For the last twenty years, various interdisciplinary research programs have been studying human presence in high mountain environments and how the different activities carried out there have impacted on the landscape and transformed it since the Early Holocene. Grazing, hunting, mining, and charcoal-making are the most significant outdoor productiv...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological research has been carried out in the Eastern Rif (Morocco) since 1995 by a collaborative Moroccan-German research team. A major topic of the project is the transition from hunting-gathering to food production and related cultural developments. Innovations such as pottery and domesticated species appeared around 7.6 ka calBP. The cult...
Chapter
In recent years, new archaeological research has highlighted relatively early neolithisation in different areas of the axial Pyrenees. Sites like Coro Trasito, Cueva Lóbrica, Els Trocs and Cova del Sardo show a consolidated presence of human communities with farming and animal husbandry and a fully Neolithic material culture at the end of the sixth...
Book
This volume contains a collection of research aimed towards understanding prehistoric subsistence change with the use of new computational modeling techniques. There is a sort of poetic irony when using humanity’s newest technology to study early human history. The distance between past and future almost appears highlighted when using a tablet to r...
Preprint
Full-text available
Archaeobotanical and genetic analysis of modern plant materials are drawing a complex scenario for the origins of cereal agriculture in the Levant. This paper presents an improved method for the study of early farming harvesting systems based on the texture analysis of gloss observed on sickle blades. We identify different harvesting activities (un...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Abstract: The archaeological research at Els Trocs cave is a good example of a successful transdisciplinary project. Together with a great team of specialists in different areas of knowledge, we present an update of our research process. The site is a cave that was occupied for more than two millennia, from the Early Neolithic (the end of the 6th m...
Article
Full-text available
The retouching and resharpening of lithic tools during their production and maintenance leads to the production of large numbers of small flakes and chips known as microdebitage. Standard analytical approaches to this material involves the mapping of microartefact densities to identify activity areas, and the creation of techno-typologies to charac...
Article
Full-text available
Around the mid-19 th century, several groups of archaeologists active in northern Italy discovered a few sites characterized by the presence of 'hut-floors' or 'pit-dwellings' (fondi di capan-na), which they attributed to a well-defined period of their Stone Age sequence. Research in the central Po Plain of Lombardy was resumed in the 1970s, allowi...
Article
Full-text available
The archaeological site La Marmotta (AnguillaraSabazia, Italy) is a singular place as regards the conservation and recovery of wood and plant remains. The exceptional preservation at the site allowed the recovery of five canoes and numerous objects related to navigation, house building, agriculture, hunting and craft activities. The wide range of a...