La Grotta Mora Cavorso a Jenne (Roma). I livelli dell’antica-media età del Bronzo

SUMMARY - Mora Cavorso Cave in Jenne (Roma) – The Early-Middle Bronze Age layers Mora Cavorso Cave is located in the karst complex of the Upper Aniene River Valley, on the slopes of Simbruini Mountains in South-Eastern Latium. The fortuitous discovery of its archaeological relevance, made in 2001 by local speleologists, motivated Tor Vergata University to start systematic research in 2006. This resulted in the detection of a complex stratigraphy, ranging from Upper Palaeolithic to Late Antiquity and inhomogeneously distributed between the entrance, the inner rooms and the tunnels. The Bronze Age layers, investigated from 2008 to 2011, were recorded in the bottom of the entrance and into the tunnel leading to the first inner room, showing an overall disturbed condition with some better preserved exceptions. It has been possible to divide the deposit in two main horizons, the lowest appearing to have been barely frequented, the highest much more intensely anthropized. The latter showed the presence of pottery generically datable to the Early and Middle Bronze Age of central Italy, mainly represented by jars. This evidence, traditionally related in literature to domestic contexts, must be linked instead, at least in this case, to funerary and ritual functions; such assumption can be firmly supported by the discovery of a mature woman’s disturbed primary burial (radiometrically dated to the Early-Middle Bronze Age), two pits (one of them containing an overturned whole bowl) and several faunal remains, presumably belonging to sacrificed piglets, lambs and kids. According to a multidisciplinary approach, which included material studies, radiometric dating, stratigraphy, palaeoanthropology, zooarchaeology, spatial analyses and statistics, we can assume that this cave was frequented seasonally during the first phases of the Bronze Age, by transhumant shepherds which still practiced hunting, reflecting the coeval cultural (economical and ritual) trend of both Middle Tyrrhenian and Adriatic cave uses.