3d in the Cave: Hey Young Deer, Why the Long Face (and No Tail)?

In 2012 a team composed of several colleagues and me began a brief survey of the Grotta dei Cala dei Genovesi (Tusa et al. 2013), a small cave on the northwestern side of the island of Levanzo, part of the Egadi Archipelago, a few kilometres off the city of Trapani, on the western cost of Sicily (Fig. 1).The cave is famous for the presence of a rich record of schematic figures painted in black, traditionally dated to the Eneolithic ('cautiously', Graziosi 1962: 32), and for the engraved animals that have been unanimously attributed to the late glacial phases of the occupation of the cave (Graziosi 1962).The different excavation campaigns that started as early as 1952 confirmed the human frequentation of cave. A number of absolute dates led to a better understanding of the chronology of this presence (Fig. 2). The occupation falls into the younger phase of the Epigravettian (roughly starting around 14 ka calBP, at the onset of the Allerod interstadial).The excavation campaigns (1951,1953 and 2005)Three excavation campaigns (Fig. 3) took place in the Grotta del Genovese, one in 1951 (the Jole Bovio Marconi excavation), a second in 1953 (the Paolo Graziosi excavation), and a last one in 2005 (Tufano et al. 2012). Graziosi also mentions a 'small test excavation', performed by him from 1950 to 1951.We will now briefly have a look at the material found in layer 3, dated to the late glacial (Fig. 2). The most upto-date synthesis on the lithics (Lo Vetro and Martini 2007) proposes a periodisation of the Sicilian Younger Epigravettian into 3 phases (1, 2 - with sub-phases a and b - and 3). Despite the efforts, some difficulties caused by a chronic lack of data about the Sicilian record1 as well by the sub-optimal excavation practices used from time to time in the past campaigns (i.e. the dispersion of the lithic collections) leave this categorisation attempt as an open proposal. Comprehensive publication of the already excavated sites and future additional investigations could definitely help in supporting the assumptions made in the past.Nevertheless, according to this categorisation, the Levanzo lithic complex, together with S. Teodoro stratigraphic unit A industry, falls into the latest stage 3. This stage seems to amplify some of the characteristics already noted in the sub-phase 2b (exemplified by the Grotta dell'Acqua Fitusa complex):* Significant reduction in the geometric pieces (0.1% at Grotta di S. Teodoro - only 1 piece - and absent in Levanzo).* Relevant number of backed points.* Strong presence of scrapers (about 18.2%), with a possible peculiar evolutional element of the Levanzo complex (which is not recorded in S. Teodoro).* Decreasing trend of the blade index.Concerning the macrofaunal remains (Colonese et al. 2007), the data indicate unanimously Cervus elaphus as the most represented species in the faunal assemblage. In layer 3 of Genovese Cave, Cervus elaphus is predominant (62.7%) - in line with the other sites of the island; followed by Bos primigenius (15%) and Equus hydruntinus (8%). In all the assemblages of Sicily the most represented carnivore is the fox (Vulpes vulpes), even if with very low percentages (But the most important result of the past excavation campaigns (namely the 1953 one, led by Paolo Graziosi) was the discovery of an engraved block in layer 3 (Figs 2 and 3): this fortunate coincidence let the archaeologists and the researchers rely on a strong, albeit indirect dating for the engravings that cover the walls inside the cave. This is how Graziosi describes the bovid on the engraved block: '[t]he figure resembles the ones engraved on the walls of the inner part of the cave, despite its more rigid and coarse design. …