The EuroDag project began with a literature review of the archaeological daggers known in the literature both in flint and in metal, found in Europe between c. 3800-1500 BC. Moreover, the research involved a training period in use-wear analysis on metal tools at NU.
The research focused on the creation of specific experimental protocols to build a reference collection of traces and residues. Following this line, we started by reproducing (a) n.12 experimental flint daggers using various knapping techniques; (b) 12 replicas of copper-alloy daggers; (c) Finally, the experimental daggers are test in butchering activity; processing of wood and siliceous plants.
The second year of the project focused on the study of 350 flint and metal daggers from Italian archaeological contexts. The study performed on the daggers from Roman Area allowed to identify functional traces attributable to butchery activities and cutting of siliceous plants. The daggers come from Nogarole Rocca site (Verona, Italy), one of the most important necropolises in Northern Italy attributable to the end of the Copper Age to the Bronze Age, showed traces of cutting of organic material (i.e. muscles, bone, organic tissues). Similar results come from the analysis of Valdarno (Verona, Italy) site.
The metal daggers from the Terramara of "Pragatto" (Bologna, Italy) have provided important results. The settlement can be dated to Middle and Late Bronze Age (c.1700-1350/1350-1200 BC). The excavation has returned more than 150 bronze objects in excellent condition. For the identification of biological tissues, we used a “stain” (Picro-Sirius Red). This protocol allowed to identify fibers of tendons, meat and remains of collagen.
Dissemination:
The preliminary results of this study were partially included in a monograph about Neolithic and Metal Ages of the roman area (Caricola et al, 2020).
Pubblication on “Crucible (HMS)”;
In submission in PNAS journal: Caricola I. et al. Investigation on the Organic Residues on Metal Daggers During the Bronze Age;
Organisation of a session at the EAA International Conference, Budapest, 2020, Theme: 5. Theories and methods in archaeology: interactions between disciplines, Dolfini, Lemorini, Caricola, Petrović, Vinet: Looking beyond the microscope: Interdisciplinary approaches to use-wear and residue analysis;
“EAA” International Conference, Caricola and Dolfini, Researching the “Dagger Idea” in Prehistoric Europe: new perspectives from Experimental Archaeology and Use-wear Analysis, 29 August 2020, Virtual Conference.
Conference Invitation: Caricola I., Stone, Metal and Function. The contribution of use-wear analysis to understand prehistoric artefacts, University of Groningen. The Capita Selecta and Research Seminars Committee, Online Webinar, 10 November 2020.
