Santa Verna assemblage

The Santa Verna assemblage was collected during the excavation of 2015 and consisted of 723 pieces in total of which 284 are chert, 67 obsidian and 372 “other” material. The finds related with this excavation have initials SV (Santa Verna) and further explanation of their coding is found in the Appendix (Table 6).

Focusing on the chert members of the assemblage, they are divided into three main groups in terms of sources. The first group of chert artefacts is similar to the first one in all the previous assemblages. The artefacts are further subdivided based on the different shades of the brown colour (10YR 4/2, 6/2; 5YR 3/2 and 2/1), the level of translucency, lustre and grain size (e.g. medium, fine).

The examination has recorded that more artefacts are made from the dull and medium-grain cherts (Fig. 5.31a) than the translucent and fine-grained. Furthermore, the artefacts of this material are far less than in the other assemblages and they actually do not exceed the 15% of the total assemblage.

Additionally, no artefact is similar to the dark and translucent artefacts (e.g. SV15/S395/L449) or the artefacts of the Circle assemblage (i.e. BR91/S745/L845). In contrast, the characteristics of two artefacts (i.e. SV15/S67/L34 and S1/L22) suggest a common origin and they are possibly related to one artefact (i.e. TCC14/S502/L301) of the Taċ-Ċawla assemblage. In addition, the artefact coded as S1/L98 has similar characteristics with one artefact from the Taċ-Ċawla (i.e. TCC14/S32A/L30) and Kordin (i.e.

KRD15/S34/L207) assemblages. One artefact from Taċ-Ċawla (i.e. TCC14/S32B/L30) has similar characteristics with the artefacts of this assemblage (i.e SV15/S1/L16 and S1/L33). The latter artefact also has some similarities with an artefact coded from the Kordin assemblage (i.e. KRD15/S98/L201).

The second group, and possibly the biggest group of the assemblage, includes artefacts with macroscopic features identical to the local chert outcrops. The artefacts vary from brownish to greyish colour shades similar to those of the local material. They present a high uniformity of other macroscopic characteristics and are all dull, opaque and spotted (Fig. 5.31b). Moreover, this is the first assemblage that has debitage and pieces of the cortex related with this chert material group.

The last group includes artefacts of possibly non-local material and with a similar type of lustre and grain-size (Fig. 5.32). Their macroscopic characteristics do not show any relation with the Sicilian chert formations, except for one sample (i.e. SV15/S1/L68) which has some common characteristics with the radiolarian formation from the province of Enna. The examination of this group has recorded some artefacts (e.g. SV15/S1/L36 and S1/L41) that resemble the unique chert outcrop in Gozo (i.e. G2S6), but their small size does not allow safe conclusions. Similar pieces are found at Kordin (e.g.

KRD15/S42/L304) and Taċ-Ċawla (e.g. TCC14/S193/L69), but not in the Circle. Moreover, a reddish flake is characterized by an unfamiliar colour-change, which is a feature only found on one artefact from the Kordin assemblages (e.g. SV15/S156/L306). Furthermore, this group includes a small subgroup of shiny, yellowish, chert artefacts which are also found in all the other assemblages. A

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typical example is one artefact (i.e. SV15/S38/L8) which is similar to artefacts from Taċ-Ċawla (e.g.

TCC14/S103/L85). In addition, some other artefacts (e.g. SV15/S3/L41) present similarities with artefacts from Kordin (e.g. KRD15/S144/L306) and Taċ-Ċawla (e.g. TCC14/S275/L208) assemblages.

However, these characteristics are not enough to conclude whether they are made from the same chert formation. However, it is not possible at this stage to connect artefacts from the Circle with this subgroup, because they are either less translucent or exhibit lighter colours.

The examination has further recorded the absence of dark (e.g. dark red, grey or black) or greenish colours in comparison with other assemblages. There are some dark grey to black artefacts, but they do not present similar features either with the chert formations of Sicily or with artefacts from the other assemblages. Finally, there is an artefact (i.e. SV15/S1/L17) characterized by a greenish colour, pearly shine and fine-grain, which is not reported from any other assemblage.

Figure 5-31: Artefacts related to the first (a) and second group (b) of raw materials.

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Figure 5-32: ‘Foreign’ chert artefacts.

➢ Types of tools

As far as the type of tools found in this Santa Verna assemblage, they are mainly debitage and flake tools. The majority of the debitage (n=2; 66%) is of significant size (> 15cm) (Fig. 5.33), but small shatters are also reported (<2cm). This category is related to the local chert formations which occasionally exhibits part of the cortex of that chert (i.e. Globigerina Limestone). The flake tools are more difficult to categorize but bending¹⁶ (SV15/S1/L34) and conchoidal¹⁷ (e.g. SV15/S134/L58) types have been recorded in this collection. Unfortunately, the secondary flaking employed has altered most of the characteristics necessary to distinguish the type of flakes present. Generally, most of the flakes are unimarginaly modified (Fig. 5.34 and 35), but some bimarginal tools are also reported (e.g.

SV15/S3/L41). They are mostly blades (e.g. SV15/S1/L4) or blade fragments (e.g. SV15/S1/L36, S2/L22), while there are only a few scrapers (e.g. SV15/S32/L5) recorded in this assemblage. In addition, there are unimarginal flake tools which show indications of hafted element features (e.g. SV15/S1/L68 and S1/L34). The increased amount of blade tools and hafted elements are two characteristics that differentiate the Santa Verna material from the other assemblages.

16 Bending flakes are those formed by cracks that originate away from the point of applied force. Stresses are imposed upon the objective piece that attempt to ‘‘bend’’ brittle material. Some are produced as a result of applying force on the acute edge of an objective piece. The resulting bending flake will have a striking platform that is composed of a part of the original bifacial edge. Bending flakes are believed to originate as a result of soft hammers or pressure flakers (Andrefsky 2005).

17 Conchoidal flakes are initiated or started by the formation of a Hertzian cone at the point of applied force. It is a type of flake with a distinctive bulb of force and concentric undulations on the fracture surface which gives the inside surface of some flakes the appearance of a unionid shell. These flakes require a great deal of pressure to initiate and they are more easily produced with a hard hammer (Cotterell & Kamminga, 1987).

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➢ Manufacturing techniques

The examination demonstrates that the primary technique used on the artefacts of the Santa Verna assemblage is percussion flaking. The main purpose of that technique is to extract detached pieces in the form of flakes from the original objective piece. The bigger pieces of the assemblage do not present any modifications, but some have indications of flake extraction on their surfaces. The medium and small artefacts also exhibit manufacturing techniques, which occasionally prevent them from distinguishing the primary flaking. An additional technique is secondary pressure flaking (Fig.

5.34), which aims to sharpen the artefacts or enhance their utility. Indeed, this particular technique is used on artefacts related to non-local chert rocks (Fig. 5.34) for a constant reshaping (e.g. S3/L41, S1/L80). This is better understood on the artefacts of the third chert group (e.g. SV15/S3/L41), which have been constantly modified with pressure flaking. Pressure flaking is also used at the final stage of manufacturing, mainly for retouching the edges (Fig. 5.34 and 5.35b). This technique on many occasions has created serration (Fig. 5.34a and 5.35a), especially on blades and unimarginal flake tools (e.g S1/L80, S134/L58). A bimarginal serration is reported on a micro-blade (i.e. SV15/S1/L52), which however is not made from chert. There are indications of secondary percussion flaking, but there are not enough characteristics to support this technique being used. Evidence of polishing is recorded on two artefacts from Santa Verna (e.g. SV15/S144/L42, S1/L52). They are made from completely different raw materials, so there is no connection between the technique and a specific type of chert source.

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Figure 5-33: Debitage from the Santa Verna assemblages.

Figure 5-34: Unimarfinal flake of non-local chert with the striking platform (purple arrow), secondary flaking (yellow arrows), arris (green arrow) and evidence of serration (red arrow).

Figure 5-35: Unimarginal flake tools. A) Tool with a striking platform (purple arrow), arris feature (yellow arrow) and serration (red arrow). B) Tool with arris (yellow arrow) and retouched edges (green arrow).

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