Whisky & January Freeones

RIDGE HUNTING ON HUMAN Mesolithic In Upper REGGIANO

Among the things that make it unique is our high Apennines the fact that its grassy and rocky ridges, which now seem empty and bare, I have witnessed countless historical events. Among them, the epic of the Mesolithic hunters, historical period from about 10,000 BC to 4500 BC and is one of the Paleolithic and Neolithic (see the 2000 book, Chapter 1, p. 29).. These

our distant ancestors dating back to the valleys and ridges of the mountains on both sides of the divide between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic, following the migrations of the game - especially of large ungulates - hunting, eating their meat and dress with their skins. For this pushed up the main ridge. Here, near the crossing points and near sheets of water were the ideals of their stalking and hunting stations where skinning and butchering game. Brought with them lumps of flint and jasper-precious stones not found on the Great Ridge, but found it at the appropriate slots to the floor - and they were working on site in accordance with their needs in order to get scrapers, knives, arrowheads and spears , miscellaneous equipment.

And with great patience, skill and luck ... the differences of the "Mesolithic work" can be found today on the high ridges: the so-called "microliths" - literally small stones - that is, tiny shards of flint or jasper that being totally compared to non-native local stones, show that a given site was indeed a site of frequent tillage thousands and thousands of years ago by our ancestors.

Fascinated by these suggestions, I too have put in the footsteps of our ancestors in the Mesolithic and as a member of the Scientific Committee Regional I joined the research led by the Chairman of the Deer Giuliano.
Towards the end of July, along with John Ricco, President of CAI in Reggio Emilia, and Paul ... also a member of the Regional Scientific Committee, we have scoured the long stretch of ridge running from Radici Pass to Mount Giovo. And here we have found a Mesolithic site - even if I should say "found", we saw that Julian had stumbled by accident in the fog a few years before, no longer identify it.

After several hours of futile wandering between low beech forests and along the grassy ridge, Julian recognized the location of the site then we got a good pace to beat everyone in the area rug following his instructions. But it was once again the experienced eye of Julian to find the first microlite, which is soon followed a second, then third.
We have thus found in all eleven fragments of flint and jasper, not huge, certainly, but enough the official catalog for the finding as "new Mesolithic site.

Having photographed the site and georeferenced microliths in the exact position using GPS, we're back on our feet.
We still see the boundless landscapes of the high ridges, the leafy canopy of beech trees, tall grass prairies of the great move by the wind of the ridge. And in the heart of the "echoes of stone" of our ancestors.

Giovanni Mazzanti