Talking stones: Taphonomy of the lithic assemblage of Pirro Nord 13 (Apricena, FG, Italy). A new approach to the study of the post depositional alterations on lithics tools

The site of Pirro Nord 13 (PN 13) is located in afissure that is a residual component of a wider karst system.Many faunal remains and lithic artefacts were accumulated by natural phenomena in thefissure. The degree ofany potential post-depositional reworking of the archaeological and paleontological remains is important to beassessed as to evaluate the stratigraphic integrity of the site. In the proposed research, data about the post-depositional alteration (PdA), collected during the use-wear analysis, helps in the identification of the“tapho-nomic history”of the lithic assemblage and allow to understand if all the assemblage was exposed to the sameenvironmental processes or if there are some difference among the various lithic elements. To recreate thishistory, we developed a new research protocol called overlapping method for the taphonomy of the lithic artefacts.