La Grotta paleolitica di Roccia San Sebastiano (Mondragone, CE). Una metodologia per l’analisi dei dati in spazi simbolici.

The Prehistory of the Mondragone area, in the province of Caserta, emerged in its importance thanks to the results of systematic surveys carried out since 1994 by the University of Naples “Federico II” and the Museum Biagio Greco together with the Archeological Superintendence of Naples and Caserta. Since 2001, the Museum has accomplished regular excavation campaigns of the very important Upper and Middle Palaeolithic deposit in the large cave opening in the site of Roccia di San Sebastiano, which represents the only evidence of Palaeolithic frequentation systematically and stratigraphically studied in the territory included between the Northern Campania coast and the Southern Latium coast. On the basis of such evidences, the authors illustrate a project aimed to produce a detailed territorial study to understand the dynamics of the frequentation and settlement of the area during Palaeolithic (Musterian, Uluzzian, Aurignazian and Gravettian) and the cultural behaviours of last Neanderthals and first Homo sapiens groups. The latest excavation campaigns allowed to unearth Uluzzian layers in two sectors of the cave and to investigate the Mousterian levels, from which a deciduous molar of a Neanderthal child comes. Moreover they permitted to consolidate the study of symbolic activities in the cave. Digital and tridimensional documentation techniques have been adopted for the description of the excavation surfaces and to understand the symbolic activities consisting in both parietal and mobiliary art evidences. The storage and elaboration of data is realized in a 3D application in order to elaborate detailed intra-site analysis in a predictive pattern of activities. This model allows the management of digital data in a single spatial system of representation, in which the digital copies of places, excavations areas and objects coincide with the relational matrices between the archaeological data and the possible events recorded in the physical layers