Palaeolithic Paintings at Riparo Dalmeri, a Northern Italian Rock Shelter: Materials, Technologies, Techniques

Riparo Dalmeri, a rock shelter located in the north-eastern part of Italy (Trentino) and dated back to 13,000 BP, has provided a wide assemblage of archaeological finds, including animal bones, fireplace remains and, particularly, painted limestone rocks. Some of the coatings and “paintworks” present on stone fragments were determined to be natural, while others were clearly man-made artefacts. The main aspects of the present research address: the origin and, where applicable, the provenance of the materials used for the paintings; the technologies employed for manufacturing some of these materials; the application techniques; the paleoclimatic implications (Belli et al. 2007). An interesting aspect that emerged from the research is the indication that the painters who operated at Riparo Dalmeri were able to master a variety of different materials, including moonmilk, goethite, and hematite, from which ochre and white colours with different shades were obtained. With regards to the red coloured pigment materials, it is worth mentioning that around the prehistoric shelter a geological survey has evinced that only goethite nodules are present, while in the prehistoric layer several small red ochre nodules were found. This would suggest that hematite might have been produced by a thermal induced transformation of goethite, which occurs at about 300 C. In this work, we present the results of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy for the purpose of studying the possibility of recognizing the natural or man-made origin of the red ochre remains.