ROCKS AND OTHER GEOSYNDROMES OF THE BERICI:
FROM THE PALEOLITHIC TO THE ANTHROPOCENE

VISIT THE EXHIBITION

Welcome to the Berica Archaeological Exhibition – Discovering Prehistory

Are you ready for a fascinating journey into the distant past of the Berici Hills? We invite you to join our archaeological exhibition exploring the roots of history in this captivating area of the province of Vicenza, hosted in the magnificent setting of Palazzo dei Canonici in Barbarano Mossano.
The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the origins of human settlement in the Berici Hills, going back to the earliest times of prehistory.
Through extraordinarily well-preserved archaeological finds, we will uncover the communities that once inhabited this region, shedding light on their customs, technologies, and lifestyles.

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Exploring the Origins

Our archaeologists have carefully selected a wide range of lithic artifacts, offering a comprehensive overview of the craftsmanship and daily practices of prehistoric populations.
Many of these finds have never been displayed before and form the beating heart of the exhibition, taking you back in time: from the Paleolithic Neanderthals, the earliest inhabitants of the Berici Hills, through the first Homo sapiens, and on to the Neolithic and Metal Ages — even up to the present day, in a continuous thread of stone-working still practiced in this district.

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An Interactive Journey into the Past

You won’t be mere spectators — you’ll be active explorers of the past.
With interactive elements, experimental reproductions, and real materials, you’ll get the chance to touch and experience the flints and other rocks worked in prehistoric times.

Meet the Experts

In specially recorded videos for the exhibition, you’ll have the opportunity to meet archaeologists and industry experts who will share their discoveries and answer your questions.
It will be a unique chance to deepen your understanding of the Berici Hills’ prehistory.

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Tickets

Admission to the exhibition is completely free of charge.

For group visits, guided tours, and accessibility requests, please contact us by phone: +39 327 441 5656

Opening Hours

  • Monday: 3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
  • Tuesday: Closed
  • Wednesday: 3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
  • Thursday: 3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
  • Friday: 3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
  • Saturday: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  • Sunday: Closed

Opening hours may be subject to change.

Book Your Journey Through Time

Don’t miss this extraordinary experience.
Book your time-travel journey now and join us in discovering the wonders of the Berici Hills’ prehistoric past.
We look forward to welcoming you for an unforgettable adventure among the buried stories of these ancient hills.

Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of this unique event that sheds light on a fascinating and mysterious chapter of Berici Hills history. We’re waiting for you to begin an unforgettable journey into the past!

How to Get to Barbarano Mossano

By car

A31 Motorway (Valdastico Sud), exit at Albettone-Barbarano.

Parking

Large free parking areas are available in the squares adjacent to Palazzo dei Canonici, allowing easy access to the town center.

By bike

Via the beautiful and easy cycling path that is part of the Treviso-Ostiglia route.

By autobus

With SVT (Vicenza Transport Company).

CREDITI

COORDINAMENTO
Comune di Barbarano Mossano

RICERCHE, TESTI, CONTENUTI
Stefano Bertola
Nicolò Fasser
Nicola Dal Santo
Marco Peresani

ART DIRECTION, GRAFICA E VIDEO
Francesco Marangoni

D.O.P.
Alberto Marangoni

DRONE
Mauro Migliari

INVENTARIAZIONE REPERTI
Nicola Dal Santo
Rachele Discosti

FIRMATARI DEL PROGETTO SCIENTIFICO
Stefano Bertola
Nicola Dal Santo
Francesco Marangoni
Marco Peresani
Ambra Tosetto

SOPRINTENDENZA ARCHEOLOGIA BELLE ARTI E
PAESAGGIO PER LE PROVINCIE DI VERONA, ROVIGO E VICENZA
Fabrizio Magani Soprintendente
Gabriella Bologna
Giulia Pelucchini
Paola Salzani

COMUNE DI VICENZA
MUSEO NATURALISTICO ARCHEOLOGICO
Viviana Frisone

TOOLS OF THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC

In Italy, as in Europe, the middle Paleolithic shows a wide variability in manufacturing methods and type of instruments, especially between scrapers. The lithic industries develop regional differences often influenced by cultural (innovation) or economic factors or even linked to the function of the sites. In addition to the well-known Levallois, another chipping method is used, called Discoide, whose products are robust and short. The sharpest flakes are used directly, thanks to their ergonomic characteristics, or transformed into scrapers, denticulates or points. Scrapers and denticulates are used in slaughtering activities or for treatment of wet and dry skin but also in the scraping, cutting, sawing, engraving and thinning of wood, while points and other triangular flakes are ideal both as hunting equipment and as knives. The scrapers can be made in different stages of processing and have a single functional edge or two, even converging. In many cases these products are specially modified to be hafted. As a result of the use and loss of functionality of the active edge of the tool, it can be refreshed by repeated retouching operations that cause, however, the progressive reduction of their size until the definitive abandonment. This continuous re-employment cycle is carefully planned. Extremely rare, but of exceptional scientific value, are some wooden spears and sticks found in wet deposits in Europe and different types of bone tools that testify the rich technological baggage of the Neanderthals.

INSIGHT: BLADE PRODUCTION

An occasional blade production is recorded in Middle Paleolithic contexts associated with Neanderthals. However, it is with the arrival of Homo sapiens that the laminar method spreads extensively across Europe. Since then, although sometimes accompanied by or rarely surpassed by other operational sequences, laminar working has been the main method of flint knapping until the end of the Middle Bronze Age, when the use of flint tools is largely abandoned. During this long time span, countless variants have been implemented, using different techniques with hard or soft stone hammers, deer antler, hardwood, indirect percussion, and pressure. Even within the same concept of laminar processing, there is a transition from the large direct percussion blades of the Magdalenian (Upper Paleolithic) to the microliths of the Sauveterrean (Early Mesolithic) or blades longer than 30 cm produced by specialized craftsmen using lever pressure in certain flint extraction areas of particularly high quality starting from the Early Neolithic.

NEANDERTHAL IN BERICI HILLS: Territory, supplies, movement of manufactured goods between and beyond the borders

The first human presence in the Berici Mountains dates back to about 200,000 years ago, when the Grotto of San Bernardino was frequented by Neanderthals. In the following times and up to about 43 thousand years ago, these groups settled in other caves and shelters, on limestone shelves, hunting prey of different environments also in relation to major climate changes: megaceres, deer, roe Elk, bison and aurochs, ibex and some wild boar, but also beavers in the river plain in front of it. For the full exploitation of these animal resources, as well as for the recovery and possible processing of plant tissue, Neanderthals used tools on splinters made by known chipping methods, like the Levallois, the Quina or the Discoide. These deep-rooted technological knowledge were integrated with precise information on the availability of flint in the territory between the Eastern Berici, the Western Euganei and the central Lessini Mountains, Repeatedly visited for the selection, processing and circulation of blocks, nodules and tools of various uses. The artefacts exhibited in the side showcase provide a representation, although partial, of these georisorse, attesting to the use of varieties contained in the carbonatic formations of the Mesozoic, mainly, and the Cenozoic to a lesser extent. The marked reduction in size of non-local flint tools, subjected to a greater degree of exploitation, with continuous revitalization of their functional edges.

CREDITS

COORDINATION
Municipality of Barbarano Mossano

RESEARCH, TEXTS, CONTENT
Stefano Bertola
Nicolò Fasser
Nicola Dal Santo
Marco Peresani

ART DIRECTION, GRAPHICS AND VIDEO
Francesco Marangoni

D.O.P.
Alberto Marangoni

DRONE
Mauro Migliari

INVENTORY OF FINDS
Nicola Dal Santo
Rachele Discosti

SIGNATORIES TO THE SCIENTIFIC PROJECT
Stefano Bertola
Nicola Dal Santo
Francesco Marangoni
Marco Peresani
Ambra Tosetto

SUPERINTENDENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND FINE ARTS
LANDSCAPE FOR THE PROVINCES OF VERONA, ROVIGO AND VICENZA
Fabrizio Magani Superintendent
Gabriella Bologna
Giulia Pelucchini
Paola Salzani

MUNICIPALITY OF VICENZA
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
Viviana Frisone

TOOLS OF THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC

Compared to the previous Middle Paleolithic, the Upper Paleolithic saw a radical change in tools, which can be interpreted as the abandonment of the priority given to multifunctional scrapers. The material culture represented by the flint, bone, and antler tools created by early Homo sapiens marks a significant evolutionary leap in Paleolithic technologies, which correlates with changes involving the economy, hunting strategies, and other aspects such as the use of ornamental objects and artistic production. An innovation is the systematic and often exclusive mass production of blades and bladelets, whose sharp and regular edges, as well as their sizes, appear standardized. These are tools that facilitate gripping and, with modifications, also allow for hafting, providing prolonged use over time. Other innovations relate to domestic tools, enriched and specialized for all types of processing through scrapers, burins, backed knives, perforators, and others. Scrapers are one of the most typical tools: made from blades, these tools have a retouched edge, which can be renewed, making them ideal for working leather. The burins have edges capable of engraving bone, antler, and stone, widening holes, or scraping hard materials. Retouched blades are equipped with regular, robust edges designed for cutting or sawing. Finally, remarkable is the range of armatures used in hunting activities. These are small objects of various shapes, such as points and geometric elements (triangles, rectangles, segments of circles), modified with marginal adjustments (retouches), aimed at improving their penetrating properties and fitting them into projectiles.

In-depth Analysis: Indirect Percussion

Indirect percussion emerged in Italy and the rest of Europe during the Late Mesolithic, between the end of the Boreal period and the beginning of the Atlantic phase (approximately 9,000–8,800 years ago). The introduction of this technique is linked to the cultural phenomenon of the “blade-and-trapeze complexes,” which characterize the Late Mesolithic across much of Europe. Thanks to indirect percussion, often combined with pressure flaking, the lithic industries of this period are distinguished by highly regular blades and bladelets with parallel edges. Notable examples include notched and denticulated blades used for working wood or other hard materials such as bone and antler. However, it is the transformation of arrowheads that stands out most prominently. These were typically geometric in shape, predominantly trapezoidal, though rhomboidal or triangular shapes were also less commonly produced. These geometric forms were crafted by selecting bladelets of optimal flaking quality and segmenting them using the microburin technique.

GEORESOURCES IN THE BERICI HILLS

They have quite varied compositional, mineralogical, and mechanical characteristics. The stratified limestones of the Scaglia Rossa contain flint nodules that were sought after and exploited in ancient and recent Prehistory to make flint tools; in modern times, these limestones have been quarried for lime production. The Eocene and Oligocene platform rocks have characteristic fossil associations from shallow marine environments, with calcareous algae, bryozoans, echinoderms, and benthic foraminifera. These are studied by geologists for detailed paleogeographical and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. They are easily workable because they are soft and porous, and have been quarried since Roman times as building or ornamental stones. Commercially, they are known as Vicenza stone and Nanto stone, a brand recognized worldwide. In the hilly area, mineral deposits of bentonite, kaolin, refractory minerals, and silica sands have also been locally cultivated.

In-depth study:
The microbulino technique

The microburin first appeared at the end of the Upper Paleolithic and became quite common during the Early Mesolithic, coinciding with the spread of microlithic geometric arrowheads. In Late Mesolithic, the standardization of trapezoidal armatures made this technique even more relevant. In Northern Italy, the microburin technique was still present in most Early Neolithic contexts and persisted throughout the early phase of the Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture, until approximately 6,700 years ago. During this period, the microburin fell out of use, as geometric armatures were abandoned in favor of more elaborate flat retouched arrowheads.