The paradoxical pattern of the Mesolithic evidence in Liguria: piecing together the puzzle.

Several open-air Mesolithic sites are known, mainly located on the rugged eastern bank. All of them are surface collections of chipped artefacts doubtfully attributed, only on techno-typological grounds, to the Sauveterrian or to the Castelnovian. However none of them provided any biostratigraphical context; therefore archaeobotanical and archaezoological data are completely missing, as well as any C14 dating. Conversely, any Mesolithic industry is lacking in the few sites where some lower Holo-cene/early Atlantic environment insights and C14 datings are available. The strong gap between dates and cultural evidence underlines a patchy and paradoxical regional pattern.

Sono note diverse stazioni mesolitiche di superficie, prevalentemente concentrate in Liguria orien-tale, le quali hanno restituito manufatti attribuibili, in modo dubitativo e solo su base tecno-tipolog-ica, al Sauveterriano e al Castelnoviano. Non sono noti siti mesolitici stratificati e datati, contenenti chiare evidenze culturali. Le uniche datazioni attribuibili a questa fase provengono da depositi di interesse archeologico-ambientale, privi di manufatti caratteristici. La dicotomia tra datazioni ed evidenze culturali rende quindi la situazione ligure lacunosa e paradossale