Red Radiolarite Availability in Western Liguria? A Challenging Enigma from Ortovero (Savona, Liguria, Northern Italy)

The authors present a new prehistoric site recently discovered at Ortovero, near Albenga (Savona Province, Italy) in Western Liguria that can be attributed on typological grounds to the Final Epigravettian or to the Sauveterrian. The raw-material characteristics of the chipped stone artefacts resemble those stemming from the red radiolarite outcrops of Eastern Liguria, although the large number of pieces manufactured from this material and the distance from the supposed sources challenge this hypothesis. As a result of field surveys carried out over the last few years, the authors discuss the possibility of a formerly unknown source of vitreous red-coloured radiolarite outcropping in the surroundings of the site that may correspond to the Arnasco radiolarite formation outcropping near Ortovero