habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

CENSUS OF ROCKY SITES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREACRHIMA-CINP projectUp to now, this work allowed to collect a noticeable documentationon 1943 rocky sites in 31 countries in the Mediterraneanarea (see Table 1).In this first phase of the census project, the differences in thesite number reported for each country does not depend on thereal quantity of the rocky structures existing in each country,but, rather, it is conditioned by the availability and the kind ofthe collected data. Clearly, this fact implies that the areas thathave been well investigated, or for which there has been aneasy access to documentary sources, appear over-representedwith respect to regions which possess as many, if not more,rocky sites of interest. For example, Armenia and Georgia,lands extremely rich in artificial cavities, are poorly represented,since they have not been the object of serious researchprojects. Therefore, the lack of studies for certain areas and,conversely, the intense activity in other territories, misrepresentthe data ensemble in the current status of the census.Besides, it is important to stress which has been the choice inthe definition of “rocky site”, a factor that substantially affectsdata recording and the number of sites reported in the census.Every site identifies a rocky settlement, considered as a wholewith all the cavities related to it. For example, the Sassi ofMatera have been reported as one site, even if they consist ofthousands of dwellings dug in the tuff, subdivided in variousgroups and units. Of course a site may also correspond to asingle rocky structure when it is isolated in the territory.The cardsThe census project has required the preparation of specialcards, consisting of various entries, to be compiled for each site.Fig. 1 Map of rupestrian sites of the Mediterranean (Società Speleologica Italiana - Commissione Nazionale Cavità Artifi ciali). Realization: M. Mainetti,2000/Updating: M. Mainetti 2007/Optimization: R. Bixio, 2012.volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 90 16/11/2012 15:01:42