Alla soglia del gesto: sequenze operative in incisioni su ciottolo del Neolitico antico della Sardegna

During the past 20 years, an unusual production of deeply engraved pebbles has been reported from a few open-air sites in central-western Sardinia. Such engravings normally appear to replicate the same patterns. In the lack of reliable stratigraphic associations to this kind of artefacts, preliminary analyses of the respective archaeological contexts have led to ascribe their production to the Early Neolithic.In order to ensure an interpretation to the complex, iterated technical gestures made to the purpose of carving these signs, we applied an integrated experimental procedure combining a traceological investigation with a newly-applied micro-GIS analysis. In the first place, this study aimed at identifying the articulated gestural sequences that lie behind each group of carvings. Secondly, we sought the possible presence of operational constants correlated with any functional repetitiveness of the patterns. The general goal of this research is to provide an interpretive hypothesis for the aim of the marks and, in the final analysis, for the aimed function of the whole artefacts.