Archaeological and geophysical studies in the cave La Sassa (Lazio, Italy)

We give an overview of the ongoing investigations of the karstic cave La Sassa (municipality of Sonnino, Lazio, Italy), where archaeological remains were first discovered by in 2014. The cave was mapped in 2014 and 2015, during which Bronze Age pottery and bone fragments were found. A human tibia fragment was radiocarbon dated to the Copper Age. A first excavation was conducted in the summer of 2016 by a joint research team of archaeologists of the GIA and the Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, hoping to find evidence for profound demographic and cultural change following the Vesuvius eruption of ca. 1900 BC. Additionally, experimental geophysical work was carried out in search of a possibly collapsed entrance tunnel. The excavations continued in the summer of 2017. We here present the preliminary results of the 2016 excavations and geophysical measurements, and look ahead to future investigations of the cave