Le risorse litiche della Lombardia Occidentale: formazioni geologiche, modalità di acquisizione e circuiti di approvvigionamento tra Paleolitico e Neolitico

Western Lombardy is a relatively homogeneous territory, both from a physiogeographic and a
morpho-structural point of view and it is characterized, all along the Prealps, by a general abundance
of flint-bearing geological formations, which very often contains high-quality lithic raw materials.
In spite of this very promising scenario for lithic raw material analysis, most of the previous
researches paid little attention to the cultural implications of the circulation of lithic materials in
prehistoric times. At the same time, in some cases the non-systematic nature of the previous
researches led to a general underestimation of the importance of the lithic resources of this area when
compared to other better known regions (ex. Veneto, Trentino).
Preliminary data collected by two distinct research groups, one active in the provinces of Como and
Lecco and the other in the area of the Varese lakes2, allowed to outline a first synthetic picture of the
various Jurassic-Cretaceous flint-bearing formations. These show some lateral variations in the two
areas investigated, which has to be related to the paleotopography of this sector of the Lombardy
Basin, characterized by differentiated deep basins and pelagic structural highs, bounded by
synsedimentary faults that ruled facial distribution.