Una sepoltura preistorica nella Grotta di Pietra Sant’Angelo (San Lorenzo Bellizzi). Aspetti archeologici e antropologici.

The Pietra Sant’Angelo cave is located in the homonymous rocky massif in the municipality of San Lorenzo Bellizzi (Cosenza). Identified in 1978 by the speleological group ‘Sparviere’, the archaeological exploration of the site was initiated in 2017, confirming the archaeological potential of the deposit inside the cave with the discovery of a burial in perfect anatomical connection at the entrance of the cave. The excavation of the burial made it possible to define the depositional characteristics of the deceased, who was of oval morphology and buried in shallow burial in open ground, the skeleton being perfectly preserved. The burial was without grave goods, but had stones placed on the body of the deceased. The deceased was deposited in an east-west position with hyperflexed legs and the maxilla and mandible strongly closed, resting on the ground. The anthropological analysis led to the identification of a male individual of about 30-35 years. Most of the information was derived by the dentition, which is complete and with particular wear on the anterior teeth and on the upper and lower first molars, probably connected with a paramasticatory activity of the teeth. The characteristics of the deposition together with the archaeological context recorded in the stratigraphic deposits of the cave have led to the identification of the inhumation burial as probably belonging to the ancient Neolithic period.