Prehistoric Italy
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The prehistory of Italy began in the
Paleolithic
In prehistoric times, the
The arrival of the first known
The presence of
In 2011 the most ancient Sardinian complete human skeleton (called Amsicora) was discovered at Pistoccu, in Marina di Arbus; scientists date it to 8500 years ago (the transition period between the Mesolithic and Neolithic).[4]
Neolithic
Impressed Ware is found in the zone "covering Italy to the Ligurian coast" as distinct from the more western Cardial beginning in Provence, France and extending to western Portugal.
This pottery style gives its name to the main culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic, which eventually extended from the
Since the Late-Neolithic,
Copper Age
The
The earliest
The Bell Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolithic and the early Bronze Age.
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Bell Beaker culture ceramic vessel
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Anthropomorphic stele from St-Martin-de-Corléans, Bell Beaker culture
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Engravings of Remedello-type daggers at Valcamonica
Bronze Age
The Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods:
The Early Bronze Age | 2300–1700 B.C |
The Middle Bronze Age | 1700–1350 B.C |
The Recent Bronze Age | 1350–1150 B.C |
The Final Bronze Age | 1150–950 B.C |
The Early Bronze Age shows the beginning of a new culture in Northern Italy and is distinguished by the Polada culture. Polada settlements were mainly widespread in wetland locations such as around the large lakes and hills along the Alpine margin. The cities of Toppo Daguzzo and La Starza were known as the center of the Proto-Apennine stage of Palma Campania culture spread in southern Italy at this time.[12]
The Middle Bronze Age known as the Apennine Bronze Age in Central and Southern Italy was the period when settlements were established both on lowland and upland areas. Hierarchy among the social groups were experienced during this period according to the tombs. The two-tier grave found at Toppo Daguzzo is an example of elite groups growth. On the top level, nearly 10 fractured skeletons have been found without any grave objects, while at the lower level eleven burials were found accompanied by different valuable pieces: 6 males with bronze weapons, 4 females with beads and a child.[12][13] The Middle Bronze Age in Northern Italy was characterised by the Terramare culture.
The Recent Bronze Age known as the Sub-Apennine period in Central Italy is a frame of time when sites relocated to defended locations. At this time settlement hierarchy obviously appeared in cities such as Latium and Tuscany.[12]
The Final Bronze Age. During this period, the majority of the Italian peninsula was united in the Protovillanovan culture. Pianello di Genga is an exception to the small cemeteries characterized for the Protovillanovan culture. More than 500 burials were found in this cemetery which is known for its two centuries of usage by different communities.[12][14]
Polada culture
The Polada Culture (a location near Brescia) was a cultural horizon extended from eastern Lombardy and Veneto to Emilia and Romagna, formed in the first half of 2nd millennium BC perhaps for the arrival of new people from the transalpine regions of Switzerland and Southern Germany.[15]
The settlements were usually made up of
It was followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements.[17]
Nuragic civilization
Located in Sardinia (with ramifications in southern Corsica), the Nuragic civilization, who lasted from the early Bronze Age (18th century B.C.) to the second century A.D. when the island was already Romanized, evolved during the Bonnanaro period from the preexisting megalithic cultures that built dolmens, menhirs, more than 2,400 Domus de Janas and also the imponent altar of Monte d'Accoddi.
It takes its name from the characteristic Nuraghe. The nuraghe towers are unanimously considered the best-preserved and largest megalithic remains in Europe. Their effective use is still debated; while most scholars considered them as fortresses, others see them as temples.
A warrior and mariner people, the ancient Sardinians held flourishing trades with the other Mediterranean peoples. This is shown by numerous remains contained in the nuraghe, such as amber coming from the Baltic Sea, small bronze figures portraying African beasts, oxhide ingots and weapons from Eastern Mediterranean, Mycenaean ceramics. It has been hypothesized that the ancient Sardinians, or part of them, could be identified with the Sherden, one of the so-called People of the Sea who attacked ancient Egypt and other regions of eastern Mediterranean.[18]
Other original elements of the Sardinian civilization include the temples known as "Holy wells", dedicated to the cult of the holy waters, the Giants' graves,[19] the Megaron temples, several structures for juridical and leisure functions and numerous bronze statuettes, which were discovered even in Etruscan tombs, suggesting a strong relationships between the two peoples. Another important element of this civilization are the
Sicily
Among the most important cultural expressions born in Sicily during the Bronze Age the cultures of
Some small monuments date back to this phase, used as tombs and found almost everywhere, both inland and along the coasts of this region.[21]
Belonging to a western (Iberian-Sardinian) type is the
The nearby Aeolian Islands hosted the flourishing of the Capo Graziano and Milazzo cultures in the Bronze Age, and subsequently that of Ausonio (divided into two phases, I and II).[23]
Palma Campania culture
Palma Campania culture takes shape at the end of the third millennium BC and is representative of the Early Bronze Age of Campania. It owes its name to the locality of Palma Campania where the first findings were made.
Many villages of this culture were buried under volcanic ash after an eruption of the Mount Vesuvius that took place in the 2000 BC or shortly later.[24]
Apennine culture
The Apennine culture is a cultural complex of central and southern Italy that, in its broadest sense (including the preceding Protoapennine B and following Subapennine facies), spans the Bronze Age. In the narrower sense more commonly used today, it refers only to the later phase of the Middle Bronze Age in the 15th and 14th centuries BCE.[25]
The people of the Apennine culture were, at least in part, cattle herdsmen grazing their ungulates over the meadows and groves of mountainous central Italy, including on the Capitoline Hill at Rome, as shown by the presence of their pottery in the earliest layers of occupation. The primary picture is of a population that lived in small hamlets located in defensible places. There is evidence that herdsmen, when traveling between summer pastures, built temporary camps or lived in caves and rock shelters. However, their range was not confined to the hills, nor was their culture confined to herding cattle, as shown by sites like Coppa Nevigata, a well-defended and somewhat sizeable coastal site where a variety of subsistence strategies were practiced alongside advanced industries such as dye production.
Terramare
The Terramare was a Middle and Recent
Around the 12th century BC the Terramare system collapsed, the settlements were abandoned and the populations moved southward, where they mingled with the Apennine peoples.[26] The influence of this population abandoning the Po valley and moving south may have formed the basis of the
Castellieri
The Castellieri culture developed in
The ethnicity of the Castellieri civilization is uncertain, although it was most likely of Pre-Indoeuropean stock, coming from the sea. The first Castellieri were indeed built along the Istrian coast and show a similar
The Castellieri were fortified settlements, usually located on hills or mountains or, more rarely (such as in Friuli), in plains. They were constituted by one or more concentric series of walls, of rounded or elliptical shape in Istria and Venezia Giulia, or quadrangular in Friuli, within which was the inhabited area.
Some hundred Castellieri have been discovered in Istria, Friuli, and Venezia Giulia, such as that of Leme, in west-central Istria, of Elerji, near Muggia, of Monte Giove near Prosecco (Trieste) and San Polo, not far from Monfalcone. However, the largest castelliere was perhaps that of Nesactium, in southern Istria, not far from Pula.
Canegrate culture
The
Canegrate terracotta is very similar to that known from the same period north to the Alps (Provence, Savoy, Isère,
Proto-Villanovan culture
It was a culture of the end of the Bronze Age (12th-10th century BC), widespread in much of the
Luco-Meluno culture
The Luco-Meluno culture originated in the transition period between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age and occupied Trentino and part of South Tyrol. It was succeeded, in the Iron Age, by the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture.
Iron Age
Villanova culture
The name of this
The main characteristic of the Villanovans (with some similarities with the so-called Proto-Villanovan period of the late Bronze Age) were the cremation burials, in which the deceased's ashes were housed in bi-conical urns and buried. The burial characteristics relate the Villanovan culture to the Central European Urnfield culture (c. 1300–750 BC), and Hallstatt culture (which succeeded the Urnfield culture).
The Villanovans were initially devoted to agriculture and animal husbandry, with a simplified social order. Later, specialized craftsmanship activities such as metallurgy and ceramics created an accumulation of richness, which caused the appearance of social stratification.
Latial culture
The Latial culture ranged approximately over ancient Old Latium. The Iron Age Latial culture coincided with the arrival in the region of a people who spoke Old Latin. The culture was likely therefore to identify a phase of the socio-political self-consciousness of the Latin tribe, during the period of the kings of Alba Longa and the foundation of the Roman Kingdom.
Este culture
The
Golasecca culture
The Golasecca culture developed starting from the early
Their origins can be directly traced from that of Canegrate and to the so-called Proto-Golasecca culture (12th–10th centuries BC). The Golasecca culture traded with the
In a Golasecca culture tomb in
Fritzens-Sanzeno culture
The Fritzens-Sanzeno culture is attested in the late Iron Age, from the sixth to the first century BC, in the Alpine region of Trentino and South Tyrol; in the period of maximum expansion it reached also the Engadin region.
The Camuni
The
They reached the height of their power during the Iron Age due to the presence of numerous iron mills in Val Camonica. Their historical importance is, however, mostly due to their legacy of carved rocks, c. 300,000 in number, which date from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages.
Pre-Roman period
Among the populations of pre-Roman Italy, the most notable were the
Other peoples living in northern Italy include the
Later, other peoples settled in the Italian territory, cohabiting with the previous inhabitants: new tribes of
See also
Notes
- ^ "Erano padani i primi abitanti d'Italia". National Geographic (in Italian). 20 January 2012. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ 42.7–41.5 ka (1σ CI). Katerina Douka et al., A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy), Journal of Human Evolution 62(2), 19 December 2011, 286–299, .
- ^ John Noble, Wilford (2 November 2011). "Fossil Teeth Put Humans in Europe Earlier Than Thought". New York Times. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ "Stone Pages Archaeo News: Found Amsicora: the oldest Sardinian". www.stonepages.com. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ "Impressed Ware Culture". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
- ^ A. Gilman, 1974, Neolithic of Northwest Africa, Antiquity,vol 48, no. 192, pp 273-282.
- ^ "Artepreistorica.com | MEGALITISMO DOLMENICO DEL SUD-EST ITALIA NELL´ETA´ DEL BRONZO". Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ S. Piccolo, Ancient Stones..., op.cit., pp. 31 onwards.
- ^ "Monte Loreto. Fourth-millennium cal BC mineshaft (ML6)". Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ "La società dell'età del Rame nell'area alpina e prealpina. (2013)". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ "Museo delle Statue Stele Lunigianesi - Le statue stele in Italia e in Europa". Archived from the original on 13 May 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ ISBN 0684806681. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2019.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ "The Italian Bronze Age | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
- ^ "ITALIA".
- ^ Bietti Sestieri 2010, p. 21.
- ^ "Treccani - La cultura italiana | Treccani, il portale del sapere". www.treccani.it. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ Bietti Sestieri 2010, p. 31.
- ^ Delia Guasco 2006, p. 118.
- ^ Delia Guasco 2006, p. 66-67.
- ^ Delia Guasco 2006, p. 69.
- ^ Piccolo, Salvatore. "The Dolmens of Sicily". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ "Siculi nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". www.treccani.it. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ "SICILIA in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". www.treccani.it. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
- ^ Facies culturale di Palma Campania(in Italian)
- ^ Bietti Sestieri 2010, p. 128.
- ^ a b c Cardarelli, Andrea. "The Collapse of the Terramare Culture and growth of new economic and social System during the late Bronze Age in Italy". Retrieved 14 March 2023 – via www.academia.edu.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Bietti Sestieri 2010, p. 78.
- ^ Bietti Sestieri 2010, p. 60.
- ISBN 978-88-8289-851-9
- ^ Di Maio, 1998.
- ^ Treccani, Protovillanoviano
- ^ J.P.Mallory, D.Q. Adams - "Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture" pg.183-184 "Este culture".
- ^ Delia Guasco 2006, p. 64.
Sources
- Armstrong, Jeremy; Rhodes-Schroder, Aaron (2023). Adoption, adaptation, and innovation in pre-Roman Italy: paradigms for cultural change. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN 9782503602325.
- Il Saggiatore (casa editrice).
- Buti, G. Gianna-Devoto, Giacomo (1974), Preistoria e storia delle regioni d'Italia, Sansoni Università.
- Bietti Sestieri, Anna Maria (2010). L'Italia nell'età del bronzo e del ferro: dalle palafitte a Romolo (2200-700 a.C.) (in Italian). Carocci. ISBN 978-88-430-5207-3.
- Guasco, Delia (2006). Popoli italici: l'Italia prima di Roma (in Italian). Giunti. ISBN 978-88-09-04062-5.
- Peroni, Renato (2004). L'Italia alle soglie della Storia, Editori Laterza, ISBN 9788842072409.
- Piccolo, Salvatore (2013). Ancient Stones: The Prehistoric Dolmens of Sicily. Abingdon/GB, Brazen Head Publishing, ISBN 9780956510624.