Prehistoric Italy

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

The Bell Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolithic and the early Bronze Age.

• 
  Bell Beaker culture ceramic vessel
• 
  Anthropomorphic stele from St-Martin-de-Corléans, Bell Beaker culture
• 
  Engravings of Remedello-type daggers at Valcamonica

Bronze Age

The Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods:

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

The Castellieri culture developed in

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

Proto-Villanovan culture

It was a culture of the end of the Bronze Age (12th-10th century BC), widespread in much of the

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

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

• Italic languages

Notes