Late Stone Age and Bronze Age Italy | Early European History And Religion

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NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE PEOPLE IN ITALY

Italian daggers from the Bronze Age (1800-1500 BC)

David Silverman of Reed College wrote: “It is important to understand that terms such as Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age translate into hard dates only with reference to a particular region or peoples. In other words, it makes sense to say that the Greek Bronze Age begins before the Italian Bronze Age. Classifying people according to the stage which they have reached in working with and making tools from hard substances such as stone or metal turns out to be a convenient rubric for antiquity. Of course it is not always the case that every Iron Age people is more than advanced in respects other than metalworking (such as letters or governmental structures) than the Bronze Age folk who preceded them. [Source: David Silverman, Reed College, Classics 373 ~ History 393 Class ^*^]

“If you read in the literature on Italian prehistory, you find that there is a profusion of terms to designate chronological phases: Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age I, Middle Bronze Age II, and so forth. It can be bewildering, and it is damnably difficult to pin these phases to absolute dates. The reason is not hard to discover: when you are dealing with prehistory, all dates are relative rather than absolute. Pottery does not come out of the ground stamped 1400 BC. The chart on the screen, synthesized from various sources, represents a consensus of sorts and can serve us as a working model. ^*^

“It first became clear in 1943-1945, from aerial photos taken for military purposes, that there had been prehistoric habitation in Italy in the Tavoliere (Northern Apulia). Since then a much fuller picture of Prehistoric Italy has emerged. The essential characteristics of the Neolithic settlements indicate that the people led similar lives to those of the Neolithic people in Greece and elsewhere in Europe. The main type of dwelling was a circular hut, with a sunken floor, a central hearth for both heating and cooking, and a smoke-hole in the top of the wattle-and-daub roof. The people lacked any sort of metal tools and did not practice weaving; their knives and axes were of stone and their clothing consisted of animal skins. Their primary means of subsistence was foraging and hunting. Like their counterparts in other parts of Europe, they carved in stone, and their carvings include a high proportion of the "steatopygous" female type.

“The Chalkolithic Age is a transitional period between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. This period sees the earliest examples of metalworking in Italy. Because metalworking had begun several hundred years earlier in central Europe, there is an a priori assumption that the transition reflects the ingress into Italy of new groups of people from the north. As so often with Italic prehistory, though, the picture is less than neat. Copper workers appear in Etruria (Tuscany) and further to the north and east in the valley of the Po River. But they also show up, at around the same time, at Paestum on the western coast of Italy, south of Naples. One hypothesis which could account for this is that the metalworkers at Paestum had come by sea, while those in the north had crossed the Alps.

“Around 1800 B.C. Italians discovered the benefits of smelting tin and copper together to make bronze. Again we come up against the unanswerable question of whence this knowledge came. The Greeks had been working bronze for some 500 years. And indeed there were extensive contacts between the Mycenaean Greeks and the Italians. Notably, two trading posts (scholars are reluctant to call them colonies because that word is heavily loaded with ideological baggage) have been excavated, one at Scoglio del Tonno in the heel of Italy near Tarentum, and another substantial Mycenaean settlement a bit further away at Lipari, in the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. Mycenaean pottery has been found at sites all over Italy, including Rome. But the archaeological record does not indicate any Mycenaean presence much before the start of Middle Bronze Age II (around 1400). So it is highly unlikely that the Greeks taught the Italians bronzeworking. Again the instinct of most scholars has been to fall back upon an invasion or immigration hypothesis, predicated on the assumption that every major cultural shift at this stage in history represents the movement of an ethnically distinct people. Yet that assumption is not secure, and increasingly we find archaeologists preferring to think in terms of native innovation.”

10,000-Year-Old Burial of an Infant Girl in Italy

In 2022, Archaeology magazine reported: A baby girl who died 10,000 years ago was very young when she perished, but she was buried with great care. Dental analysis suggests the girl only lived about 40 or 50 days before being laid to rest in a shallow pit in Arma Veirana Cave in Liguria. She was wrapped in a garment adorned with more than 60 shell beads and pendants. This rare Mesolithic female infant burial is believed to be the earliest of its kind found in Europe. [Source: Archaeology Magazine, March 2022]

The remains of a Mesolithic girl were deposited in a shallow pit in the Arma Veirana Cave in Liguria, in northwest Italy, around 10,000 years ago. The discovery was noteworthy not only for its antiquity, but also because archaeologists found around 90 perforated shell beads and four large pendants in the girl’s grave. Using a variety of techniques, including 3-D photogrammetry and micro-CT scanning, the researchers have been able to re-create the layout of the child’s burial. The arrangement of the beads around the body suggests that they were sewn onto a garment that was wrapped around the baby’s body before she was interred. When she was alive, this garment likely functioned as a carrier or sling that would have allowed her parents to remain mobile—a necessity for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers—while keeping her close. “Archaeological traces of such an object are very difficult to gather, as a sling would need to be light and thus was likely made from materials that do not preserve well over time,” says Arizona State University archaeologist Claudine Gravel-Miguel. [Source: Jason Urbanus, Archaeology Magazine, January/February 2023

The beads and pendants may have served as amulets meant to protect the infant. The ornaments’ worn condition suggests that they were not made specifically for the baby, whose teeth indicate that she only lived for between 40 and 50 days, but had been used by the community for a considerable period of time. The archaeologists theorize that, because the carrier and pendants failed to protect the child, they were discarded and interred along with her remains so they couldn’t be reused in the future.

Couple Still Hugging 6,000 Years After Their Death in Italy

Lovers of Valdaro

In 2007, Reuters reported: Call it the eternal embrace. Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other.“It’s an extraordinary case,” said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova. “There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging.” [Source: Reuters, February 8, 2007]

Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down. “I must say that when we discovered it, we all became very excited. I’ve been doing this job for 25 years. I’ve done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites,” she told Reuters. “But I’ve never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special.”

The couple became known as The Lovers of Valdaro, or Valdaro Lovers. They were discovered by archaeologists at a Neolithic tomb in San Giorgio near Mantua, Italy, in 2007. The two individuals were buried face to face with their arms around each other, in a position reminiscent of a "lovers' embrace". The pair are a male and female no older than 20 years old at death and approximately 1.57 meters (5 foot 2 inches) in height. The male skeleton was found with a flint arrowhead near the neck. The female had a long flint blade along the thigh, plus two flint knives under the pelvis. Osteological examination found no evidence of violent death, no fractures, and no microtrauma, so the most likely explanation is the flint tools were buried along with the people as grave goods. They are now on permanently displayed inside a glass case in the National Archaeological Museum of Mantua, which is within the perimeter of the Ducal palace of Mantua. [Source: Wikipedia]

7,000-Year-Old Canoes Found in Italy — the Oldest Boats Ever Found in the Mediterranean

Five canoes found at the bottom of a lake in Italy were used more than 7,000 years ago for fishing and transport by people living in a Neolithic village near what is now Rome. Archaeologists discovered the boats at La Marmotta, a prehistoric coastal settlement that is now under Lake Bracciano, while conducting ongoing excavations, according to a study published on March 20, 2024 in the journal PLOS One. The large dugout canoes — which were constructed of alder, oak, poplar and European beech — were built between 5700 and 5100 B.C., radiocarbon dating revealed. The boats are the oldest ever found in the Mediterranean, according to a statement. [Source: Jennifer Nalewicki, Live Science, March 21, 2024]

"One of the smallest [boats] was probably used for fishing," study co-author Mario Mineo, an archaeologist and director coordinator at the Museum of Civilization in Rome, told Live Science. "The two largest measured almost 11 meters long by 1.2 meters wide [36 feet by 4 feet] and it is probable that — thanks also to the easy access to the Tyrrhenian coast via the Arrone river — they could have been used for further trade."

Sean Kingsley, the editor-in-chief of Wreckwatch magazine, told Live Science that Neolithic seafaring technology was exemplified by five canoes from the submerged "La Marmotta" site. Each canoe was more than 10 meters (34 feet) long and there are indications at least one was fitted with sails. "These craft may have sailed the Mediterranean, perhaps with two canoes strapped together to form catamarans, which could carry up to five [metric tonnes, or 5.5 tons] of cargo," Kingsley said. [Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, November 23, 2023]

5000-Year-Old Carved Obsidian from Neolithic Shipwreck Found Near Capri's 'Blue Grotto'

In November 2023, divers from the Naples Police underwater unit recovered a block of obsidian from the remains of what is likely a Neolithic, or New Stone Age shipwreck within of the famous Blue Grotto. near the island of Capri. The book-size, natural-glass block weighed about eight kilograms (17.6 pounds). There were visible signs of chiseling on its surface, and archaeologists think it was an obsidian "core" that would have been used to make sharp-edged flakes for cutting. The divers recovered the artifact the seafloor at a depth of between 30 and 40 meters (100 and 130 feet) according to a statement from Italy's Ministry of Culture.[Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, November 23, 2023]

Tom Metcalfe wrote in Live Science: The obsidian core is the first artifact from the wreck to be recovered, but others are expected to be found in the same area. Archaeologists think the natural glass was once part of a cargo carried on a vessel during the Neolithic period, more than 5,000 years ago. However, the watercraft itself is unlikely to be found, as wood that old usually rots away. The archaeologists involved praised the expertise of the police divers, noting that the site lies in relatively deep water that made archaeological investigation and recovery difficult.

Obsidian is a dense black glass found in cooled lava. It fractures into pieces with sharp edges and was used in ancient times to make cutting and piercing tools. It's not yet known where this obsidian originated, but there are deposits of it on some volcanic islands of the Mediterranean, including the offshore islands of Palmarola, near Naples, and Lipari, near Sicily. Maritime archaeologist Kingsleysaid the obsidian could have been intended for trade but may also have been used for making ritual items, like those found in Capri's Neolithic Grotta delle Felci.

Capo Alfiere, a Typical Neolithic Site in Italy

Capo Alfiere

Jon Morter of the University of Texas wrote: “Capo Alfiere is the name of a Neolithic site located on a small headland on the eastern coast of Calabria. Archaeological excavations at the site were conducted by a team from the University of Texas in the summers of 1987 and 1990. The digging was directed by Jon Morter. The work is part of a broad study of the landscape of the territory of the Classical Greek colonial city of Kroton (modern Crotone) under the supervision of Prof. Joe Carter. [Source: Jon Morter, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Texas at Austin ]

“The excavations have revealed the surviving portions of a stratified deposit dating to the Middle Neolithic period. Two main strata have been defined to date, each with sub-phases. The majority of the pottery appears to be of the Stentinello tradition, a type first defined in eastern Sicily by Paolo Orsi at the end of the last century. Other finds include both ground and chipped stone objects. A large floral and faunal assemblage is currently under analysis at the Laboratorio per Bioarcheologia in Rome under the supervision of Dott. Lorenzo Costantini.

“We were fortunate in obtaining a series of radiocarbon dates from the site which give a general and broadly consistent picture of its overall date. Three dates from the upper stratum (5650+/-70 bp, 5450+/-60 bp, 5410+/-80 bp) date the hearth and the surface sealing it to the second half of the 5th millennium B.C., after calibration. There was no suitable carbon from stratum I so resort had to be made to dating with animal bone. This gave a date of 5950+/-100 bp, indicating a calibrated range towards the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C.

“These dates are interesting as they put the upper stratum rather late in the accepted range for Stentinello sites. The lack of ceramics attributable to the supposedly successive Serra d'Alto phase, and discovery of some closer to the purportedly Late Neolithic, Diana types, has led us to question the general applicability of the accepted southern Italian ceramic sequence hereabouts.”

Capo Alfiere Architecture and Artifacts

Jon Morter of the University of Texas wrote: “ The site's architectural remains are particularly interesting. These are best preserved in the upper stratum (II). Two stretches of an extremely large stone wall were discovered. These form an angle and appear to enclose the cobble floor of a house. We estimate that about 50% of the latter has survived. A reflooring of this structure had sealed a large quern and the stone-lined hearth of the hut, both features being built into the original cobble floor. The floor appears to have been about 4.8m on its surviving complete side and probably at least that long in the incomplete dimension. The corners of the paving are curved. The hearth was probably originally central to the structure and the large emplaced quern was beside it. A small portion of a similar pavement (from a structure now largely destroyed by recent agriculture) was found in the earlier stratum. [Source: Jon Morter, Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Texas at Austin ]

Capo Alfieri remains

“The massive walls are of a peculiar construction. A central core of large blocks was faced on one or both sides by large slabs set vertically. Unfortunately, due to plough damage, the large walls had not survived above the first course or two. Thus it is impossible to say with certainty how high they originally stood. As they are a metre or more thick, it seems logical that they originally stood quite high. There was considerable rock and daub tumble above the hut paving in the area delimited by the walls.

“Studies of the ceramics, lithics, floral and faunal collections from the site are still in progress, but some preliminary observations can be made. Stentinello ceramics are distinguished by their use of elaborate impressed and incised decorative design work. This seems to represent a divergence from the painted finewares produced elsewhere in the lower Italian peninsula at this time. At Capo Alfiere, there are definite differences between the Stentinello style ceramics from the upper and lower strata. The earlier material is more consistently black in colour and the finer decoration makes use of coloured pastes (ochres and calcium carbonate) in a variety of colours (yellow through red and also white) to enhance the decoration. The use of ochres seems to have fallen out of favour by the period of the upper stratum but the actual impressed designs are, if anything, more elaborate. The site has produced very little painted pottery; what there is seems to be on a distinct and possibly imported, fabric (Morter and Iceland 1995).

“Although the chipped stone artifacts from this site are not in of themselves particularly exciting technologically, being a fairly straightforward microblade industry, an examination of the raw materials used is very interesting. There appears to have been a shift in raw material usage or availability over time. The lithics from the lower stratum (I) contained 28% obsidian (by count), while the upper stratum had almost 67% obsidian. The balance of the lithic material was cherts and quartzites available fairly locally.

“This apparent increase in obsidian availability, only obtainable from Lipari by long distance exchange, may be signaling an increase in material traffic by the upper level. This may also be reflected in the discovery of a cache of large ground stone axes in that level — also probably derived from some distance from the site.

“Analysis of the floral and faunal remains from the 1990 excavations and hence the lower stratum is not quite complete. The recovery of floral remains from the upper stratum (II) has been good with a variety of wheats and barley represented plus a good selection of legumes and weeds (information provided by Dott. L. Costantini listed in Morter 1990). Although the proportion of identifiable animal bones is small, the collection has demonstrated a good selection of domesticate and some vermin (Scali 1990). Domesticated animals predominate over game as is typical for this period.”

reconstruction of prehistoric pile dwellings

Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps

According to UNESCO: “This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. Excavations, only conducted in some of the sites, have yielded evidence that provides insight into life in prehistoric times during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Alpine Europe and the way communities interacted with their environment. Fifty-six of the sites are located in Switzerland. The settlements are a unique group of exceptionally well-preserved and culturally rich archaeological sites, which constitute one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies in the region. [Source: UNESCO World Heritage Site website =]

“The series of 111 out of the 937 known archaeological pile-dwelling sites in six countries around the Alpine and sub-alpine regions of Europe is composed of the remains of prehistoric settlements situated under water, on lake shores, along rivers or in wetlands. The exceptional conservation conditions for organic materials provided by the waterlogged sites, combined with extensive under-water archaeological investigations and research in many fields of natural science, such as archaeobotany and archaeozoology, over the past decades, has combined to present an outstanding detailed perception of the world of early agrarian societies in Europe. The precise information on their agriculture, animal husbandry, development of metallurgy, over a period of more than four millennia, coincides with one of the most important phases of recent human history: the dawn of modern societies. =

“In view of the possibilities for the exact dating of wooden architectural elements by dendrochronology, the sites have provided exceptional archaeological sources that allow an understanding of entire prehistoric villages and their detailed construction techniques and spatial development over very long time periods. They also reveal details of trade routes for flint, shells, gold, amber, and pottery across the Alps and within the plains, transport evidence from dugout canoes and wooden wheels, some complete with axles for two wheeled carts dating from around 3,400BC, some of the earliest preserved in the world, and the oldest textiles in Europe dating to 3,000 B.C. This cumulative evidence has provided a unique insight into the domestic lives and settlements of some thirty different cultural groups in the Alpine lacustrine landscape that allowed the pile dwellings to flourish. =

Why the site is important: 1) The series of pile dwelling sites are one of the most important archaeological sources for the study of early agrarian societies in Europe between 5,000 and 500 B.C. The waterlogged conditions have preserved organic matter that contributes in an outstanding way to our understanding of significant changes in the Neolithic and Bronze Age history of Europe in general, and of the interactions between the regions around the Alps in particular. 2) The series of pile dwelling sites has provided an extraordinary and detailed insight into the settlement and domestic arrangements of pre-historic, early agrarian lake shore communities in the Alpine and sub-Alpine regions of Europe over almost 5,000 years. The revealed archaeological evidence allows an unique understanding of the way these societies interacted with their environment, in response to new technologies, and also to the impact of climate change. =

skeleton from the 1800 BC Vesuvius eruption

Bronze Age Site Near Pompeii

One of the world's best preserved Bronze Age villages was buried under ash, mud and debris, near Pompeii, from a catastrophic eruption and pyroclastic flow of Mt. Vesuvius known to have taken place between 1800 and 1750 B.C. The site was near the town of Nola, 7.5 miles from Vesuvius, during routine checks before construction.The Nola site contains molds of horseshoe-shaped building in reverse that are like casts made of victims of the Pompeii. The eruption occurred so quickly that people didn't have time to pack, and as a result items like drinking cups, jugs, cooking utensils, pots and hunting tools are believed to have been left pretty much where they were normally left in daily life. Interesting objects found at the Nola site include a hat decorated with wild boar teeth and pot waiting to be cooked on a kiln. Bones and plants remains indicate they kept pigs, sheep, cows and goats and raised grain.

In 2001, workers digging the foundation for a supermarket just outside the town of Nola found the site. The first clues to be found were pieces of burnt wood. Archaeologists were called in. Six meters below the surface they found a perfectly preserved Bronze Age village entombed like Pompeii under volcanic ash. The French archaeologist Claude Albore Livadie who wrote the first report about the site called it “a first Pompeii.”

Stephen Hall wrote in National Geographic, “Over the next several months, the excavation unearthed three large prehistoric dwellings: horseshoe-shaped huts with clearly demarked entrances, living areas and the equivalent of kitchens. Researchers found dozens of pots, pottery plates, and crude hourglass-shaped canisters that still contained fossilized traces of almonds, flour, grain, acorns, alcove pits, even mushrooms. Simple partitions separated the rooms; on hut had what appeared to be a loft. The tracks of goats sheep, cattle and pigs, as well as their human masters, crisscrossed the yard outside. The skeletons of nine pregnant goats lay in an enclosed area that included an animal pen.” [Source: Stephen Hall, National Geographic, September 2007]

Bowing to pressures that time is money, the site was hastily excavated and objects were moved so construction crews could being work again on the supermarket. Backhoes and bulldozers quickly tore up the site... In the end the supermarket was never built and the site sits behind a padlocked gate with as mall signs that reads “Pompeii of Prehistory.”

Other Bronze Age villages in the area suffered similar fates. In 2002, a site larger that the one at Nola, with both Copper Age and Bronze Age remains, was uncovered while building a U.S. Navy facility near Gricignano di Aversa. Because the navy facility was deemed essential a quick survey was done and then the site was destroyed. In 2004, thousands of footprints in volcanic ash, found site near the town of Afracola discovered while building a high speed railroad between Rome and Naples, suffered a similar fate.

Bronze artifacts from Terramare dated to around 3500 years ago

Weapons from Bronze-Age Italy

Ashley Boucher of People wrote: “Vittoria Dall’Armellina was a PhD candidate at Ca’ Foscari University in 2017 when she realized that a sword at the Saint Lazarus monastery was mislabeled by thousands of years. Dall’Armellina, who specializes in Bronze Age weaponry, said that a 17-inch metal sword spotted near the end of a guided tour at the monastery “immediately” caught her attention, CNN reported “The sword had been labeled as being from the Middle Ages, but after two years of research, Dall’Armellina confirmed that the artifact actually dates back as far as 5,000 years, making it one of the oldest weapons ever found, according to CNN. [Source: Ashley Boucher, People, March 27, 2020]

“Elena Rova, the professor who supervised Dall’Armellina’s research, told CNN that she was “a bit skeptical” at first when her student told her she thought it was older than labeled. “I had visited the monastery several times throughout the years and never noticed the sword,” Rova said, calling Dall’Armellina’s finding “unbelievable.” By searching through the monastery’s archives, the researchers were able to find that sword came from Turkey to Italy in 1886 as part of a shipment from Yervant Khorasandjian, a civil engineer in the Ottoman Empire. Jamourlian told CNN that he believes the sword was a “a gift of thankfulness” from Khorasandijian to Father Ghevont Alishan, who had been his principal at school in Paris in the late 1800s and died in Saint Lazarus monastery. Dall’Armellina said that Jamourlian’s research and chemical analysis on the sword brought her initial hunch “full circle.”

In 2022, Archaeology magazine reported: Scholars once believed that a type of copper-alloy dagger commonly found in burials across Bronze Age Europe was ceremonial rather than functional. It was thought that these blades were included in graves to symbolize the warrior status of the dead. However, a new study employing cutting-edge technology detected the presence of muscle fibers and collagen from animal bone on daggers found in the village of Pragatto. This suggests that the knives were used to butcher and process animal carcasses and were not solely symbolic. [Source: Archaeology magazine, July 2022]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guidesand various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024