The beginning of the Neolithic in the Po Plain (northern Italy): Problems and perspectives

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe Po Valley is one of the major physiographic units of northern Italy. It can be considered as a key area for the interpretation of long-term historical events and processes because of its location midway between the Mediterranean world and continental Europe. This paper is an updated summary of our knowledge of the Early Neolithic farming communities of the region. In particular it discusses data derived from radiocarbon dated sites. Its aim is to provide the international audience with an updated view of the topic, based on the discussion of a new series of AMS radiocarbon results, to frame the earliest producing communities of the Po Valley into the more general picture of the Neolithization of Italy. To achieve the goal, apart from radiocarbon assays, we have taken into consideration material culture remains, subsistence economy, environmental resources, and data gathered from archaeometric analyses and technology.

A snapshot of Late Mesolithic life through death: An appraisal of the lithic and osseous grave goods from the Castelnovian burial of Mondeval de Sora (Dolomites, Italy)

“…This was a complex phenomenon, which involved the interaction between people arriving from the Near East and the local European populations. Such interactions may have varied considerably from region to region, and, in several cases, they remain poorly known also due to a lack of information about the Late Mesolithic occupations of several areas and the scarcity of radiometric dating [ 9 – 11 ].…”

'Palaeoshellomics’ reveals the use of freshwater mother-of-pearl in prehistory

“…The morphological determination of both taxa was carried out by Frédéric Marin. U. crassus and P. auricularius are archaeological shell specimens from the sites of Peştera Ungurească and Isorella (Neolithic, Po Plain, Italy [Starnini et al, 2018]). The determination of U. cf.…”

Migration, adaptation, innovation: The spread of Neolithic harvesting technologies in the Mediterranean

“…5500 and 4700 cal BCE, in the same geographical and cultural areas are characterised by inserts on longer and wider blades, hafted in parallel. Fiorano Modenese has provided the earliest date (5610-5470 cal BCE); but it is an old pre-AMS date that should be considered cautiously [101]. 14 C dates from Casalecchio di Reno and Isorella delay the adoption of parallel hafted blades in the Po Plain for a few centuries, respectively 5330-5220 cal BCE (charcoal) and 5210-5070 cal BCE (charred caryopsis).…”

“…Technical transfers between neighbouring communities might have taken place, in addition to processes of innovation or adaptation. The gradual transition between diagonally-and parallel-hafted inserts in the Po Plain might be interpreted in the framework of a network of cultural, economic and social relationships between communities of different origins and exposed to different cultural influences [101,128]. Vice versa, the single obliquely-hafted blades recovered from La Draga might represent a case of a local, or regional, innovation, whose diffusion was initially limited to the westernmost sector of the Mediterranean arc and the interior of the Iberian Peninsula [109] between ca.…”