European Kingdoms

Early Italy (Chalcolithic)

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The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. The task of cataloguing the vast range of human cultures which emerged from Africa and the Near East right up until human expansion reached the Americas is covered in the related feature (see link, right).

As human populations increased, what had been a single human culture across Europe eventually divided in two which - at least at first - can be equated to Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Within the latter region, Early Italy formed a southern zone below Central Europe.

Today contained entirely within modern Italy, it also included the Alpine region and its complex history. The area's role in human development played a minimal role in the Italian Mesolithic between about 10,000-5000 BC, but a more notable role in the subsequent Italian Neolithic.

The arrival of Neolithic Farmers in Mesolithic Greece between about 7000-6700 BC sparked a rapid increase in migration into the region, and then into the Balkans and across the northern Mediterranean coast. The latter spread is classed as the Impressed Ware culture, with the Cardial Pottery culture as a more location-specific unit.

The Chalcolithic (Copper Age) is the transitional phase between the Neolithic and Bronze Age Italy. Referred to as the Eneolithic when referencing archaeological cultures in the Balkans (especially, but not exclusively), this period saw the earliest examples of metalworking in Italy even though it had already been practiced in Central Europe for several hundred years.

Its arrival from about 4500 BC appears to have been from two different directions, entering Etruria (Tuscany) and the valley of the River Po from Central Europe, and then - seemingly - via Paestum on the western coast of Italy to the south of Naples, having arrived through seaborne traders or settlers. Full Chalcolithic cultures only began to appear from about 3700 BC, starting with the Remedello.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry, David K Faux, from Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission, Benjamin W Roberts & Marc Vander Linden (Eds), from The Magdalenian Settlement of Europe, Quaternary International Volumes 272-273 (2012), from Europe between the Oceans 9000 BC-AD 1000, Barry Cunliffe (Yale University Press, 2011), and from External Links: The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe (Nature 2016), and Dietary Change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates, C Bonsall (Lead Author, Cambridge University Press, 18 July 2016), and Neolithic and Bronze Age People in Italy (Facts and Details).)