Neolithic Italy refer to the period that spanned from circa 6000 BCE, whenNeolithic influences from the east reached theItalian peninsula and the surrounding island bringing theNeolithic Revolution, to circa 3500-3000 BCE, whenmetallurgy began to spread.[1]
In theWestern Mediterranean region the first wave of neolithization came bysea, with the spread of theCardium pottery (or Impressed Ware), decorated with impressions mainly obtained through the shell of the genus Cardium (hence the nickname cardial ceramic), on all the coasts of Western Mediterranean, fromLiguria, tosouthern France andSpain.Central Europe was instead hit by another, related but different, wave that went up theDanube, bringing theLinear Pottery (Linienbandkeramik). The meeting between the farmers and the EuropeanMesolithic communities produced many regional variations of the two main strands of Impressed pottery and Linear Pottery.
InSouthern Italy the impressed pottery Neolithic culture spread, between the second half of the sixth millennium BC and the beginning of V, especially in theTavoliere delle Puglie,Irpinia andBasilicata, from where it spread to the north and the interior and theTyrrhenian coast. InSicily there was more continuity with the local Mesolithic communities. The island ofLipari was colonized at the beginning of the fifth millennium BC by people coming from Sicily for the exploitation of its deposits ofobsidian.
InCentral Italy the presence of theApennines caused the formation of different regional horizons on the Tyrrhenian side and on the Adriatic one, with different cultural facies that succeeded each other with some overlaps. InSardinia, the exploitation of the obsidian deposits of theMonte Arci led to the early development of the Neolithic cultures, introduced with the culture of the impressed pottery in the early sixth millennium BC.
InNorthern Italy a variant of the Impressed Ware, established himself on theLigurian coast in the first half of the sixth millennium BC. While in the process of neolithization ofNorthwest Italy occurs through influences of the Ligurian Impressed Ware, inRomagna the facies of the Adriatic Impressed Ceramic spread around the middle of the fifth millennium BC thanks to the contribution of the connected groups of theAbruzzo-Marche Impressed Ware.[2] At the end of the millennium the area of thePo Valley was subdivided by a mosaic of cultures united by the ceramic decoration. At the beginning of the fifth millennium BC the former cultural mosaic was replaced by the culture of the square mouthed vases, widespread from Liguria toVeneto.
From the middle of the sixth millennium BC the Neolithic groups in Italy began a wider exploitation of local resources: they developed the domestication of wild species, such ascattle andpigs, with a "mixed" economy between agriculture (attested by the presence ofmills,grinders andsickles) andlivestock in predominantly permanent settlements.[3] Howeverhunting,fishing andshellfishing were still important activities.
Late in the last phase of the Neolithic period inSardinia andVal d'Aosta appeared new religious ideologies related to the introduction ofmegalithism from the west.
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