Prehistoric Italy

The prehistory of Italy began in the Paleolithic period, when members of the genus Homo first inhabited what is now modern Italian territory, and ended in the Iron Age, when the first written records appeared in Italy.

Paleolithic

In prehistoric times, the landscape of the Italian Peninsula was significantly different from its modern appearance. During glaciations, for example, the sea level was lower and the islands of Elba and Sicily were connected to the mainland. The Adriatic Sea began at what is now the Gargano Peninsula, and what is now its surface up to Venice was a fertile plain with a humid climate.
The arrival of the first known hominins was 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo.
The presence of Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings dating to c. 50,000 years ago. There are about 20 unique sites, the most important being that of the Grotta Guattari at San Felice Circeo, on the Tyrrhenian Sea south of Rome; another is at the grotta di Fumane and the Breuil grotto, also in San Felice.
Homo sapiens sapiens appeared in Italy during the upper Palaeolithic: the earliest site on the peninsula, dated to 48,000 years ago, is
Riparo Mochi.
In November 2011, tests conducted at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in England on what were previously thought to be Neanderthal baby teeth, which had been unearthed in 1964 from the Grotta del Cavallo, dated the teeth to between 43,000 and 45,000 years ago.
In 2011, the most ancient Sardinian complete human skeleton was discovered at Pistoccu in Marina di Arbus, dated to 8500 years ago during the transition period between the Mesolithic and Neolithic.

Neolithic

is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the practice of imprinting the clay with the shell of Cardium edulis, a marine mollusk. The alternative name Impressed Ware is used by some archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be with other sharp objects, such as a nail or comb.
Cardium pottery 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. The main culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic, which eventually extended from the Adriatic sea to the Atlantic coasts of Portugal and south to Morocco, is also referred to as "cardial ware".
Since the Late Neolithic, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia in particular were involved in the pan-Western European Megalithic phenomenon. Later, in the Bronze Age, megalithic structures were built also in Latium, Puglia and Sicily. Around the end of the third millennium BCE, Sicily imported from Sardinia typical cultural aspects of the Atlantic world, including the construction of small dolmen-shaped structures that reached all over the Mediterranean basin.

Copper Age

The Copper Age arrived early in the Italian geographical area, in particular appearing first in Liguria. Copper mining began in the middle of the 4th millennium BC in Liguria with the Libiola and Monte Loreto mines, which are dated to 3700 BCE. These are the oldest copper mines in the western Mediterranean basin. The Remedello, Rinaldone and Gaudo cultures are late Neolithic cultures of Italy, traces of which are primarily found in the present-day regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, Latium and Campania. They are sometimes described as Eneolithic cultures, due to their use of primitive copper tools. Other important eneolithic cultures of the peninsula and the islands, often related to those previously mentioned, are the Laterza culture in Apulia and Basilicata, the Abealzu-Filigosa culture in Sardinia, the Conelle-Ortucchio culture in Abruzzo and Marche, the Serraferlicchio culture in Sicily, and the Spilamberto group in Emilia-Romagna.
The earliest Statue menhirs, frequently depicting weapons, were erected by the populations of northern Italy and Sardinia during this period. This sculptural tradition of possible steppe origin, lasted in some regions well into the Bronze Age and even into the Iron Age.
The Bell Beaker culture marks the transition between the Eneolithic and the early Bronze Age.

Bronze Age

The Italian Bronze Age is conditionally divided into four periods:

The Early Bronze Age	2300–1700 B.C
The Middle Bronze Age	1700–1350 B.C
The Recent Bronze Age	1350–1150 B.C
The Final Bronze Age	1150–950 B.C

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.
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 was experienced during this period according to the evidence of 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. 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.
The Final Bronze Age is the period during which the majority of the Italian peninsula was united in the Proto-Villanovan culture. Pianello di Genga is an exception to the small cemeteries characterized for the Proto-Villanovan culture. More than 500 burials were found in this cemetery which is known for its two centuries of usage by different communities.

Polada culture

The Polada culture 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.
The settlements were usually made up of stilt houses; the economy was characterized by agricultural and pastoral activities, hunting and fishing were also practiced as well as the metallurgy of copper and bronze. Pottery was coarse and blackish.
It was followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements.

Nuragic civilization

Located in Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization, who lasted from the early Bronze Age 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.
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, 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 Giants of Mont'e Prama, perhaps the oldest anthropomorphic statues of the western Mediterranean sea.

Sicily

Among the most important cultural expressions born in Sicily during the Bronze Age the cultures of Castelluccio and of Thapsos are worth noting. Both originated in the southeastern part of the island. In these cultures, in particular in the Castelluccio phase, there are obvious influences from the Aegean Sea, where the Helladic civilization was flourishing.
Some small monuments date back to this phase, used as tombs and found almost everywhere, both inland and along the coasts of this region.
Belonging to a western type is the Bell Beaker culture known from sites on the northwestern and southwestern coasts of Sicily, previously occupied by the Conca d'Oro culture, while in the late Bronze Age there are signs in northeastern Sicily of cultural osmosis with the people of the peninsula that led to the appearance of Proto-Villanovan culture at Milazzo, perhaps linked to the arrival of Sicels.
The nearby Aeolian Islands hosted the flourishing of the Capo Graziano and Milazzo cultures in the Bronze Age, and subsequently that of Ausonio.

Palma Campania culture

The Palma Campania culture took shape at the end of the third millennium BCE and represents the Early Bronze Age of Campania. It is named for the locality of Palma Campania where the first findings were made.
Many villages belonging to this culture were buried under volcanic ash after an eruption of Mount Vesuvius that took place around or after 2000 BCE.