The Radiocarbon Chronology of the Neolithic and Copper Age of Northern Italy

Abstract

Summary. Until twenty years ago the chronology of the Neolithic and Copper INTRODUCTIONOur knowledge of the Neolithic and Copper Age settlement of Northern Italy has increased during the last twenty years largely due to the reexamination of the assemblages stored in national and local museums and to the excavation of some of the more important sites. Nevertheless, relatively little attention has been paid to the radiocarbon dating of the archaeological cultures of this region even though several articles have been devoted to this problem (Broglio 1972;Barfield 1974;Renfrew and Whitehouse 1974;Whitehouse 1978;Bagolini et al. 1979;Biagi 1980; Alessio et al. 1983; Sargent 1984; Bagolini and Biagi 1986;1987a;Allegri et al. 1987). THE CULTURAL/CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCEThe presence of Mesolithic hunter/gatherers in Northern Italy has been known since 1961 (Radmilli 1983) along the coast of the Trieste Gulf (Cannarella and Cremonesi 1967). At the end of the sixties some sites were accidentally discovered in the Adige Valley around Trento. Since then programmed surveys have been carried out in the central eastern Alpine arch and along the northern Apennine watershed between Tuscany and Liguria, where dozens of Mesolithic camps have been discovered and partly excavated Bagolini et al. 1983;Baffico et al. 1983) . The most complete series known so far are those of Grotta Benussi in the Trieste Karst (Cremonesi 1978-81)

RADIOCARBON DATES FROM THE OXFORD AMS SYSTEM: ARCHAEOMETRY DATELIST 34

“…Altogether, the four AMS dates from Trench C, Unit 30 – spits 7 to 9, are in good agreement with the (still fairly poor) radiocarbon evidence available thus far for the Gaban group: compare, in particular, with one of the two dates from layer T4 of the Romagnano Loc III rockshelter (Trento) (R‐781α: 6060 ± 50 bp ; Alessio et al . 1978, 81; Bagolini and Biagi 1990, 12–13) as well as one of the two dates from layer D2 of the type site of the Gaban group; that is, the Gaban rockshelter (Trento) (Bln‐1777: 6030 ± 45 bp ; Bagolini and Biagi 1987, 427, table 1; Bagolini and Biagi 1990, 12–13). The AMS dates recently obtained on unidentified charcoals from the Gaban levels (Units 96, 104 and 105) at the Ala‐Le Corone rockshelter, in the southern Adige river valley (Trento), appear slightly later (KIA‐30572: 5966 ± 33 bp ; KIA‐30574: 5889 ± 33 bp ; KIA‐30571: 5843 ± 36 bp ; Nicolis et al .…”

Holocene pollen stratigraphy and human interference in the woodlands of the northern Apennines, Italy

“…In the northern Tyrrhenian area, Neolithic communities initially settled in the coastal area (Bagolini and Cremonesi, 1987), the earliest known sites being in the area around Finale Ligure where the 'Impressed Ware Pottery Culture' first appeared around 7000 BP (Maggi, 1977;Bagolini and Biagi, 1990). This culture persisted in a narrow, lowland maritime strip from 7000 to around 6200 BP (Maggi, 1977;Biagi, 1991) and only appears to have spread inland toward the end of this period.…”

“…It also seems that the technology of the Neolithic chipped stone tool-kit was imported, and did not develop from the indigenous Mesolithic tools (E. Starnini, pers. comm.). The available evidence indicates that early Neolithic coastal groups and late Mesolithic Apenninic communities co-existed for several centuries, perhaps sharing territory in a diverse economic system (Biagi and Maggi, 1984;Bagolini and Cremonesi, 1987;Bagolini and Biagi, 1990;Biagi, 1991).…”

Testing the influence of climate, human impact and fire on the Holocene population expansion of Fagus sylvatica in the southern Prealps (Italy)

“…The stone and pottery assemblages belong to the first phase of the Vasi a Bocca Quadrata Culture (Bartolomei et al, 1986). The age of the settlement was estimated by re-calibrating 14 C dates (Bagolini and Biagi, 1990) using CALIB 5.1 (Stuiver and Reimer, 1993) and the INTCAL04 (Reimer et al, 2004). Although a wide time span was obtained (7150-5750 cal.…”