|
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 (late Pleistocene). 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; a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehistoric technology. It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by Hominini, hominins, 3.3 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene, 11,650 Before Present#Radiocarbon calibration, cal Before Present, BP. The Paleolithic Age in Europe preceded the Mesolithic Age, although the date of the transition varies geographically by several thousand years. During the Paleolithic Age, hominins grouped together in small societies such as band society, bands and subsisted by gathering plants, fishing, and hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic Age is characterized by the use of Knapping, knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea (, ; or ) , , , , is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian people identified with the Etruscans of Italy. Geography The sea is bounded by the islands of Corsica and Sardinia (to the west), the Italian Peninsula (regions of Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata, and Calabria) to the north and east, and the island of Sicily (to the south). The Tyrrhenian Sea also includes a number of smaller islands like Capri, Elba, Ischia, and Ustica. The maximum depth of the sea is . The Tyrrhenian Sea is situated near where the African Plate, African and Eurasian Plates meet; therefore mountain chains and active volcanoes, such as Mount Marsili, are found in its depths. The eight Aeolian Islands and Ustica are located in the southern part of the sea, north of Sicily. Extent The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Tyrrhenian Sea as follows: * In the Strait of Messina: A line ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cardium Edulis
The common cockle (''Cerastoderma edule'') is a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Cardiidae, the cockles. It is found in waters off Europe, from Iceland in the north, south into waters off western Africa as far south as Senegal. The ribbed oval shells can reach across and are white, yellowish or brown in colour. The common cockle is harvested commercially and eaten in much of its range. Taxonomy and naming The common cockle was one of the many invertebrate species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of , where it was given its old binomial name ''Cardium edule''. The species name is derived from the Latin adjective , 'edible'. Italian naturalist Giuseppe Saverio Poli erected the genus '' Cerastoderma'' in 1795, making the common cockle the type species as ''Cerastoderma edule''. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek words (, 'horn') and (, 'skin'). For many years it was referred to by bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cardium Pottery
Cardium pottery or Cardial ware is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name from the imprinting of the clay with the heart-shaped shell of the '' Corculum cardissa'', a member of the cockle family Cardiidae. These forms of pottery are in turn used to define the Neolithic culture which produced and spread them, commonly called the "Cardial culture". The alternative name, impressed ware, is given by some archaeologists to define this culture, because impressions can be made with sharp objects other than cockle shells, such as a nail or comb. Impressed pottery is much more widespread than the Cardial. Impressed ware is found in the zone "covering Italy to the Ligurian coast" as distinct from the more western Cardial extending from Provence to western Portugal. The sequence in prehistoric Europe has traditionally been supposed to start with widespread Cardial ware, and then to develop other methods of impression locally, termed "epi-Cardial". However the widespread Cardi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olla Sferica Con Anse
An olla is a ceramic jar, often unglazed, used for cooking stews or soups, for the storage of water or dry foods, or for other purposes like the irrigation of olive trees. ''Ollas'' have short wide necks and wider bellies, resembling beanpots or South Asian '' matki''. History Antiquity The Latin word ''olla'' or ''aulla'' (also ''aula'') meant a very similar type of pot in Ancient Roman pottery, used for cooking and storage as well as a funerary urn to hold the ashes from cremation of bodies. Later, in Celtic Gaul, the olla became a symbol of the god '' Sucellus'', who reigned over agriculture. Spain In Spain, the popular dish ''olla podrida'' (literally “rotten pot”), cooked in an ''olla'', dates back to the Middle Ages. Catalonia In certain areas of the Pyrenees in Catalonia a type of ''olla'', known locally as ''tupí'', is used as container for the preparation of ''tupí'', a certain type of cheese. American Southwest The Spanish settlers may have introduced t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the History of agriculture, introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of sedentism, settlement. The term 'Neolithic' was coined by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. The Neolithic began about 12,000 years ago, when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East and Mesopotamia, and later in other parts of the world. It lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BCE), marked by the development ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in Epipaleolithic Near East, the Levant and Epipaleolithic Caucasus, Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and the Middle East, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 Before Present, BP; in the Middle East (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 10,000 Before Present, BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa. The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbus, Sardinia
Arbus (, , ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italy, Italian region of Sardinia. Located in the southwest coast of the island, Arbus is known for several archeological and non-operational industrial sites, such as the mines of Montevecchio, as well as for its coastline, the Costa Verde (Sardinia), Costa Verde, whose main beach, Piscinas, includes one of the biggest sand dune systems in Europe. Arbus territory also includes several hamlets, among which Ingurtosu and Montevecchio are particularly important since they still show tangible signs of the intensive mineral extraction that took place during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, in nowadays non-operational extraction sites that are now part of the ''parco geominerario storico ed ambientale della Sardegna'' (i.e. Sardinian Environmental and Historical Geomineral Park, also known as Geological, Mining Park of Sardinia). The town is well renowned also for its black sheep, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grotta Del Cavallo
The Grotta del Cavallo or Cavallo Cave (Italian:"Cave of the Horse") is a limestone cave in the region of Apulia, Southern Italy, near Nardò south of Taranto. The cave is about above present sea level. It has a rounded entrance, wide and high opening toward the sea. The cave was rediscovered in 1960 and two waves of excavations ensued. The first wave spanning from 1963 to 1966 and the second from 1986 to 2008. The cave was disturbed by looters during the period between the two waves of excavations, damaging the layers corresponding to the Upper Palaeolithic; because of this, the cave entrance is covered by a gate and is closed to the public. Archaeology Stratigraphy The cave contains a rich stratigraphic succession with a depth of , that is deposited on top of an interglacial beach foundation. The most notable section of this sequence covers the Middle Palaeolithic, associated with the Neanderthal Mousterian culture and recently discovered subsequent strata that were a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riparo Mochi
The Balzi Rossi caves (Ligurian: ''baussi rossi'' "red rocks") in Ventimiglia ''comune'', Liguria, Italy, is one of the most important archaeological sites of the early Upper Paleolithic in Western Europe. It has been continually excavated by archaeologists for more than 150 years. *Riparo Mochi remains evidence for the earliest presence of modern humans in Europe (early Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Cro-Magnon, Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the L ..., 35,000 years ago).Katerina Douka et al., A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy), Journal of Human Evolution 62(2), 19 December 2011, 286-299, . * Grimaldi Man (Gravettian, c. 25,000 years) * Venus figurines of Balzi Rossi (Gravettian, c. 22,000 years) References {{Authority control Upper Paleolithi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
