Polada culture

The Polada culture is an archaeological culture from the Early to Middle Bronze Age in northern Italy .

Eponymous location

The Polada culture, Italian cultura di Polada , is named after its eponym , which belongs to the municipality of Lonato del Garda in Lombardy . Here Giovanni Rambotti made the first discoveries in a peat pit as a result of intensive complaint work in a moor area between 1870 and 1875, including the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings and the characteristic pottery with handles.

Giovanni Rambotti Museum

Lavagnone oak plow

The many finds from the Polada peat pit and from the neighboring pile dwelling settlement Lavagnone 5 kilometers south of Desenzano del Garda can be viewed today in the Giovanni Rambotti Museum in Desenzano del Garda. The artefacts include ceramics, knife and weapon tips made of pebble stone, weapons, implements and an oak plow from the South Alpine Bronze Age (approx. 2200 BC).

Distribution area

Biconical amphora of the Polada culture

The villages of the Polada culture were mainly on the banks of lakes and rivers. The settlements consisted of stilt houses, the remains of which can be found in what is now Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino . They had a spatial extension of around one hectare with around 200 to 300 residents. Hoard and grave finds associated with the Polada culture can reach very far to the northwest, for example into the Aosta Valley or the canton of Ticino .

Economy

The people of the Polada culture lived mainly from keeping animals , hunting , farming , fishing and collecting in the surrounding forests. The remains of the oldest domesticated horse on Italian soil were also found at the Polada site in Solferino .

Culture comparison

Model of the Polada pile dwelling in the Giovanni Rambotti Museum

Apart from perhaps the use of the bow and arrow and a certain technical skill in metalworking, the Polada culture has no similarities with the previous Remedello culture and the bell-cup culture . Even if the ceramics produced are still relatively coarse, progress has been made in the stone industry, bone and horn processing and metallurgy. The bronze tools and weapons in particular reveal a relationship with the artefacts of the Aunjetitz culture and other cultural groups north of the Alps.

At the same time as the Polada culture in northern Italy, the following cultures can be found around the Alpine arc:

The Leithaprodersdorf Group on the eastern edge near Vienna
The Unterwölblinger Gruppe , Straubinger Gruppe and Singener Gruppe along the northern edge of the Eastern Alps
The Culture du Rhône in western Switzerland
The bronze ancien rhodanien in the Rhone valley of France
The Campaniforme barbelé in Provence and the
Ljubljana culture in Slovenia .

There are also numerous similarities with the Bonnanaro culture , which developed in Sardinia at the same time .

chronology

The Polada culture usually dates from 2200 to 1500 BC. Assigned, according to AF Harding (2000) also 2400 to 1400 BC. Chr. David-Elbiali & David (2009) recently limit the period to 2200 to approx. 1750 BC. Chr.

Bread loaf of the Polada culture

The so-called ogetti enigmatici or bread loafs that were found in Polada and at Lago di Ledro come from the younger part of the South Alpine Early Bronze Age and correlate with the Polada culture. According to Renato Perini's chronology , they correspond to the levels Bronzo Antico II and Bronzo Antico III (Polada-B connection). These patterned clay objects can be traced back to a period of 2050 BC in Italy through the absolute data obtained by dendrochronology . BC (Polada B, Lavagnone 2) to 1400/1300 BC BC (Lavagnone, Isolone di Mincio).

According to Paul Reinecke's chronology system , the Polada culture relates to the Bronze Age levels BzA2 to BzC2 , but according to David-Elbiali & David (2009) only BzA1a , BzA1b and BzA2a , ie the Early and Developed Early Bronze Age.

The Lavagnone 1 settlement can date from 2080/2050 BC. Be assigned. Lavagnone 2 existed for 65 years (from 2050 to 1991/1985 BC) and Lavagnone 3 began around 1984 BC. Chr.

Absolute dating using the radiocarbon method, however, has shown much younger ages of 1380 and 1270 BC. Chr.

meaning

The Polada culture marks the definitive entry into the Bronze Age for northern Italy.

Locations

Lavagnone yoke

Polada peat pit (eponymous site)
Alba Via Bubbio (near Alessandria ) - grave find (3728 ± 29 radiocarbon years before today or calibrated 2126 ± 59 BC)
Arbedo Castione in the canton of Ticino - Hortfund
Bande di Cavriana Scavo (near Mantua )
Barche di Solferino (near Solferino ) - very late phase (BzA2b)
Canàr I (near Rovigo )
Castello Valsoda (near Como ) - hoard found
Castione dei Marchesi (near Parma ) - hoard found
Fiavé 3 (near Fiavé in Trentino ) - Enclosure find of the Langquaid II type (BzA2b)
La Quercia di Lazise
Stilt houses on Lake Ledro - Trentino
Lavagnone 4, Lavagnone 3 / A and Lavagnone 2 / A
Lucone D
Palude Brabbia (near Varese ) - hoard find
Remedello Sopra (near Brescia ) - hoard find with axes of the Neyruz type
Romagnano (suburb of Trento ) - grave find
Saint-Martin de Corléans (near Aosta ) - grave find (3760 ± 60 radiocarbon years before today or calibrated 2179 ± 100 BC)
Savignano (near Modena ) - hoard find
Sorbara di Asola (near Mantua) - hoard found
Torbole (near Brescia) - hoard find with axes of the Neyruz type
Vela di Valbusa (suburb of Trento) - grave find

Other important sites are between Mantua and Lake Garda and on Lake Pusiano .

literature

Aspes, A .: Palafitte: mito e realtà . In: Cat. di mostra (8 luglio-31 ott. 1982; Verona) . Verona, Museo Civico di Storia Naturale 1982, p. 327 .
Barfield, F .: Northern Italy Before Rome . Thames and Hudson, London 1971.
Barich, B .: Il complesso industriale della stazione di Polada alla luce dei più recenti dati . In: Bollettino di Paletnologia Italiana . tape 80, 22 , 1971, pp. 77-182 .
Battaglia, R .: La palafitta del Lago di Ledro nel Trentino . In: Memorie del Museo di Storia Naturale della Venezia Tridentina . tape 7 , 1943, pp. 3-63 .
De Marinis, RC: Il Museo Civico Archeologico Giovanni Rambotti: an introduzione alla preistoria del lago di Garda . Desenzano del Garda, Assessorato alla Cultura 2000, p. 250 .
Fasani, L .: L'età del Bronzo . In: Veneto nell'antichità, Preistoria e Protostoria . Verona 1984.
Peroni, R .: L'età del bronzo nella penisola italiana I. L'antica età del bronzo . Olschki, Florence 1971.
Rageth, J .: The Lago di Ledro in Trentino and its relationship to the Alpine and Central European cultures . In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Inst. Volume 55, 1 , 1974, pp. 73-256 .

Web links

Commons : Polada Culture - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

^ Mezzena, F .: La Valle d'Aosta nel Neolitico e nell'Eneolitico . In: La Valle d'Aosta nel quadro della Preistoria e Protostoria dell'arco alpino centro-occidentale. Riunione scientifica dell 'Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria, 31, Courmayeur, giugnio 1994 . Firenze, is. Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria 1994, p. 17-138 .
^ Augusto Azzaroli: An early history of horsemanship . Brill, Leyden 1985, ISBN 90-04-07233-0 , pp. 201 .
^ Harding, AF: European Societies in the Bronze Age . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-36477-9 .
↑ David-Elbiali, Mireille and David, Wolfgang: Le Bronze ancien et le début du Bronze moyen: cadre chronologique et liens culturels entre l'Europe nord-alpine occidentale, le monde danubien et l'Italie du Nord . Ed .: Richard, A., Barral, P., Daubigney, A., Kaenel, G., Mordant, C. & Piningre, J.-F. L'isthme européen Rhin-Saône-Rhône dans la Protohistoire: approaches nouvelles en hommage à Jacques-Pierre Millotte. Colloque. Presses univ. De Franche-Comté, Besançon 2009, p. 311-340 .
↑ Joachim Köninger: Patterned clay objects from the bank settlement Bodman-Schachen I - On the distribution and chronology of the so-called "Oggetti enigmatici" . In: Barbara Fritsch, Margot Maute, Irenäus Matuschik, Johannes Müller, Claus Wolf: Tradition and Innovation. Prehistoric archeology as a historical science. Festschrift for Christian Strahm. International Archeology (Ed.): Studia honoraria . tape 3 . Rahden 1998, p. 456-457 .
↑ John M. Coles, AF Harding: The Bronze Age in Europe: an introduction to the prehistory of Europe, c. 2000-700 BC . Taylor & Francis, 1979, ISBN 0-416-70650-9 .

[1] Mezzena, F .: La Valle d'Aosta nel Neolitico e nell'Eneolitico . In: La Valle d'Aosta nel quadro della Preistoria e Protostoria dell'arco alpino centro-occidentale. Riunione scientifica dell 'Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria, 31, Courmayeur, giugnio 1994 . Firenze, is. Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria 1994, p. 17-138 .

[2] Augusto Azzaroli: An early history of horsemanship . Brill, Leyden 1985, ISBN 90-04-07233-0 , pp. 201 .

[3] Harding, AF: European Societies in the Bronze Age . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-36477-9 .

[4] David-Elbiali, Mireille and David, Wolfgang: Le Bronze ancien et le début du Bronze moyen: cadre chronologique et liens culturels entre l'Europe nord-alpine occidentale, le monde danubien et l'Italie du Nord . Ed .: Richard, A., Barral, P., Daubigney, A., Kaenel, G., Mordant, C. & Piningre, J.-F. L'isthme européen Rhin-Saône-Rhône dans la Protohistoire: approaches nouvelles en hommage à Jacques-Pierre Millotte. Colloque. Presses univ. De Franche-Comté, Besançon 2009, p. 311-340 .

[5] Joachim Köninger: Patterned clay objects from the bank settlement Bodman-Schachen I - On the distribution and chronology of the so-called "Oggetti enigmatici" . In: Barbara Fritsch, Margot Maute, Irenäus Matuschik, Johannes Müller, Claus Wolf: Tradition and Innovation. Prehistoric archeology as a historical science. Festschrift for Christian Strahm. International Archeology (Ed.): Studia honoraria . tape 3 . Rahden 1998, p. 456-457 .

[6] John M. Coles, AF Harding: The Bronze Age in Europe: an introduction to the prehistory of Europe, c. 2000-700 BC . Taylor & Francis, 1979, ISBN 0-416-70650-9 .