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.

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; another is at the grotta di Fumane (province of Verona) 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 (called Amsicora) was discovered at Pistoccu in Marina di Arbus, dated to 8500 years ago during the transition period between the Mesolithic and Neolithic.

Cardium pottery 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".