The Recent and Final Neolithic in Marche region: old and new sites for a new seriation

Abstract

This revision of the Marche contexts between the Recent and the Final Neolithic brings to the attention still unpublished sites (Monte Calvario, San Lorenzo, San Giacomo della Marca, Donatelli, Coppetella) and suggests a more in-depth cultural and chronological scan of the complexes already known, highlighting their transformations and different characteristics. In the Recent Neolithic (4500-4300/4200 BC), following the Middle Neolithic sites where the southern component Diana and Serra d’Alto is evident, the picture appears to become much more articulated, marked by the new influences of Ripoli II and III and Fossacesia and, unprecedented for the Marche region, by Po Valley influences of VBQ II (Monte Calvario and Sassoferrato-area artigianale) that are grafted into a ceramic production still marked, generically, by the Diana tradition. The cultural aspect changes further in the last third of the 5th millennium BC (Final Neolithic 1) when more or less consistent north-western elements are immediately manifested, in addition to the first pottery fragments with a rusticated surface and in which there is also early evidence of metallurgical activities (Monte Tinello and Santa Maria in Selva).

Keywords

• marche region
• recent neolithic
• final neolithic
• pottery
• chronological and cultural sequence