21 - 1985
PREISTOUIA
ALPI~A
MlJSEO TRIDENTINO nr 'CIENZE NATlJlIALI . TIIENTO
RIVISTA ANNUALE DELLA SEZIONE IJI I'AI.ETNOI.OGIA
Preistona Alpina • Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali pagg. 49-57 Trento 1985
B. BAGOLINI • P. BIAG!
Balkan influences in the Neolithic of Northern Italy •
ABSTRACT
Balkan influences in the Neol ith ic of northern Italyare particu larly active during the IV millennium beSquere-Mcuthed Pottery Cult ure in the form of stampseals (epintaderasal and figurines as well as potterydecorations characteristic of the dal matian Cultures.Venuses are also present in early Neoli thic times beingexclusive of the Pc Plain and Alp ine cultural groups.
Bern ardino B8gollnl, Dip. di Storia delle Civilta Europea, Universtta. Via S. Croce 65, 38100 Trento.
Paol o Biag! , D.AR.F1.CL.ET., sezione archeologiaden'tf niverstta. Via Balbl 4, 161 26 Geneva .
The end of the Mesollthlc
The appearance of industries withtrapezes and dent iculated blades coincidesw ith the beginn ing of the Atl ant ic climaticphase. Assembl ages of this horizon, wh ichKozlowski (1975) includ es in the CastelnovianCulture, are well known in the north Italianareas of the Trentino (BROGUO 1971), theTrieste Karst (CREMONESI et al 1973) and inthe Tuscan and Emilian Apennines (BIAGI etal 1980).
The most complete sequence for the Mesoli thic know n to date in northern Italy is thatfrom the rock shelter of Romagnano III in the
"} Thi s paper was originally delivered at the Symposium_Die Kultur von lepenski Vir und die Probleme der HeraUSbil dung des Neo lithikums in Sudos t· und M itteleuropa_ held inColog ne In February 1&.25, 1981.
Adige Valley where excavations carr ied outover the last decade have revealed a longsuccession of Mesolith ic levels covering thePre-Boreal, Boreal and Atlantic periods. During this last climatic stage, in layers AB andAA , industries with trapezes appear, whi chare characterised by the scalene, rectangularand isosceles trapezes them selves, the denticu lated blades, the truncated tools andend scrapers of various types. while the rnlcroburin techn ique is also very much in evidence. In the earlier layers of the same sitewe see the evolution of an industry with tri angles, called by some the Sauveterrian, on account of its affi nities with the Culture of theParis Basin (ROlOY 1978). This, in the AdigeValley. presents many types for a period ofalmost two thousand years, although in thePre-Boraal mlcrol ithlc isosceles tr iangles occur which are unknown in the follow ing cl imatic per iod , Boreal industries are known notonly on the valley floors a Id in the Po Plain,in the latter case as isolated f inds, but also atquite high altitudes as at the Colbricon pass(BAGOUNI et al 1975) in the Trentino and onother alpine passes at a height of around2000 m. The Atlantic assemb lages in theAlps, on the other hand, occu r less frequentlyat high alti tudes, although they are occasionally found . In the Emili an Apennines, industri es with trapezes and denticulated bladesare well known, even on sites close to thevery high passes (CASTELLETII et al 1976).
49
They also occur on the Po Plain, especially atthe confluence of rivers (BIAGI 1980), whereextensive marshy areas abounding in manyfood resources are found (CLARKE 197B).
Industries with trapezes are also foundclose to the present middle altitude lake basins as well as on the major pre-alpine lakesand around the lake basins of the glacial endmoraines. which were subsequently more intensively settled during the Bronze Age. Thisis a situation which is again observed inneighbouring Switzerland , where traces ofMesalithic encampments often cluster around existing lakes (SAKELLARIDIS 1979).
The first evidence of the Neolithic in northern Italy appears to relate to the ImpressedWare Culture both along the Adria tic and Ligurian coastlines. From a detailed analysis ofthe stone industries of the end of the Mesoli·thic and the beginning of the Neolithic it ispossible to observe a technological jump inthe produ cti on of unretouched tools (PITIS1970) and tool s, even though the technologyof retouch remained unchanged dur ing bothper iods.
There is however a differentiation, perhaps related to the different qualities of theflint used, in the form s of the tools, as in theNeolithic new burins, awl s, rhomboid geo·metrics and denticuiated blad es and brokenintentionally blades with abundant traces ofwear occur.
The Early Neolithic
The main influences leadi ng to the to rrnation of the first Neolithic in north ern Italy aretoday recogni sable in the following geographi·cal and cultural groupings.
1. The Impressed Ware. Comprisinggroups found in the area of the Ligurian coast(BERNABO BREA 1946, 1956) and on the opposite Adriatic side in Romagna (BAGOLlNI ,VON ELES 1978).
The Ligur ian Impressed Ware traditionmade its influence felt in the perialpine regions of western Lombard y. The ImpressedWare of the Adriati c and Romagna, documented in the environs of Riccione, extendsits influence likewise into the hinterland ofthe Po Valley as far as in the region of Reggio
50
Emilia. These latter territories soon afterwards becom e domin ated by the Fiorano Culture group (MALAVOLTI 1951·52) wh ich in its«f1oruih extended its influence from the areaof central Emilia into Romagna where important finds have been made near Riolo Terme,while even further afield it affects the lateImpressed Ware groups of the Marche (LOL·L1NI 1962).
2. In the Po Plain and the Veneto tradi tion s appear during the early Neolithic a·mong which the Fiorano Culture is the mosthomogeneous and best docum ented ; this assemblage, wid ely spread in the south westVeneto, in Emilia and Romagna, also extendssouth of the Apennine watershed into northern Tuscany (BAGOLlNI, BIAGI 1977).
The other groups, recognised to date, arethose of Fagnigola in the lower Friuli (BIAGI1975) and of Vhb on the south Lombard plain(BAGOLlNI , BIAGI 1975).
3. In the Alpine and centre-eastern, perialpine regions, are found the Gaban group inthe mounta inous area of the Adi ge Valley(BAGOLlNI, BIAGI 19na) and the Isolinogroup in the area of the Lombard Lakes(GUERRESCHI 1976-n). These groups showdistinctive regional traits which distinguishlh em from the assemblages on the Plain. TheGaban group has the closest links with thepreceding Mesolithic traditions.
4. The Trieste Karst , a bord er area between the cultural areas of lh ePo Valley andVeneto and the Balkans, is characterised during the early Neolithic by tul ip-shaped pedestailed cups with restri cted mouths, of ten withincised decoration , which have a very Balkancharacte r (BARFIELD 1972) being comparable with material both from the Dalmatiancoast and the late Adr iat ic Impressed Ware,especially that of the Marche. This culturalgroup, called vrasca whi ch seems to have along life, replaces a local Mesolithic traditionwith which it seems to be unconnected.
In this context we can suggest a probablechronological sequence for the area, startingwith Impressed Ware elements of the Dalrnatia n Istr ian tradition (BATOVIC 1975) and Iollowed by evidence of contac t with the Florano area and afterwards with that of Danilo(BARFIELD 1972, 1973).
In Liguria the Apennine chain is lower and
becomes easily traversable by low passesclose to the coast. Communi cations betweenLiguria and the Po Plain (BIAGI 1980a) aremuch eas ier than those leading from the narrow and ofte n rugged coastline whi ch linksLiguri a with the Versili a and the Valle y of theArno.
To the south the passes of the Tuscan-Emili an stretch, although not always impenetrable, do not provide easy access with centralItaly . However already during the Mesolithicthey allowed extensive contac t between thepopul ation on either side of the watershed(TOZZI 1980).
On the Adriatic side the geog raphica l condit ions are much more favourable since thewatershed of the Romagnan Apennines, bending southwards , leaves a broad band ofhill s near the coast which permi t easy communication with the M arche and in generalwith the whole Adriatic coastline.
To the east the coast provides a naturalline of communication between the Venetiaand the Po basin and the Balkans (BARFIELD1973).
To the north and west the alpine watershed, wi th its high and difficult passes, presented a major obstacle to communicationwith the western and central regions ofEurope.
These geographical factors affec ted theformation and the development of the earlyNeolithic of the Po and Venetian areas anddetermine an area of U gurian influence in thewestern Po Valley and an area of Adriat icinfluence in Romagna, while the central PoPlain is open to multiple influences, amongwhich are recognisable Ligurian, peninsula,Adriatic, Balkan and central European traits.
The rather scant evidence from the western alpine area of the Po Valley (BAGOLlNI ,BIAGI 1972-74) suggests that here the Neol ithic transformation originated in Ligurla.
The various cultural groups that charac terise the earliest Neolithic of the central andnorth -eastern alp ine and Po Valley regionsshow very close similarities in their flint industries , which have connections with those ofthe local Mesolith ic, but they have a markedindividu alit y in ceramic traditi ons (BAGOLlNI ,BIAGI 1977). The economic evidence forthese groups, whi ch is not abundant, gives
an impression of variety, with herding(BARKER 1977) and agriculture (CASTELLETT I 1975) as well as significant levels of hunting and collecti ng, being represented. Parti cularly important is the evolution of the locaiMesolith ic for the Gaban group, whose economy, in its initial stages, is essentially thesame as that of the preceding Mesoli th ic.
Such a kaleidoscope of sub cultures w ithin the north Itali an Neolith ic, which appear inneighbouring territories and in similar environments, raises some interesting questions regarding the formation processes that lead totheir development .
Above all the characteristics of thesegroups are not explicable purely in terms ofthe simple accu lturation of local indige nousgroups from the two different coastal aspects, Ligu rian and Adri atic, of the Impressed Ware CUltu re; even if c lear relationships existed with these areas, as we cansee from reciprocal culture traits in Fioranoand the Liguri an Ware or between the Gabanand Vhb groups and the Adr iatic ImpressedWare (BAGOLl NI, VaN ELES 1978).
A greater atte nt ion to the subsistence capaci ty availa ble in the different areas, accompanied by a growi ng familiarity with theforest product s and small game, fishing andbirds, may have lead to an increa se in «terr itoriality» if not to true settled communities ,by the final Mesolithic inhabitants of the PoPlain and the Alp s. This in turn led to an increased potent iai receptivity wi th regard tothe economic and technological innovationswhich accom panied the process of Neol ithictransformation. This acculturation must havetaken place by means of multiple, and notnecessarily contemporary, influences.
These influences must have spread principally fro m the coastal centres of the Impressed Ware Culture and from the continental Balkan area across the eastern Veneto.Various cultural e lements, above all in pottery and figurines, principally in the VhOgroup (BAGOLl NI, BIAGi 1977b) recall prototypes found in the early Balkan Neolithic inparti cular the area of starcevo, Cont acts withthe areas of the early «figulina» and paintedpotte ry traditions in Peninsular Italy are evident at an early date, both in imports andimitations. These are especially clea r in the
51
context of the Fiorano group, whose limitsexte nd south of the Apennine watershed asfar as the Tyrhennian Sea in northern Tuscany (BARFIELD 1981).
It is more ditf icult at present to say howfar certain tra its of the earliest Neol ith ic ofthe eas tern Po Vall ey . recogni sable above allin the context of Fiorano, may be related tothe Linear Pottery Culture of the Upper Danube, since we have no clear evidence from theintervening geographical areas.
In particular the decorative syntax of «music note» design present in the Fiorano groupand fou nd. although in a diff erent technique.in the Gaban group appears to suggest a local re-elaboration of a similar design rangefoun d in the eastern Linear Pottery Culture.
With regard to the eventual direction ofditfusion of the Linear Pottery influences thequestion remains open. It is worth, however,underlining the fact that the easte rn LinearPott ery. in its full development characterisedby «music note» motifs, reaches a final thrustof expansion towards the southern parts ofeastern Europe. Its expansive pressure alsoextends towards southern Pannonia, compelling the population related to the Kiiriis tradition to retreat towards eastern Hungary,wh ere that Culture soon afterwards diest out;further to the west links are established between the Linear Pott ery Culture and the lateStarcevo sphere, a question which is still inthe process of investigation (KALlCZ. MAK·KAY 1977).
Such an expansion towards the southmay have allowed Linear Pottery influence toextend along the sa va , Drava and to the Pusteria Valley. This alpine route might constitute a hy pothetical line of the ditfusion of suchinfluences toward s northern Italy (BAGOLIN I.VON ELES 1978) .
We can, with reference to this question,reca ll that the Gaban group of the Trent ino.which has contacts with the Fiorano area, also possesses in its decoration range a special elaboration of the «music note» motif onthose globular fl ask forms wi th necks whichremind one of the eastern Linear Potterytradition.
Very recent ly a settlement of the earlyNeolith ic related to the Gaban group has infact been discovered near Chiusa, at Villan-
52
dro in the Vall ey of the lsarco. a di scoverythat extends the distribution of the sub culture north toward s the Puster ia Valley (DAL RI1978).
The signific ant par allels between the Gaban group and that of Iso lino extends the a·bove-ment ioned influences westwards intothe western Lombard pre-Alps,
Independent of the hypoth eses concerning the direct ion of the ditfusion of Balkaninfluences in northern Italy. whi ch derived ultimately, althoug h th rough intermediaries.from the developed Starcevo -Kbros and Vince-Tordos traditions, and which perhapscould be confirmed by new excavations atthe sett lement of Fagnig ola in Friu li, there remain some aspect s of the early Neo lithicgroups in the Po Vall ey which are not explic able in any oth er way .
In th is respect it is part icul ar ly significantthat the Vha di Piadena, group in the centra lPo Plain, charac te rised by pedestalled vesset-te rms and pots w ith knob s. impressed co rdon s and grooves. Thi s group. like others ofcent ral Po Valley. has a lith ic industry relatedto the local Mesolithic tradition with ceramicelements imitating and imported from the Fiorano area as well as various elements of contact with the Gaban and Isolino groups (BAGOLlNI . BIAGI 1980).
Thi s has produced a charac teristic religious art style. represented by cla y femalefigurines with double-headed hemi spheri calheads, and incised geometric decoration.Such female figurines are essentially foreignto the Impressed Ware Culture, and in general in all the western Neolithic . and can onlybe connected wi th the Anatolian-Balkan ideological world .
Aspects of Balkan ideology In th e EarlyNeo llthic
Balkan ideological elements are above allrecognisab le in the predominantly female fig ·urines found in various Neolithic contexts innorthern Italy.
The anthropomorphic representationsare, in fact, almost absent from the area ofthe Impressed Ware Culture, both in the Italian peninsula and other areas. These are sub-
stantially foreign to the traditions of «western» inspiration which are established innorthern Italy, above all in the final phases ofthe Neolithic, espec ially the Liguri an Chasseyand Lagozza Cultures.
The cultural contex t of female figurines,as far as the northern peninsula is concerned, is thus restricted to some of the earlyNeolithic groups and the whol e ensuing development of the Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture (BAGOLlNI 1978).
In the framework of the early Neollthicthe anthropomorphic iconography clearlyruns from those of Balkan inspiration, likethose of the Vhb group, to others in whi ch aMesolithic substratum appears to be lrnportant, as in the Gaban group (GRAZIOSI 1975).
In these two groups in particular, whi chwere in vogue during the last two centuri esof the V miJlenium be some features are ofgreat significance for our argument. The incised phalllc-shaped pebble from Gaban andthe formal designs incised on a human fem ur, st rongly recall that art of Lepenki Vir(SREJOVIC 1972) wh ich are attributable toperiod whi ch is not very much earlier (LV 11) .Considerable similarities are met in the remarkable sculpture found at Capdana k - LeHault in Lot in an early Chassey contex t.
In the same cultural contex t of Gabanthere is also a schematic female stereotypeon a bone plaque whi ch is comparable to ternale figurines with a rectangular outline distributed in var ious 8alkan assemblages.
As far as the double-headed clay figurinefrom Vhb di Piadena is concerned, the Balkanparallel is limited by the ideological signif ican·ce of this, since it is found in a variety ofdifferent cultural contex ts . Double-beadedNeolithic f igures are found from Asia Minor,at Tell Brak (MALLOWAN 1947) and CatalHuyuk (MELLAART 1967), to the Balkans(GIMBUTAS 1974). Over this area we areclearly dealing with two types of representation : one suggesting a symbiosis of two persons, male and female, and another strict lydoubl e-headed. It is evident that the symbolicand ideolog ical mot ivations are very differentin each case, above all in those which represent twins of opposite sex . If we exc ludethe twin version, the most striking parallelsare found in the cultural contex t of Vin~a in
the «two-headed goddess« from Rast (DUMI ·TRESCU 1972) and later in the classic Vinca,at Vinca itself and Gomolava (GIMBUTAS1974).
Reflexes from the Balkan ideologicalworld could also be recognisable in the presence of «plntaderas» (CORNAGGIA CASTI·GLlONI , CALEGARI 1978), but these are, atour present state of knowl edge, absent fromthe Impressed Ware traditi on and the earl yNeolithic of north ern Italy. The first pintaderas with certain associations come from theensuing Square-Mouthed Pottery Culturewhere they last throughout its deve lopment.
Thi s fact is remarkable if one considersthat in the Balkan area such objects are wldeIy distri buted dur ing the early Neolithic, especially in the Starcsvo-Koros Culture.
The Full Neolithic
The Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture dorninates the scene during the IV millenium bc.After an initial «Llgurian style» with incisedlinear geometri c decoration (BARFIELD1972), there foll ow, in a later development ,stylistic influences from the Adrtatic-Batkanarea which are mainl y der ived from the Dani10 (KOROSEC 1958, 1964) and Hvar (NOVAK1955) Cultures. These new cultural inf luencesare distinguished by the introducti on, alonqslde surviving indigenous traits, of dynam ic decoration, such as meanders, bar meanders,spirals and spiral meanders executed with ascratch or cut-out technique.
It is worth however pointing out how during its whole developm ent the SquareMouthed Pottery Cultu re is profoundly lntluenced by Balkan traditions see n principally inthe presence of figurines and pintaderas.These elements point to a close relationshipbetween thi s Culture and those of the Balkans in the spiritual sphere. It is not possibleto point to any specific similarities outsidethe culture area since in northern Italy theyoccur in original and independent forms related to the autonomy that the SquareMouthed Pottery Culture itseif maintains during its developm ent.
During the first sty list ic phase of theSquare-Mouthed Pottery Culture linear geo·
53
metric scratched decoration seems to develop from its ear liest Ligur ian aspect (BAR·FIELD 1971 ). It does not however appear possible to support the hypothesis that there wasa close correlation between the scratchedsty le of the VBO Culture and similar featuresfound in the Danilo area , even though thesetraits appear in Dalmatia at a moment immediately foll ow ing the disappearance of the Irnpressed Ware Culture and geographica lly arerecognisable in a few elements. as far as theTrieste Karst (BARFIELD 1973). Also, as regards the scratched decoration in the DaniloCulture, some Yugoslav authorities do not recognise any influence from the geometricscratched ware style of Matera Ostuni, onthe eastern shore of the Adriatic, apart fromthe fac t that a few later simila r decorativesty les come to predominate in the Danilo tradition, executed both in scratched and incisedtechn ique (BATOVIC 1975).
In the sty listic sub-divisions of the Dalrnatian Neolithic proposed by one Yugoslav authority (BREGANT 1968) we see that the beginning of Danilo, we ll docum ented at Daniloand Smil cic is characterised by geometric li·near decoration done with a variety of teenniques, among them scratching (Danil o 1·4);the spiral and spiral meander motifs, now also painted, appear at a later stage (Danilo5-7) which in turn is strat if ied below the firststy listic phases of Hvar (Hvar 1·3), and th isshares many motifs besides others that, likethe undul ating festooned bands, are spec ificto the latter Culture.
With the later Hvar sty listic tra its (Hvar4·6) these festoon mot ifs, generally paintedbut also incised, become well established.
This evo lution of the middde and late Neo·lithic, if it could be bette r co nfi rmed by stratigraphical evidence. which at present we donot have, presents a significant parallel tothat of the early and the developed phases ofthe VBO Cultu re.
These parallels can be summarised asfollows :1. Early VBO (Iinear-geometric scratched rnot
ifs) - fi rst stages of the Danilo Culture(Danilo 1-4).
2. Fully developed VBO Culture (dynamicand spiral meander, scratched, incisedand excised styles) - final stages of Danilo
54
(Danilo 5-7) and first phases of Hvar (Hvar1·3).The decorative elements with incised fes·
tooned bands, recogn ised above all at Pescale (M alavolti 1951 ·52), can thu s be related toHvar , perhaps in its post Danilo stages . Va·rious features place this Emilian facies in amore developed stylistic position in relationship to other spiral meander groups of theVBO Culture (BAGOLlNI, BIAGI 1977c ).
In general the stylistic elements with thegreatest affi nities between the latest spi ralmeander aspects of the VBO Culture and theHvar Culture appea r to be with the continental variant of this Culture, as at Lisicici, ratherthan with the coasta l aspect of Smilcic. Onthe other hand, if the hypothesis concerningthe relationship between Lisicic i and Danilotradition is correct as an episode directly related to Danilo IV, these facts would better fitin with a model of organic development. Theevidence for a connection between the contlnental area, along the Neretva, and the northItalian VBO area is arguably extensive, evendur ing the early stages of Danilo , and parti cularly well docum ented through the mediationof the Kakanj Culture.
It is thu s quite possible that the principaldirection of contacts whi ch lead to the int roducti on of Balkan influences in the middle stage of the VBO Culture, are not to be soughtprim aril y on the Dalmatian coast, but alongmore continental routes centred roughly onthe Neretva and fr om there along the Bosnaand the Sava.
In summary the direction of influencecould be: Danilo Kakanj VBO: early spiralmeander. Follow ed by: Hvar Lisicici ButmirVBO: late spiral meander (BAGOLlNI et al1979).
As has been just argued, there are traitswhich support the argument for a diff usion ofcu ltu ral influence into northern Italy perhapsalready during the early Neollthic which relates, however distantly, the Starcevo spherewith the cu ltural traditions of the Po Plain.
Balkan Ideological traits in the SquareMouthed Pollery Culture
In the context of the Square-Mouthed Pot·tery Culture Balkan ideological traits are re-
cognisable above all in the figurines and the«pintaderas».
As far as the femal e figures are concerned, it is clear that even at the beginningof the Culture, there are a number of stylist icvariants. Two types, in particular, occur withsignificant regularity: these are figurines witha strongly flattened crutch shaped body, gen·erally seated, with whi ch can prob ably be associated a type with a stylised cylindricalhead ; and figurines with arms folded on thechest and shoulder length hair, of whi ch typ ehowe ver only one example is known (BAGO·UNI 1978).
Both these main types, characteristic ofthe square-Moutbeo Pottery Culture area, de·monstrate how within the same culture andeven the same settlement, there co-existedtwo or more figurine styles each one evidence of an ideologi cal heritage within which thefemal e figurine had several different forms.There indeed would appear to have been anumber of different formal types whi ch it isdifficult to interpret in terms of a single «tert ility godde ss., the symbol of «mother earth»,for whom could be performed the seasonalmyths and festivals.
This observation agrees with what hasbeen noted in the Balkan area, where thereexists a proliferation of different female rapresentations as well as other persons and cultobjects.
As regard s the possibility of direct rnorphological comparison between the rangefound in the VBa Culture and that of the Balkan region these are rather impreci se becau se of the already mentioned re-elaboration oftypes in different cultures.
It is worth however notin g that the seatedfigures with flattened crutchshaped bodiesand lower part of the body with large but tacks, flexed knees and tapering lower limbswith no indication of feet, bear a strong sirnilarity with the types found in the fir st phaseof Cucuteni in Moldavia (GIMBUTAS 1974).
The parallels for the typ e of figurine witharm s bent across the chest are too generalised to be signif icant. This atti tude is in factvery widely diffused in various cultural contexts in south east Europe above all in Greece and Bulgaria.
For the «plntaderas» it is possibl e to say
that the majority of these objects found inNeolithic Italy are associated with the VBaCulture (CORNAGGIA CASTIGUONI , CALE·GARI 1978) and therefore in the south of italyare uncommon . This suggests that our areais more open to Balkan influences, which aremainly continental and not maritime.
We can further note that «pintaderas» arenot characteristic of the coastal DalmatianNeolithic of either Danilo or Hvar, in spite ofthe sty list ic cont ribution made by these Cultures to that of the VBa Culture.
The «plntaderas» also present a stylisticevolut ion whi ch is related to that of the ceramic decoration. For when during the secondphase of the Culture the geometri c linear style is gradually replaced by the motifs of thespiral meander style, we find on the «pintadera s» also dynamic, spiral meander motifs(BAGOLlNI 1977).
Conclusions
Balkan influences from various sourcespermeate the early Neolithic of northern Italyto the exc lusions of those from the lrnpressed Ware Cultu re.
The Balkan component appears, in agreater or lesser degree, as a basic elementin these cultural groups.
This component having undergone manylocal transformations cannot be traced to anyspecif ic Balkan Cultu re areas, although theStarcevo-Koros assemblages would appearto be the principle ones involved.
in the full Neolithic, which develops in thewhole territory as the VBa Culture, we findlinks with the Danilo Culture and to a lesserextent that of Hvar, above all in the decorative range of the pottery. Clear links with theBalkan ideological traditions are to be seen inthe var ious types of female figurines and «pintaderas»,
In the late Neolithic, characterised in thewest by the spread of the Chassey and t.aqozza traditions and by the penetration of groupsrelated to Diana from the directi on of the A·dri atic coast (BAGOLlNI, BIAGI1 9771, the trad·itional contacts with the Balkan area, whichhad come along coasta l or land routes, seemto be interrupted. In some areas such as that
55
centred on the Euganean Hills, Lake Gardaand the Trent ino, the VBO Culture survives todevelop local variants permeated by north Alpine traits, even though a survival of Balkantraditions is st ill clearly recogni sabl e in theco ntinuing use of «pintaderas» and of femalef jgurines, which are similar to those of earlierti mes.
(Translated by L.H. Barfleld)
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SUMMARY
Balkan inf luences from vario us sources permeatethe early Neolithic of Nort hern Italy to the exclusions ofthose from the Impressed Ware Culture.
The Balkan component appears , in a greater orlesser degree, as a basic element in these culturalgroups.
This component having undergone many loc altransformat ions cannot be traced to any spec ific Balkan culture area s, although the Star~evo·K()r()s assemblages wou ld appear to be the principle ones invo lved .
In the full Nectlth!c. whi ch develops in the wholeterr itory as the VBa Culture, we find links with the Dani10 Culture and to a lesser extent that of Hvar, above allIn the decor ative range of the pottery. Clear links withthe Balkan ideological trad it ions ere to be seen in thevarious types of female figurines and eptntederas• .
In the late Neohthic. characterised in the west bythe spread of the Chassey and Leqozza traditions andby the penetration of groups related to Oiana from thedirection of the Ad riat ic coast the traditional contactswith the Balkan area , whi ch had come along coastal orland rou tes, seem to be Interrupted . In some areas suchas that cen tred on the Euganean Hills, l ake Garda andthe Tre ntino, the VBa Cult ure survives to develop localva ria nts permeated by north Alpine traits, even thougha surv iva l of Balkan tradit ions is sti ll c learly recognisa ble in the continuing use of «pmtederese and of femalef igurines, which are simi lar to those of earlier times .
RESUME
Des infl uences balkaniques de diverses sourcesmarquent le premier Neotithique de t'ttene du nord, 8l'exclusion de la Culture de la Ceremique tmpresslor mee .
la composante balkaniqu e apparait, de Iacon plusou moins ecce ruuee. comme l'element base de cesgroupes cu lture ls.
Cette composante ayant subi de nombreusea transformations locales ne peut se reterer 8 une zone cutturelle spec itique des Balkans, bien que lea assemblagesStar~evo-K()r ()s puissant appa raitre comme ceux quisont le plus concernee.
Oans le pteln Neotithfoue. qui se developpe sur toutle terri toire comme la Culture des vases 8 embouchurecerree. nous trouvons des liens avec la Culture de Danl·10 et , dans une moindre mesure, evec celle de Hver ,surtout de ns les bandes decorativea des poteri es. Desliens evldenta evec res tradit ions ldeoloqiquea des Balkans peuvent se vo ir dans les tlvers types de figurinesIemlnfnes et eplntade ras• .
Au cou rs du Neolitt uque tard if, ca racterlse it l'ouestpar I'extenslon des traditions Chassey et l agozza etpar la penet ration de groupes relies 8 Oiana et provenant de la cOte adriatique lea contacts traditionnels avecla reg ion betkantque, qui s'eteient creea le long desroutes cOtieres ou internes , semblent s'interrompre.Oans certaines zones comme cetle qui est centree surles Coll ines Euganean, le lac de Garde et le Trentin. laCulture VBa aurvit pour developper de s vanentes loc ales Intluenceea par des traits prove nant du nord desAl pes , meme si une survivance des traditions benenlques est enco re clalrement reconnaissable dens l'utlflsation con tinue des «pintaderee» et dans les fi gurinestemlnfnee, qu i soot semblables 8 ceues des tem pspasses.
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