Early Metal Ages Burial Grounds Chronology and Cultural Transmission: Some Examples from Southern Europe

Abstract

The study of the Early Metal Age cultures of Europe has greatly improved during the last decades. New studies have been centered not only on aspects of the material culture and burial rites, but also on the chronology of the different complexes, their spread, eventually genetic evidence, and cultural transmission. Moreover, the study of the steppe zones of south-eastern Europe has improved thanks to the excavation and publication of new burial grounds and important settlement sites. This paper considers a few cultural aspects that made their appearance around the beginning of the Subboreal climatic period in northern Italy, among which is the so-called Chalcolithic Remedello Culture. As far as we can understand, not only the aDNA evidence, but also the presence of a few unique grave goods, including hammer-headed pins, suggest that some kind of intercultural relationship existed with south-eastern Europe, which the authors think are most probably due to cultural transmission.