Editing History of Italy (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Main|Prehistoric Italy}}
{{Multiple image
|perrow=3
|total_width=350px
|image1=Matera from Piazzetta Pascoli-2930.jpg
|caption1=The ''[[Sassi di Matera|Sassi]]'' cave houses of [[Matera]] are believed to be among the first human settlements in Italy, dating back to the Paleolithic.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sassi di Matera |url=https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/04/sassi-di-matera-oldest-continuously.html?m=1 |publisher=AmusingPlanet}}</ref>
|image2=Paleolitico superiore, venere di savignano, 23.000-18.000 ac ca. (museo pigorini) 02.jpg
|caption2=[[Venus of Savignano]]
|image3=Parco archeologico e Museo all'aperto della Terramara di Montale.jpg
|caption3=Reconstructed [[Terramare]] houses
|image4=Otzi-Quinson.jpg
|caption4=[[Ötzi]], a natural mummy dating from the 4th millennium BC
|image5=Età nuragica, giganti di monte prama, xiii-ix secolo ac ca., da cabras, guerriero 05, 01.jpg
|caption5=[[Giants of Mont'e Prama]]
|image6=Civiltà nuragica, prima età del ferro, grande capotribù con mantello e bastone 01.jpg
|caption6=Bronze sculpture of a Nuragic chief from [[Uta, Sardinia|Uta]]
|image7=Antropomorfi detti astronauti (a) - R 1 - Area di Zurla - Nadro (ph Luca Giarelli).jpg
|caption7=[[Rock Drawings in Valcamonica|Petroglyph in Valcamonica]], [[Lombardy]], the largest collection of prehistoric [[petroglyph]]s in the world (10th millennium BC)
}}

The arrival of the first [[hominins]] was 850,000 years ago at [[Monte Poggiolo]].<ref name="nationalgeographic.it">[http://www.nationalgeographic.it/scienza/2012/01/20/news/erano_padani_iprimi_abitanti_ditalia-807204/ National Geographic Italia – Erano padani i primi abitanti d'Italia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626220707/http://www.nationalgeographic.it/scienza/2012/01/20/news/erano_padani_iprimi_abitanti_ditalia-807204 |date=26 June 2019}}{{In lang|it}}</ref> The presence of the ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'' has been demonstrated in archaeological findings near Rome and [[Verona]] dating to {{Circa|50,000}} years ago (late [[Pleistocene]]). [[Homo sapiens sapiens]] appeared during the upper [[Palaeolithic]].<ref>42.7–41.5 ka ([[68–95–99.7 rule|1σ CI]]).
{{Cite journal |last=Douka |first=Katerina |display-authors=etal |date=2012 |title=A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy) |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=286–299 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.11.009 |pmid=22189428|bibcode=2012JHumE..62..286D }}</ref> Remains of the later prehistoric age include [[Ötzi the Iceman]], dating to {{Circa|3400–3100}} BC ([[Copper Age]]).

During the Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy in four waves. A first Indoeuropean migration occurred around the mid-3rd millennium BC, from a population who imported [[coppersmithing]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 January 2020 |title=Età del rame, l'Italia era al centro di una rete di diffusione del metallo |url=https://ilbolive.unipd.it/it/news/eta-rame-litalia-era-centro-rete-diffusione |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=it}}</ref> The [[Remedello culture]] took over the [[Po Valley]]. The second wave occurred in the [[Bronze Age]], from the late 3rd to the early 2nd millennium BC, with tribes identified with the [[Beaker culture]] and by the use of [[bronze]] [[smithing]], in the [[Padan Plain]], in [[Tuscany]] and on the coasts of [[Sardinia]] and [[Sicily]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Campaniforme, bicchiere |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bicchiere-campaniforme |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=it}}</ref> In the mid-2nd millennium BC, a third wave arrived, associated with the [[Apennine culture|Apenninian civilization]] and the [[Terramare culture]].<ref name="Pearce1998">{{Cite journal |last=Pearce |first=Mark |date=1 December 1998 |title=New research on the terramare of northern Italy |journal=Antiquity |volume=72 |issue=278 |pages=743–746 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00087317 |s2cid=160050623}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Terramare culture – ancient culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Terramare-culture |access-date=13 February 2019 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> The Terramare people were hunters, but had domesticated animals and cultivated crops; they were fairly skilful metallurgists, casting bronze in moulds.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Terramara|volume=26|pages=658–659|first=John Malcolm|last=Mitchell}}</ref>
In the late Bronze Age, from the late 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BC, a fourth wave, the [[Proto-Villanovan culture]], brought iron-working to the Italian peninsula. Proto-Villanovan culture may have been part of the central European [[Urnfield culture]] system,<ref name="Gimbutas">{{Cite book |first=M. |last=Gimbutas |author-link=Marija Gimbutas |title=Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe |pp=339–345}}</ref><ref>John M. Coles ''The Bronze Age in Europe: An Introduction to the Prehistory of Europe C. 2000–700 BC'', pp. 422</ref> or a derivation from Terramare culture.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://iris.uniroma1.it/handle/11573/113859 |first=Andrea |last=Cardarelli |journal=Scienze dell'antichità: storia, archeologia, antropologia |title=The collapse of the Terramare culture and growth of new economic and social system during the late Bronze Age in Italy |date=2010 |volume=15 |issn=1123-5713}}</ref><ref>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/protovillanoviano_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Antica%29/ Francesco di Gennaro. "Protovillanoviano", ''Enciclopedia dell'arte antica''], [[Treccani]], Rome, 1996</ref> Various authors, such as [[Marija Gimbutas]], associated this culture with the spread of the proto-[[Italic languages|Italics]] into the [[Italian Peninsula]].<ref name="Gimbutas"/>

===Nuragic civilization===
{{Main|Nuragic civilization|Torrean civilization}}
Born in [[Sardinia]] and [[southern Corsica]] (where it is called [[Torrean civilization]]), the [[Nuraghe]] civilization lasted from the 18th century BC to the 2nd century AD.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cicilloni |first1=Riccardo |last2=Cabras |first2=Marco |date=2014-12-22 |title=Aspetti insediativi nel versante oreintale del Monte Arci (Oristano -Sardegna) tra il bronzo medio e la prima età del ferro |url=https://quaderniarcheocaor.beniculturali.it/index.php/qua/article/view/116/115 |url-status=dead |journal=Quaderni |language=it |publisher=Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Cagliari e le province di Oristano e Sud Sardegna |issue=25 |page=84 |issn=2284-0834 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731083211/https://quaderniarcheocaor.beniculturali.it/index.php/qua/article/view/116/115 |archive-date=31 July 2021 |access-date=22 November 2021}}</ref><ref>G. Lilliu (1999) p.&nbsp;11{{Full citation needed|reason=No such document in sources section; perhaps 1966 intended.|date=December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Belmuth |first=Miriam S. |title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1950-7618-9 |editor-last=Fagan |editor-first=Brian M. |editor-link=Brian M. Fagan |volume=1: 'Ache'—'Hoho' |page=534 |chapter=Nuragic Culture |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ystMAgAAQBAJ&q=Nuragic+civilization&pg=PA535}}</ref><ref name="Chesworth">{{Cite book |last1=Martini |first1=I. Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1tcUc293W8C&q=Nuragic+civilization&pg=PA166 |title=Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases |last2=Chesworth |first2=Ward |date=2010 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-9-0481-9413-1 |page=169}}</ref> They take their name from the characteristic Nuragic towers, which evolved from the pre-existing megalithic culture, which built [[dolmen]]s and [[menhir]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lilliu |first=Giovanni |date=2006 |title=Sardegna Nuragica |url=http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2008040218311700023.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303205232/http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2008040218311700023.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-03 |publisher=Edizioni Maestrali}}</ref> Today more than 7,000&nbsp;nuraghes<ref>There is no complete census, but the figure of 7,000 in E. Contu, "L'architettura nuraghica", in Atzeni ''et al.'' (1985), (see {{Cite book |first1=E. |last1=Atzeni |display-authors=etal |title=Ichnussa |date=1985 |page=5}}{{Full citation needed|reason=No such ref in sources; may have meant Atzeni (1981), but no ''et al''. for that doc.|date=December 2019}}), is often repeated, and the Provincia di Cagliari website (see {{Cite web |title=Provincia di Cagliari |url=http://www.provinciadelsole.it/nuragica.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722045217/http://www.provinciadelsole.it/nuragica.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 |access-date=22 November 2021}}) estimates more than 7,000.</ref> appear in Sardinia.

No written records of this civilization have been discovered,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Monoja |first1=M. |title=Parole di segni, L'alba della scrittura in Sardegna |last2=Cossu |first2=C. |last3=Migaleddu |first3=M. |date=2012 |publisher=Carlo Delfino Editore |series=Sardegna Archeologica, Guide e Itinerari |location=Sassari}}</ref> apart from a few possible short epigraphic documents.<ref name="Ugas_2005">{{Cite book |last=Ugas |first=Giovanni |title=L'Alba dei Nuraghi |date=2005 |publisher=Fabula editrice |isbn=978-8-8896-6100-0 |location=Cagliari}}</ref> The only written information comes from classical literature of the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], and may be considered more mythological than historical.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perra |first=M. |title=La Sardegna nelle fonti classiche |date=1993 |publisher=S'Alvure editrice |location=Oristano}}</ref> The language (or languages) spoken in Sardinia during the Bronze Age is (are) unknown since there are no written records from the period, although research suggests that around the 8th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC the Nuragic populations may have adopted an alphabet similar to that used in [[Archaic Greek alphabets#Euboean|Euboea]].<ref name="Ug">{{Cite book |last=Ugas |first=Giovanni |title=Tharros Felix |date=2013 |publisher=Carocci |editor-last=Mastino, Attilio |volume=5 |location=Roma |pages=295–377 |chapter=I segni numerali e di scrittura in Sardegna tra l'Età del Bronzo e il i Ferro |editor-last2=Spanu, Pier Giorgio |editor-last3=Zucca, Raimondo}}</ref>