Culture and economy in the north Italian Neolithic

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Abstract
This paper discusses economic change in northern Italy in the 5th to 2nd millennium B.C. as a basis for reconsidering the nature and importance of Neolithic culture evidence. Neolithic artefacts are seldom good indicators of economic behaviour, and the advent of pottery‐bearing cultures may not have great economic significance. Mesolithic communities may have practised animal husbandry at an earlier date, and the full impact of the modern domesticated animals and cereals was not felt until long after the appearance of Neolithic cultures. In this situation the term ‘Neolithic’ is best used in a purely technological sense to describe sites possessing certain artefacts and attributes, without any inherent implications concerning economic status.

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