The emergence of metallurgy in the Central Mediterranean

What is it about?

This article explores the origins and early spread of metallurgy in Italy and surrounding areas. It argues that copper metal-working and metal-using (including the casting of axes) emerged in this region during the late and final Neolithic (c.4500-3600 BC) and developed dramatically from the early Copper Age (c.3600-3300 BC). It is claimed that knowledge of metal technology would have reached northern Italy from eastern Europe would have been transmitted to southern France from central Italy

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Why is it important?

The article's significance is twofold: firstly, it proposes a new chronology for the origins and early spread of metallurgy, which aligns northern and central Italy to the northern Alps; secondly, it rejects previous theories concerning the spread of metallurgical knowledge from either the eastern or the western Mediterranean, showing that the new technology would have reached both the northern and the southern Alps from eastern Europe; hence it would have further spread southwards and westwards