Insediamenti e portualità lungo l’arco Alto Adriatico prima della romanizzazione

The paper aims to analyse cultural and trade dynamics in the Northern Adriatic, with a broad territorial and chronological perspective. The coastal environment between the Po Delta and Istria is characterised by numerous river mouths of varying flow rates and lagoon areas, representing a link between the Mediterranean, particularly the Aegean, and the contexts of northern Italy and Hallstatt. The coastline natural enviroment allowed for cabotage navigation, but also the connection with larger-scale traffic, documented diachronically with fluctuations of concentration and thinning, from the last stages of the Bronze Age until the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan controlled the Adriatic through the ports of Adria and Spina. A system of landings and ports, both coastal and fluvial or lagoon ports is identified, linking the Etruscan-Padan sector to the Veneto world, in a dynamic framework of cultural and commercial relations that justify the interest of the ancient sources and the emergence of mythological narratives.