THE NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT OF VHÒ DI PIADENA (CREMONA, NORTHERN ITALY): 150 YEARS OF RESEARCH AND EXCAVATIONS

Research on the Neolithic of the Central Po Plain was resumed in 1974s with the excavation of one of the Early Neolithic sites discovered in the middle of the 1800s around Vhò di Piadena in the Province of Cremona (Lombardy, northern Italy). The scope of the new excavations was to define a cultural aspect of which little was known in those years, which showed some affinities with that of Fiorano, whose distribution covers the eastern part of the Po Valley. The territory around Vhò shows the presence of many Neolithic sites, most of which are now attributed to the early Neolithic Vhò cultural aspect which is dated between the last centuries of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th millennium cal BC. The Vhò assemblages are represented mainly by pottery, knapped and polished stone artefacts. They show peculiarities that clearly distinguish them from the other aspects that flourished in northern Italy during the same period.