The Neolithic Pottery Sequence in Southern Italy

Abstract

The currently accepted divisions of the south Italian Neolithic are based on typological studies of ceramic styles, interpreted with the aid of stratigraphical information derived from a few key excavations. On the basis of this material a number of authorities have divided the Neolithic into a series of chronological phases. It is my belief that the evidence for constructing this neat relative chronological framework does not in fact exist and that the scheme generally favoured today is oversimplified and in parts inaccurate. In this paper I shall first summarize three important typological studies of south Italian Neolithic pottery: R. B. K. Stevenson's pioneer study of museum material, mainly from the Materano, published in 1947 (Stevenson, 1947); L. Bernabò Brea's scheme, based primarily on the stratigraphical sequence obtained from his excavations on the island of Lipari, published in various forms and admirably summarized in a paper presented to the Primo Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia in 1961 (Bernabò Brea, 1962) and, finally, R. Peroni's recent study of the Apulian material (Peroni, 1967). The second part of my paper will consist of a critical examination of these three studies and the final section will be devoted to a description of the known Neolithic wares, with an assessment of their relationships and relative chronological positions.