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The process of Neolithization of Southern Italy and Sicily covers about 500 years (6200–5700 cal BC) and involves two cultural horizons: Archaic Impressed Ware or “Impresse Arcaiche” and Advanced Impressed Ware or “Impresse Evolute”. In Southern Italy the Neolithic peopling from the East is characterized by a “package” of plenty domesticated plants and livestock; in Sicily the adoption of the new economical system is apparently more slow and with no evidences of ruptures between the Mesolithic groups and first farmers. In this paper we present the chronological and cultural framework of the sixth millennium BC within the area of investigation, with an up-to-date bibliography about settlement and economic strategies, palaeoenvironment and climate. In Southern Italy several open air sites are known and well investigated, in Sicily researches have been concentrated along the shoreline caves. Both regions show similarities in settlement strategies on the long duration. From a cultural point of view, to a first homogeneity of the “Impresse Arcaiche” aspects, after 5800 cal BC, the emergence of original and distinctive features designs different geographical areas.

This paper discusses the Middle Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age phases of the occupation of a rock shelter at Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Palermo) in Sicily. Vallone Inferno is a key site for studying the early establishment and development of pastoralism in the prehistoric mountainous environments of Sicily. Seasonal use of the site as a shelter is documented for the earliest pastoral communities that exploited the Madonie mountain range. The results of the analysis of pottery and lithic assemblages contribute to the definition of two chronocultural frameworks that were linked by the same economic subsistence base. The special role of obsidian emerges, while the mobility patterns of human groups are contextualized by the combination of archaeological and paleoenvironmental data with a focus on the 4.2 ka cal BP aridification climatic event broadly coincident with the final part of the local Copper Age and beginning of the Early Bronze Age. Moreover, since the transition between the Late Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age, mobility of pastoral groups is inferred to be one of the most important factors for the spread of cultural elements on the island.

The Archaeological Superintendency of Palermo (Sicily), with the chair of Anthropology at the University of Palermo, carried out a preliminary investigation in the Zubbio of Cozzo San Pietro (Bagheria) – a cave known so far only from a speleological point of view - which proved to be a funerary cave dating to the Copper/Bronze Age. In the course of archaeological work during the installation of the electricity grid in the Mondello area (Palermo), part of a necropolis consisting of three oven-shaped tombs was exposed. The tombs multiple depositions, whose remains were found in a very bad state of preservation. Based on the type of funerary structures and the equipment found in them, we hypothesize the existence of a necropolis datable to the Early Copper Age that occupies a large area. After an articulated presentation of both necropolises, thanks to a multidisciplinary approach, an attempt was made to re-read all the elements available for a reconstruction of the Conca d’Oro (Palermo, Italy), during the metal ages.

Vallone Inferno rock-shelter is an archaeological site located in the Madonie mountain range in Sicily. Archaeological excavation and research have provided a long prehistoric and historic sequence from the Neolithic to the medieval period, this being the most complete work in this area at present. In this paper we present the preliminary data provided by a multidisciplinary study based on pottery, lithic, human, faunal and plant remains. Stratigraphic studies have identified four complexes, of which complex 3 has provided almost all the archaeological remains. 14C AMS dates, obtained from four samples, place the human activities between 2601 cal BC and 644 cal AD. These dates are coherent with the cultural attribution of the ceramic and lithic remains. Macrofaunal and plant remains show a persistent use of the shelter for pastoral activities. Environmental data, obtained from microvertebrate and archaeobotanical remains, show the aridification and opening of the landscape from the base to the top of the sequence as a consequence of the human impact. © 2012 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.