The most ancient traces of the human activity in the area of Alba goes back to the Early Neolithic (6000-5250 B.C) and refer to small groups living of agriculture conducted with rudimental stone tools. In this period, the forests had been subjected to a former deforestation in order to create some clearings for the construction of the huts, the pastures of the livestock, the cultivation of cereals and the procurement of the wood. Some villages composed by rectangular houses were constructed on the river banks. Some feminine clay statues suggest the presence of cults and rites dedicated to the fertility of the soil (showcase n. 4).

  • Fruit pot. Intermediate Neolithic (Archaeological Museum of Turin)
  • Feminine statues from Alba, Langhe Road 33, and Vhò di Piadena: even if the two examples are different, the shape of the head, the aspect of the nose and of the arms, the only suggested arms and the engraved geometric decorations incisi

 

In the showcase n. 3, you can see some ceramic fragment dated back to the Early Neolithic (n. 1-2-3-5-6), a fragment of a ceramic statue (that probably constituted its head, n. 4), toolmaking flints (n. 8-9) and an element of a rhyolite staff (n. 7).