P21
Sailers and farmers in the Intermediate-Late Bronze Age
During the Intermediate-Late Bronze Age (1650-1200 BC), there were small villages in the current
area between the Cherasca river and Langhe Road. The economies of these small communities
based on the agriculture, livestock and goods exchanges. After centuries of deforestation, large
cereals and leguminous agricultural fields guaranteed the sustainment of even more numerous
groups; the cattle, the goats and the sheep were raised in order to produce commodities as meat,
milk or wool; the bovines were also exploited in the agricultural work. The fishing and the hunting
had a secondary role (deer, roe). The prevalence of the agriculture in the economy of that time is
proved also by the results of the paleo-nutritional analysis on the bones from the necropolis. These
studies suggest a diet rich of vegetables, fruits and cereals. Household crafts – as the production of
potteries, the fusion of the bronze and the carving of the wood for the production of tools – took
place in the village. The finding of several spindle whorls represents the evidence of the spinning of
the vegetal fibres and of the wool. The position of Alba – in the centre of an area with many
villages along the river Tanaro, a fundamental trade route – guaranteed the connections and
increased the spreading of the finished products or of the rough metals (from the western Alps) in
the Padania region.
In the showcase n. 9 shows ceramic fragments from the village which go back to the
Intermediate (n. 6) and Early (n. 7) Bronze Age
Wooden ladle from Mercurago Intermediate Bronze Age
Reconstruction of the landscape of the Cherasca Valley during the Bronze Age
Localization of the human settlements during the Bronze Age in Piedmont to south of the
River Po