Agriculture

The terramare in the region Emilia Romagna are expression of commercial / trading activities in Bronze Age. These are settlements situated along the road which runs across the Alps in the Camonica Valley and reaches the shores of the river Po.
The terramare had strategic locations. They were built near warehouses and amber ware terminals. This type of trade had origin on the Baltic Sea and arrived till the river Po and its mouth to follow its trip on the Adriatic Sea and reach different destinations: The East Mediterranean Sea, Creta, Asia, Syria and Egypt.

The structure of terramare is similar to that of palafitte (lake dwelling) built on the northen central Italian lakes. These structures were suitable to create permanent villages along the banks of the river, with often overflowings problems. There is another important reason to build on these areas with so many environments problems: this was fluvial trade.

The inhabitants of terramare villages were not Indoeuropean but commercial contact made them available to international cultural influences from central Europe and from the Mediteranean Area.

Towards the end of this period the inhabitants of terramare adopted the use of cremation under the influence of middle European cultures without changing the original roots.

The disappearance of terramare villages in the XII century b.C. was caused by trading reasons: the fall of amber request in the Mediterranean Area and Orient, and the interruption caused by the invasion of the populations coming from the sea.

In the following years the "terramares" were abandoned because of the formation of a mountain pathway, the future "Via Emilia". In the meanwhile the movement of the Amber trade route from the Val Camonica to the Tirolo Area contributed to the creation of the civilization of the Adige Valley Area "civiltà Atesina" and that of the region "Veneto".