Hall 1

Prehistory

Artefacts dating from the Middle Palaeolithic through to the Bronze Age indicate that the Euganean Hills offered a natural environment rich in resources essential for human settlement. These included timber and edible plants, stones suitable for tool-making such as flint and trachyte, springs, watercourses, and fertile, clay-rich soil for the production of early pottery. The settlement on stilts near the shores of the Laghetto della Costa in Arquà Petrarca is particularly important and anticipates the emergence of large lowland settlements in which the production of bronze artifacts.