Lagozza

Late Neolithic lake village settlement in Lombardy, Italy, dated to c 3600 BC. Remains of wooden pile dwellings exist in the type site of the Lagozza culture, characterized by finely made black-burnished carinated bowls. Decoration is rare, consisting of radiating lines on the lower walls or scratched cross-hatched triangles. Instead of proper handles, simple and multiple perforated lugs were used, including the flûte de pan. The culture is related to, and possibly derived from, Chassey (France) and Cortaillod (Switzerland). Spindle whorls and loom-weights show textile production. The culture was established in the north and spread slowly down the Adriatic side of Italy to the Marche and Ripoli in the Late Neolithic, and to Ariano by the Copper Age, surviving there to give rise to the Apennine culture of the Bronze Age. Copper axes are among the earliest copper items of northern Italy.

A lake village near Milan in north Italy which has given its name to a Late Neolithic culture of the late 4th and early 3rd millennium be. It is characterized by plain dark-surfaced, burnished pottery, usually undecorated; it is thought to be related to the Chassey culture of France and the Cortail-lod culture of Switzerland. Its main area of distribution is in north Italy, but Lagozza material has been claimed from some sites in the peninsula. The Lagozza people were mixed farmers and a considerable quantity of plant material was preserved in waterlogged conditions at the type site: as well as wheat, barley, lentils and flax, which were cultivated, a large number of wild fruits and nuts were found, including pears, apples and cherries, nuts and acorns. The animal side of the diet may have involved a concentration on dairy products, as a number of artefacts occur which could have been used for making butter and cheese, including chums, strainers and pottery vessels in the form of perforated funnels which are interpreted as milk-boilers for cheese making. A small number of copper artefacts occur on Lagozza sites, suggesting the incipient development of metallurgy. Some crouched inhumation burials in cists occur.