The pre-protohistoric human occupation of the Trasimeno basin. Antiquarian collections and modern-day investigations

This paper is concerned with the chronological and cultural framework of the peopling of Lake Trasimeno and the surrounding territories during Pre-Protohistory, with special focus on the numerous and interesting materials (not yet published) from the Bellucci and the Calzoni Collections at the National Archaeological Museum of Perugia. These materials cover a very broad time range (Palaeolithic and Neo-Eneolithic) represented only partially or not at all by the results of modern investigations. In addition the Bellucci Collection contains prestigious objects, including an assemblage of arrowheads and stone polished axes, which can provide meaningful information about raw material circulation routes and largescale exchanges as well as the cult-ritual behaviour of Neo-Eneolithic groups. Although geological studies concerning the Trasimeno basin are, particularly for the more recent periods (Upper Pleistocene and Holocene), still preliminary, an attempt at intertwining archaeological data with the geomorphologiacal ones has been carried out in order to provide a framework of each phase within its palaeoenvironmental context.