Prehistory of Emilia Romagna

While sharing the same historical evolution and dynamics with the rest of Northern Italy, the Emilia Romagna region became a sort of a bridge between the various environments of the peninsula during the various phases of prehistory. In fact, the populations of central Italy came in direct contact with the northernmost part of the peninsula, influencing each other’s cultures from the Neolithic Age.

The territory of Emilia Romagna was inhabited with certainty since the earliest prehistoric times. Numerous traces of the Lower Paleolithic era are located in the coastal area and in the Apennine valleys, including Correcchio.

From the plains come the numerous findings linked to the Middle Paleolithic age, while the most significant Upper Paleolithic testimonies are some feminine statues called “Veneri” from Savignano sul Panaro and Chiozza.

The first part of the Neolithic period is characterized by the cultural facets of Fiorano, where the typical engraved ceramics appeared. This craft represents a clear point of contact with the coarse culture developing at the same time in Sasso.

The Middle Neolithic and most of the Upper Neolithic periods are characterized by other cultural diffusions that resulted in square-shaped urns and vessels. At the end of this period and in the last centuries of the fourth millennium BC, Emilia Romagna presents typical aspects of the Lagozza culture, characterized by further development of ceramics.

The situation in the region during the Eneolithic era is unclear, although some recent excavations carried out at Spilamberto have attributed the typical “scaly ceramics” to this stage. On the other hand, the presence of the ceramics in both residential and burial contexts is well-attested, especially in the period between the end of the Eneolitic era and the Bronze Age. The ceramics of the period are characterized by their typical bell shape, and they are skillfully decorated. Besides ceramics, the Bronze Age is characterized by the spread of the terramaricoli villages.

In the thirteenth century BC, there is a clear influence of the Subapennine facets of development, borrowed from central Italy, especially in the Romagna area.

Emilia Romagna massively abandoned the Terramare culture between the twelfth and tenth centuries BC, while the Protovillanovian culture emerged not only in the region but almost everywhere in the peninsula. This culture is characterized by a complex ritual of incineration and the first Villanovian tombs of the region are located in the area of Bologna and Verrucchio, in the proximity of Rimini.

The Etruscan colonization in the region started soon after the Iron Age in an area connecting the Valley of Po to Tuscany. During this period Bologna flourished. Made up of several urban agglomerations, the city was placed between two fundamental routes of communication connecting the valleys of the region and the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea between Spina and Pisa.

As a result, Bologna became the central node between Etruria and the north of the Peninsula. Lastly, in the sixth century BC, the region meets the advent of the Felsinean civilization that is strongly influenced by the Etruscans.

History of Emilia Romagna

Emilia Romagna was colonized by the Etruscans between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC, and the period was extremely flourishing for the region. During this period, numerous centers including Cesena, Parma, Piacenza, and Modena arose.

The economic centrality assumed in the fifth century BC by the Padan Etruria brought Etruscans and the populations of Umbriainto direct contact with the Celtic populations. Their pressure, initiated in the sixth century, intensified even more as a result of the prosperous economy, and it concluded with the invasion of the Galls and the rupture of the Italian-Etruscan system in the fourth century BC.

To fight against the invasion of the Galls, the Romans expanded their territory to the north of the Adriatic and founded Rimini.

In 218 BC were born the colonies of Piacenza and Cremona, two settlements intended to control the Valley of Po. As a conclusion to the war against Hannibal in 202 and overwhelmed by the Galls in 191 BC, Romefounded numerous other colonies including those of Bologna, Modena, and Parma.

In 187 BC Marco Emilio Lepido built Via Emilia, from which the region gains its name. Constituted as the spine of the Roman colonization, Via Emilia is based in the center of the system and represents one of the main arteries and communication routes of the Roman empire.

At the end of the first century BC, Aemiliabecame the VIII district of the new order of Augustus who built a port in Ravenna, making this city the official seat of the defense-oriented fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. Thus Ravenna, together with Bologna, became the main center of the region.

In the third century AD, under the diocesan reorganization, the region was divided into a western part, Aemilia, and an Oriental part embedded in the Flaminia et Picenumregion. Despite the decline of the empire in the fifth century, Ravenna knew a period of growth and success. In fact, in 402 the city became the imperial residence of the west and the capital of the Theodoric Kingdom, as well as the seat of the Byzantine domination in Italy.

The descent of the Longobards in Italy in 568 marked the end of the Byzantine state that deteriorated with a remarkable rapidity. The Longobards conquered the Emilia area between 569 and 570 and Romagna between 728 and 751.

The ninth century was characterized by the increased power of the bishops and the tendency towards the creation of small committees, particularly in Emilia Romagna. The religious authority was never strong in the region, and the struggles for investments between the eleventh and twelfth centuries weakened it even more, favoring the advent of the Communes.

In this period emerged cities like Parma and Piacenza, two settlements that only played a secondary role until then.

The first step towards the transformation of the communal institutions into a noble regime was made in the thirteenth century, with the establishment of the podestà. The process wasn’t fast everywhere in the region, but some cities adhered to it almost immediately, such as Ferrara and Piacenza. 

In the Emilia area, the Lombard influence was evident above all in Piacenza, Parma, and Reggio, cities that were subject to the rules of Visconti and Sforza. In parallel, Romagna also developed its noble structures in Ravenna, Cervia, Rimini, and Forlì.

Although the religious power was weak, in the thirteenth century the Papal authority was recognized by Ottone IV and Federico II. As a result, the fifteenth century witnessed the struggles between the popes and the lords, which caused the culture and economy to stagnate in the region, while in the neighboring region’s cities such as Florenceand Venicewere expanding rapidly, attempting to extend their territories in Emilia Romagna.

In 1559 the region was divided between the Farnese and the Pontifical State, which occupied Romagna firmly and placed its seat in Bologna. In 1597 Ferrara was also added to the Pontifical State, and the situation remained almost unchanged until 1731 when the Duchy of Parma passed under the domination of Charles of Bourbon.

In the Napoleonic period, the cities of Modena, Bologna, Reggio, and Ferrara were annexed to the Cispadana Republic, while Parma and Piacenza were joined to France in 1802.

The region became officially part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860 and since then it met a restructuring of the agriculture. This restructuring resulted in the rise of an agricultural proletariat and a general accentuation of the class conflicts. In this climate spread the cooperatives, the mutual relief organizations and the workforce chambers, institutions that created the basis of the modern Emilia Romagna.

Credit to Trips to Italy for this information.