History of Italian Culture

History of Italian Culture (a project with Luca Cavalli-Sforza)

by Emanuele Serrelli

Serrelli E (2007). Popoli, nomi e nominatori: un dizionario del popolamento. Introduction to E. Serrelli, C.B. Serrelli, Dizionario del popolamento dell’Italia prima della romanizzazione, unpublished.

From 2003 to 2006 Emanuele Serrelli worked in the research project "History of Italian Culture", directed by... more From 2003 to 2006 Emanuele Serrelli worked in the research project "History of Italian Culture", directed by prof. Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza. The research, in collaboration with Italian museums and other institutions, yielded the publication Dizionario del popolamento dell'Italia prima della romanizzazione (by E. Serrelli and C.B. Serrelli). Its main access points are the initial synoptic maps in which the major incoming migrations or "arrivals" are shown, with specification of dates and main names that emerged in these movements. From such maps one can delve into the dictionary in search for details.

In november 2003 prof. Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza asked Telmo Pievani and Emanuele Serrelli (who in turn involved Claudio Bruno Serrelli) to deal with population processes before the advent of ancient Romans. The request was a list of names of peoples, with the related occupied territories and temporal range. Fortunately, Italy is a name with a precise and unambiguous geographic extent: the Alps and the sea define its identity and ease the study of peoples following one another. The Romanization of Italy, carried on both for direct annexation and colony creations, begins after the "latin war" of 340-338 B.C., and ends with the "social war" of 90-88 B.C., last desperate attempt of Italic peoples to oppose Rome's the expansive process.
First of all, then, it was necessary to know peoples, those analogues to biological populations that are needed to talk about evolution...
The maps give access to the details in the Dictionary. So, for example, it will be possible to enter the world of Reto-euganei. There will be found a more detailed map of populations or tribes that formed them in III Century, and appreciate the preceding "compression" effect operated by the arrival of Veneti people in X Century.