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Cardium PotteryCardium Pottery or rather Printed-Cardium Pottery is a Neolithic decorative style that gets its name because of the imprinting of the clay with the shell of the Cardium edulis, a marine molusk. The alternative name of Printed-Cardium Pottery is given by some archaeologists because of the fact that impressions with Cardium are ot the only technique and, actually, they tend to yield to other styles of impression, as the culture evolves, while keeping the general cultural traits and also the general aspect of the pottery (unelaborated, printed - never painted). This pottery style gives name to the main culture of the Mediterranean Neolithic, that eventually extends from the western Balcanic regions to the eastern coasts of Spain, bringing their influxes even to the Atlantic. The Mediterranean Neolithic of the Cardium Pottery: It's difficult to precise the ultimate origins of this culture of the Cardium Pottery, having been found possible predecessors in the Neolithics of Thessaly (pre-Sesklo) and Lebanon (Byblos), where is found also a true Cardium Pottery. In any case the first sure members of this important culture were located in the eastern coasts of the Adriatic, in the first centuries of the 6th milennium BCE, dwelling in caves and using, among all neolithic technologies, exclussivel pottery, which is a characteristic of sub-Neolitic peoples, that is hunter-gatherers in contact with agriculturalist cultures, but yet reluctant to abandone their way of life. Only later, these Adriatic peoples will adopt fully the Neolithic, building villages, growing cereals and herding goats, sheep and cows. It is in this second phase when Cardium Pottery proper (printed with shells of C. edulis) maks its appearence. In the last centuries of the milennium the ceramic technique degenerates and starts the pivotal decoration. The most notable characteristic of this culture is their great navigation capabilities, demonstrated by the found of remains of species that cna only be fished in the open seas. This seafaring nature will be essential in their ability to colonize large regions of the Mediterranean coasts. The first advance is done towards southern Italy, settling first in Apulia and later in other areas of the south of the peninsula and Sicily, dwelling almost always in caves. Gradually the colonization advances towards Latium, Tuscany, Sardinia, Corsica and Liguria, until they stabilish some isolated outposts in the coasts of Provence. Already in the 5th milennium BCE, this culture expands to SE France and eastern Spain. Anyhow, with some exceptions, archaeological eidence shows that it's mostly a proccess of aculturization of the native peoples of these areas than a massive migration. Beyond the coastal region, this culture expands northwards along the Rhone valley and westward following the Ebro river. Further west, nevertheless, its influence is limited, though it undoubtly plays a role in the (generally slow) developement of the first Neolithic cultures of the Atlantic regions. At this time, Northern Italy is also colonized by peoples of this culture that come directly from the Balcans by land. After this expansion ends, the Mediterranean cultures evolve locally. In the west they are generalistically taged as epi-Cardial Pottery cultures, while in northern Italy it evolves into the culture of Bocca Quadratta and, in the Adriatic Balcans, three related cultures (Hvar, Lisicici and Butmir) part the territory. It is likely that the peoples resulting from this proccess of colonization, assimilation and admixture are in the origins of some historical peoples like Iberians and Ligurians.
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