e use of instruments of polished
stone. Axes, adzes, and chisels, of various shapes and sizes, as well as
other utensils, were shaped by polishing and grinding from sandstone,
limestone, jade, nephrite, diorite, and other stones. Along with these,
however, articles of chipped flint and obsidian, for which the workshops
have been found, and also instruments of bone, were in common use. The
Neolithic people were also acquainted with the art of making pottery, an
art unknown to the Paleolithic Age.

Like the men of the preceding epoch, those of the Neolithic Age readily
took up their abode in natural caves. However, they also built for
themselves villages of circular huts of wicker-work and clay, at times
erected over pits excavated in the ground. Such village sites, the
so-called _fonde di capanne_, are widely distributed throughout Italy.

They buried their dead in caves, or in pits dug in the ground, sometimes
lining the pit with stones. The corpse was regularly placed in a
contracted position, accompanied by weapons, vases, clothing, and food.
Second burials and the practice of coloring the bones of the skeletons
with red pigment were in vogue.

*Climatic change.* The climate of Italy had changed considerably from that
of the preceding age, and a new fauna had appeared. In place of the
primitive elephant and his associates, Neolithic men hunted the stag,
beaver, bear, fox, wolf and wild boar. Remains of such domestic animals as
the ox, horse, sheep, goat, pig, dog, and ass, show that they were a
pastoral although not an agricultural people.

*A new racial element.* The use of polished stone weapons, the manufacture
of pottery, the hut villages and a uniform system of burial rites
distinguished the Neolithic from the Paleolithic civilization. And,
because of these differences, especially because of the introduction of
this system of burial which argues a distinctive set of religious beliefs,
in addition to the fact that the development of this civilization from
that which preceded cannot be traced on Italian soil, it is held with
reason that at the opening of the Neolithic Age a new race entered Italy,
bringing with it the Neolithic culture. Here and there men of the former
age may have survived and copied the arts of the newcomers, but throughout
the whole peninsula the racial unity of the population is shown by the
uniformity of their burial customs. The inhabitants of Sicily and Sardinia
in this age had a civiliza