Piemonte Italia

Throughout the valleys of Piedmont we find traces of the ancient peoples who lived in the region thousands of years ago. In the Stone Age, before the Po river existed, tribes of hunters inhabited the central southern area of Piedmont, now the Asti and Trino areas, which were then covered in woodland full of game for hunting. The first recorded settlements date back to that era –approximately 100 to150,000 years ago. Around 5000 BC the hunters turned to farming and began to build the first villages. This enabled them to store grain from their yearly harvests and led to the development of trade.
The Piedmont we know today has its origins around 1000 BC when stable relations were formed between tribes living in different areas and trading routes established through the region towards the north and the south of Europe. Historians tell us that up to the 5th century BC Piedmont was home to several races: in the north the Insubres, who spoke a Celtic language; in the Canavese area the Salassi; around Turin the Taurini, originally from the French Alps; in the Monferrato hills the Statelli and the Langates, with cultural links to Liguria-Provence; in the Cuneo area the Bagenni. It was only in the following century, with large scale immigration from Gaul, that the population of Piedmont became ethnically more uniform.