Archaeological sites in Abruzzo

Abruzzo has deep Italic roots and since past times has been closely related to the neighbour region of Molise. Settlements signs and artifacts from Lower Paleolithic were found in Valle del Vibrata near Teramo.

Since IV Century BC Abruzzo has been inhabited by Italic peoples closely connected between each other by ethnic relations and by cultural affinities, so-called "the Sabellics". Around IV Century BC the central-Appenine ethnic groups have been emerging: Picentes, Pretuzi, Marrucini, Paeligni, Vestini, Marsi and Aequi. They hardly survived against Rome and it took them many wars, Samnites's wars indeed, to have the control of the land.

During the civil war Italic peoples went against Rome but later most cities got Roman citizenship. During the imperial period Abruzzo had been undergoing a large clean-up and a prospering time. But the next few Centuries after Empire's collapse, was a time of great crisis all over middleappenine area.