Abstract
FORERUNNEBS OF THE ROMANS.—Under this title Dr. D. Randall-Maclver continues in Antiquity for June the study of the early civilisations of Italy, which he began in the issue of that periodical for June 1927. At about 1000 B.C., that is, about the beginning of the Iron Age and two centuries before the effective coming of the Etruscans, northern and central Italy may be partitioned into five distinct spheres. The north-west is occupied by the Comacines, part of Venetia by the Atestines, the Bolognese region by the northern Villanovans, Tuscany and a part of Latium by the southern Villanovans, east of the Apennines, from Rimini to Aufideua, the Adriatic coast, and the central Apennines are held by the Picenes, including some of the Samnites and some Umbrians. The first four are related and practise cremation; but the Picenes are of wholly different origin and practise inhumation. In several parts of the country these civilisations maintained an independent existence down to the fourth century B.C. The most important contribution to the early Iron Age culture of Italy was undoubtedly that of the two Villanovan nations, and in Etruria the Etruscans owed more to them than has been appreciated. They were the pioneers in metal-working, and it was to their coppersmiths that the Etruscans owed their supremacy in the metal trade of the Mediterranean. The highest point of the Atestine culture of Venetia is between the seventh and fifth centuries. They were probably the latest of the cremating nations to settle in Italy. Originally they were closely related to the Villanovans and kept in close touch with them. The Picenes, it is suggested, are the descendants of the original neolithic population, who above all were warriors—a reef against which Villanovan and Atestine migration beat in vain.
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Research Items. Nature 122, 72–74 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122072a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122072a0