Overview
Villanovan Culture
Quick Reference
[CP]
Term applied loosely to the early Iron Age of Etruria and northern Italy, named after the type‐cemetery near Bologna, excavated in 1853 and dated to the 9th–8th centuries bc. The origins of the culture can be traced in later Bronze Age Terramara and Apennine cultures, with elements derived from the north Alpine Urnfield Culture, though not necessarily as a result of immigration. The classic Villanovan assemblages from around Bologna have been divided into four principal periods, extending broadly from the 9th to the 5th centuries bc. The principal settlements were villages, cemeteries being of the Urnfield type with decorated biconical urns and well‐developed bronze objects used as grave goods, for example helmets, drinking vessels, situlae, and personal ornaments such as fibulae.
Subjects: Classical studies