The culture of Villanova is the most ancient culture of the Iron Age in Northern and Central Italy , which replaced the Terramara culture of the Bronze Age and, in turn, gave way to Etruscan civilization .
| Culture Villanova Iron Age | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The territory of the spread of culture Villanova in the X century BC. er | ||||
| Localization | Italy ( Lazio , Tuscany ) | |||
| Dating | 900 - 700 BC. e. | |||
| Carriers | Italics (Sabel branch), partly Etruscans | |||
| Continuity | ||||
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Villan's culture arose as a result of the breakdown of Protovillan culture into a number of regional cultures. She experienced the influence of the Hallstatt culture in the Eastern Alps . The Vilanovtsy were the first to process iron in the territory of present-day Italy, their other distinctive feature was the cremation of the dead, followed by the burial of dust in the urns of the characteristic double cone shape.
Most researchers divide the Villanova culture into the Protovilan culture (Villanovan I), which existed between 1100 and 900 BC. er and the villan culture proper (900 BCE, 700 BCE ).
The name comes from the locality of Villanova ( Kastenazo district), which is located near Bologna , where between 1853 and 1856 Giovanni Godzadini ( 1810 - 1887 ) discovered the remains of a necropolis .
The dating of the onset of the early Iron Age in Italy remains a debatable moment. Conventionally, the era of iron in these territories begins at the turn of the 10th - 9th centuries BC. er The picture of archaeological excavations of the transition period from bronze to iron is heterogeneous. There is a transition from the Apennine culture and culture "terramar" ("fat land"), from which there is a lot of household waste in the form of ceramics , remnants of bronze products on pile settlements at the water spaces of rivers and lakes. The culture of terramar continues to exist in Southern Etruria . In northern and central Etruria, as a result of large ethnic movements, a new type of culture of this period is established, called the Villanova culture. In essence, this is an agricultural culture.
The main characteristic of the Villanova culture, including the previous “proto-Ivilian” culture ( XII- XI centuries BC) of the end of the Bronze Age, was burial by cremation, when the ashes of the dead were placed in bi-conic urns plains, while earlier Indo-European tribes practiced ritual burial of the dead in the land).
Not far from the settlements, some of which reached unprecedented dimensions during this period and earned the name of the protocity, were located burial zones with characteristic graves in the form of pits, or "wells", inside lined with cobblestone and stone slabs. A typical dvuhkonicheskaya burial urn was equipped with two horizontal handles in its widest place (one handle was always broken, perhaps from ritual motifs). Urns were closed with an inverted bowl or, in some men's graves, with helmets.
Funerary items could include horse bits, curved razors (with a crescent-shaped blade), wriggling "brooches" (closed clothes pins), large pins and a weapon for men or parts of belts, brooches in the form of a bow, hair spirals and weaving accessories for women . In addition to the urns themselves and their covers, in the tombs almost no other ceramic items. The urns are characterized by a large variety of forms, their walls are very thick (this requires a high firing temperature, which indicates a significant specialization of crafts). They are decorated with engraving, which was applied with tools with several blades. Geometric motifs prevail.
Huts and other residential buildings (as far as it can be concluded by traces found during excavations and by urns made in the form of huts) were built on an elliptical, circular, rectangular or square plan of wood and clay. Doorways were made in the narrowest side of the house; holes were made in the roof to make smoke of the hearth, and windows were made in some huts.
At first, their society was weakly stratified, engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry , but gradually professional crafts (especially metallurgy and ceramics ) allowed them to accumulate wealth and laid the foundation for the division of society into classes.
Starting from the IX century BC. e. the population begins to leave the hills, which, for reasons of defense, were settled in the previous period, preferring plateaus and adjacent hills in order to make better use of agricultural and mineral resources. Settlements during this period are characterized by their greater concentration and location close to natural means of communication and natural river, lake and sea moorings.
In the region of Tuscany and in the northern part of the Lazio region, continuous demographic growth and constant contact, not always peaceful, with other prehistoric settlements, led to the birth of large population centers through the merging of even not closely located villages. Starting from the IX century BC. e. in this way, the foundations of the settlements are laid, which then turn into large Etruscan cities, such as Volterra , Chiusi, Vetulonia, Orvieto , Vulci , Roselle, Tarquinia , Cerveteri , Veii .
Schematically, four stages of this culture are distinguished, when the technique of making bronze products is improved, new forms of bronze utensils, ironworking progresses somewhat, despite the lack of iron ore reserves in Italy. Only in the VI century BC. e. noted the predominance of iron tools. In the archaeological assortment, new forms of brooches appear. A big step forward in the development of technological skills is the manufacture of pottery. Archaeologically, one can interpret the items found as items of tribal trade. This includes Greek ceramics, Phoenician glass, objects of gold and silver, ivory. More difficult to perceive the ethnic movements of the inhabitants. The mentioned terramara, as well as mastering the metal, are associated with the Indo-European element, its gradual penetration, possibly by the sea, through the territory of Italy through long colonization. The dominant mass of speakers of Indo-European languages was composed of the Italic tribes, penetrating from the end of the II millennium BC. e. to Italy and, as suggested, creating the culture of the Villanova.
Ethnicity
For a long time, the Villanova culture was identified with the Etruscans , which existed later on the same territory, despite the lack of cultural continuity. Currently, a different point of view has spread:
In the early Iron Age, Reggio Emilia and Tuscany were populated by people who cremated the dead. The archaeological culture belonging to him was named Villanova. Almost no doubt that the carriers of this culture were umber . Dr. Randall Maclver recently proved that in Tuscany, the burials with cremations of the Villanova culture after some time were replaced by burials with corpses, which he attributes to the Etruscans. Pliny tells us that the Etruscans captured three hundred cities from Umber. In this case, the carriers of the Villan culture, which the Etruscans have expelled, must be Umber [1] .
Notes
- ↑ Gordon Child. Aryans The founders of European civilization. Tsentrpoligraf. 2010 ISBN 978-5-9524-4939-8