Geographical range | Europe (Italy: Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania) |
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Period | Early Iron Age, Early phases of the Etruscan civilization |
Dates | c. 900–700 BCE |
Preceded by | Proto-Villanovan culture |
Followed by | Orientalizing period (later 700–500 BCE) of the Etruscan civilization |
The Villanovan culture (c. 900–700 BCE), regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization,[1][2][3][4][5] was the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe.[6] The name derives from the locality of Villanova, a fraction of the municipality of Castenaso in the Metropolitan City of Bologna where, between 1853 and 1855, Giovanni Gozzadini found the remains of a necropolis, bringing to light 193 tombs, of which there were 179 cremations and 14 inhumations.[7]
The Villanovans introduced iron-working to the Italian Peninsula. They practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape.[8]
Il termine "Villanoviano" è entrato nella letteratura archeologica quando, a metà dell '800, il conte Gozzadini mise in luce le prime tombe ad incinerazione nella sua proprietà di Villanova di Castenaso, in località Caselle (BO). La cultura villanoviana coincide con il periodo più antico della civiltà etrusca, in particolare durante i secoli IX e VIII a.C. e i termini di Villanoviano I, II e III, utilizzati dagli archeologi per scandire le fasi evolutive, costituiscono partizioni convenzionali della prima età del Ferro