Villanovans

VILLANOVANS is merely a conventional term chosen by archaeologists as a distinctive and useful designation for a group of tribes exhibiting a fairly uniform civilization over a great part of Italy in the Early Iron Age (q.v.). Villanova itself, from which the name is derived, is a little village eight kilometres from Bologna, near which, between 1853 and 1855, was excavated a cemetery of previously unknown character. The burials were all cremations; the ashes of the deceased being deposited in a large jar of rough hand-made pottery, which was placed in a round hole in the ground, sometimes but not always enclosed in a rec tangular cist of unhewn slabs. Inside the jar, which was of the very distinctive form shown in fig. 1, were the remains of human bones incompletely consumed by the fire ; while in the layer of ashes surrounding the jars were bones of animals, together with small objects of use or ornament made of bronze, iron, amber, glass or bone.

Numerous other cemeteries of similar character have been dis covered, first in the neighbourhood of Bologna, then in Etruria and the northern part of Latium. The civilization revealed in these was shown to belong to the first phases of the Iron Age, beginning about the 12th or 11th century B.C., and the general name of Vil lanovan was applied to it as descriptive of its homogeneous char acter. All these cemeteries, whatever may be the peculiarities of their local variation, are united by at least one common bond of custom ; they all contain cremation burials with at most a very slight percentage of unburned bodies. In this respect they are contrasted with all the contemporary cemeteries of eastern and southern Italy, which consist exclusively of the inhumations of unburned bodies. Occasional examples of jars re sembling the Villanovan burial-urn have indeed been found in Apulia and Calabria, but in these provinces they were never adopted for ceremonial purposes but sim ply used for carrying water. As all the tribes of eastern and southern Italy buried their dead without burning, this difference of custom implies a difference of religious belief, and probably a divergence of racial origin. This inference seems to be justified by a study of the dress, armament, arts and manufactures of the several regions, which shows the Bolognese and Etrurians to be closely allied in the principal details of their material culture, while the Apulians and the Calabrians are notably different and appear to have evolved independently from another inheritance.

Territorial Extension.

In the north the territory of the Villanovans began at the river Reno and extended from the Panaro on the west to Rimini on the east. South of Rimini they never inhabited the east coast but on the west of the mountainous backbone they extended their sway over the whole of Etruria and down into Latium as far as the Alban hills. Roughly speaking, therefore, they occupied about a third of Italy north of Rome, the other two-thirds being taken up principally by the kindred civili zations of the Comacines (q.v.) and Atestines (q.v.) on the north and by a hostile block of Picenes on the east. (See PICENES.) It is useful to distinguish the inhabitants of the Bolognese region as the northern Vil lanovans, while those of Etruria and the adjoining parts of Latium may be termed the southern Villanovans.

Theories of Origin.

As to the origin and racial affinities of this group of cre mating tribes, which exercised such a pro found influence upon Italy before the arrival of Etruscans or Greeks, there arc two rival theories. To neither of these can exclusive preference be given; future dis coveries must decide between them, and it is not likely that any final decision will be reached for many years. But on the most essential points the two theories are in complete agreement. Whether the Villa novans were direct lineal descendants of the builders of the Terremare or only a kindred race which did not enter Italy until the dawn of the Iron Age, three points are generally admitted : (I) that all the Villanovans are related by some degree of kinship as members of the same original family, (2) that their ultimate parentage is to be traced to the peoples of central Europe then settled on the middle Danube, and (3) that the direction of their occupation of Italy was from north to south.