D. Age of Bronze:-,-For this epoch also we have a scholarly monograph by Colini in Vol. V of. the 'Atli del Congresso Storico di Roma> (1904, R. 3, et seq., reprinted with figures in the Bull. dt paletn. ib. 1903 et seq.). With full understanding of his subject the learned author shows that all the regions of the Italian Penia sula and the islands had their age of bronze with tools and with the evolution of a charac teristic civilization, but which varied in differ ent regions according to the different ethnical constitution of the inhabitants. In Sicily, as is shown by the splendid research work carried on and accurately described by Orsi, there is no doubt that the age of bronze was evolved without any intrusion of new ethnic elements, but by the superposition of related elements (Siculi), passing through the straits of Mes sina, upon the most ancient islanders of the same Mediterranean stock (Sicani), and it would have come about independently even without their aid. The Siculan age of bronze is particularly characterized by the multitude of funereal cells out of which lateral niches frequently open, by the introduction of certain architectonic principles, by weapons, instru ments and ornaments of bronze of a charac teristic' style and by new commercial influ ences substituting °Myceneatio products for the pre-Mycenean which already appeared in the eneolithic period. Together with the facts of simple evolution, which would always have come about, there is a revolutionary one, that is, the sudden abandonment without decadence or decline of the singular bichromic eneolithic pottery and the brusque introduction of an achromic smooth pottery of an angular mould (imitation of metal), which almost instantly supplants the other. This fact, inexplicable by the simple theory.of evolution, should be placed in connection with the historically certain event of the arrival of the Siculi in the island.
This opinion which the writer advanced (comp. 1897, p. 129 et seq.), and has held for some years, is in its turn con firmed by two facts: In southern Italy the archaeological stratum with the characteristic bichromic pottery of the Sicilian eneolithic period is lacking; also the neolithic pottery with decorations, of the type of Butmir and of Knossos evolves in the Metal Age into an achromic pottery of angular mould. The char acteristics of this pottery are the high, broad handles with an opening. They are lacking in the Siculan eneolithic period, but are found in the Siculan age of bronze; and what is more important, in types which represent a typologi cal or chronological continuation of those of the 'peninsula and which belong to a more recent strata also as regards certain chronology and represent a stylization and geometrization, an exaggeration or an atrophization of the pure cave forms which persist in southern Italy.
In this lower part of the peninsula, to judge from the studies of those who, like Orsi, know its material and that of the large neighboring island from personal observation, there can be no doubt that the ethnic basis is identical with that of Sicily and that dwellings, graves and implements are to be attributed to the same very old Siculan people who had occupied the peninsula from time immemorial. In southern
Italy, therefore, the connection with Sicily in civilization shows the influence of propinquity and not only the commercial one. The dwell ings of Taranto, held to be analogous to the so-called terremare of /Emilia, in reality are not that, but are a Siculan village with houses or huts held up by piles planted in the also surrounded in part by a stone wall' continuation. , The neolithic period lasted tens of thou sands of years; the tombs recently discovered belong to a very ancient age and show primi tive types. The dwellings, on the contrary, begin (as at Pertosa) in the recent neolithic period contemporary with those of Knossos and of Butmir and end with thee Mycenean period. The types of the vases of the dwell ings of Taranto cannot be derived from those of the terremare, because they are older, as Brizio rightly observed.
Ascending the peninsula, there is found in middle Italy, especially in Latium and in Rome itself, at least from the end of the Bronze Age, as it were the meeting of two currents; on the one hand the partial persistence of the rite of sepulture and of similar types of implements, which are considerably more numerous than is generally believed; on the other the superposi tion of cremation and of certain new types or varieties.
In upper Italy, in which /Emilia may be in cluded, we find cremation predominating. The theory according to which this rite was brought by a special invasion of pile dwellers of the of bronze is founded on an observation, on a hypothetical explanation of the same and on a second hypothesis. The observation re gards the difference between the material of the Eastern or Venetian dwellers and that of the Westerners; the hypothetical explanation is that this difference was caused by the coming of a new people; the second hypothesis is that this new people began rapidly to descend the peninsula, preserving their customary living on pile structures, even on terra firma, 'far from the lakes and becoming builders of the mound dwellings (terremare) of 1Emilia. This theory has been opposed by Brizio in his pre istorica' and practically the distinction between the Western and Eastern pile dwellings was asserted without sufficient reason.
E. Age of Iron.— In Sicily the character of the preceding age remains with a few inodifica tions, with the decadence of indigenous indus tries and with the increase of commercial in fluences in which the proto-Greek element takes the place of the Mycenean. The same thing takes place in southern Italy of which the Campania has been studied in the last years more than other regions. Here, in two points, there have come to light new centres of pre historic inhabitants who saw the dawn of Greek history and colonization and also in their funeral rites as in their local industries. restricted chiefly to pottery, reveal the persist ence of relations with the prehistoric caves and with Sicily. The cemeteries of the valley of the Sarno are sufficiently enlightening in this respect, but much more important are the graves and the pre-Hellenic dwellings of Cumn, which show us the origin of the Greek western colonies in a way very different from the conventional one, that of literary tradition and of pure history.