The bronzes, on the other hand, show more advanced artistic forms; daggers, lances, arrows and personal ornaments in molten bronze, among which at length appears the fibula, or brooch, while there may still be found orna ments of bone, ivory, amber and other natural substances (shells, teeth), or artificial sub stances, imported glass compositions, etc.
Whilst in the lEgean Archipelago and in Greece the civilization called Mycenean flour ished, in the third and second thousand years bdfoni Christ, there was in the Mediterranean basin a continual coming and going and min gling of people in active commercee. During this period must have been formed the prin cipal nuclei of Italian populations that figured in the dawn of history. A great part of northern and central Italy was occupied by the Umbri; the central east and the south by Osco-Sabine populations; In Liguria, in the islands and the extreme. southern portion there survived prim itive stocks such as the Liguri, the Siculi, earl). Sicilians and the Sardinian and the Messapii. In the upper eastern corner the Illyrian migra tions Continued which gave rise to the civiliza tion of the Veneti; then in the central part, on the Mediterranean or Tyrrhenian side, there arose the splendid power of the Etruscans; later, there descended from the Alps the Celts, and. Greek colonies invaded the South.
Each of these peoples for a time held a certain supremacy over considerable territory and represented a certain phase of Italian art and civilization. The most splendid and most characteristic phase of the. Iron Age in upper Italy is that found in the Felsinean (or Bolog nese) territory corresponding to that on the other side of the Alps called Halstatt civilization.
The incinerating tombs in the last period are ornamented with stelai, or narrow slender slabs of ,§c*tured stone above the surface of the ground. The metallic ornaments and bronze weapons are partly of molten work, some filed, sane in ,relief and some carved and engraved.
The, ornamental designs are evidently in spired by the geometric forms of contempo raneous Hellenic civilization. With the prog ress of Mycenean decoration we have the orate, the wolf's tooth and the double spiral.
The .broadsword belts of laminated bronze are beautiful; the swords with hilt in form of the poniards, etc.
Almost contemporaneous was the civiliza tion of Venetia. The shapes of the vases are
various; their characteristic decorations are first the bright stripes of red and black, then the impressions, then the incrustations of metal bosses. Great is the variety and richness of the pendants, tassels and .amulets: sometimes fantastic animals double-bodied, in evident geo metric style. Later appear the laced garments, arid the famous situke, finely worked in relief in long circles representing scenes, festi vals, hunting parties or simply animals running, as oh the Corinthian vases.
In central and southern Italy. the people who dwelt there in the first Iron Age were represented in the industrial age by simi lar forms, which had no time to develop as did those of Bologna, because of the super-Imposed Etruscan work. On the Adriatic side of the water-shed,' the more ancient ethnical foundation prevailed, and the Illyrian influence made itself felt; on the Mediterranean side, before the Etruscan invasion, 'the civilization of the Osci, the Sabini, the Falisci and the Latini was more simple, as is manifested in the remains of the Alban necropolis and 'of' Campania.
In the south of .Italy, before the Greek cblo nizations, there was an extended Italian civili zation; but it fused with Sicilian elements always' predominate. In the extreme eastern limb, the Sallentine peninsula, we among the Messapii survivals of 'a local civilization Which developed under the Mycenean influence.
Characteristic, for instance, is the ceramic art which lasted until a late epoch with forms of a conca, or water vessel, of trozzelle, and with vivacious bright-colored painting, of which the elements are partly geometric, partly floral forms. It was at exactly this period that in Sicilian ceramics polychrome art found its widest and most varied application.
Another element of Italian art which started in the south and extended to central Italy is the civil and military architecture. In Lucania we find more rustic, and perhaps more ancient, instances of these constructions called Cyclo pean or Pelasgic, which are found in a more perfect or earlier phase in central Italy. Here are also found walls of support for terraces, such as the Cretan, streets, sustained on sloping sides, bridges, hierons, altars, or central tem ples, etc.