Villanovan Culture: Iron Age Italy and Its Unique Pottery
Villanovan Culture
The Villanovan culture was an Iron Age civilization in northern Italy, in the region that was once the seat of Etruscan culture. The name comes from the type locality, Villanova di Castenaso (near Bologna).
At the end of the second millennium BC (1200 BC), Indo-European peoples arrived on the Italian peninsula, connected to the Sea Peoples. This migration led to changes in the early Iron Age, resulting in the Villanovan culture. A pre-Indo-European fusion with Indo-Europeans occurred, such as with the proto-Illyrians. Further waves of Osco-Umbrian and Latin-Faliscan peoples followed.
Settled in Tuscany, representatives of this culture practiced cremation. They deposited the ashes of their dead in biconical urns, reminiscent of the Urnfield culture, suggesting a northern origin.
They manufactured distinctive black pottery.
The Villanovans lived in villages of oval huts, or rarely circular ones. These huts were made of mud and branches. They buried their dead, placing their ashes in biconical or house-shaped urns. These urns were accompanied by modest furnishings, placed in stone pits, and covered by a slab. The Villanovan culture was not materially rich. Their vessels, weapons, brooches, and ornaments, often repeated in design, are now displayed in museums as blackish forms.
Metallurgy was developed, and iron weapons and bronze helmets were used in warfare.
Classical authors present a thesis regarding the origin of the Etruscans, suggesting an autochthonous development from the Villanovan culture. Dionysius of Halicarnassus argued that Etruscan culture evolved from the Villanovan without external influences.
Currently, an eclectic approach prevails, suggesting the arrival of people from Asia Minor, possibly Lydia, following a famine in their homeland. This migration could have influenced and stimulated the evolution of the Villanovan culture.
Unetice Culture
The Únětice culture is a prehistoric culture located between the Rhine and the Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Lower Danube in Europe.
Chronologically, it developed during the Early Bronze Age, divided into Old-Únětice, Classic Únětice, and Late Únětice (period of the Royal Tombs). Key characteristics include the development of metallurgy, with notable artifacts such as spiral bracelets, pins, and flanged axes. Ceramics mimicked metal shapes. The burial rite was individual, in cists. This culture is related to the Illyrian people.
Argaric Culture
The Argaric culture was a manifestation of villages in southeastern peninsular Spain during the Bronze Age. It formed one of the most important societies in Europe during the second millennium BC and is well-studied due to the excellent preservation of archaeological remains.
It was long believed that around the middle of the second millennium BC, while the Beaker culture was declining, a new colonizing wave of people from the Greco-Mycenaean area arrived in the southeastern peninsula. They followed older sea routes, establishing settlements near major mining areas in Almería and surrounding regions. However, it is now verified that the Argaric material culture corresponds to an evolution of the pre-existing substrate, discarding the colonization theory. Nevertheless, strong contacts with the eastern Mediterranean are evident, materializing in ways that appear entirely new to this culture.
The Argaric culture expanded mainly from Almería and Jaén westward to Hoya de Guadix and Baza, possibly seeking richer mining areas in Linares and the Region of Murcia.
The presence of this culture was first confirmed in the town of El Argar in Almería, which gives it its name. It is characterized by the practice of individual burials, initially in cists and later in large vessels or pithoi. This shift indicates a change in ideas and social structure over time, with greater individualism resulting from increased specialization of economic activities. Metallurgy was well-advanced, ceramic production was standardized, and the needs of a more advanced society led to better-organized trade.
Some individuals acquired significant wealth, reflected in high-value funerary objects, including weapons, luxury items, and valuable jewelry. These are characteristics of urban societies. The round houses of earlier phases were replaced by more regular, rectangular dwellings with well-defined streets, resembling traditional Greek megaron-type structures.
The Argaric habitat represents the abandonment of a primitive type of planning, characterized by scattered and isolated dwellings. In Argaric “capitals,” houses comprised several rooms with straight walls. Irregularly shaped nuclei were grouped compactly, distributed in relation to open spaces and winding streets, adapting to the terrain by building terraces contained by large longitudinal walls. Living spaces were divided by walls perpendicular to the main walls. At the top of the settlement was a fortified core. Stone and wood were extensively used in house construction.
Villages were often located near water sources or copper and silver deposits. Large towns were usually situated at the exit of a valley on a plateau or a well-protected slope, while smaller settlements were at higher altitudes in the valleys or on isolated peaks. A typical village-city would be linked to smaller outposts via direct paths and positions of visibility, allowing communication with the main settlement. The construction of fortified gates, wall panels, and tanks indicates a high level of civilization and addressed water supply issues. The location of villages in lowland areas suitable for agriculture suggests that livestock farming and mining were the main economic activities.