The Italian Eneolithic (Eneolitico) dates from the 3rd millennium to the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BCE. It mostly corresponds to the Copper Age (Età del Rame) plus the Early Bronze Age (Prima Età del Bronzo). In Latium, the region of Central Italy that roughly matches modern-day Lazio, the main Copper Age sites include Ponte S. Pietro, Porcareccia and Rinaldone (near the modern-day city of Viterbo), Sgurgola and Casamari (near Frosinone), Castel Malnome and Ardea (near Rome), and Cantalupo Mandela (near Sabina).
[1]
The period is characterized by low density occupation and scattered material finds, mainly grave sites; nothing in the region comparable to the complex contemporary social formations present in Egypt, China, and the Near East.
Population and political organization
None of the above-mentioned sites is considered a ’nucleated settlement’, but they have all yielded useful finds: the Viterbo locations and Sgurgola are small necropolises, while miscellaneous grave goods have been unearthed at the other sites.
[2]
Overall, it seems likely that Latium Copper Age communities were quite small — one estimate posits 100-200 inhabitants each
[3]
— and some estimates for the Early Bronze Age even go so far as to say that each settlement probably only had a few dozen inhabitants.
[4]
The burial data appear to reflect a patriarchal, war-oriented culture: men and women are associated with very different types of grave goods, and male burials are always accompanied by weapons.
[2]
[5]
[1]: (Anzidei, Sestieri and De Santis 1985, 102) Anna Paola Anzidei, Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri and Anna De Santis. 1985. Roma e il Lazio dall’età della pietra alla formazione della città. Rome: Quasar.
[2]: (Anzidei, Sestieri and De Santis 1985, 106) Anna Paola Anzidei, Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri and Anna De Santis. 1985. Roma e il Lazio dall’età della pietra alla formazione della città. Rome: Quasar.
[3]: (Whitehouse 1992, 16) Ruth Whitehouse. 1992. Underground Religion: Cult and Culture in Prehistoric Italy. London: Accordia Research Centre, University of London.
[4]: (Cornell 1995, 32-35) Tim Cornell. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000‒264 BC). London: Routledge.
[5]: (Whitehouse 1992, 21) Ruth Whitehouse. 1992. Underground Religion: Cult and Culture in Prehistoric Italy. London: Accordia Research Centre, University of London.
| Latium - Bronze Age |
| continuity |
| UNCLEAR: [continuity] | |
| Succeeding: Latium - Bronze Age (it_latium_ba) [continuity] |
| quasi-polity |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| unknown |
| unknown |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| unknown |
| present |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| Year Range | Latium - Copper Age (it_latium_ca) was in: |
|---|---|
| (3600 BCE 1801 BCE) | Latium |
[1]: A.P. Anzidei, A.M. Bietti Sestieri and A. De Santis, Roma e il Lazio dall’età della pietra alla formazione della città (1985)
Professionalism of the priesthood likely pre-dates the Roman era as similar patterns are evident in Greek and Egyptian civilization. However, this period might be too early.
There were likely no government buildings in this period. The first senate building, the Curia Hostilia, existed from about 600 BCE. [1] The first paving of the Roman Forum occurred around 575-625 BCE. [2] The first coin minted in Rome occurred about 269 BCE (one in Neapolis produced coins slightly earlier, around 281 BCE) and the first state archives was created in 78 BCE. Other possible buildings include: granaries and storehouses.
[1]: (Cornell 1995, 94)
[2]: (Cornell 1995, 100)
Law specialists first existed during the Principate when they commanded fees for their expertise. We know this because Emperor Claudius attempted to "limit the fees of advocates, which had become intolerably heavy" to protect "women and other helpless litigants from the rapacity of their lawyers." [1] The first law school in Rome, for persons who wished to pursue career in the Imperial civil service, was established late second century CE. "Professional" lawyers replaced orators during the Roman Dominate period. [2]
[1]: (Allcroft and Haydon 1902, 121 [1])
[2]: (Mousourakis 2007, 163)
Professional judges did not exist until the Roman Dominate although at that time their precise role vis-a-vis that of Imperial officials is a matter of debate. [1] Before this time there were no judges as a distinct profession in the Roman system of law. Local magistrates dealt with local matters, provincial governors dealt with provincial matters, and the praetors often dealt with cases in Rome. The Roman people could be duly convened as a final court of appeal in cases involving citizens.
[1]: (Mousourakis 2007, 163)
A formal legal code was first founded in the Twelve Tables of 450-449 BCE. Law thereafter was based on precedent. Our sources of knowledge of Roman law include the forensic speeches of Cicero; the Institutes of Gaius textbook (from 160 CE); and, much later, the sixth century CE Corpus Ius Civilis of Justinian. Wax tablets and papyri (contracts and wills etc.) also provide information on Roman law. [1] However, before this time restrictions on funerary extravagance, from the start of the 6th century, may suggest the Twelve Tables laws (of the Early Republic) codified an existing body of law and legal practices. [2] It is unlikely that any official legal code existed in Latium at the time of the Copper Age.
[1]: (Tellegen-Couperus, 2002, 66)
[2]: (Cornell 1995, 106)
In Bronze Age Latium "Most settlements were simple collections of huts with no evidence for internal differentiation in architecture or material culture than might suggest clear-cut divisions in society." [1] The earlier Copper Age is not thought to have been more complex than this.
[1]: G. Barker, Mediterranean Valley (1995), p. 156
The multi-function Roman forum building which also functioned as a marketplace was not present at this time.
The multi-function Roman forum building which also functioned as a marketplace was not present at this time "From literary sources [Livy] it seems that the major development of Rome’s river port and its attendant warehouses did not take place until the early second century B.C. Earlier the old Forum Boarium and Forum Holitorium in the centre of Rome seem to have coped with the main flow of imports which had probably come down the Tiber from the Italian hills." [1]
[1]: (Rickman 1971, 2 Rickman, G. 1971. Roman Granaries and Store Buildings. CUP Archive)
A pipe network that connects the drinking water to individual settlements is not known to exist / not thought to be present.
The Via Salaria, “salt road,” was in existence from the beginning of the Roman Kingdom. [1] The first paved road was the probably the Appian Way which dates to 312 BCE. However, at this time the Via Salaria probably did not exist or if a track did exist it had no polity to provide maintenance on it.
[1]: (Cornell 1995, 48, 96)
The Portus Tiberinus, a river harbour on the Tiber, was believed, in Roman times, to have been long inhabited [1] Other sources disagree between the earliest being from the Roman Kingdom under Ancus Marcius and Cosa, founded much later in 273 BCE "the earliest Roman port thus far known." [2] Since it is not clear from the Cornell quote which "Roman times" thought that the Portus Tiberinus had been long inhabited, and what "long inhabited" means in terms of dates, and whether that habitation was in the sense of a port rather than a small community which happened to be located where the port would later be, I have coded absent.
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 48
The first canal is thought to have been built by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 187 BCE) to drain the lower Po region.
The first bridge thought to be the Pons Sublicius possibly in built 642 BCE under Ancus Marcius.
Inferred from the fact that "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate" [1] , although some writing has been found in association with elite graves [2] .
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37
[2]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58
Inferred from the fact that "most [Italian peoples before the Romans] were not even literate" [1] , although some writing has been found in association with elite graves [2] .
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 37
[2]: G. Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (2006), pp. 53-58
Few, if any, people in Latium could read such things had they existed and they likely did not exist because there was no state bureaucracy or developed religion that would provide a reason to produce them.
The first foreign Greek or Greek-influenced coinage arrived much later with the Etruscans (if considered "foreign") or Roman Kingdom.
Stone walls at At Tufariello in Southern Basilicata, none so far in Latium itself; no fortresses or fortified camps. [1]
[1]: (Whitehouse 1992: 16) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/R9TV7IKB.
Iron likely present in Latium from Roman Kingdom 700 BCE (note their Etruscan-origin kings). “Most metallurgical activity in both Italy and Spain, however, dates to a time after the sixth century BC, when iron weapons and implements appear more frequently, with some exceptional finds such as the group of 150 almost identical axes from an archaic Greek shipwreck off the north coast of Mallorca’.” [1] Iron spearheads in south Italy appeared eighth century BCE. Bronze spearheads continued to be manufactured during the Early Iron Age. End of eighth century BC, iron completely replaced bronze for spearheads. (Inala 2014). Lost full reference, expert needed to locate full name and work.
[1]: (Kostoglou 2010, 174) Kostoglou, Maria. Iron, Connectivity and Local Identities in the Iron Age to Classical Mediterranean. in Van Dommelen, Peter. Knapp, Bernard A. eds. 2010. Material Connections in the Ancient Mediterranean. Mobility, Materiality and Identity. Routledge. Abingdon.
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records. [1] Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone". [2] Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE. [3] The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did. [4] Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE. [5] The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons. [6] There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300
[2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi.
[3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
[4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill.
[5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley
[6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
The counter-weight trebuchet was first used by the Byzantines in 1165 CE.
Inferred from flint arrowheads. [1] "The bow was probably between 6,000 and 10,000 years old by the dawn of the Bronze Age". [2] Weapons of war existed at this time.
[1]: A.P. Anzidei, A.M. Bietti Sestieri and A. De Santis, Roma e il Lazio dall’età della pietra alla formazione della città (1985), p. 98
[2]: (Gabriel 2002, 27-28) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
"All armies after the seventeenth century B.C.E. carried the sword, but in none was it a major weapon of close combat; rather, it was used when the soldier’s primary weapons, the spear and axe, were lost or broken." [1] What is the opinion of a Roman specialist for this region?
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 26-27) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
Evidence of daggers, halberds, arrows, and flat axes in burials but sources discuss evidence of spears, javelins and spearheads appear towards the beginning of the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 64) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.
Evidence of daggers, halberds, arrows, and flat axes in burials but sources discuss evidence of spears, javelins and spearheads appear towards the beginning of the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 64) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.
Reference to the use of shields, helmets, greaves, breastplates dates to the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 204-05) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.
Reference to the use of shields, helmets, greaves, breastplates dates to the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 204-05) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.
Reference to the use of shields, helmets, greaves, breastplates dates to the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 204-05) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.
Reference to the use of shields, helmets, greaves, breastplates dates to the Bronze Age. [1]
[1]: (Guilaine 2008: 204-05) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/LZB53FDH.