The Italian Bronze Age (Età del Bronzo) starts at the tail end of the Eneolithic, but enters its mature phase between 1800 and 1200 BCE (Middle Bronze Age, Età del Bronzo Media), and begins its transition towards the Iron Age between 1200 and 1000 (Late Bronze Age, Tarda Età del Bronzo).
[1]
[2]
Because Middle Bronze Age material culture is remarkably uniform throughout the peninsula,
[3]
it is difficult to single out any developments that specifically distinguish Latium, the region of Central Italy that roughly corresponds to modern-day Lazio. However, it is worth noting that most sites of this period cluster along the Apennine mountain range; for this reason, Italian Bronze Age culture is sometimes referred to as ’Apennine culture’ (cultura appenninica).
[3]
In the Late Bronze Age, the main cultural traditions were the Subapennine (12th century BCE, subappenninica) and the Proto-Villanovan (11th and 10th centuries BCE, protovillanoviana)
[4]
These traditions brought greater sophistication in agricultural techniques, a greater number and variety of agricultural tools, and advances in metalworking.
[1]
Population and political organization
It is difficult to infer much about the political organization of the average Italian settlement, either in the Middle or in the Late Bronze Age. There are very few signs of status differentiation, whether in burials, architecture, or material culture more generally.
[5]
Population was probably sparse up to the Middle Bronze Age in Italy, with settlements of no more than a few dozen inhabitants each. In contrast, the Late Bronze Age witnessed a significant demographic increase, suggested by an increased number of sites and increased site size. Settlements were probably home to a few hundred inhabitants.
[1]
[1]: (Cornell 1995, 32-33) Tim Cornell. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000‒264 BC). London: Routledge.
[2]: (Anzidei, Sestieri and De Santis 1985, 113-48) 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]: (Cornell 1995, 32) Tim Cornell. 1995. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000‒264 BC). London: Routledge.
[4]: (Anzidei, Sestieri and De Santis 1985, 137-39) 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.
[5]: (Barker 1995, 156) Graeme Barker. 1995. A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology and Annales History in the Biferno Valley. London: Leicester University Press.
| Appenine culture |
| Latium - Iron Age |
| continuity |
| Preceding: Latium - Copper Age (it_latium_ca) [continuity] | |
| Succeeding: Latium - Iron Age (it_latium_ia) [continuity] |
| quasi-polity |
| [20 to 50] people | 1800 BCE 1200 BCE |
| [100 to 300] people | 1200 BCE 900 BCE |
| [3 to 4] km2 |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| present |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| inferred present |
| absent |
| absent |
| absent |
| inferred absent |
| absent |
| Year Range | Latium - Bronze Age (it_latium_ba) was in: |
|---|---|
| (1800 BCE 1001 BCE) | Latium |
1800-1200 BCE: Apennine culture; 1200-1000 BCE: Proto-Villanovan culture. Due to the fact that a high proportion of sites have been found along the Apennines [1] .
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 32
[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)
Inhabitants. "In the opinion of R. Peroni, ’if we can measure the population of an Early or Middle Bronze Age settlement in dozens, and that of a Late Bronze Age one in hundreds, it is without doubt legitimate to think of an Early Iron Age settlement as having thousands of inhabitants" [1] .
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 32
Inhabitants. "In the opinion of R. Peroni, ’if we can measure the population of an Early or Middle Bronze Age settlement in dozens, and that of a Late Bronze Age one in hundreds, it is without doubt legitimate to think of an Early Iron Age settlement as having thousands of inhabitants" [1] .
[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 32
in squared kilometers. Average amount of territory controlled by settlements of Latium vetus during the Bronze Age.
levels. "There are very few signs of status differentiation amongst the few burials known. 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]
[1]: G. Barker, Mediterranean Valley (1995), p. 156
levels. "There are very few signs of status differentiation amongst the few burials known. 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]
[1]: G. Barker, Mediterranean Valley (1995), p. 156
levels. "There are very few signs of status differentiation amongst the few burials known. 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]
[1]: G. Barker, Mediterranean Valley (1995), p. 156
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. "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]
[1]: G. Barker, Mediterranean Valley (1995), p. 156
In Copper Age Latium there was evidence for the emergence of an elite warrior culture [1] , though there did not appear to be enough evidence to speak of "professional soldiers" in a modern sense. Coded absent because professional military officers were not present in subsequent periods.
[1]: R. Whitehouse, Underground Religion (1992), p. 21
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 Bronze Age.
[1]: (Tellegen-Couperus, 2002, 66)
[2]: (Cornell 1995, 106)
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.
Middle Bronze Age at lake Albano: "series of wooden palisades were recently excavated on the lakeshore, which form the tangible remains of the Bronze Age settlement." [1]
[1]: (Attema, Burgers and van Leusen 2010, 44) Peter A J Attema. Gert-Jan L M Burgers. Martijn van Leusen. 2010. Regional Pathways to Complexity: Settlement and Land-use Dynamics in Early Italy from the Bronze Age to the Republican Period. Amsterdam University Press. Amsterdam.
Data from Po Valley: "At least from the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age a new phenomenon is noticeable in the Po Valley - pile-dwellings on dry land, called terramare. These villages were trapezoidal in shape and were surrounded with a moat and within this a rampart." [1]
[1]: (Childe 1925, 267-268) V Gordon Childe. 1925 (1996). The Dawn of European Civilization. Routledge. Abingdon.
700-500 BCE: "The most prominent features of these larger settlements were town walls and defences. At Ardea, Satricum, and Lavinium the populations erected aggreres, or earth ramparts, at the edge of settled areas that lacked natural defences." [1] Late Bronze Age (c.1350-1200 BCE): "A large rectangular hut (c.15 by 7 m) has been found at Monte Rovello, southern Etruria, and a ditch-and-embankment system at Toree Mordillo." [2]
[1]: (Potts 2015, 86) Charlotte R Potts. 2015. Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c.900-500 BC. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
[2]: (Sestieri 2013, 640) Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri. Peninsular Italy. Harry Fokkens. Anthony Harding. 2013. The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
Late Bronze Age (c.1350-1200 BCE): "A large rectangular hut (c.15 by 7 m) has been found at Monte Rovello, southern Etruria, and a ditch-and-embankment system at Toree Mordillo." [1]
[1]: (Sestieri 2013, 640) Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri. Peninsular Italy. Harry Fokkens. Anthony Harding. 2013. The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. Oxford University Press. Oxford.
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.
Slings found at battle sites from the Early Bronze Age and "continued to be used by various cultures into the Middle Ages." [1]
[1]: (Howard 2011: 27) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GRTPCZB4.
Inferred from flint arrowheads found in earlier period. [1] According to a military historian "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.
Along with other military innovations, javelin-type weapons appeared towards the end of the Bronze Age, like the later Roman iaculum, which was thin and not too long. Not a primary weapon for battle, recognized as being primarily used for hunting. [1]
[1]: (Drews 1993: 180-81) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/7RU9BBEB.
Very few Bronze Age composite bows still exist, although many have been found in Egyptian tombs and are made reference to in literary sources and visual sources. [1]
[1]: (Howard 2011: 29) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GRTPCZB4.
According to Peroni, the Middle Bronze Age saw the introduction of swords and spearheads. [1] The opinion of a military historian: "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." [2]
[1]: (Bruno 2012: 36) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/THBS3YDV.
[2]: (Gabriel 2002, 26-27) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport.
According to Peroni, the Middle Bronze Age saw the introduction of swords and spearheads. [1] Presence of bronze spearhead in elite male tomb in Osteria dell’Osa. [2]
[1]: (Bruno 2012: 36) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/THBS3YDV.
[2]: (Alessandri 2013: 93) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/CCKG573P.
Sources reference swords, axes, and the falx, which is like a combination of the two and looks like an elongated sickle, but not polearms in this era. [1]
[1]: (Howard 2011: 33-34) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GRTPCZB4.
Three different types of greaves found in north, central, and southern Italy dating to the middle to late Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. [1] Present in Greece c1600 BCE, according to a military historian: "Early Mycenaean and Minoan charioteers wore an arrangement of bronze armor that almost fully enclosed the soldier, the famous Dendra panoply." [2] We cannot code from this data, however a Roman expert might like to elaborate on it.
[1]: (Modlinger 2017: 217-20) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SXF9N66L.
[2]: (Gabriel 2007, 78) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. Soldiers’ Lives Through History: The Ancient World. Greenwood Press. Westport.
Italian Bronze Age metal helmets are rare, only five have been found from Iseo, Oggiono-Ello, Brancere, Matua and Monte Altion. The earliest Italian crested helmets made of ceramic and bronze emerged at the end of the Bronze Age/beginning of the Iron Age. Later than some neighbouring cultures in Western Europe. [1] Present in Egypt probably worn by charioteers by the 18th Dynasty c1500 BCE. [2]
[1]: (Modlinger 2017: 83, 92) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SXF9N66L.
[2]: (Hoffmeier 2001) J K Hoffmeier in D B Redford. ed. 2001. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. Oxford.