Proto-Villanovan culture

[1] Proto-Villanovan sites are present all over the Italian peninsula, mostly in the northern-central part but also, to a lesser degree, in Southern Italy and eastern Sicily.

Among the most important of these sites are: Frattesina (Veneto), Bismantova and Ripa Calbana (Emilia-Romagna), Cetona and Saturnia (Tuscany), Monti della Tolfa (Lazio), Pianello di Genga and Ancona (Marche), Ortucchio (Abruzzo), Timmari (Basilicata), Canosa (Apulia), Tropea (Calabria), and Milazzo (Sicily).

The ashes were placed in Urnfield-style double-cone shaped funerary urns, often decorated with geometric designs, and then buried in the ground.

[6] After a period of considerable uniformity from north to south, the Proto-Villanovan culture shows a process of regionalization.

A genetic study published in Science in November 2019 examined the remains of a female from the Proto-Villanovan culture buried in Martinsicuro, Italy, between ca.