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VILLANOVA

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 75 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VILLANOVA , the name given to an See also:

ancient See also:cemetery in the neighbourhood of See also:Bologna, See also:Italy, and generally applied by archaeologists to all the remains of that See also:period, and to the period itself, owing to the See also:discovery therein of a large number of the characteristic remains of the earliest See also:Iron See also:Age of Italy. The antiquities of this culture are widely spread over upper Italy and differ essentially from. those of the previous See also:epoch known as See also:Terramara, and they have been described by some as following at a considerable See also:interval, for they show a See also:great advance in See also:metal See also:work. The See also:chief cemeteries of the See also:Villa nova period are at Bologna, See also:Este, Villanova, Golasecca, Trezzo, Rivoli and Oppiano. As there can be no doubt that the Terramara culture was that of the aboriginal Ligurians (see, however, TERRAMARA), so the Villanova is that of the Umbrians, who, according to the historians, were masters of all See also:northern Italy, as far as the See also:Alps at the See also:time of the See also:Etruscan See also:conquest (c. moo B.C.). They contain See also:cist-See also:graves, the bottoms, sides and tops being formed of See also:flat unhewn stones, though sometimes there are only bottom and See also:top slabs: the dead were burnt, and the remains are usually in urns, each See also:grave containing as a See also:rule but one ossuary; sometimes the See also:vessel is covered with a flat See also:stone or a dish inverted, sometimes the urns are deposited in the ground without any See also:protection. The vases are often See also:hand-made and adorned with incised linear See also:ornament, though in later times the bones were often placed in See also:bronze urns or buckets. Though iron is steadily making its way into use, flat, flanged, and socketed and looped celts of bronze are found in considerable See also:numbers. Brooches of many kinds, ranging from the most See also:primitive safety-See also:pin fashioned out of a commonbronze pin (such as those found in the Bronze Age See also:settlement at Peschiera on See also:Lake See also:Maggiore), through many varieties, are in universal use. Representations of the human figure are practically unknown, but See also:models of animals of a See also:rude and primitive See also:kind are very See also:common, probably being votive offerings. These are closely parallel to the bronze figures found at See also:Olympia, where human figures were likewise rare. All these See also:objects are decorated in repousse with geometric designs. The culture of the Villanova period is See also:part of the See also:Hallstatt See also:civilization, though the contents of the Hallstatt (q.v.) graves differ in several marked features from the antiquities of the See also:ordinary Villanova period, there is no See also:breach of continuity between Hallstatt and Villanova, for the types of Vadena, Este, Golasecca and Villanova are found in the Hallstatt culture.

The connexion between the See also:

north and the See also:south of the Alps is never interrupted. The chief difference lies in the fact that the Celts of the Danubian region made greater advances in the development of weapons and defensive • See also:armour than their kindred in northern Italy. The Po and See also:Danube regions alike are characterized by bronze buckets, cists, girdles and the like, wrought in repousse with See also:animal and geometric designs; but the introduction of iron into Italy is considerably posterior to its development in the Hallstatt See also:area. See Montelius, La Civilisation primitive en Italie; Ridgeway, See also:Early Age of See also:Greece, vol. i.; Brizio, in C. R. Acad. lesser. (1906), 315 Pigorim and Grenier, in have gcontribut d articles e to lthe) sqq.; dei Lincei and the Notizie degli scavi from 1907 onwards. (W.

End of Article: VILLANOVA

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