Proto-Villanovan culture

The Proto-Villanovan culture was an early Iron Age culture in Italy, appearing around the 10th or 9th century BCE. It is characterized by cremation as a primary burial rite, with ashes placed in biconical ossuaries, often covered by a bowl. Some urns were topped with pottery imitations of helmets. This culture controlled rich copper and iron mines in Tuscany and were skilled metalworkers. Later, around the 8th century BCE, Villanovan culture in Tuscany showed artistic influence from Greece, and inhumation became more common. By the 7th century BCE, an Orientalizing civilization, likely introduced by the Etruscans, was superimposed on the Villanovan culture in Tuscany. The northern Villanovan culture in the Po Valley persisted with geometric art until the late 6th century BCE, when Etruscan expansion led to its demise. The origins of the Etruscans are complex, with some scholars viewing Villanovan culture as an early phase of Etruscan civilization.123