William Ridgeway

“ VILLANOVA, the name given to an ancient cemetery in the neighbourhood of Bologna, Italy, and generally applied by archaeologists to all the remains of that period, and to the period itself, owing to the discovery therein of a large number of the characteristic remains of the earliest Iron Age of Italy. The antiquities of this culture are widely spread over upper Italy and differ essentially from those of the previous epoch known as Terramara, and they have been described by some as following at a considerable interval, for they show a great advance in metal work. ”

“ 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 northern Italy, as far as the Alps at the time of the Etruscan conquest (c. 1000 B.C.) . They contain cist-graves, the bottoms, sides and tops being formed of flat unhewn stones, though sometimes there are only bottom and top slabs: the dead were burnt, and the remains are usually in urns, each grave containing as a rule but one ossuary ”

“ Representations of the human figure are practically unknown, but models of animals of a rude and primitive kind are very common, probably being votive offerings. These are closely parallel to the bronze figures found at Olympia, where human figures were likewise rare. ”