The Apennine Culture of Italy

D. H. Trump

doi:10.1017/S0079497X00016790

The Apennine Culture of Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2014

D. H. Trump

Show author details

D. H. Trump: Affiliation:
Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

The Apennine Culture of the Middle and Late Bronze Age of Italy extended in space from the Po Valley to the Gulf of Taranto, and from the Gargano to Lipari, and in time from at least 1500 to 1000 B.C. It is represented in the museums by its pottery, and little else. Yet this is sufficient for an examination of it to reveal important regional and chronological variations, which form the subject of the present paper.

The pottery of the Apennine Culture consists of two distinct classes, both invariably hand-made. The first is a coarse, unburnished ware indistinguishable from the corresponding classes of pottery in preceding and succeeding periods. Decoration is common, consisting of cordons, plain or impressed, indentations of the rim and, rarely, applied knobs or bosses which merge imperceptibly into the form of the very common simple lug handles. Shapes include heavy jars of various sizes, from great pithoi for water, oil or grain storage, with lugs only, to smaller mug- or cup-like ones, often with single vertical strap handles. Smallest of all are miniature vessels, as little as an inch high, which may be votive (the Grotta Pertosa produced several hundred examples) or simply children's toys. The second, commoner, and much more important ware is a fine, medium, darkfaced, burnished one, and in this all the more characteristic forms were made. A bold decoration of bands, dotted, hatched, excised or void, is frequent though by no means universal.

Type: Research Article
Information: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 24 , December 1958 , pp. 165 - 200

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00016790 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 165 note 1} The research was financed by the Ministry of Education through a research grant during the first year, by the British School at Rome through the Rome Scholarship in Classical Studies during the second and third years, and by Pembroke College, Cambridge. To all of these my indebtedness is only too apparent. I have received encouragement, information, advice, and assistance generally from far too many people to be able to thank them all individually here. I would single out only Professor J. D. Evans, Mr J. B. Ward Perkins, Professor S. M. Puglisi and Dr G. B. Buchner as deserving my special gratitude.

^{page 165 note 2} This term was introduced by Rellini, U. in his important article, ‘Le stazione enee delle Marche’, Mon. Ant., XXXIV (1931)Google Scholar, col. 129.

^{page 165 note 3} Unpublished. The information was kindly supplied to the writer in conversation.

^{page 168 note 1} Puglisi, , ‘Civilà apenninica e sepolcri di tipo dolmenico a Pian Sultano’, Rivista di Antropologia, XLI (1954)Google Scholar. A more detailed treatment on ethnological lines by the same author is in preparation.

^{page 170 note 1} This is the term used by Peet, in Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy (1909)Google Scholar. In Italian literature it is known variously as ansa ad alto nastro forato, ansa a nastro eretto, ansa a piastra, ansa con apid revoluti, etc.

^{page 170 note 2} =Brea's Ausonian Culture. See p. 184 below.

^{page 172 note 1} In Apennine contexts, the overall proportion of grooved to other techniques of decoration is 14%; Emilia has 48%. Though comparative figures for plain and decorated sherds would be most misleading, one is fairly safe in assuming that all the latter found were kept, making the proportions of one kind to another reasonably reliable.

^{page 172 note 2} Brea, , Gli scavi nella caverna delle Arene Candide, vol. I (1946)Google Scholar, pls. liii, figs. 8–111; and LIV, fig. 4 E. and G. The best Emilian reports, on Toscanella, and Bologna, , are in Mon. Ant., XXIV (1916)Google Scholar, col. 261.

^{page 172 note 3} For illustrations of Marchigian material see Rellini, op. cit.

^{page 172 note 4} In these figures allowance has been already made to see that two sherds from the same zone of a single vessel have not been counted twice. Separate zones, as on neck and lip, are counted separately.

^{page 174 note 1} This handle was distinguished by Rellini, op. cit. All others here called after regions, Nevigata, Bari, Taranto, etc., have been so named by the writer. The figures following are for the developed form only.

^{page 174 note 2} See the preliminary report on the excavations in Not. Scavi, 1933, p. 45Google Scholar, and the Perugia Museum Guide, Itinerari dei musei e monumenti d' Italia, no. 71.

^{page 175 note 1} Calzoni, , Quaderni di Studi Etruschi, ser. 1, Q. 1 (1954), Belverde, p. 38Google Scholar and figs. 4–6.

^{page 175 note 2} The best illustrations will be found in the reports on Corchiano, (Mon. Ant., XXVI (1920)Google Scholar, col. 5) and Pian Sultano, Puglisi op. cit.

^{page 175 note 3} On which see p. 190 below.

^{page 175 note 4} For excellent illustrations see Brea, and Cavalier, , ‘Le civiltà delle Isole Eolie e del territorio di Milazzo’, BPI, n.s., X (1956), p. 7Google Scholar.

^{page 175 note 5} Brea, , Sicily before the Greeks (1957) Milazzese period, p. 122Google Scholar; ‘Ausonian’, p. 137.

^{page 176 note 1} Those handles in which both roots stand on the rim, from which the handle springs vertically.

^{page 176 note 2} Pertosa, and Latronico, are well published in Mon. Ant., IX (1899)Google Scholar, col. 545, and idem, XXIV (1916)Google Scholar, col.461. On Ariano there is a preliminary report by the present writer in BSR, XXV (1957), p. 1Google Scholar.

^{page 176 note 3} PPS, XIX (1953)Google Scholar, pl. XIII, nos. 1–7.

^{page 176 note 4} There is a specimen from Capri of a type unparalleled elsewhere.

^{page 176 note 5} Circular or triangular. The specimens are counted again under the relevant shape.

^{page 178 note 1} Mon. Ant., XIX (1908)Google Scholar, col. 305.

^{page 178 note 2} The stratigraphy is generally sound, though there are a few obvious anomalies, such as the iron foundry in the Bronze Age level. The writer assisted in the 1956 excavation.

^{page 178 note 3} BSR, XIX (1951), p. 23Google Scholar, and XXI (1953), p. 1.

^{page 179 note 1} Puglisi, , ‘Atti dell' Accademia Nazionaledei Lincei, Scienze morale, storiche e filologiche’, Memorie, Ser. VIII, Vol. II (1950), p. 30Google Scholar.

^{page 179 note 2} Maxwell-Hyslop, , PPS, XXII (1956), p. 128Google Scholar.

^{page 180 note 1} The site is not well published, though the material is, in Gervasio's, I dolmen e la civiltd del bronzo nelle Puglie, Bari (1913), p. 106Google Scholar.

^{page 180 note 2} These include a large number of broken handles which have been excluded from the next group only because the characteristic upper part is missing.

^{page 180 note 3} Not. Sc., 1900, p. 411Google Scholar. A little more material is illustrated in Säflund's attempted reconstruction of Quagliati's stratigraphy, Dragma (Ada inst. rotn. reg. sueciae, ser 11, vol. I, Essays presented to M. Nilsson), p. 458.

^{page 180 note 4} See a note by the writer in Antiquity, 1958, in the press.

^{page 180 note 5} But a rather similar form is known north of the Balkans.

^{page 181 note 1} The material is best shown in Gervasio, op. cit., and in the Murgia Timone report, Mon. Ant., VIII (1898)Google Scholar, col. 417.

^{page 181 note 2} BPI, XXXIII (1907), p. 193Google Scholar.

^{page 181 note 3} BPI, XXVI (1900), p. 196Google Scholar.

^{page 181 note 4} Arene Candide.

^{page 182 note 1} Radimsky, and Hoernes, , Die neolithische Station von Butmir bei Sarajevo, 1 (1895)Google Scholar; 11 (1899).

^{page 182 note 2} Chiczza: Zambotti, P. Laviosa, Le prime culture agricole in Europa. See also St. Etr., XVII 1943, p. 11Google Scholar, fig. 1.1. Pescale: BPI, n.s., IV, pt. IV (1951–1952), p. 13Google Scholar. Note also the excised spirals in the Danubian levels at Arene Candide, Tav. XIX, 6.

^{page 182 note 3} Louis, and Taffanel, , Le premier âge du fer languedocien, pt. 1 (1956)Google Scholar, figs. 13, 14, 17, 36.7, 42.5.

^{page 182 note 4} Rellini, , La pia' antica ceramica dipinta in Italia (1934)Google Scholar, especially figs. 43 and 54d.

^{page 182 note 5} Idem, fig. 21.

^{page 183 note 1} Rellini, op. cit., col. 205.

^{page 183 note 2} See p. 172, n. 2. Those on pi. ix, fig. 1 B and C, are from levels 9 and 7, transitional Lagozza to Bronze Age.

^{page 183 note 3} WMBH, IX (1904)Google Scholar, pl. xxxiii, 22; iv, (1896), p. 41, figs. 2, 3 and 13; VI (1899), p. 9, fig. 2.

^{page 183 note 4} Ceramica dipinta, figs. 14 and 19, or the deeper bowls from Cellino San Marco in the Taranto Museum.

^{page 183 note 5} Childe, V. G., The Danube in Prehistory (1929Google Scholar) fig. 161e; c and d on the same fig. show the next vessels mentioned. I have not seen the Vattina material.

^{page 184 note 1} Milazzese examples appear in the next column.

^{page 184 note 2} Brea, , BPI, n.s., X (1956), p. 67Google Scholar, and idem, Sicily before the Greeks, p. 137.

^{page 185 note 1} ‘Le Terremare’, Acta inst. rom. reg. sueciae, ser. I, vol. VII (1939)Google Scholar. Hawkes, 's review in Journal of Roman Studies, XXX (1940), p. 89CrossRef Google Scholar, suggests more satisfactory dates.

^{page 185 note 2} Except the Gargano, where the decoration, rare in any case, is nearly all fluting, and due to independent import from across the Adriatic.

^{page 185 note 3} Again the Grotta Manaccora has to be counted an exception because of its swords.

^{page 186 note 1} Peet, , Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy, pp. 195 and 397Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 2} St. Etr., 1, 1927, p. 11Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 3} Scoglietto, Lo, Galleraie, Le, etc., RSP, VI (1951), p. 200Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 4} There is too the Ripoli-type painted ware from the Grotta Lattaia nearby, BPI, n.s. V–VI (1941–1942), p. 234Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 5} Coppa Nevigata is now three miles from the sea. It stands beside the marshes of the Lago Salso, now a silted lagoon but formerly the estuary of the Candelaro and Cervaro rivers. In exactly the same way, the Greek port of Siponto, 5 miles to the east was later silted up, and the medieval and modern harbour of Manfredonia, 2 miles further east, would in the natural course of events follow in time.

^{page 187 note 1} All references to this below are from Lord William Taylour's Mycenaean pottery in Italy.

^{page 187 note 2} See especially Hawkes, in PPS, XIV (1948), p. 208Google Scholar.

^{page 187 note 3} The stratigraphy of the Scoglio del Tonno could have thrown invaluable light on all the problems here considered. As recorded by Quagliati, the excavator, in Not. Sc. (1900), p. 411Google Scholar, it is quite incredible. The lowest level, with Serra d'Alto pottery, is clear enough, being confirmed on other sites, but the attribution of all imported wares to the topmost level and all local ones to the second is clearly an arbitrary device. Säflund's article in Dragma quoted above is a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to make the best of a quite hopeless job. Nothing from this site can be dated other than by typology.

^{page 187 note 4} See Taylour, op. cit., for a discussion of the parts played by different regions of the Mycenaean world.

^{page 188 note 1} WMBH, IV (1896), p. 41Google Scholar, fig. 13.

^{page 188 note 2} From Bisceglie came amber, a faceted spindle whorl and bronze discs of a type found with a fibula a drago in a tomb at Murgia Timone. Albarosa had the late Nevigata-Torre Castelluccia painted ware. Otherwise all finds were of Apennine ware. See Gervasio, op. cit.

^{page 189 note 1} For fuller details see BSR, XXV (1957), p. 1Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 1} Evans, , PPS, XIX (1953), p. 86Google Scholar, n. 4.

^{page 190 note 2} Säflund, op. cit., says it arrived during T.m.IIB; Hawkes, , JRS, XXX (1940), p. 95Google Scholar, shows that there is no disproof of its arrival with the first terramaricoli, altogether an easier explanation.

^{page 190 note 3} Mon. Ant., XVI (1906)Google Scholar, col. 5.

^{page 190 note 4} BPI, XLI (1916), p. 48Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 5} Säflund, op. cit.

^{page 190 note 6} Op. cit., p. 227.

^{page 191 note 1} Timmari is often held to be one of the earliest of these urnfields, On the evidence of its size, its distance from the coast, the identity of the settlement material with that from full Iron Age sites, and the presence of grave stele, a full- rather than a proto-Villanovan trait, it is better regarded as later, its primitive features being due to isolation, not antiquity.

^{page 191 note 2} Apart from two sherds in the Riparo di Frasassi, BPI, n.s., X (1956), p. 495Google Scholar, fig. 2.1.

^{page 191 note 3} RSP, VI (1951), pp. 11 and 161Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 1} These Liparians have a much better claim than their predecessors to be the Ausonians of Diodorus Siculus The mainland Ausonians have yet to be found. For Cumae, see Mon. Ant., XXII (1913)Google Scholar, col. 61.

^{page 192 note 2} BPI, n.s. X (1956), especially p. 259Google Scholar, fig. 14.

^{page 193 note 1} In the Palatine Museum.

^{page 193 note 2} BPI, n.s., IX (1954), p. 399Google Scholar, fig. 16.5.

^{page 193 note 3} Mon. Ant., XXVI (1920)Google Scholar, col. 82, fig. 32.

^{page 193 note 4} This qualification is needed to exclude the Greek colonists in the south, and to avoid the thorny question of Etruscan origins.

^{page 194 note 1} Mon. Ant., XXXIV (1931)Google Scholar, col. 161. Surface finds at Conelle included much later material, and recent work there has produced earlier, probably of the Early Bronze Age, not recognizably related to the Apennine pottery proper.

^{page 196 note 1} See p. 198 below.

^{page 197 note 1} Dunbabin, The Western Greeks.

^{page 197 note 2} Mosso, , Mon. Ant., XIX (1908)Google Scholar, col. 311, attributed it to the Bronze Age on the strength of the Mycenaean appearance of the painted sherds referred to on p. 178 above.

^{page 197 note 3} BPI, n.s. X (1956), p. 537Google Scholar.

^{page 198 note 1} Brea, , Sicily, p. 108Google Scholar.

^{page 198 note 2} All references to Mycenaean pottery are again from Taylour, op. cit.

^{page 198 note 3} Buchner, , BPI, n.s. I (1936), p. 70Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 1} Drago, , BPI, n.s. V, pt. V (1953), p. 155Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 2} Hawkes, , PPS, XIV (1948), p. 196Google Scholar; Childe, , idem, p. 177Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 3} Brea, , Sicily, p. 142Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 4} Dunbabin, op. cit.

Article contents

The Apennine Culture of Italy

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests