Aspects of urbanism in later Bronze Age northern Italy

Pearce, Mark

Abstract

This paper askes the question whether towns may be said to be visible in the archaeological record of northern Italy before the Iron Age. It argues that we should not use the forms of urbanism of the Greek, Etruscan and Roman cities as criteria for identifying towns, but that the medieval town is a better comparator as it shows many elements of similarity with Iron Age forms of urbanism in Europe. Having established a selection of possible criteria for the identification of a town, it is argued that Final Bronze Age-Early Iron Age Frattesina is a good candidate for a town, as are the Recent Bronze Age terramare of the Po plain. The preconception that there cannot be towns in Bronze Age northern Italy is 'primitivist' and hinders a dispassionate assessment of the evidence.

Citation

Pearce, M. (2020). Aspects of urbanism in later Bronze Age northern Italy. In Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900-400 BC) (19-25)

• Conference Name: Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900-400 BC)
• Conference Location: Milan, Italy
• Start Date: Mar 29, 2019
• End Date: Mar 30, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Jun 4, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Dec 18, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Dec 10, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 10, 2020
• Pages: 19-25
• Book Title: Crossing the Alps: Early Urbanism between Northern Italy and Central Europe (900-400 BC)
• Chapter Number: 2
• ISBN: 9789088909627
• Keywords: Urbanism; Final Bronze Age; Recent Bronze Age; Frattesina; Terramare
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4595205
• Related Public URLs: https://www.sidestone.com/books/crossing-the-alps