in Italy and the islands does not necessarily indicate
the presence of Mycenaeans, even if this is likely.
Certainly, the Italian-type winged-axe mold from
the House of the Oil Merchant at Mycenae attests
to very close relations between the Italian Peninsula
and Bronze Age Greece. It should be noticed that
in the Final Bronze Age, after the collapse of the
palace societies of the eastern Mediterranean, these
contacts continue. Indeed, the exceptional site of
Frattesina dates from this very period.
The distribution of Aegean and Aegean-type
pottery in Italy and the islands varies through time.
In the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries
B.C. (the
Early Middle Bronze Age–Late Helladic I and II),
it occurs in the Lipari Islands, on the coasts of Apu-
lia and Calabria (facing northern Greece and Alba-
nia) and at Vivara in the Bay of Naples. In the four-
teenth and thirteenth century
B.C. (later Middle and
Late Bronze Age–Late Helladic IIIA and B), there
is an increase in the number of locations where the
pottery has been found. Material is known from the
Bay of Naples, Tuscany, and Latium but particularly
from Southeast Italy and Southeast Sicily (where
the Mycenaean influence on the Thapsos culture
has been noted), Sardinia, and the Lipari Islands.
Twelfth-century
B.C. material (Final Bronze Age–
Late Helladic IIIC) shows a differing pattern. The
Ionian Sea seems to have become a key area, and the
decrease in finds in the Lipari Islands and Sicily may
suggest a new route to Sardinia passing south of Sic-
ily. The presence of five finds in the Po Plain in
northern Italy is the major novelty of the Final
Bronze Age.
CONCLUSIONS
The Italian Bronze Age saw a cycle of development,
from the Early to the Recent Bronze Age, and then,
in the Final Bronze Age, the beginning of a new
cycle that led to the complex urban societies of the
Iron Age. Although the evidence for social differen-
tiation is patchy, it is clear that, for example, the ter-
remare and lake-village societies of central northern
Italy reached high levels of complexity in the Recent
Bronze Age. Indeed, the sword-bearing warriors
who appeared about this time represented the visi-
ble signs of the elite groups who became increasing-
ly important as the Bronze Age drew to a close.
See also Bell Beakers from West to East (vol. 1, part 4);
The Early and Middle Bronze Ages in Central
Europe (vol. 2, part 5); Poggiomarino (vol. 2, part
5); Late Bronze Age Urnfields of Central Europe
(vol. 2, part 5); Mycenaean Greece (vol. 2, part 5);
Etruscan Italy (vol. 2, part 6).
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THE ITALIAN BRONZE AGE
ANCIENT EUROPE
41