Latial culture

The Latial culture ranged approximately over ancient Old Latium. The Iron Age Latial culture coincides with the arrival in the region of a people who spoke Old Latin. The culture is likely therefore to identify a phase of the socio-political self-consciousness of the Latin tribe, during the period of the kings of Alba Longa and the foundation of the Roman Kingdom.

Latial culture is identified by their "hut-urns". Urns of the Villanovan culture are plain and biconical, and were buried in a deep shaft. The hut-urn is a round or square model of a hut with a peaked roof. The interior is accessed by a door on one of its side. Cremation was practiced alonsgside burial. The style is distinctive. The hut-urns corresponded to the huts in which the population lived, although during the period they developed the use of stone for temples and other public buildings.

The Apennine culture of Latium transitioned smoothly into the Latial with no evidence of an intrusive population movement. The population generally abandoned sites of purely economic advantage in favor of defensible sites, the locations of future cities, about which they clustered; hence the term pre-urban. This population movement may indicate an increase in marauding.

The periodization is standard and varies little; however, a tolerance of ±25 years is implied:

Latial I is concentrated in the Rome region, the Alban Hills and the Monti della Tolfa. Evidence is mainly funerary from necropoleis (cemeteries). Cremation was the predominant rite. Cremation burials consist of a hut-urn with ashes of the deceased placed in a dolium (large jar) with some other vessels used for food offerings. Pottery is undecorated. Instead of a hut-urn a vase with a cone-like roof or simulated helmet may be used. The dolium was placed in a stone-lined pozzo (hole) and commemorated above-ground.

For grave goods, spindle-whorls identify females and miniature armor and weapons, males. Statuettes, some with hands outstretched, may be present.

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