Testimonianze arcaiche in Emilia occidentale : Una cultura di frontiera alla luce di nuove indagini

In the VI century BC the Po Valley between rivers Trebbia and Panaro is considered the new frontier of Etruscan territorial expansion: beside to huts and rural villages characterized by Etruscan inscriptions and material culture, funerary evidences offer a complex picture, with ritual and customs elements not easily classifiable. In the small cemeteries of this territory dominates biritual rite: inhumed subjects lie in simple pits (or in one case in a coffin made from a hollowed out tree trunk), while in the cremation graves, statistically dominant, the burnt bones are put inside a large impasto dolium together with remains of the funeral pyre and grave goods. The composition of grave goods is marked by a strong gender distinction: the graves of women, more numerous, show a varied repertoire of specific elements of decoration and costume (in particular belts closed with decorated bronze plates, fibulae, spoked wheel-shaped pendants), together with objects belonging to specific female activities, related to spinning and weaving. Males instead are buried with simple bracelets and an iron knife. Unusually, the accompanying pottery vessels are totally absent (except one case, male). A comprehensive review of old findings and new excavations has allowed first to deepen typologies and chronology, second to speculate on interpretative models and theoretical problems: can we first assume the possibility of exogamous marriages between the newcomers and the neighboring populations, a phenomenon typical of a period of territorial expansion and formation of new social structures? On the other hand current scholarly debates put questions about modern paradigms such as identity, ethnicity, self-representation.