Collapse of the Terramare system and regeneration

The middle centuries of the second millennium BC (1650–1150 BC) saw the rise and flourishing of the Terramare settlement system in the Po River plain of northern Italy. The Terramare can be defined as mainly quadrangular settlements surrounded by an artificial embankment and ditch into which the waters of a nearby river or natural canal were re-routed. Approximately 200 of these sites are currently known in the central Po Plain: they could reach 20ha in size and occupied the territory very densely. The level of social and economic organisation of these communities was unprecedented in Italian prehistory, and thus the Terramare have long attracted the attention of European prehistorians.

The collapse of the Terramare system c. 1150 BC was followed by a sudden and substantial depopulation of the central part of the Po Plain (Cardarelli Reference Cardarelli2009). At the beginning of the Final Bronze Age, the southern part of the Po Valley was almost abandoned. In contrast, in the northern part of the Po Valley, some villages survived: the large terramara at Fondo Paviani (16–20ha), for example, continued through the transition between the Recent and Final Bronze Age, and experienced a crisis in the early stages of the latter (Final Bronze Age 1–2), leading to the abandonment of the site. Concurrently, a new territorial system arose, pivoting around the socio-economic pole of Frattesina (Calzavara Capuis et al. Reference Calzavara Capuis, De Guio and Leonardi1984; Bietti Sestieri et al. Reference Bettelli, Cupitò, Levi, Jones, Leonardi, Leonardi and Tinè2015; Cupitò et al. Reference Cupitò, Leonardi, Longa, Nicosia, Balista, Corso and Kirleis2015). Therefore, within the area of the wider Terramare ‘culture’, local responses to the crisis led to different outcomes, some of which were relatively successful and others catastrophic. Economic factors—both in terms of internal carrying capacity and degree of openness to external relations—probably played a key role in determining different responses to the tensions.

It has been repeatedly stated that the collapse of the Terramare system may have been triggered by a series of concurrent factors, including environmental crises (e.g. prolonged drought), over-exploitation of the land, and famine or epidemic (Cardarelli Reference Cardarelli2009; Cremaschi Reference Cremaschi2009; Leonardi Reference Leonardi2010). Nevertheless, while such environmental factors were probably involved, a key explanation arguably lies in the socio-political and economic organisation of the Terramare system (Cardarelli Reference Cardarelli2009: 471–72). The communities of the Terramare, especially in the southern area, were probably not flexible enough to adapt their political structure and modes of production to the needs of a rapidly changing world. Moreover, the domino effect from the overall geo-political instability of the twelfth century BC, in a highly interconnected system such as the Mediterranean, was undoubtedly another factor (Cardarelli Reference Cardarelli2009). The lack of evidence in the southern Terramare area for connections with the Aegean and the Levant suggests a more ‘closed’ system located on the edge of the ‘globalised’ world of the Late Bronze Age. In contrast, there is well-documented evidence from the largest terramare on the northern side of the Po River for possible incipient institutionalised, well-connected elites—particularly at Fondo Paviani, which has yielded locally produced pottery in Levantine and Late Helladic IIIC Aegean-Mycenaean styles (Bettelli et al. Reference Bettelli, Cupitò, Levi, Jones, Leonardi, Leonardi and Tinè2015). During the last phase of the Terramare (1300–1150 BC), however, individual burials do not exhibit the wealth or reflect the social power of society that is suggested by the monumental and material evidence of these settlements (Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Quondam, Salvadei, Salzani, Leonardi and Tinè2015).

The display of austere equality that dominated the Middle and Late Bronze Age ‘urnfields’ (Salzani Reference Salzani2005; Cardarelli Reference Cardarelli2014) strongly limited funerary expressions of social differentiation. Internal inequalities nonetheless existed between different co-resident extended families and lineages comprising tens of individuals at most (e.g. at Casinalbo; Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Pellacani, Poli and Cardarelli2014: 722–28), and, above all, between large centres, such as the terramara at Fondo Paviani and dependent satellite settlements (Balista et al. Reference Balista, Guio, Vanzetti, Betto, Angeli and Sartor2005; Cupitò et al. Reference Cupitò, Leonardi, Longa, Nicosia, Balista, Corso and Kirleis2015). It seems reasonable therefore to hypothesise that groups based at nodal sites in the system attracted more prestige goods from exotic places, along with individuals from distant areas, while small villages attracted people mainly from within a local radius (Cavazzuti et al. Reference Cavazzuti, Skeates, Millard, Nowell, Peterkin, Bernabò Brea, Cardarelli and Salzani2019a). Within this dynamic cultural context, the Final Bronze Age funerary evidence from Frattesina documents a more elaborate display of power and wealth concentrated in the hands of elites. At Le Narde (Frattesina's cemetery), this privileged segment of society, probably with its own entourage, is clearly represented by a small number of burials with several indicators of prestige.

Archaeological debate over the last decade has concentrated on the origin of these elite individuals and, more intriguingly, the founders of Frattesina. Was Frattesina a primarily indigenous community, which developed out of local dynamics and regeneration from the ashes of the Terramare system? Or did non-local groups from the Eastern Mediterranean contribute to its rise, and if so, to what extent?

Frattesina: between the Mediterranean and Central Europe

Frattesina di Fratta Polesine is unique among Late Bronze sites in northern Italy for its outstanding evidence of specialised workshops, exotic imports and rich cemeteries (Bietti Sestieri Reference Bietti Sestieri2008; Bietti Sestieri et al. Reference Bietti Sestieri, Bellintani, Salzani, Angelini, Chiaffoni, De Grossi Mazzorin, Giardino, Saracino, Soriano, Leonardi and Tinè2015). The settlement is located on the southern bank of the Po di Adria palaeochannel (Figure 1), 30–40km from the Bronze Age Adriatic coastline and the River Po delta. Extending over 20ha, the site is divided equally between a 10ha core and peripheral areas for cattle penning and agricultural production. Frattesina's economic prosperity must, in part, have been due to its strategic position at the crossroads between mainland, fluvial and maritime routes from the Alps to the Mediterranean. Definitions of Frattesina as a ‘central place’, ‘primary node’, ‘port of trade’ or ‘emporium’ recur frequently in the scholarly literature (e.g. Pearce Reference Pearce and Pare2000; Bietti Sestieri Reference Bietti Sestieri2008; Harding Reference Harding2013; Kristiansen & Suchowska-Ducke Reference Kristiansen and Suchowska-Ducke2015).

Figure 1.

Aerial photograph of the Frattesina site (courtesy of the Regione Veneto website: http://mapserver.iuav.it/website/foto_aeree/). The white areas show the extent of the settlement and the two burial areas: Narde (comprising Narde 1 and 2 sectors) and Fondo Zanotto.

Since the late 1960s, a series of archaeological investigations has been conducted on the settlement and its two associated urnfields, Fondo Zanotto and Le Narde. Le Narde has been more extensively excavated and analysed, both archaeologically and osteologically (e.g. Salzani Reference Salzani1989, Reference Salzani1990; Salzani & Colonna Reference Salzani and Colonna2010; Cavazzuti Reference Cavazzuti2011; Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Quondam, Salvadei, Salzani, Leonardi and Tinè2015).

Excavations at Le Narde have targeted two distinct sectors, Narde 1 and 2 (Figure 1), which have yielded, respectively, more than 600 and 200 urn cremations, plus 3 and 22 inhumations. These features extend from the Final Bronze Age 1 (c. 1150 BC), soon after the collapse of the Terramare culture, to the earliest phases of the Early Iron Age (c. 950/925 BC). In both sectors, the ratio between Final Bronze Age 1–2 (phase 1) and Final Bronze Age 3 to Early Iron Age 1 (phase 2) burials is balanced, with a slight increase in the number of burials in the latter phase (40 and 60 per cent, respectively). At Narde 1, the large and dense burial groups expand both horizontally and vertically. The outcome of this progressive vertical growth is a mound of up to five levels of depositions (Figure 2). This indicates a strong desire to emphasise membership of a specific corporate group (Leonardi & Cupitò Reference Leonardi and Cupitò2004; Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Quondam, Salvadei, Salzani, Leonardi and Tinè2015).

Figure 2.

Top) map of the Narde 1 burial sector, with the location of burials Narde1-168 and 227; bottom) section of the mound formed by the superimposition of urns (after Salzani Reference Salzani1989, Reference Salzani1990).

Despite the damage caused by the recent insertion of a drainage channel across the cemetery, the spatial organisation of Narde 2 is quite clear and rather different to that of Narde 1. Burials are organised spatially in larger and smaller groups, which range from 15–60 graves each. These groups tend not to be superimposed, but rather to expand horizontally (Figure 3). A recent analysis of grave goods and the sex/age categories of individuals from Narde 1 and 2 identifies five different ranks of adult males, females and sub-adults, ranked on a scale of 1–5 depending on the increasing quantity and quality of grave goods (Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Quondam, Salvadei, Salzani, Leonardi and Tinè2015). The richest burials among the adult males—characterised by the presence of swords and toiletry objects—are represented by two ‘warrior-chief’ graves (Narde1-168 and Narde1-227). Both are located in Narde 1 at the centre of two distinct burial groups comprising more than 100 graves (Salzani Reference Salzani1989; Bietti Sestieri Reference Bietti Sestieri2008) (Figure 2). Another four graves contain only the rivets from a sword in place of a whole sword—probably a pars pro toto symbolising the warrior status of the deceased (Narde1-32, 154, 177, 273) (Leonardi Reference Leonardi2010). Similarly, the nine richest female graves, containing prestige goods such as amber and glass beads, are located almost exclusively in Narde 1, with only one in Narde 2. Thus, Narde 1 appears to be an area designated for elite groups and their entourage, while Narde 2 could have been reserved for less prestigious yet still dominant social groups.

Figure 3.

Map of the Narde 2 burial sector, crossed by a modern irrigation channel (in blue); inset shows the detail of one burial group (after Salzani & Colonna Reference Salzani and Colonna2010).

Demographic data and first indicators of mobility

Osteological analyses have been undertaken on 472 burials: 266 from Narde 1, and 206 from Narde 2 (Table 1). Sex and age were determined through a combination of methods analysing morphological and metric traits (Ferembach et al. Reference Ferembach, Schwidetzky and Stloukal1980; Gonçalves et al. Reference Gonçalves, Thompson and Cunha2013; Cunningham et al. Reference Cunningham, Scheuer, Black and Liversidge2016; Cavazzuti et al. Reference Cavazzuti, Bresadola, D'Innocenzo, Interlando and Sperduti2019b).

Table 1.

Frequency of categories of individuals at Narde 1 and 2.

For both Narde 1 and 2, the sex ratio is close to 1:1, with slightly more adult males at Narde 1, and more adult females at Narde 2. The most marked difference between the two sectors is the frequency of sub-adults, who comprise 21 per cent of the burials at Narde 1 and 31 per cent at Narde 2. While this discrepancy is observed in all the sub-adult age classes, it is most clear among older infants (Infans 2 class; 7–12 years); these individuals are twice as common at Narde 2.

These divergent mortality rates among children may mirror different life expectancies and conditions (Cardarelli et al. Reference Cardarelli, Cavazzuti, Quondam, Salvadei, Salzani, Leonardi and Tinè2015), albeit with different degrees of inclusion of adult strangers and newcomers, as migrants are more likely to be adult. In this scenario, Narde 1's elite groups might have incorporated significant immigration, while those buried at Narde 2 remained closer to the traditional demographic structure of kinship-based societies. In this article, isotopic analysis is used to test these demographic and social ‘inequalities’ that emerge from the two sectors of Le Narde.

Mobile elites and the ‘warrior-chief’ at Frattesina

As noted above, the individual in burial Narde1-168 may have achieved the status of a ‘warrior-chief’, as symbolised by the presence of an Allerona-type sword (Bianco Peroni Reference Bianco Peroni1970). This was ritually broken and deposited in pieces inside the grave, along with a bronze pin, a pair of tweezers and other ornaments (Figure 8). For this individual, identified osteologically as an adult male, we analysed both the petrous portion as an indicator of childhood origin, and the femoral cortical bone as a possible proxy for the place where he spent his last years of life. The former yielded a strontium isotope ratio (0.70983) that is incompatible with the local 0–20km baseline (Table 3), but fits within the 20–50km range. By contrast, the value obtained from the femoral cortical bone (0.70924) is consistent with the local range of Frattesina. This means that this individual moved to the site after early childhood—possibly during youth or early adulthood—and he probably spent the last years of his life there, at the apex of the community.

Figure 8.

The grave goods and cremated bones of burial Narde1-168 (after Salzani Reference Salzani1989). Urn height is 0.26m, sword length is 0.46m.

Assessing the provenance of an individual through strontium isotope analysis alone is not straightforward, as different locations can be characterised by similar ratios. Our interpretation considers only the closest possible places of origin. The nearest geolithological zone in northern Italy with the closest ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr baseline to Frattesina is, however, the easternmost part of the Verona plain, approximately 50km to the west. In particular, the baselines from the Middle–Late Bronze Age terramara at Fondo Paviani/Scalvinetto (0.7097–0.7101; Cavazzuti et al. Reference Cavazzuti, Skeates, Millard, Nowell, Peterkin, Bernabò Brea, Cardarelli and Salzani2019a) seem to correlate with the ratio obtained from the petrous portion of burial Narde1-168.

Marshall Sahlins (Reference Sahlins1981), in his famous article ‘The stranger-king: or Dumézil among the Fijians’, compares the dynamics of power in the Fiji Islands to the Indo-European tradition, arguing that human societies tend to locate power as originating from the outside (Sahlins Reference Sahlins1981, Reference Sahlins2008; see also Ling & Rowlands Reference Ling, Rowlands, Ling, Skoglund and Bertilsson2015). Sahlins focuses on origin myths across ancient polities in the Indo-European language area, which systematically feature a dichotomy between what the Romans called gravitas and celeritas. The former refers to the conservative, peaceful and productive character of an established native community, while celeritas represents the disruptive, transformative violence personified in the stranger king, who “erupts upon a pastoral scene of peaceful husbandry and political equality (or at least limited authority)” (Sahlins Reference Sahlins1981: 112).

The individual buried in grave Narde1-168 at Frattesina was probably neither a true ‘king’, nor a true ‘stranger’. Despite its uniqueness, his grave resembles those of the rest of the community and is included within a large collective—or at least not evidently exclusive—burial mound. ‘Warrior-chief’ perhaps would be a more appropriate definition for this individual. Moreover, his place of origin was not so distant as to define him as a ‘stranger’. Nonetheless, Sahlins's archetype of the ‘stranger-king’ evokes the power of alterity; burial Narde1-168 perfectly embodies celeritas, which breaks with the gravitas of the former Terramare tradition and guided whatever survived the collapse towards a new social model.

Since the discovery of Frattesina and its cemeteries, Italian scholars have debated the mechanisms underlying the origin and economic success of the settlement, and the degree of foreign (i.e. Cypriot and Levantine) involvement in this process as suggested by archaeological finds (Cupitò et al. Reference Cupitò, Leonardi, Longa, Nicosia, Balista, Corso and Kirleis2015). The new isotopic data presented here demonstrate that even though some individuals may have come from the Levant—where the available ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr baseline ranges from 0.7079–0.7086 (Sheridan & Gregoricka Reference Sheridan and Gregoricka2015; Gregoricka & Guise Sheridan Reference Gregoricka and Guise Sheridan2016)—or were from other exotic places, they nonetheless represent a minority of the population and, in any case, not the upper elite. The latter appear quite mobile, although probably from within the broader hinterland radius.