List of ancient peoples of Italy
This is a list of ancient peoples living in Italy before the Roman conquest. Nearly all the names are either scholarly inventions or endonyms assigned by the ancient writers of works in ancient Greek and Latin. In regards to the specific names of particular ancient Italian tribes and peoples, the time window in which historians know the ascribed names of ancient Italian peoples mostly falls into the range of about 750 BC at the foundation of Rome to about 300 BC in the middle Roman Republic, the period in which most of the written documentation first exists of such names. Prior to this, and before the invention of writing, archaeological cultures might be hypothesized to have been associated with historical identities, especially in relatively isolated and continuous regions. However, due to the lack of written documentation, any further assumptions as to the historical names or cultural identities of these ancient archeological cultures and those Italian peoples existing prior to known ancient written sources would be presumptuous by current archeological and historical standards.
The specifically named ancient peoples of Italy listed here are therefore confined to the Iron Age of Italy, when the first written evidence, generally from Ancient Roman or Greek sources, can be found ascribing names to these tribes or peoples. Pre-Roman and pre-Iron Age archeological cultures are also listed, following the lists of specifically named ancient Italian peoples and tribes; however, the names of these pre-Roman archeological cultures are modern inventions, and most of the actual names of the peoples or tribes that belonged to these proposed cultures, if such names existed, are currently unknown.
Contents
Non-Indo-European speakers[edit]
The following peoples are believed to have spoken languages that were not Indo-European, although most on scanty evidence. Some of them were pre-Indo-Europeans, and some not. For some has been also proposed the definition of Peri-Indo-European.[1]
- Proto-Sardinians
Further information: List of Nuragic tribes, Nuragic civilization, Pre-Nuragic Sardinia, Sea Peoples, and Prehistory of Corsica
- Tyrrhenians
Indo-European speakers[edit]
Italo-Celtic tribes[edit]
Italics[edit]
- Latino-Faliscans:
- Osco-Umbrians, also called Sabellians:
Celts[edit]
Ligures (Celtic? Para-Celtic?)[edit]
Venetics (Italics? Illyrians?)[edit]
Greeks[edit]
Illyrians[edit]
Pre-Roman conquest archeological cultures[edit]
The specific identities or names of the tribes or groups of peoples that practiced these pre-Roman archeological cultures are mostly unknown. The posited existence of these archeological cultures is based on archeological assemblages of artifacts that share common traits and are found within a certain region and originate within a certain prehistoric period. Therefore, many of these archeological cultures may not necessarily correspond to a specific group of ancient people and, in fact, may have been shared among various groups of ancient peoples. The extent to which an archeological culture is representative of a particular cohesive ancient group of people may be debated; many of these cultures may be the product of a single ancient Italian tribe or civilization (e.g. Latial culture), while others may have been diffused among different groups of ancient Italian peoples and even outside of Italy.
Neolithic[edit]
Copper Age[edit]
- Pre-Nuragic Sardinia
- Beaker culture
- Remedello culture
- Rinaldone culture
- Laterza culture
- Gaudo culture
- Conelle-Ortucchio culture
- Serraferlicchio culture
- Spilamberto group
Bronze Age[edit]
- Apennine culture
- Bonnanaro culture
- Nuragic civilization
- Torrean civilization
- Canegrate culture
- Proto-Villanovan culture
- Polada culture
- Castelluccio Culture
- Thapsos Culture
- Terramare culture
- Castellieri culture
- Luco-Meluno culture
- Scamozzina culture
Iron Age[edit]
- Hallstatt culture
- La Tène culture
- Villanova culture
- Latial culture
- Este culture
- Golasecca culture
- Camunni culture
- Fritzens-Sanzeno culture
See also[edit]
- Prehistoric Italy
- Genetic history of Italy
- List of ancient Italic peoples
- List of Nuragic tribes
- History of Italy
- History of the Mediterranean region
- Etruscan civilization
- Pre-Nuragic Sardinia
- Nuragic civilization
- Latins (Italic tribe)
- Prehistory of Corsica
- Prehistory of Malta
- History of Sicily
- List of Celtic tribes
- List of ancient Germanic peoples
- List of ancient Greek tribes
- List of ancient Iranian peoples
- Italo-Celtic
- Magna Graecia
- Rock Drawings in Valcamonica
- Osco-Umbrian languages
- Roman Kingdom
- Founding of Rome
- Aeneid
- Old Latium