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THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE EARLY IRON AGE IN LATIUM AS REVEALED BY BURIAL DATAIn this paper the problem of the chronology of early Iron Age (ninth-eighth century BC) burials in Latium is considered. Since the beginning of the sixties many scholars have considered this problem from different points of view. Müller-Karpe suggested a relative chronology which, in general terms, is still in use. In recent years a considerable increase in the amount of archaeological evidence has made it necessary to revise the chronological sequence. It has been possible to design a table which associates graves with metal and pottery types. In this table Müller-Karpe's phases are divided into two subphases which are related to different stages in the development of the early Iron Age in the Italian peninsula. On the basis of this chronology it seems that use of the necropolis of the Forum ceased at the end of phase IIA1, with an early moving of burials of the Esquiline area.A short account is also given of the questions which relate to absolute chronology, and an attempt is made to relate the phases of the early Iron Age in Latium, and in the Italian peninsula in general, to recent dates proposed for the late Urnfield culture in central Europe.

Decorated Italo-Mycenaean (IM) pottery, a high-status class found and made over three centuries from the Italian Late Middle Bronze Age onwards, was the subject of a large archaeological and archaeometric enquiry published by the present authors in 2014. The present paper focuses on identifying IM’s centres of production. The results of chemical analysis of IM using mainly ICP-ES make a strong case for regional production, irrespective of findspots in several parts of Italy. This accords well with the relative stylistic individuality of IM observed among the finds of IM across many parts of Italy, suggesting that IM is a powerful archaeological indicator of the way local communities were constructing and negotiating their identities at this crucial time of social and economic change at the end of the Bronze Age. A picture of more dispersed intra-regional production emerges from the combined chemical and petrographic analysis of two other pottery classes displaying Aegean influence: wheel-made Grey ware and decorated Final Bronze Age/Early Iron Age (FBA/EIA) pottery from sites in present-day Apulia and from Broglio di Trebisacce in Calabria. Potters manufacturing the former applied their knowledge of the wheel and kiln firing to handmade impasto shapes which were largely shared by local communities within a region. The results obtained for the latter reflect demands of the new elites of the emerging FBA/EIA in southern Italy to create symbols expressing a new cultural identity: this pottery’s style, especially of Protogeometric, was uniform but its production was localised.

The concept of proto‐urban was introduced into the study of Italian proto‐history by Renato Peroni and his school. This concept is crucial for understanding the development of research into the origins of the city of Rome, especially in light of what is now known about the birth of urban centers in nearby Etruria and other regions of the Italian peninsula between the end of the Bronze Age and the earliest stages of the Iron Age (tenth to ninth centuries BCE : hereafter, all the absolute dates are given according to traditional chronology).

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