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All Of Ancient Rome _Then And Now - Details
All Of Ancient Rome _Then And Now
Bookediting - Maurizio martineli -Bonechi • 1997
Description
The traditional date of the foundation of Rome is that given by Varro 753 B.C. Archaeological studies have however revealed the presence of man here even earlier, with evidence dating as far back as the Bronze age in the second millennium B.C. The first settlement on the site of Rome dates to the early Iron age, at the beginning of the first millennium B.C., with villages of huts on the Pala-tine and necropolises in the valley of the Forum (along the via Sacra), on the Esquiline and on the Quirinal. These three hills were the first to be inhabited by distinct-ly separate human groups which to judge from their fes funerary customs probably also differed in their origin: cremation graves on the Palatine and the Quirinal, inhu-mation graves on the Esquiline. These settlements must have been very small and independent, if not rivals, as would seem to be indicated by the presence of two separate villages on the Palatine Hill. These communities lived primarily from sheep-herding and had been induced to settle here by the geographical amenities of the site at the crossroads of the most important communication routes by water (Tiber) and land between Etruria, Latium and Campania at the spot where the best ford over the Tiber was located.
The first << Rome > was then nothing but a cluster of small villages of huts whose aspect we can reconstruct precisely from the discovery of their foundations on the Palatine Hill and the hut-shaped cinerary urns found in contemporary necropolises. These huts had their founda-tions cut into the tufa and they were rectangular