Villanovan cultureArticle Free Pass Villanovan culture, Early
Iron Age culture in Italy, named after the village of Villanova,
near Bologna, where in 1853 the first of the characteristic
cemeteries was found. The Villanovan people branched from the
cremating Urnfield cultures of eastern Europe and appeared in
Italy in the 10th or 9th century bc. The earliest burial rites
were usually with cremation; the ashes of the dead were placed
in a decorated pottery ossuary of a biconical, or two-storied,
form and covered with a bowl. The lid of the urn was sometimes a
pottery imitation of a helmet, either the knobbed bell helmet of
eastern central Europe or the crested helmet of northern Europe,
the Villanovan helmet par excellence. The Villanovans living in
Tuscany also used the terra-cotta hut urn, which imitated a hut
of wattle and daub on a frame of poles. The hut urn is
characteristic of northern European urn fields, whereas the two-
storied urn may be related to similar urns from Hungary and
Romania. The Villanova