The Iron Age Community of Osteria dell'Osa. A Study of socio-political development in central Tyrrhenian Italy

Abstract. The Iron Age community of Osteria dell’Osa. A study of socio-political development in central Tyrrhenian Italy. This work in an elaboration of the analytical study of a major archaeological site of Latium vetus (ancient Lazio): the Iron Age cemetery of Osteria dell’Osa, in the territorial district of the extinct volcanic crater of Castiglione, c. 20 km east of Rome. The cemetery materials, combined to the data from the systematic survey of the area, provide rich insights into the emergence of the city-state in central Tyrrhenian Italy, in the crucial period between the 10th and 6th centuries BC. The socio-political development of the community buried in this cemetery is studied through the analysis of variation in the main funerary features: spatial distribution, ritual (cremation and inhumation), gender, age. The different combinations of funerary outfits in relation to these features, and their variation with time, allow the reconstruction of the process of social evolution of this community, from the kinship-based egalitarian structure of the earliest phases to the emergence of permanent social differentiation from the 8th century BC. The results of this study are then used in order to identify the role of Latium Vetus in the wider context of southern Etruria and Campania.