This list of ancient peoples living in Italy summarises groupings of peoples existing in Italy before and during the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy. Many of the names are either scholarly inventions or exonyms assigned by the ancient writers of works in ancient Greek and Latin.
In regard to the specific names of particular ancient Italian tribes and peoples, the time-window in which historians know the historical ascribed names of ancient Italian peoples mostly falls into the range of about 750 BC (at the legendary foundation of Rome) to about 200 BC (in the middle Roman Republic), the time range in which most of the written documentation first exists of such names and prior to the nearly complete assimilation of Italian peoples into Roman culture.
Scholars believe - though sometimes on the basis of scanty evidence - that the following peoples spoke non-Indo-European languages. Some of them were Pre-Indo-Europeans or Paleo-Europeans while, with regard to some others, Giacomo Devoto proposed the definition of Peri-Indo-European (i.e. everything that has hybrid characters between Indo-European and non-Indo-European).[2]
Italic and Celtic languages are commonly grouped together on the basis of features shared by these two branches and no others. This could imply that they are descended from a common ancestor and/or Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic developed in close proximity over a long period of time.
The map shows the most important archaeological sites of Sicily related to pre-Hellenic cultures, as well as the possible extent of the cultures of the Elymians, Sicani and Sicels.
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 is open for debate; 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 spread among different groups of ancient Italian peoples and even outside of Italy. For example, Latial culture is believed to be the product specifically of the Ancient Latin tribe; the Canegrate culture and Golasecca culture have been associated with various ancient proto-Celtic, Celtic and Ligure tribes including the Lepontii, Orobii, and Insubres, while other archeological cultures may have been present among multiple groups throughout and beyond the Italian peninsula.
Detail of fresco from the Lucanian tomb, 4th century BC
A genetic study published in Science in November 2019 examined the remains of six Latin males buried near Rome between 900 BC and 200 BC. They carried the paternal haplogroups R-M269, T-L208, R-311, R-PF7589 and R-P312 (two samples), and the maternal haplogroups H1aj1a, T2c1f, H2a, U4a1a, H11a and H10. A female from the preceding Proto-Villanovan culture carried the maternal haplogroups U5a2b.[41] These examined individuals were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of ca. 25-35% steppe ancestry.[42] Overall, the genetic differentiation between the Latins, Etruscans and the preceding proto-villanovan population of Italy was found to be insignificant.[43]
^ ab"LacusCurtius • Ptolemy's Geography — Book III, Chapter 3". penelope.uchicago.edu.
^Ugas, Giovanni (2006). L'alba dei nuraghi (in Italian). Fabula Editore. p. 34. ISBN978-88-89661-00-0.
^Goring, Elizabeth (2004). Treasures from Tuscany: the Etruscan legacy. Edinburgh: National Museums Scotland Enterprises Limited. p. 13. ISBN978-1901663907.
^Leighton, Robert (2004). Tarquinia. An Etruscan City. Duckworth Archaeological Histories Series. London: Duckworth Press. p. 32. ISBN0-7156-3162-4.
^Camporeale, Giovannangelo, ed. (2001). The Etruscans Outside Etruria. Translated by Hartmann, Thomas Michael. Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications (published 2004).
^Strabo. Geography. Book V, Chapter IV. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
^Francesco Belsito (2013). Storia di Nocera. Monumenti, personaggi, leggende. Angri, Gaia.
^Harald Haarmann (2014). "Ethnicity and Language in the Ancient Mediterranean". A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 17–33. ISBN9781444337341.
^Markey, Thomas (2008). Shared Symbolics, Genre Diffusion, Token Perception and Late Literacy in North-Western Europe. NOWELE.
^Piceni popolo d'Europa, Vv.Aa., Edizioni De Luca, Roma, 1999, p. 139
^Hazlitt, William. The Classical Gazetteer (1851), p. 297.
^Pietrina Anello. "I Sicani nel IV secolo a.C.". Atti del convegno di studi su Diodoro Siculo e la Sicilia indigena (in Italian) (2005): 150.
^"Liguri". Enciclopedie on line. Treccani.it (in Italian). Rome: Treccani -Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 2011. Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa (preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo? Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico?).
^Hartmann, Markus (2017). "Siculian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 1854. doi:10.1515/9783110542431-026. ISBN978-3-11-054243-1. S2CID 242076323.
^Storia, vita, costumi, religiosità dei Veneti antichi at www.venetoimage.com (in Italian). Accessed on 2009-08-18.
^"L'alfabeto umbro su Omniglot.com". 16 January 2009.
^G. Micali, Storia degli antichi popoli italiani, Tomo II, Firenze 1832, p. 24.
^Kruta, Venceslas (1991). The Celts. Thames and Hudson. pp. 52–56.
^Stifter, David (2008). Old Celtic Languages(PDF). pp. 24–37.
^. Archived from the original on 2011-12-22. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
^John T. Koch (ed.) Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia ABC-CLIO (2005) ISBN978-1-85109-440-0
^"Liguri". Enciclopedie on line. Treccani.it (in Italian). Rome: Treccani -Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 2011. Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa (preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo? Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico?).
^Herodotus, Histories, ΚΛΕΙΩ 1.56.2: μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐφρόντιζε ἱστορέων τοὺς ἂν Ἑλλήνων δυνατωτάτους ἐόντας προσκτήσαιτο φίλους. ἱστορέων δὲ εὕρισκε Λακεδαιμονίους τε καὶ Ἀθηναίους προέχοντας, τοὺς μὲν τοῦ Δωρικοῦ γένεος, τοὺς δὲ τοῦ Ἰωνικοῦ. ταῦτα γὰρ ἦν τὰ προκεκριμένα, ἐόντα τὸ ἀρχαῖον τὸ μὲν Πελασγικόν Translation: Then he set out to examine who among the "Greeks" were the strongest, whom he could make friends with. And searching, he found that the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians were distinguished, the former among the Dorians, the latter among the Ionians. Because these nations were the best known, being in the old days the last Pelasgian[1]
^"Gli Elimi: storia e archeologia di Segesta, Erice, Entella". www.arkeomania.com. Retrieved 2021-12-26.
^Aloni, Antonio; Ornaghi, Massimiliano (2011). Tra panellenismo e tradizioni locali: nuovi contributi (in Italian). Claudio Meliadò. ISBN978-88-8268-029-9.
"Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy. Historical Linguistics and Digital Models", Project fund by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (P.R.I.N. 2017)
December 18, 2023
list, ancient, peoples, italy, this, list, ancient, peoples, living, italy, summarises, groupings, peoples, existing, italy, before, during, roman, expansion, conquest, italy, many, names, either, scholarly, inventions, exonyms, assigned, ancient, writers, wor. This list of ancient peoples living in Italy summarises groupings of peoples existing in Italy before and during the Roman expansion and conquest of Italy Many of the names are either scholarly inventions or exonyms assigned by the ancient writers of works in ancient Greek and Latin Ethnolinguistic map of Italy in the Iron Age before the Roman expansion and conquest of ItalyIn regard to the specific names of particular ancient Italian tribes and peoples the time window in which historians know the historical ascribed names of ancient Italian peoples mostly falls into the range of about 750 BC at the legendary foundation of Rome to about 200 BC in the middle Roman Republic the time range in which most of the written documentation first exists of such names and prior to the nearly complete assimilation of Italian peoples into Roman culture Nearly all of these peoples and tribes spoke Indo European languages Italics Celts Ancient Greeks and tribes likely occupying various intermediate positions between these language groups On the other hand some Italian peoples such as the Rhaetians Camuni Etruscans likely spoke non or pre Indo European languages In addition peoples speaking languages of the Afro Asiatic family specifically the largely Semitic Phoenicians and Carthaginians settled and colonized some coastal parts of Italy particularly in insular Italy in western and southern Sardinia and western Sicily 1 Contents 1 Speakers of non Indo European languages 1 1 Sardinians 1 2 Tyrrhenians 1 3 Others classification uncertain 2 Speakers of Indo European languages 2 1 Italo Celtic 2 1 1 Italic 2 1 2 Celts 2 1 3 Ligures 2 2 Greeks 2 3 Others classification uncertain 3 Pre Roman conquest archeological cultures 3 1 Neolithic 3 2 Copper Age 3 3 Bronze Age 3 4 Iron Age 4 Genetics 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External linksSpeakers of non Indo European languages editSee also Prehistoric Italy nbsp Ancient Sardinian and Corsican tribes described by the Romans Scholars believe though sometimes on the basis of scanty evidence that the following peoples spoke non Indo European languages Some of them were Pre Indo Europeans or Paleo Europeans while with regard to some others Giacomo Devoto proposed the definition of Peri Indo European i e everything that has hybrid characters between Indo European and non Indo European 2 Sardinians edit Further information History of Sardinia Pre Nuragic Sardinia List of Nuragic tribes Nuragic civilization Sherden Sea Peoples and Prehistory of Corsica The Sardinians were possibly Sherden 3 4 5 6 Balares Balari 7 Ilienses Iolaes Diagesbes Iliensi Iolei 7 Corsi Possibly related to Ligures 8 Tyrrhenians edit Further information Etruscan civilization Etruscan society and Etruscan cities The Tyrrhenians were the Etruscans and their linguistic relatives Etruscans Centered in Etruria with later influences stretching from the Po Valley to Campania 9 10 11 12 13 14 Raeti 15 Camunni 16 nbsp Terracotta statue of a young woman late 4th early 3rd century B C Etruscan Terracotta nbsp Etruscan terracotta head nbsp Tarquinia Tomb of the LeopardsOthers classification uncertain edit North Picenes Centered on the Adriatic Coast with settlements around the region of Ancona 17 Rutuli 18 Sicani 19 Ligures 20 21 Speakers of Indo European languages editProto Indo EuropeansItalo Celtic edit Main article Italo Celtic Italic and Celtic languages are commonly grouped together on the basis of features shared by these two branches and no others This could imply that they are descended from a common ancestor and or Proto Celtic and Proto Italic developed in close proximity over a long period of time Italic edit Further information Italic peoples and List of ancient Italic peoples Speakers of Italic languages included Latino Faliscans 22 Latins centered around the central plain of Italy between the Tiber and the Alban Hills Romans centered in the city of Rome Falisci nbsp The map shows the most important archaeological sites of Sicily related to pre Hellenic cultures as well as the possible extent of the cultures of the Elymians Sicani and Sicels Sicels 23 Adriatic Veneti centered in an area corresponding to the modern day region of Veneto 24 Carni Catali Catari Histri Liburnians Lopsi Secusses Venetulani Umbri 25 Centered in central Italy stretching from the Adriatic coast to the upper Tiber Sabines Centered north of Rome and by the river Tiber Marsi Centered around Lake Fucinus Volsci Centered on the Pontine plain South Picenes Marrucini nbsp Samnite soldiers from a tomb frieze in Nola 4th century BC nbsp The Warrior of Capestrano a South Picene statueOscans Centered in the part of Italy towards Tyrrhenia 26 Opici Aurunci Ausones Campanians Centered in the region of Naples Mamertines Paeligni Frentani Centered on the southern Adriatic coast Samnites Centered in central Italy south east of Rome north east of Capua Pentri Caraceni Caudini Hirpini Lucani Centered on the south western coast of Italy Bruttii Oenotri Itali Morgetes Others Aequi 27 Hernici 28 Vestini 29 Euganei 30 Celts edit Further information Lepontii and Cisalpine Gaul The Celts of the Italian peninsula included Cisalpine Gauls Centered in the area south of Lepontii 31 32 Boii Carni Cenomani Lingones Senones Vertamocorii Gaesatae Insubres Arverni Aedui Ambarri Aulerci Bituriges Carnutes nbsp Map of Cisalpine Gaul showing in blue the approximate distributions of Celtic populations in the area during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC Lepontics 33 34 Graioceli Lepontii Salassi Medulli Ceutrones Allobroges Veragri Helvetii SeduniLigures edit nbsp A reproduction of a Ligure helmetThe Ligures who may have spoken Pre Indo European 35 or an Indo European language 36 were Ligures Apuani Bagienni Briniates Friniates Garuli Hercates Ilvates Orobii Laevi Lapicini Marici Segusini Statielli TauriniGreeks edit Further information Magna Graecia nbsp Ancient Greek colonies and their dialect groupings in Southern Italy the so called Magna Graecia Sometimes referred in ancient sources as Pelasgi 37 the Ancient Greeks of the Italian peninsula included Achaeans Dorians Ionians Italiotes Siceliotes nbsp Fresco of dancing Peucetian women in the Tomb of the Dancers in Ruvo di Puglia 4th 5th century BCOthers classification uncertain edit Iapygians or Apulians possibly related to Illyrians Centered in an area corresponding to the modern day region of Apulia 38 Messapians Peucetians Daunians Elymians who inhabited the western part of Sicily during the Bronze Age and Classical antiquity 39 40 Pre Roman conquest archeological cultures editMain article Prehistoric Italy 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 is open for debate 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 spread among different groups of ancient Italian peoples and even outside of Italy For example Latial culture is believed to be the product specifically of the Ancient Latin tribe the Canegrate culture and Golasecca culture have been associated with various ancient proto Celtic Celtic and Ligure tribes including the Lepontii Orobii and Insubres while other archeological cultures may have been present among multiple groups throughout and beyond the Italian peninsula nbsp Incineration and inhumation in Iron Age ItalyNeolithic edit Pre Nuragic Sardinia Cardial Culture Grotta Verde culture Filiestru culture Bonu Ighinu culture San Ciriaco culture Arzachena culture Ozieri culture Gaudo cultureCopper Age edit Pre Nuragic Sardinia Abealzu Filigosa culture Monte Claro culture Sardinian Beaker culture Beaker culture Remedello culture Rinaldone culture Laterza culture Gaudo culture Conelle Ortucchio culture Serraferlicchio culture Spilamberto groupBronze Age edit nbsp Nuraghe Santu Antine in Torralba nbsp Archaeological finds of Canegrate cultureApennine 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 cultureIron Age edit Hallstatt culture La Tene culture Villanova culture Latial culture Este culture Golasecca culture Camunni culture Fritzens Sanzeno cultureGenetics editSee also Bell Beaker culture Genetics Urnfield culture Genetics Hallstatt culture Genetics Celts Genetics Etruscan civilization Genetic research and Latins Italic tribe Genetics nbsp Detail of fresco from the Lucanian tomb 4th century BCA genetic study published in Science in November 2019 examined the remains of six Latin males buried near Rome between 900 BC and 200 BC They carried the paternal haplogroups R M269 T L208 R 311 R PF7589 and R P312 two samples and the maternal haplogroups H1aj1a T2c1f H2a U4a1a H11a and H10 A female from the preceding Proto Villanovan culture carried the maternal haplogroups U5a2b 41 These examined individuals were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of ca 25 35 steppe ancestry 42 Overall the genetic differentiation between the Latins Etruscans and the preceding proto villanovan population of Italy was found to be insignificant 43 See also editPrehistoric 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 Sardinia 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 LatiumReferences edit Sicilian Peoples The Carthaginians Best of Sicily Magazine Carthaginians Phoenicians Hanibal Hamilcar Punic Wars Punic Language Carthage Palermo Zis Sis Panormos Solus Motya Motia Mozia www bestofsicily com Retrieved 2022 02 09 Giacomo Devoto Gli antichi Italici Firenze Vallecchi 1931 sardi in Dizionario di Storia www treccani it SARDI in Enciclopedia Italiana www treccani it ARCHIVIO Nuovo studio dell archeologo Ugas E certo i nuragici erano gli Shardana Sardiniapost it February 3 2017 SP INTERVISTA gt GIOVANNI UGAS SHARDANA www sardiniapoint it a b LacusCurtius Ptolemy s Geography Book III Chapter 3 penelope uchicago edu Ugas Giovanni 2006 L alba dei nuraghi in Italian Fabula Editore p 34 ISBN 978 88 89661 00 0 Goring Elizabeth 2004 Treasures from Tuscany the Etruscan legacy Edinburgh National Museums Scotland Enterprises Limited p 13 ISBN 978 1901663907 Leighton Robert 2004 Tarquinia An Etruscan City Duckworth Archaeological Histories Series London Duckworth Press p 32 ISBN 0 7156 3162 4 Camporeale Giovannangelo ed 2001 The Etruscans Outside Etruria Translated by Hartmann Thomas Michael Los Angeles Getty Trust Publications published 2004 Etruria campana Strabo Geography Book V Chapter IV Perseus Digital Library Tufts University Archived from the original on 2 September 2022 Retrieved 2 September 2022 Francesco Belsito 2013 Storia di Nocera Monumenti personaggi leggende Angri Gaia Harald Haarmann 2014 Ethnicity and Language in the Ancient Mediterranean A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean John Wiley amp Sons Inc pp 17 33 ISBN 9781444337341 Markey Thomas 2008 Shared Symbolics Genre Diffusion Token Perception and Late Literacy in North Western Europe NOWELE Piceni popolo d Europa Vv Aa Edizioni De Luca Roma 1999 p 139 Hazlitt William The Classical Gazetteer 1851 p 297 Pietrina Anello I Sicani nel IV secolo a C Atti del convegno di studi su Diodoro Siculo e la Sicilia indigena in Italian 2005 150 Liguri Enciclopedie on line Treccani it in Italian Rome Treccani Istituto dell Enciclopedia Italiana 2011 Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico Ligurian language Britannica com 2014 12 16 Retrieved 2015 08 29 Villar cit pp 447 482 Hartmann Markus 2017 Siculian In Klein Jared Joseph Brian Fritz Matthias eds Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics Vol 3 Berlin Walter de Gruyter p 1854 doi 10 1515 9783110542431 026 ISBN 978 3 11 054243 1 S2CID 242076323 Storia vita costumi religiosita dei Veneti antichi at www venetoimage com in Italian Accessed on 2009 08 18 L alfabeto umbro su Omniglot com 16 January 2009 Aristotle 1932 vii 10 Politics Pliny the Elder Book III Chapter 12 Natural History Livy Ab urbe condita 2 22 Strabo 1917 Book V Chapter 4 Section 2 Geography G Micali Storia degli antichi popoli italiani Tomo II Firenze 1832 p 24 Kruta Venceslas 1991 The Celts Thames and Hudson pp 52 56 Stifter David 2008 Old Celtic Languages PDF pp 24 37 LinguistList Lepontic Archived from the original on 2011 12 22 Retrieved 2010 06 06 John T Koch ed Celtic culture a historical encyclopedia ABC CLIO 2005 ISBN 978 1 85109 440 0 Liguri Enciclopedie on line Treccani it in Italian Rome Treccani Istituto dell Enciclopedia Italiana 2011 Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico Ligurian language Britannica com 2014 12 16 Retrieved 2015 08 29 Herodotus Histories KLEIW 1 56 2 metὰ dὲ taῦta ἐfrontize ἱstorewn toὺs ἂn Ἑllhnwn dynatwtatoys ἐontas proskthsaito filoys ἱstorewn dὲ eὕriske Lakedaimonioys te kaὶ Ἀ8hnaioys proexontas toὺs mὲn toῦ Dwrikoῦ geneos toὺs dὲ toῦ Ἰwnikoῦ taῦta gὰr ἦn tὰ prokekrimena ἐonta tὸ ἀrxaῖon tὸ mὲn PelasgikonTranslation Then he set out to examine who among the Greeks were the strongest whom he could make friends with And searching he found that the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians were distinguished the former among the Dorians the latter among the Ionians Because these nations were the best known being in the old days the last Pelasgian 1 IAPIGI in Italian Retrieved 3 July 2023 Gli Elimi storia e archeologia di Segesta Erice Entella www arkeomania com Retrieved 2021 12 26 Aloni Antonio Ornaghi Massimiliano 2011 Tra panellenismo e tradizioni locali nuovi contributi in Italian Claudio Meliado ISBN 978 88 8268 029 9 Antonio et al 2019 Table 2 Sample Information Rows 29 32 36 37 Antonio et al 2019 p 2 Antonio et al 2019 p 3 Bibliography editAntonio Margaret L et al November 8 2019 Ancient Rome A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean Science American Association for the Advancement of Science 366 6466 708 714 Bibcode 2019Sci 366 708A doi 10 1126 science aay6826 PMC 7093155 PMID 31699931 External links edit Languages and Cultures of Ancient Italy Historical Linguistics and Digital Models Project fund by the Italian Ministry of University and Research P R I N 2017 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title List of ancient peoples of Italy amp oldid 1176421721, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
