Crossing the Alps

This volume offers the first comprehensive overview of the urbanisation processes that took place south and north of the Alps during the early first millennium BC, highlighting the interactions between the different geographical areas.

The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age.

In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and non­linear pathways towards urbanisation.

Contents:

PART 1 – URBAN ORIGINS AND TRAJECTORIES ACROSS THE ALPS

Early Urbanism South and North of the Alps: An Introduction
Lorenzo Zamboni, Manuel Fernández-Götz and Carola Metzner-Nebelsick

Aspects of Urbanism in Later Bronze Age Northern Italy Mark Pearce

Urbanisation and Deurbanisation in the European Iron Age: Definitions, Debates, and Cycles
Manuel Fernández-Götz

From Genoa to Günzburg. New Trajectories of Urbanisation and Acculturation between the Mediterranean and South-Central Europe
Louis Nebelsick and Carola Metzner-Nebelsick

PART 2 – EARLY URBANISATION PROCESSES IN NORTHERN ITALY

Verucchio: The Iron Age Settlement
Paolo Rondini and Lorenzo Zamboni

Archaeology of Early Felsina. The Birth of a Villanovan City
Jacopo Ortalli

Spheres of Consumption of Metalwork and Trans-regional Interactions at the Onset of the Urban Phenomenon in Northern Italy
Cristiano Iaia

Urbanism and Architecture in the Etruscan City of Kainua-Marzabotto: New Perspectives
Elisabetta Govi, Chiara Pizzirani and Andrea Gaucci

Relationships between City and Necropolis in Northeast Italy
Giovanna Gambacurta

The Proto-urban Phenomenon in Veneto: A Review of the Population Dynamics of the Settlement of Oppeano (Verona)
Massimo Saracino and Alessandro Guidi

Coazze near Gazzo Veronese, on the Fringes of Veneto and Etruria Padana, NE Italy
Alessandro Vanzetti, Matteo Bertoldo, Francesca Di Maria, Dario Monti, Luciano Salzani and Fabio Saccoccio

The Etruscan Settlement of Adria (Italy, Rovigo): New Data from the Excavations in Via Ex Riformati (2015-2016)
Simonetta Bonomi, Maria Cristina Vallicelli and Claudio Balista

Exploring Spina: Urbanism, Architecture, and Material Culture
Aleksandra Mistireki and Lorenzo Zamboni

The Hidden City: Reconstructing the Urban Structure of the Etruscan Harbour of Forcello di Bagnolo San Vito through Excavations and Non-invasive Methods
Rainer Komp, Tommaso Quirino and Marta Rapi

The Early Iron Age Protourbanisation along the Ticino River and around Como
Raffaele Carlo de Marinis and Stefania Casini

The First Results of Geophysical Prospections Using the ADS Method on the Proto-urban Settlement Site of Como, Spina Verde
Fabian Welc, Louis Nebelsick, Carola Metzner-Nebelsick, Ines Balzer, Alessandro Vanzetti, and Barbara Grassi

Bergamo and Parre during the Early Iron Age: Early Urbanism and the Alpine World
Raffaella Poggiani Keller and Paolo Rondini

PART 3 – EARLY URBANISATION PROCESSES IN CENTRAL EUROPE

Earliest Town North of the Alps. New Excavations and Research in the Heuneburg Region
Dirk Krausse, Leif Hansen and Roberto Tarpini

Centralisation Processes at the Fürstensitz Princely Seat on Mount Ipf in the Nördlinger Ries, Southern Germany
Rüdiger Krause

Early Urbanism and the Relationship between Northern Italy and Bohemia in the Early Iron Age
Miloslav Chytráček

Vix: The Temptation of the City
Bruno Chaume

Bourges-Avaricum: A Western Example of a Princely Complex of c. 500 BC in Central France
Ian Ralston

The Early Iron Age Central Place at Most na Soči (NW Slovenia)
Sneža Tecco Hvala

The Dürrnberg Salt Metropolis: Catalyst of Communication and Complexity in La Tène Central Europe
Holger Wendling

PART 4 – CONCLUDING THOUGHTS AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

The Mediterranean at the Periphery of Urban Origins
Corinna Riva

Untold Riches of the Urban Form Central to the Pre-Roman European Experience
Simon Stoddart