Amelia - Megalithic Walls
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Montecchio - Necropolis |
According to old literary sources, the territory occupied by the Umbrians
("Ombrikoi" in Greek) was much larger than the present one, and expanded along the eastern bank of the Tiber up to touch the Po Valley. In Umbria the presence of man (documented by lithic handiworks) goes back to the Earlier Middle and the Later Palaeolithic (50,000, 100,000, 200,000 years ago), down to the so called "Pebble Culture". In the Amerino, Middle Palaeolithic finds have been found around Guardea. They are now visible in the seat of the Archaelogic Club of Guardea. Neolithic Age too, characterized by the permanent occupation of the territory and by an agricultural economy is documented by many stone and fictile finds, found in some underground sites, especially those of the Grotta Bella of Avigliano Umbro. The Grotta Bella has had a long sequence of settlements, from Neolithic (5,000-3,000 B. C.) to Later Bronze Age. The clay material which has been found testifies the lively contacts established in such distant ages, with the "facies" settled in Centre Italy at Ripoli and the Sasso di Furbara (Rome). After an intermission of four centuries, in historic age the cave was used for cult purposes, as proved by the place of worship found in the highest layers.
The Town of Amelia, with its powerful Megalithic Walls (6th and 4th cent. B. C.) testifies a very old urban organization. Its origins going back to the 12th cent. B. C. so far narrated in literary sources (Pliny quoting Cato), have been lately confirmed by archaeologic findings.
The first contacts between the Umbrians and the Romans, at the beginning mostly commercial, then political and military, strengthen during the 4th cent. B. C., when the decline of the Preroman Necropolis of Montecchio starts. The necropolis is to be referred to a dwelling, which has been identified on a hill overhanging it. It is supposed that in the area there was a great commercial centre where, due to the nearness of the Tiber then navigable, goods coming from different cultures arrived. Afterwards Rome, taking advantage of the crisis of Etruria, tries successfully to substitute the Etruscans in order to control the Tiber Valley and to expand towards the regions of the Middle and Upper Adriatic.
With the defeat of the Gallic-Etruscan-Italic league by the Romans (295 B. C.), the Umbrians were subdued and the process of romanization of the territory was realized with the foundation of colonies such as Spoletium (Spoleto) in 241 B. C.. As a consequence of this we had the centuriation of the territory and the opening of important lines of communication, as the Flaminian Way (from Rome to Rimini).
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