Another one I’ve been sitting on and a bit out of our period of purview, but I like this sort of thing (and I find it interesting that the pottery looks ‘Halstatt’ to me, but that’s very likely not even close) … At the beach at Nettuno, south of Rome, a ‘warrior burial’ has been found, and the skeleton (intact, save for his feet) has been dubbed “Nello”.
Raffaelle Mancini in the Telegraph:
“It was fascinating to see the skeleton of Nello emerge from the ground and at first we thought it was that of a Roman solider, but then the experts identified it as dating back to the third millennium B.C. The skeleton is just below 1.7 metres in length and was found intact apart from the feet which were probably washed away by the sea and the grave was 85cm wide and oval in shape.”
The AP coverage adds:
“We will check the area to see whether this tomb is isolated and the warrior was buried here because this was the battlefield where he died … Or maybe there is a bigger necropolis, as we indeed believe.”
Marina Sapelli Ragni noted:
“It is a fascinating discovery and one which has excited colleagues and myself immensely. It is also interesting as the skeleton was found with an arrow in the ribs suggesting he may have been killed maybe in combat or murdered but he was also found with six ceramic vases. Usually this would be associated with some form of official funeral ceremony but to be honest we just don’t know and extensive tests will be carried out on the bones and we hope to build up a picture of what Nello’s life was like 4,500 years ago.”
There doesn’t appear to be much on the web in regards to the Bronze Age around Nettuno … all I’ve found of interest is A.J. Nijboer et al, Fabric analysis on CERAMICS FROM A LATE BRONZE AGE SALTERN ON THE COAST NEAR NETTUNO (ROME, ITALY)
[interesting how that ‘solider’ misspelling is repeated in much of the coverage below]
- Ancient warrior skeleton found on Italian beach (Telegraph)
- Italy finds 4,500-year old skeleton of warrior (Reuters via Yahoo)
- 5000-Year-Old Skeleton Of Warrior Found On Italian Beach (Archaeorama)
- Ancient warrior’s skeleton found buried in a tomb on a beach near Rome (Washington Examiner)
- Ancient warrior skeleton found (News24)
- Trovato a Nettuno guerriero preistorico di 5mila anni fa (AP Italy)
- Nello, guerriero dell’eneolitico Trovato dopo cinquemila anni (Il Tempo)
rogueclassicism 