Dischi-corazza del Piceno: distribuzione e significato

Abstract

The presence of a pair of armour-discs, found in a warrior’s grave at the necropolis of Colle Vaccaro in Colli del Tronto and belonging to a typology primarily attested along the Sangro River, offers further archaeological evidence of the Italic contribution to the formation of the Picene civilisation between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. It also underscores the identity-bearing value of a class of artefacts long overlooked or misunderstood. The substantial increase in data from intensive excavations in Abruzzese necropoleis, together with the advances of university-led research, allows us to move beyond the traditional view within the field that characterises the cultural development of pre-Roman central-Apennine and mid-Adriatic communities as delayed and subordinate to more “advanced” pre-Roman civilisations such as that of the Etruscans – despite direct contacts with the latter as early as the 9th-8th centuries BC. Today, we can assert that the production of some of the most distinctive classes of material culture – both in terms of male weaponry and female ornamentation – originated locally. The invention of the so-called “Adriatic-style” armour-discs took place in Abruzzo, not in the Picene region, just as the laminated bronze stola discs and belt plaques originated in the Fucino district, rather than in Capena. The distribution of these artefacts, together with the widespread diffusion of funerary architecture – specifically, the tumulus tombs encircled by stone rings – attests to the early expansionist drive of Italic peoples, who, in historical periods, would go on to establish the national entities of the Lucanians and Campanians. In the Marche region, the Italic presence – also attested by ancient historians and palaeo-sabellic inscriptions – played a crucial role in the emergence and consolidation of a warrior aristocracy, from at least the 7th century and throughout the 6th century BC. This Italic component became an essential factor in the development of Picene civilisation.