The Castellieri culture developed in Istria

Istria

Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...

 during the Mid-Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

, and later expanded into the modern Venezia Giulia, Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

 and the neighbouring areas. It lasted for more than a millennium, from the 15th century BC until the Roman conquest in the 3rd century BC. It takes its name from the fortified boroughs (Castellieri, which characterized the culture.

The ethinicity of the Castellieri civilization is uncertain, although it was most likely of Pre-Indo-European

Neolithic Europe

Neolithic Europe refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Europe. This corresponds roughly to a time between 7000 BC and c. 1700 BC...

 stock, coming from the sea. The first castellieri were indeed built along the Istrian coasts and present the same Megalithic appearance characterizing in the Mycenaean civilization at the time. Hypotheses about an Illyria

Illyria

In classical antiquity, Illyria was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the Illyrians....

n origin of the people are not confirmed.

The Castellieri were fortified boroughs, usually located on hills or mountains or, more rarely (such as in Friuli), in plains. They were constituted by one or more concentric series of walls, of rounded or elliptical shape in Istria and Venezia Giulia, or quadrangular in Friuli, within which was the inhabited area.

Some hundred castellieri have been discovered in Istria, Friuli and Venezia Giulia, such as that of Leme

Leme

Leme is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The area is 403.1 km². According to the 2000 census, it has 80,757 residents, 40,830 of whom are men and 39,927 women. 65,885 residents are 10 years old or older, and of these, 59,991, or 91.1%, are literate. The estimated population...

, in the central-western Istria, of the Jelarji

Jelarji

Jelarji is a small settlement in the Koper Municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia on the border with Italy.-External links:*...

, near Muggia

Muggia

Muggia is a small Italian comune in the extreme south-east of Trieste lying on the border with Slovenia.Muggia is the last and only flap of Istria still in Italian territory, after the dissolution of the Free Territory of Trieste in 1954....

, of Monte Giove near Prosecco (Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

) and San Polo, not far from Monfalcone

Monfalcone

Monfalcone is a town and comune of the province of Gorizia , located on the coast of the Gulf of Trieste. Monfalcone means "Mount of Falcon" in Italian....

. However, the largest castelliere was perhaps that of Nesactium

Nesactium

Nesactium was an ancient fortified town of the Histrii tribe. Its ruins are located in southern Istria, Croatia, between the village of Muntić and Valtura.-History:...

, in the southern Istria, not far from Pula

Pula

Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...

.

Classical sources

• Livy
  Livy
  Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...
  
  , Ab Urbe Condita
• Strabo
  Strabo
  Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
  
  , ΓΕΩΓΡΑΦΙΚΑ
  Geographica (Strabo)
  The Geographica , or Geography, is a 17-volume encyclopedia of geographical knowledge written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman empire of Greek descent. Work can have begun on it no earlier than 20 BC...
  
  , Libro V

Sources

• E. Montanari Kokelj (a cura di), Carlo Marchesetti e i castellieri, 1903-2003, Atti del Convegno internazionale di Studi (Castello di Duino, 14-15 novembre 2003), Editreg, Trieste 2005.
• Roberto Bosi, L'Italia prima dei Romani, Milano 1989
• Gianna Buti e Giacomo Devoto, Preistoria e storia delle regioni d'Italia, Firenze 1974
• Giacomo Devoto, La civiltà dei castellieri, in Trentino-Alto Adige e Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Ed. De Agostini, Novara 1979
• Ugo Di Martino, Le Civiltà dell'Italia antica, Milano 1984
• Carlo Marchesetti, I castellieri preistorici di Trieste e della regione Giulia, Museo civico di Storia naturale, Trieste 1903.
• Aleksandar Stipčeviċ, Gli Illiri, Milano 1966
• Autori vari, Storia di Roma Vol.I: Roma in Italia, Einaudi, Torino 1988
• Autori vari, Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica, Vol. I di Antonio M. Radmilli, Roma 1974
• Autori vari (T.C.I.) Friuli-Venezia Giulia ed. aggiornata, Roma 2005

Voci correlate

• Celts
• Prehistoric Austria
• Ancient peoples of Austria
• Adriatic Veneti
  Adriatic Veneti
  The Veneti were an ancient people who inhabited north-eastern Italy, in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto....
  
  
• Trieste
  Trieste
  Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...