This find is especially interesting because it predates Roman, Etruscan and even proto-Villanovan cultures.
[Image - Villanovan ceramic head Italy 6th century BCE. Photographed at the Musee du Louvre, Paris France. Photo by Mary Harrsch.]
If we use the migration theories of Italian scholar, Massimo Pallottino, we can speculate that this warrior spoke one of three Indo-European languages inherited from Asiatic ancestors who migrated into the area during the early Bronze Age, bringing kiln-fired pottery and domestic horses to the Italian peninsula.
Three waves of Indo-European language speakers, speaking closely related languages, arrived in small groups over time across the Adriatic sea and moved inland.[6] The first occurred in the Middle Neolithic starting with the Square-necked Pottery Culture and prevailed for the remaining Neolithic and the Proto- and earlier Apennine. The Latin language evolved ultimately from their speech, in Italy. The second wave is associated with Mycenaean civilization of the Late Bronze Age and brought the ancestors of the Italic language speakers into central and south Italy. They prevailed during the remainder of the Apennine. The third wave came with the Proto-Villanovan Culture and is ultimately responsible for the Venetic language speakers. - More: Answers.com
From sites like Colle della Capriola excavated in 1958 just 5 km south of Bolsena in central Italy, researchers have discovered that people of this period lived in pole-supported wattle-and-daub huts with thatched roofs built upon rock-cut foundations and encircled with defensive stone walls. They ate wheat, barley, beans and peas and raised cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.
We could even go so far as to suggest he probably was a member of the J Haplogroup carrying the J2 (M172 subgroup) y-chromosome. According to the Genographic Project, descendants of this group that originated in the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent 15,000 - 10,000 years ago made their way into the Italian peninsula where they pioneered the Neolithic revolution, in which hunter-gatherer populations became settled agriculturists. Almost 20% of the men still living in Italy today carry this genetic marker.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found the skeleton of a warrior from up to 5,000 years ago floating in a tomb filled with sea water on a beach near Rome, Italy's art squad said Friday.
The bones - believed to date from the 3rd millennium BC - were discovered in May as art hunters were carrying out routine checks of the region's archaeological areas, Carabinieri art squad official Raffaele Mancino said.
Archaeologists believe the warrior was likely killed by an arrow, part of which was found among his ribs, Mancino said. There was also a hole in the back of the skull, and six vases and two daggers were found buried nearby.
The tomb of the warrior, nicknamed "Nello" after the archaeologist who found him, could be part of a wider necropolis lying just a few steps from the sea, Mancino told a news conference. - More: Fraser Coast Chronicle
