The Este culture or Atestine culture was an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

existing from the late Italian

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(10th-9th century BC, proto-venetic phase) to the

Roman period The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

(1st century BC). It was located in the present territory of

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

in Italy and derived from the earlier and more extensive

Proto-Villanovan culture The Proto-Villanovan culture was a late Bronze Age culture that appeared in Italy in the first half of the 12th century BC and lasted until the 10th century BC, part of the central European Urnfield culture system (1300-750 BCE). History Proto-V ...

. It is also called "civilization of situlas", or paleo-venetic. The culture is named after a proto-urban settlement in the

Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain ( it, Pianura Padana , or ''Val Padana'') is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetic ex ...

(

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

). The city of Este was originally situated on the river

Adige The Adige (; german: Etsch ; vec, Àdexe ; rm, Adisch ; lld, Adesc; la, Athesis; grc, Ἄθεσις, Áthesis, or , ''Átagis'') is the second-longest river in Italy, after the Po. It rises near the Reschen Pass in the Vinschgau in the prov ...

, which changed its course in 5th century; it was a center of

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

. The settlement evolved in the beginning of the 1st century BC at the cross-way of important traffic routes. Essentially only the cremation cemeteries with their rich burial goods remained. Este culture existed next to the

Villanovan Culture The Villanovan culture (c. 900–700 BC), regarded as the earliest phase of the Etruscan civilization, was the earliest Iron Age culture of Italy. It directly followed the Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture which branched off from the Urnfield ...

in the

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

area and the

Golasecca culture The Golasecca culture (9th - 4th century BC) was a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age culture in northern Italy, whose type-site was excavated at Golasecca in the province of Varese, Lombardy, where, in the area of Monsorino at the beginning of the ...

in the West of the Po Valley. It was influenced by the

urnfield culture The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

parallel to the

Hallstatt period The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

.Aleksandra Ceferin
The enigma of Venetic culture – Recent discoveries and new hypothesis
published via thezaurus.com, April 25, 2000, retrieved December 1, 2015 Este had artistic and technical influence on the Hallstatt region to the north and

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

-Grecian elements to the south. Este was the center of the so-called situlae art.Douglas Q Adams: Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis, 1997
p. 183 f.
/ref> In particular, the situla decorated with animals and ribbons of human figures are characteristic of this culture. The most significant of these is the Benvenuti-Situla (600 BC). The evolution of the bronze foil works can be traced to the end of the 4th century BC. Este culture survived the invasion of the

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

and their successors, the Veneti, until it was absorbed into the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

. Several archaeological discoveries provide evidence that Este was an important centre of Venetic culture from the 7th to the 4th century BC. They had a large

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

to the god or goddess

Reitia Reitia (Venetic language, Venetic: 𐌓𐌄:𐌉:𐌕𐌉:𐌀) is a goddess, one of the best known deity, deities of the Adriatic Veneti of northeastern Italy. While her place in the Venetic pantheon cannot be known for certain, the importance ...

and a school for

scribes A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

Archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

s found next to small bronze

statues A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

, tools, vases and money, some 200 inscriptions in the Venetic script and the so-called Alphabet Tablets. Four historical phases are distinguished: Este I (from 900-750 BC); Este II (from 750-575 BC), which has an individual character; Este III (from 575-350 BC), the climax corresponding to Certosa; and Este IV (from 350-182 BC), showing Celtic influences. The Este culture is referred to as the precursor of the Veneti (ital. Paleoveneti). The Veneti formed a buffer between the

Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo ...

, whose tribal area was located in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

to the East of

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

, and the Celts in the

. The Este had their own language and culture which became increasingly influenced by the Greek culture. The Veneti continued the tradition of the Este culture after the latter's disappearance.Kohler, Christoph (Bad Krozingen): "Estekultur." Der Neue Pauly. Published by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester, 2006
short part
from Brill Online, 2015 retrieved December 1, 2015

Literature

* Daniel Glyn (Hrsg.): ''Enzyklopädie der Archäologie.'' (Enzyclopedia of Archaeology). Published by Joachim Rehork. Nikol, Lübbe 1996, . (German) * Douglas Q. Adams: ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture.'' Taylor & Francis, 1997
p. 183 f.
* Dal paleolitico alla civiltà atestina / a cura di Raffaello Battaglia // Storia di Venezia / Centro internazionale delle arti e del costume. - Venezia : Centro internazionale delle arti e del costume, 1958 - Vol.1, p. 79-177 : ill. (Italian) * Bermond Montanari 1999: G. Bermond Montanari, Gli strumenti musicali nell’arte delle situle. In: Protostoria e storia del „Venetorum Angulus“. Portogruaro – Quarto d’Altino – Este – Adria, 16-19 ottobre 1996. Convegno di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, Atti, 20 (Pisa/Roma 1999) 487-499. (Italian) *Di Filippo Balestrazzi 1980: E. Di Filippo Balestrazzi, Nuovi confronti iconografici e un’ipotesi sui rapporti fra l’area delle situle e il mondo orientale. In: Este e la civiltà paleoveneta a cento anni dalle prime scoperte. Atti del XI Convegno di studi etruschi e italici, Este - Padova 27 giugno - 1 luglio 1976 (Firenze 1980) 153-170. (Italian)

Literature

References

See also