The earliest civilisation of which traces have survived in Italy is, as we have already seen, that of the Terramare, so called from the remains discovered in that district, covering the basin of the Eridanus or Po, but chiefly between Piacenza and Bologna. We have further seen that the aboriginal people to whom these remains belong are probably to be identified with the Umbrians, but it is perhaps safer to style them Italiotes. They were lake-dwellers, living in wooden houses built on piles in the water or in the marshy lagoons of the district which they inhabited, and their civilisation was of the rudest description. We find among their remains, besides rude objects in bronze and other substances, pottery of the very simplest kinds, hand-made and roughly baked. This is not found in tombs, but mingled with the débris of the dwellings. The shapes comprise cups and pots, and there are few attempts at decoration beyond rows of knobs or bosses. A crescent-shaped or lunulated handle is attached to many of the vases, serving as a support for the thumb; but this is a feature also found in other parts of Italy and in Sicily. Iron, glass, and silver are quite unknown, and gold only represented by a doubtful specimen; on the other hand, along with the finds of bronze, which include weapons, tools, and objects of toilet, are survivals of the Neolithic Age in the shape of axes, spear-heads, and tools of stone. In several of the settlements actual moulds for bronze-casting were found. The Neolithic remains are sufficient to indicate the early date of this civilisation, and it is probably contemporary in point of development (if not of date) with the earliest remains from Hissarlik and Cyprus. It may thus be traced back as far as 1500 B.C. at least, and seems to extend down to about the end of the tenth century B.C. The analogous pottery found at Thapsus in Sicily is mixed with Mycenaean vases, and may therefore be more precisely dated; but it is altogether more advanced than that of the Terramare. The influence of the latter no doubt spread gradually downwards during these thousand years through Central and Southern Italy.[2254] (2) THE VILLANUOVA PERIOD (TOMBS _A POZZO_)