The next stage in the development of civilisation in Italy, probably separated from the preceding by a period of transition, is what is known as the Villanuova period, from a site of that name at Bologna. It begins with the ninth century B.C., and lasts for some two hundred years; its traces are much more widely spread than those of the Terramare people, being found not only to the north of the Apennines, but all over Etruria. It is interesting to note that the chief finds have been made in what afterwards became the principal centres of Etruscan civilisation, such as Bologna, Corneto, Vetulonia, etc. In almost every respect it shows a marked development on the preceding stage. Iron is already known, and the working of bronze better understood, the processes of hammering plates (σφυρήλατον) and working in _repoussé_ being introduced to supplement that of casting.[2255] We now for the first time meet with tombs, the characteristic form of which is that of a well or pit, ending in a small circular chamber, in which the remains are deposited. Italian archaeologists have given to these tombs the name of _a pozzo_. The method of burial practised was almost exclusively that of incineration, but it appears certain that the inhabitants of Etruria never showed a special preference either for one method or the other, and the alternative method of inhumation already appears at Corneto before the next stage is reached with the eighth century. It has been sometimes objected that the introduction of inhumation must connote the first arrival of the Etruscan people in these regions, on the ground that they did not practise incineration; but this idea rests on no sound basis. The introduction of the new system, which never entirely ousted incineration, can easily be explained as due to external influences; not indeed to the Phoenicians (although it was a universal Oriental custom), for their influence in Italy has been much exaggerated; but rather to the Greeks, who colonised Cumae in the middle of the eighth century, from which time onwards Hellenic influence gradually becomes more and more apparent. We have seen, then, that the Villanuova civilisation may be fairly regarded as Etruscan. It was not, however, by any means confined to Etruria, for it is spread all over the country to the north of the Apennines, and two of its most important centres were at Bologna and Este. The whole of this region shows traces of having been for a long time under the early Etruscan domination. It is, in fact, in close dependence on the Terramare civilisation which here preceded it, the difference, as we have indicated, being brought about by commerce and foreign influences. [Illustration: From _Ann. dell’ Inst._ FIG. 178. TOMB _A POZZO_ WITH CINERARY URN. ]