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There were settlements of some type at Rome probably through the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., but the traditional date for the official settlement of Rome is always given as 753 B.C. Just across the Tiber the Etruscan city-state of Veii was formed by a coalition of villages between 750 and 700 B.C.. Ancient writers said that it had a population of 100,000 but this was undoubtedly an exaggeration, although it probably was as large as Athens. Veii had no metals, but became rich from agriculture and the salt beds at the mouth of the Tiber. Rock-cut arched drainage channels and tunnels, sometimes two miles long, were made to facilitate drainage and their roads were excellent.

Based on Herodotus' reports from Lydian sources, the traditional concept was that the Etruscans came from Lydia in Asia Minor, but almost all modern authorities feel that this is completely in error. (Ref . 75). McEvedy (Ref. 136 ) believes the Etruscans were natives of the old Iberian group and that their higher culture developed from early contact with Greeks who were interested in the Elban and Etrurian iron and copper deposits. This view is strengthened by the Cambridge University Encyclopedia of Archeology (Ref. 45 ) which says that the 10,000 known Etruscan inscriptions belong to an old Mediterranean substratum still largely undeciphered. Michael Grant (Ref . 75) gave further documentation of this view in 1980. It is of interest that non-Indo-European languages were also spoken by the Ligurians and Raetians of northern Italy, the Corsicans, Sardinians and the Sicans of western Sicily. Tharros was a Phoenician port on the west side of Sardinia which received gold from Spain and then traded it extensively with the Etruscan cities for their own metal and agricultural products. It was the wealthiest of all the Sardinian cities, with multiple workshops for production of gold, silver, precious gem jewelry and ornaments. (Ref. 75 ) Bronze objects from these Sardinian workshops were arriving at Etruscan harbors throughout the 9th and 8th centuries B.C. In other parts of Italy, proper, there were the Iron Age groups of Picentes, Veneti and Iapyges. Some Etruscan city-states, particularly Volaterrae and Clusium, also extended their trade and influence north into the Transalpine regions. By 750 B.C., under this impulse, Felsina

"Felsina" was an Etruscan name, later called "Bononia" by Romans, after the conquering Boii Gaulic tribe.It is now "Bologna".
had become an economic power, as an amalgamation of villages with easy access to Etruria.

Central europe

About 1,000 B.C. various branches of the Urnfield Culture, a group of related tribes with common culture and burial practices, dominated the Rhine/Danube axis, and began to expand into valleys of the main river thoroughfares. Four main branches gave rise to important groups of historic peoples: Celts in the west along the upper Main, Moselle and the Rhone, Slavs in the north from the Elbe to east of the Oder, Italic-speakers in the region of Hungary and Illyrians in the southeast about the river Tisza and Muresul. (Ref. 8 ) Some would say that the Celts did not really emerge as a distinct people of common language, religion and culture until about the 8th century B.C., and as manifested in the Hallstadt Culture (800-500 B.C.)

Herm (Ref. 91 ) dates the Hallstadt Culture from 700 to 450 B.C.
, located near the richest salt deposits in Europe and definitely influenced by the Etruscans from the south. In 1846 some 1,100 graves were opened in the Nieder as well as the Hallstadt regions of Austria, showing the extensive iron utilization and decoration of this Celtic Age. The Celts were energetic and inventive, using iron for tools and weapons. "They introduced soap to the Greeks and Romans, invented chain armor, were first to shoe horses and give shape to hand saws, chisels, files and other tools we use today. They developed seamless iron rims for their wheels, set our standard 4 feet 8 1/2 inch railroad gauge with the span of their chariots, pioneered the iron plowshare, the rotary flour mill, a wheeled harvester two millennia before Cyrus McCormick
From Merle Severy (Ref. 194 ), page 588.
.

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Source:  OpenStax, A comprehensive outline of world history. OpenStax CNX. Nov 30, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.3
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