On the basis of the data from various scientific disciplines and domains, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.

This detailed study of Crustumerium's urban and rural settlement dynamics elaborates a new scenario on the relation between the urban core and its countryside that is reviewed within the theoretical framework of the debate on early state formation and landscape archeological methodology.

This volume contains multidisciplinary papers of an international group of archaeologists discussing new fi eldwork data and theories of broad relevance to Italian archaeology and with specifi c relevance to the study of Crustumerium's settlement, cemeteries and material culture in light of the site's cultural identity.