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The Bronze Age in Sicily, considered one of the most important periods of the island’s prehistory, witnessed the establishment of a unitary and in some ways artistically vibrant culture. The three main phases of the period take their name from the most important centres at the time in question: Castelluccio (Early Bronze Age), Thapsos (Middle Bronze Age) and Pantalica (Late Bronze Age). There was a marked increase in cultural and commercial trade between regions near and far, particularly with Cornwall, across the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain, Sardinia, the Tyrrhenian coast to the Strait of Messina, and from here to the Aegean-Anatolian area. It was a world, therefore, in great turmoil, that felt the need to interconnect to achieve a better future.
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The Final Bronze Age (1170-770 BCE) saw the transition from tribal societies to aristocratic societies, the increase in large bronze hoards and craft developments aimed at producing goods for an evermore emerging aristocracy. In much of Europe, the Urnfield culture developed, a phenomenon so extensive that one is led to think that this was an age of migrations. Common practices included funeral rites which provided for the cremation of corpses and the deposition of the ashes in urns buried in extensive fields, together with small ceramic vessels, such as bowls and cups, which probably contained food offerings.
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