The city of Terni is now the main population center of the basin of the same name and one of the most important and populous cities in Central Italy and the Apennine area. It is developed on a plain to the right of the Nera River, in an area at the confluence of the Velino and Valnerina valleys, where the valley floors intersect the important Apennine natural corridors such as the Naia valley, the middle Tiber and the Clitunno valleys, historically crossed by the main communication routes of central Italy.
The earliest archaeological finds, testifying to a stable human presence in the area, emerged from some peripheral excavations and date from the Copper and Iron Ages. After the first half of the 3rd century B.C., the Romans founded a colony in Nequinate territory, near Narni, under the name of Interamna. The colony was later included in the Augustan age in Regio VI. Interamna became the seat of a Christian diocese from the second century and, after suffering the ravages of barbarian invasions, it saw in the Middle Ages the domination of the Lombards of Spoleto at first, then freedom as a free municipality rebelling against the Papal State, with the Ghibelline party of the city always at its head, until the final annexation to the Papal State, which took place under Pope Pius IV in 1563.
Throughout the ancient age Terni was a thriving medium-sized city in the Umbrian countryside until, in the 19th century, industrial and railroad development at first, and the establishment of the province of the same name later, brought the city, in a relatively short period of time, to a radical change in its economy and social balance.
Prehistory
The city, located in an alluvial plain between the Nera River and the Serra stream, saw its territory settled not before the Copper Age, to which date a hut floor and ceramic material with the typological characteristics of the Conelle-Ortucchio culture, discovered below some burials of the later necropolis of the steelworks. Even during the Middle Bronze Age human groups, bearers of the so-called Apennine Civilization inhabited this area, although the most significant archaeological evidence has been found around Lake Piediluco, not far from Terni.
Phase "Terni I" The most significant human presence, however, is dated to the 10th century B.C., that is, the beginning of the Iron Age: in 1884, during construction work on the steel mill, a vast necropolis was found, used until the 6th century B.C., belonging to the so-called Culture of Terni. Based on the type of grave goods, it is possible to distinguish three phases: Terni I, Terni II and Terni III.
To the first phase, the earliest, belong the incineration tombs, formed by a mostly cylindrical shaft, inside which an olla and a set of fibulae and rings in female burials, bronze razors in male burials were deposited; in some tombs the cinerary urn was covered with one or two slabs of capuchin stone, and the whole shaft was filled with earth and pebbles, then bounded by a circle of stones. There are cultural similarities with the Lazio area, especially Rome-Alban Hills and Allumiere. The settlement corresponding to the necropolis of this period was probably located on Pentima Hill, along the eastern edge of the Terni basin, above the alluvial deposit between the Nera and Serra rivers, in which the necropolis was founded.
Phase "Terni II" The second phase, datable to the 9th century BCE, is characterized by the replacement of the funerary rite of incineration with that of inhumation, although the former still appears to have been practiced in a small minority of the depositions. Inhumation burials consisted of rectangular pits filled with earth and stones above ground level, sometimes bounded on the surface by a circle of stones. At the foot of the inhumed person were placed ollae and jars, locally produced, with partially purified impasto and little decoration.
In this period, male graves are dominated by the presence of weapons, generally made of bronze, including short swords with blade and hilt fused together, spearheads, some made of iron, placed on the sides of the head, triangular in shape. There are also numerous razors, usually half-moon shaped, with geometric engravings. Female burials are characterized by the presence of Bronze Age armillae, earrings, necklaces and spirals ornamented with amber, glass paste or bone. There are numerous fibulae of various shapes. At the time of discovery they were found to have been laid almost everywhere: from the simplest position at breast height to a long series reaching from the sternum to the feet along the left flank.