Fritzens-Sanzeno culture

The Fritzens-Sanzeno culture is attested in the late Iron Age, from the sixth to the first century BC, in the Alpine region of Trentino and South Tyrol; in the period of maximum expansion it reached also the Engadin region. It take its name from the two towns of Fritzens (Austria) and Sanzeno (Trentino), where important archaeological excavations were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Fritzens-Sanzeno culture replaced the Laugen-Melaun culture in South Tyrol and Trentino and the Urnfield culture in the Austrian Tyrol. This cultural facies ceased to exist in the period following the conquest of the Alps by Augustus, at the end of the first century BC, that also mark the end of the Iron Age in the region.

Bibliography

• Franco Marzatico, Il gruppo di Fritzens-Sanzeno in Die Räter/I Reti, Bolzano, Athesia, 1992.