page_title: Umbri
section_title: Archaeological sites
hierarchical_section_title: Umbri / Archaeological sites
context_page_description: The Umbri were Italic people of ancient Italy. A region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers. It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria.
  Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on easily defensible hilltops. Umbria was bordered by the Tiber and Nar rivers and included the Apennine slopes on the Adriatic. The ancient Umbrian language is a branch of a group called Oscan-Umbrian, which is related to the Latino-Faliscan languages.
context_section_description: The Umbrians descend from the culture of Terni, protohistoric facies of southern Umbria. 
  The towns of Chianciano and Clusium (Umbrian: Camars) near modern Arezzo contain traces of Umbrian habitation dating to the 7th or 8th centuries BC. Terni (in Latin: Interamna Nahars) was the first important Umbrian center. Its population was called with the name of Umbri Naharti. They were the largest, organized and belligerent tribe of the Umbrians and populated compactly across the basin of Nera River. This people are quoted for 7 times in the Iguvine Tablets. This is confirmed not only by the Iguvine Tablets, Latin historians and by the important and privileged role played by this city in Roman times, but also by the discovery, at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, of one of the mixed burial necropolis (Urnfield culture and burial fields) larger of Europe, about 3000 tombs (Necropoli delle Acciaierie di Terni).
  Assisi, called Asisium by the Romans, was an ancient Umbrian site on a spur of Mount Subasio.  Myth relates that the city was founded by Dardanus in 847 BC.
  Perugia and Orvieto are not considered of Umbrian but Etruscan origin. According to the geographical distribution of the Umbrian territory, they are located on the left side of the Tiber River, which is part of the ancient Etruria. Umbri were on the opposite side of the river. According to the map of Regio Umbria and Ager Galliucus by Emperor Augustus , the major Umbrian city-state were: Terni, Todi, Amelia and Spoleto (the current part of southern Umbria). While north Umbrian cities such as Gubbio or Città di Castello will be affected by the influence of Etruscan culture (a try are the Iguvine Tablets), they will develop a form of writing that is mix of Umbrian and Etruscan language, while the southern Umbrians (the purest and conservative in terms of tradition, language and culture) will not have.
caption: Map of Umbria and Picenum showing the location of the Ager Gallicus.
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