ABSTRACT
Italy is perhaps the country where more well-preserved skeletons have been unearthed in the name of archaeology than any other in Europe. What do we know, therefore, about the physical anthropology of its earliest inhabitants? Perhaps not as much as might be hoped given the long history of research. However, as in most areas of scientific enquiry, the available data is somewhat uneven in quality and coverage, while the conclusions of earlier research have often been abandoned or overturned. The latter is doubtless a healthy sign of progress. Of course, the importance of skeletal analysis in archaeology is plain to see. A recent conference (AA.VV. 1994) has helped to clarify the current state of research, while Italian ‘cemetery archaeology’ continues to make rapid advances, most obviously in later prehistory. Age and sex determinations in particular are generating a variety of statistical assessments, comparisons and generalisations about social relationships and identities.
