Thick deposits of manure and ancient pottery shards have been discovered in the Forum Boarium from the middle of the Bronze Age. Core samples show that the terrain of Bronze-Age Rome differed greatly from what is present now. The area north of the Aventine Hill was a seasonally dry plain that provided a safe inland port for seafaring ships. It offered a wide area for watering horses and cattle and a safe ford of the Tiber with shallow water. This advantageous but exposed location was closely flanked by the Capitoline, which rose sharply from the more easterly bank of the Tiber. That hill provided a ready citadel for defense and control of salt production along the river. Other hills and marshes between them provided similarly defensible points for settlement. Current evidence suggests there were three separate bronze-using settlements on the Capitoline during the period 1700 to 1350 BC. In the neighboring valley that later became the Roman Forum, occupation occurred from 1350 to 1120 BC. Some structures from the 13th century BC indicate that the Capitoline was already being terraced to manage its slope. Excavations near the modern Capitoline Museums suggest the construction of fortifications. By 1000 BC, a necropolis existed in the Forum for cremation graves.
Twin Founders And She-Wolf
Romulus and Remus are the grandsons of Numitor, the king of Alba Longa. After Numitor is deposed by his brother Amulius, his daughter Rhea Silvia becomes pregnant allegedly raped by the war god Mars. Amulius orders that the children be left to die on the slopes of the Palatine or in the Tiber River. They are suckled by a she-wolf at the Lupercal cave and then discovered by the shepherd Faustulus. Faustulus takes them in with his wife Acca Larentia. The twins eventually depose or murder Amulius and restore Numitor to his throne. They leave to establish a new city at the location where they had been rescued. The twins come into conflict during the foundation of the city, leading to the murder of Remus. The dispute is variously said to have been over the naming of the new city or the interpretation of auguries. Some accounts say Romulus slays his brother with his own hand. Others state that Remus and sometimes Faustulus are killed in a general melee. Romulus ritualistically ploughs the generally square course of the city's future boundary. He erects its first walls and declares the settlement an asylum for exiles, criminals, and runaway slaves.