Late Bronze Age culture of Europe, so called because its people placed their cremated dead in urns.
This culture spread from east-central Europe and northern Italy in the 12th century BC and later to Ukraine, Sicily, Scandinavia, France, and Spain. In some areas barrows marked the graves. The culture was warlike, with fortified settlements and bronze weapons, including the slashing sword. The uniformity of the culture and the persistence of certain pottery and metal forms apparently had great influence on Early Iron Age culture.