The necropolis of Montefortino d’Arcevia is believed to have been built by a community of Adriatic Senones, one of the various Celtic tribes which settled in Italy in the early-Fourth Century BCE.
In just a few generations, these Central European Gauls integrated into the Italic cultural fabric, adopting some of its characteristic traits. They are known to have clashed with the armies of the Etruscans, the Italics, the Greeks and the Romans. The Senones warriors maintained the use of some of their traditional weaponry, such as their double-edged long swords and large, oval shields with an axial reinforcement known as the spina. They also broadened their arsenal with specifically Italic weapons, such as the iron-capped, long-tipped lance known as pilum, which was adopted also by the Roman legionaries. The Montefortino necropolis has also yielded up a number of bronze and iron helmets.
Some of these are of the same design as Central European Celtic helmets from the Fifth and Fourth Century BCE. Others are also Celtic in design but have Etruscan-style decorations. Others still, although similar in form, were forged in Etruscan workshops using specific techniques. This last kind, Celtic in appearance but in fact an Etruscan model, were highly popular in Italy throughout the Hellenistic period up until the Second and First Century BCE. They were used also by the Roman army, which explains their presence across the whole of the Mediterranean as far as the Black Sea.