There is archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago, but the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence. Several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the bronze age and the beginning of the Iron age, each hill between the sea and the Capitol was topped by a village (on the Capitol Hill, a village is attested since the end of the 14th century BC).

However, none of them had yet an urban quality. Nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation ("synoecism") of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. This aggregation, signalling the passage from a proto-urban to an urban situation, was allowed by the increase of agricultural productivity above the subsistence level, which allowed the establishment of secondary and tertiary activities: in turn, these boosted the development of trade with the Greek colonies of southern Italy (mainly Ischia and Cumae). All these happenings, which according to the archeological excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC, can be considered as the "birth" of the city. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome was founded with an act of will in the middle of the eighth century BC as the legend suggests (the date of the tradition of Romulus), remains a fringe hypothesis.