In Italian Archaeology, especially for the Iron Age period, we are indebted to a long tradition of international studies, which began in the XIXth century. For a long time, the traditional approaches have been based on the typological studies of material evidences to identity the ancient cultures present in the Italic peninsula and described in the ancient texts. Thus, the archaeological cultures present in Northern Italy have been often perceived as close and immutable entities, with geographical and cultural boundaries well and highlighted by specific productions and rituals. However, in the last few years, new discoveries and the review of ancient data from several sits of West part of Northern Italy provide new criteria to renew this rigid ethnic picture. This presentation is focused on the complex network of the different indigenous cultures in the northwest Italy : neighbouring regions (Southern Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia) vs Golasecca culture and Etruscan communities. We would like to submit a critical review of the markers of cultural identity, mobility, interaction pointed the “buffer” zones, that still today problematic and indistinct, at the margins of the know-well Ligurian, Golasecca and Etruscan core. Based on the comparative analysis of the funerary rites, the settlement pattern and their location, we will critically rethinking the traditional ethnic labels, looking for alternative theoretical models and new interpretation of the role of indigenous communities in the North Italic trade.