This paper outlines a project that is building a model for assessing multicultural interaction, which will be used for the study of the expansion of Rome in central Italy in the wider context of Latin colonisation. Its theoretical framework incorporates Social Identity Theory and the concept of mental distance applied to geographically related groups. The key materials studied at this stage are funerary architecture and inscriptions, which reveal different nested aspects of group identities. Here we briefly present the local context of the study – Nepi and the Faliscan area – with the different languages and alphabets used in the area. This area will be compared with its neighbouring areas in order to analyse long-term changes in group identities from the precolonial period to the colonial period.