CHAPTER 9
Southern and Inner Etruria
Benchmark Sites and Current Excavations

Claudio Bizzarri

1. Introduction

This chapter provides a brief historical sketch and update on the current state of excavations in southern Etruria. This was one of the regions crucial to the earliest phases of the development of Etruscan civilization as well as highly important for its relationship to inner Etruria, to which it was connected by waterways (especially the Tiber), and for its contacts with other Mediterranean cultures. This chapter treats southern Etruria by surveying its most important sites: Orvieto, Tarquinia (Gravisca, Bisenzio, Musarna), Cerveteri (Pyrgi), Vulci, Veii, and Sovana.

2. Orvieto/Volsinii/Velzna

The year 2000 marked the beginning of an archaeological dig in the area of the Campo della Fiera (Figure 9.1), in the valley below the cliff of Orvieto and towards the west. Simonetta Stopponi directed the excavation, first under the auspices of the University of Macerata and then of the University of Perugia. She identified it as the site of the Etruscan federal sanctuary known in antiquity as the Fanum Voltumnae. While Livy writes at length about this place (History of Rome 6.23, 25, 61; 5.17; 6.2), he provides no geographical indications, taking it for granted that everyone during the Augustan period knew where this important political, religious, and economical place was located. In the nineteenth century, a few interesting architectural terracottas, now in Berlin, as well as the remains of walls and tombs, were found here. Stopponi’s excavation has provided a much clearer picture of what must have been one of the most sacred Etruscan sites (see further, the publications in the annals of the Fondazione per il Museo “Claudio Faina,” in particular the volumes of 2009 and 2012; also Stopponi 2013).

Image described by caption.

Figure 9.1 Aerial view of the excavations at Campo della Fiera, Orvieto.

Photo: Courtesy of Simonetta Stopponi, University of Perugia.

The Campo della Fiera was first of all a sanctuary and, as such, its various structures range in date from around the middle of the sixth century BCE to the thirteenth-century Christian church of San Pietro in Vetere. The latter was abandoned around the middle of the fourteenth century when the plague raged throughout Italy and the rest of Europe. The name itself is revealing and indicates the appropriation, by Christians, of an important site of pagan worship and the material superposition of structures.

The Fanum Voltumnae, destroyed in 264 BCE during the Roman siege of Velzna (Etruscan Orvieto) by M. Fulvius Flaccus (Torelli 1968), was the place reserved for the annual assemblies of representatives of the various Etruscan cities, and was, therefore, the political fulcrum of the confederation. Hence, extensive spaces were required for the delegations and various activities. The excavation currently underway covers an area of over 30,000 square meters. Two roads paved in volcanic stone have been identified. One led to Bolsena and thus to southern Etruria. The other is 7 meters wide and has been interpreted as a Via Sacra, where processions would have taken place. It moves in the direction of the remains of a temple (Temple B), whose ruins lie half way up the hill in a privileged position with regards to the plain below. A second sacred building, Temple A, came to light in a sacred enclosure between the two paved roads. It was used continuously from the sixth century BCE up until Roman times, as indicated by two altars located to its east, and numerous votive deposits.

A clear indication of just how important the cults were is furnished by some of the material found, including imported Attic red- and black-figure pottery, stone bases for small votive bronzes, and, above all, a trachyte base around 84 centimeters high and c.40 centimeters wide for a larger statue with a long inscription that runs along two sides of the base. The inscription, the longest from the Archaic period in Orvieto, provides interesting information on various aspects of the Etruscan civilization, though not necessarily directly connected with Velzna. It reads: kanuta larecenas laute/nitha aranthia pinies puia turuce tluschval marvethul faliathere. What makes this text particularly important are some of the words and their interpretation. As translated by Stopponi (2009: 441–449), it reads, “Kanuta, a liberta or freedwoman of the Larecena gens, wife of Arnth Pinie, dedicates (this gift) to the Tluschva (female divinities associated with the Dionysian sphere) of the site of the celestial region.” The presence of an expensive votive gift donated by a woman in an Etruscan sanctuary during the sixth century BCE is, by itself, of note (see further, Chapter 18). Kanuta was, moreover, of an inferior rank (liberta), and married to a man who was probably one of the founding members of the powerful Tarquinian family Pinie. He had his own painted tomb, known today as the Giglioli Tomb, and was thus of Volsinian origins.

The same votive deposit also yielded terracotta heads of women set on molded bases that date from the late sixth to the fourth centuries BCE. Clearly connected to a small hour-glass tufa altar nearby was a thesauros, a stone container with a hole in the cover into which coin offerings could be inserted (Frascarelli 2012). Among the 221 coins found here were bronze asses dating to between 15–7 BCE, an Octavian coin, and Augustan asses from 15–16 CE. They are a clear demonstration that the site was still considered sacred long after its destruction by the Romans in the mid-third century BCE. DNA analysis has also identified the fragments of wood present in the thesauros as Vitis vinifera, the cultivated vine. In view of the ancient Greek name for Velzna, namely, Oinarea (“where wine flows”) (Heurgon 1969), this is an important paleo-botanic element.

Further confirmation of the sanctuary’s importance during the Roman period is provided by another exceptional find, a marble bust of a male dignitary from the Severan period (late second-early third century CE). Buried in a ditch next to the temple and the votive deposits, it seems to have been an act of pietas made by a high-ranking personage and was perhaps related to the activities of the sanctuary in Roman times.

A third Archaic temple, Temple C, was found in association with shards of fine Attic pottery and various deposits with bronze chariot elements. The significance of the much later burials of children (fourth–third century BCE) found here still needs further study, but they can probably be seen in relation to the divinities worshipped (Mallegni 2012).

An excavation has recently been begun in one of the countless artificial cavities that characterize the urban area of the city on top of the tufa plateau of modern-day Orvieto. Over 1200 were listed in a census undertaken under the special law for the reclamation of the city’s cliffs. Their range in time is vast (Cavallo 1995). One of the first mentions was in the Renaissance when the remains of what was probably an Iron Age cave burial came to light during the excavation for what is now known as Saint Patrick’s well (Tamburini 2007: 84). With the flourishing of the Etruscan settlement of Velzna, a network of tunnels and cavities, most of which were connected to the water supply, were subsequently created (for a listing of the types of man-made cavities of Etruscan times, see C. Bizzarri 2007).

The archaeological dig in a “grotto” in the historical center of Orvieto – in its southwestern portion – was begun in May 2012 (C. Bizzarri 2013). This cavity is characterized by its continuous use and the scientific approach of the current excavation. Interest is no longer centered on the individual periods of use but represents an attempt at a global recovery of its history. From an anthropological point of view, it provides what might be called a cross-section of life in the city. Moving back into time from the modern floor level, the strata reveal that the cavity was used as a carpentry workshop, as well as a kiln by the Riccardi brothers, internationally known nineteenth-century forgers who made the famous “colossi” sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (for the “scientific” study of the statues see Richter 1937 and Chapter 29). Currently, the excavation is concentrating on a room with a square ground plan, and with steps at the side directly cut into the volcanic stone. A first level containing solely archaeological material was found three meters below the modern cellar floor. On the basis of the pottery fragments, it can be dated to the fifth century BCE. An Etruscan tunnel, c.5 meters long, connected this cavity with another similar one. How deep they were still remains to be seen. The considerable amount of material found includes open shapes in gray bucchero, fragments of black bucchero, Attic black- and red-figure pottery, numerous fragmentary ollas, braziers, dolia, basins, roofing tiles in a reddish impasto, and some terracotta architectural decorations. The basically square cavity initially measured 4 × 4 meters, which increased to 5 × 5 meters the lower down the excavation went. Of particular interest is the considerable number of incised letters and short graffiti on gray bucchero bowls and on the rims of common ware closed shapes. Protohistoric pottery found in the fifth-century BCE strata, with fragments of large vases decorated in graffito and bowls with bosses, add to our knowledge of this period on the plateau of Orvieto. It is too early to hazard a guess as to how this room in the shape of a truncated pyramid functioned. It does not seem to have been a cistern, since it lacks the waterproof lining typical of such structures from Etruscan times on. The shape also differs considerably from the water shafts (wells) in the area of Volsinii. There also seem to be no signs of quarrying on the walls. Of special note is the fact that this area is on the brow of the cliff, visually connected to the area of Campo della Fiera, where the Fanum Voltumnae was located.

In the course of the nineteenth century, the urban necropoleis along the base of the cliff were subjected to what was essentially plundering. It was not until the 1960s that scientific studies were undertaken (M. Bizzarri 1962, 1966). Excavations in the southern necropolis of Cannicella, where a marble nude, the so-called Venus (but more probably a divinity of the underworld), had been found, took place during the 1980s and the 1990s when protective roofing was added to help its preservation. As in other sacred sites in Etruria, the sanctuary in the necropolis was connected to funerary rites for the deceased and its boundaries were more clearly defined in the 1990s excavation. An acroterium with the matricide of Orestes and Clytemnestra uncovering her breast to remind him that she is his mother dates to the late Archaic period (Stopponi 1991: 1142–1150; 2012) and belonged to the funerary temple. It is now in the National Archeological Museum in Orvieto.

The other monumental necropolis to the north, Crocifisso del Tufo, seems to be part of the ring that once ran all around the cliff in Etruscan times. Anna Eugenia Feruglio studied it anew, followed by Paolo Bruschetti (2012) who focused on the material in storage. The data throw light on some of the lesser-known phases of Orvieto’s history, such as the Protohistoric and Orientalizing periods, whose importance must be reassessed. This necropolis is particularly important because it allows us to connect the layout of the tombs organized in specific spaces with the underlying social system. The orderly sequence of tombs, all alike, reveals an egalitarian structure that was probably also applied to the organization of the city with its infrastructure of tunnels and cisterns regulating the water supply. The countryside was probably also similarly organized, with crop rotation in fields that were clearly marked by boundary stones (see further, Chapter 2 with Figure 2.3). (During the fifth century BCE famine in Rome, grain was sent to the city via the Tiber, the main course of the river controlled only by Velzna: Colonna 1985a).

3. Tarquinia/Tarchna

Tarchna, a UNESCO World Heritage site together with the tombs of the Cerveteri–Banditaccia necropolis (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1158), has always been particularly important in the Etruscan confederation in view both of its religious role connected to the mythological Tarconte and its frescoes (see further, Chapter 17). In the mid-twentieth century, investigations of the painted tombs took a turn with the geophysical survey of the Lerici Foundation. Currently, around 200 painted tombs are known (of the c.6000 identified; see Steingräber 2006). They range in time from the end of the seventh century BCE (Tomb of the Panther) to the end of the second century BCE (see Figures 17.1–4). Outstanding examples of Italian knowhow in managing its archaeological heritage are the studies undertaken by the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome (http://www.icr.beniculturali.it/) regarding the preservation of Tarquinia’s painted monuments. Currently their interiors can be viewed through glass installed at the entrance to the chambers. Where necessary, the paintings have been removed and some have been mounted on panels in the National Archaeological Museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi in the city.

Recent excavations in the Queen’s Tumulus, in the Doganaccia necropolis, have also led to new discoveries about and a better understanding of the structure of the largest tumulus at Tarquinia, c.40 meters in diameter. The so-called Tumuli of the King and of the Queen reflect an eighth–seventh century BCE type of royal tomb found in Cyprus (of Homeric type, probably imported to Tarquinia by Eastern-Greek workmen (see further, Chapter 11). A staircase dug into the rock leads to a small platform (5.7 × 8 meters) in front of the funeral chamber. A coating of fine white plaster with traces of painted decoration covered the walls of the unroofed chamber. A tomb with two flanking rooms, discovered behind the Tumulus of the Queen, is the first example, and, therefore the prototype, of the two-chamber tombs (the so-called “Gemini Tombs”) of the “princely” or Orientalizing period in Etruria. On the basis of the materials found there (see Mandolesi and de Angelis 2011), this tumulus can be dated to the middle of the seventh century BCE.

The excavations in the Iron Age necropolis in the area of the Villa Bruschi are of particular importance for enhancing our knowledge about the funerary sphere in Etruria. An intact Villanovan cemetery has come to light, perhaps related to the village that must once have been in the area, and which, subsequently, became the necropolis of Monterozzi (Trucco, de Angelis, and Iaia 2003). The tombs were exceptionally well-preserved, documenting rituals connected to the funerary rites of one of the communities later to found Tarquinia. Beginning in 1998, 11 excavation campaigns were carried out. Of the 246 tombs excavated, 239 were cremation and only seven trench (fossa) tombs. On the basis of the human remains recovered, the temperature of the funeral pyre has been calculated at around 600–900 degrees centigrade (see further, Chapter 13). An impasto urn with the cremated remains, covered with a bowl or helmet depending on the sex, was placed inside a shaft, or in a few more important cases, in an ovoid nenfro container (custodia litica), at times together with part of the ashes. In children’s tombs, the bowl-cover faced up while in the more important ones, it was wrapped in cloth and decorated with bronze chains and fibulas (ancient safety pins). Tomb goods consisting of three or four ceramic vases, lowered into the grave after the urn had been placed there, were present in 49 percent of the burials. In some cases, composite vessels, with more than one section, were probably related to offerings dedicated to the deceased or to the divinities of the underworld. The composition of the community itself is also of particular interest. There were many more adult women than men, 56 percent to 29 percent, respectively. The children’s tombs, however, contrasted with the general values of the time, with only 18 percent representing children under the age of 12 (Trucco et al. 2005).

The area where the urban center was located is now called Pian di Civita. Here, studies by Maria Bonghi Jovino and her team (Tarchna I, II, III, IV and Suppl. 1) have made it possible to document sacred structures of the Orientalizing period, in addition to the Archaic phases of the temple of the Ara della Regina. This sacro-istituzionale complex first developed in the Protohistoric period (tenth century BCE) with the tomb of a child who was probably epileptic (perhaps a sort of prodigy ritually sacrificed: Bonghi Jovino 2009), followed by the deposit with an axe, lituus-trumpet and shield (Bonghi Jovino 1987: 66; see Figure 7.5). These finds are particularly significant for they throw new light on a relatively little-known period connected to the Protohistoric phases upon which the exponential growth of the Etruscan urban center is based (see further, Chapters 1 and 7). A new project called “T.Arc.H.N.A. online” (Towards Archaeological Heritage New Accessibility, a slightly forced acronym) makes it possible to explore Etruscan Tarquinia’s heritage both in its original territory and in European Museums (http://tarchna.tarchna.it/totemonline/).

Gravisca

The site of Gravisca is on the coast. It functioned like other Mediterranean models of emporia (e.g., Naukratis in Egypt and al-Mina in Syria) where foreign merchants were permitted to set up trading centers in exchange for control by a dominating local class. The area is characterized by the presence of sanctuaries dedicated, among others, to Aphrodite and Demeter, who guaranteed the correctness of the transactions. The anchor donated by Sostratos, a proverbially wealthy merchant from Aegina of the sixth century BCE (Torelli 1971), was dedicated to Apollo (see further, Chapter 6 with Figure 6.3). Recent excavations have brought to light a trench with votive material ranging from the sixth to the third centuries BCE, including a small bronze kouros, an attacking Mars, and numerous metal weapons, some in miniature. The deposit has been attributed to an unspecified chthonic female divinity. Various industrial facilities, mostly furnaces for the working of metal, both bronze and iron, were found in the vicinity, probably for the production of ex-votos, under the reassuring protection of the foreign divinities. The picture that emerges from this close association differs considerably from our general idea of a hieratic and silent cult area (Fiorini 2005).

Bisenzio

Bisenzio, located on the western shore of Lake Bolsena, is also in the territory of Tarquinia. Two of the most important examples of Villanovan bronzes – a perfume brazier and a biconical ash urn – come from the necropolis of Olmo Bello. The scenes depicted are connected to themes of agriculture, hunting, the family and contact with the world of the afterlife, a significant example of the complexity of the religious sphere at the peak of the Iron Age (Haynes 2000: 21–24; Menichetti 2000).

Musarna

Musarna, an Etruscan settlement of the Hellenistic period, is also in the same district. It provides an insight into the relatively traumatic progressive Romanization of the territory (see further, Chapter 3). The excavations up to 2003 by the French School at Rome have identified a thermal complex with an exceptional mosaic with an Etruscan inscription, pertinent to its use in the caldarium, in which Vel Alethna and Luvce Hulcnies are mentioned. They were probably two of the sponsors of the baths. The size and nature area of the habitation here, which consists of 12 insulae (city blocks) and walls with two gates (Broise and Jolivet 2004), are also of note.

4. Cerveteri/Caere/Cisra(Greek Agylla)

The Banditaccia necropolis is located in the area of neighboring Cerveteri, another important urban center in southern Etruria (on this necropolis see further, Chapter 11). A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is characterized by monumental tumuli (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1158). Recently, a hypogeum of the Hellenistic period and a monumental lion in peperino dating to the Archaic period, practically intact, were brought to light next to the Tomb of the Painted Tile. The first of the two main excavations in the urban area is in the area of Vigna Parrocchiale in the central part of the plateau, which has been damaged by clandestine digs. The second is located on the southeastern edge of the plateau near one of the city gates, in loc. S. Antonio, with ongoing excavations by the universities of Urbino and Venice. A CNR project called “Progetto Caere” (http://www.progettocaere.rm.cnr.it/index.htm) is planning for digs and surface surveys in the area of Vigna Parrocchiale (see Moretti Sgubini and Ricciardi 2001; Moretti Sgubini 2002–2003). So far the remains of a monumental “cistern/quarry” have come to light. It was filled in at the beginning of the fifth century BCE when a sixth-century aristocratic residence was eliminated to make way for a temple and an elliptical unroofed building of a public nature. Since 1993, regular campaigns have been undertaken in loc. S. Antonio. The site extends from the Villanovan period (ninth–eighth century BCE) to Roman times. Of particular interest is an Archaic “cistern / fountain” subsequently incorporated in the pronaos of the so-called Temple A in its late Archaic phase. A series of cisterns/quarries of building materials that served as support to the sacred structures are also significant here. It is in one of these temples that a magnificent Attic cup with the Iliupersis (the Sack of Troy) by Euphronios and Onesimos was dedicated to Hercle (Heracles). The kylix was clandestinely purloined and ultimately ended up in the Getty Museum in Malibu (Williams 1991). The dig in the S. Antonio area has made it possible to reconstruct the context from which the cup came and to include it among the material that, in line with recent agreements between foreign museums and the Italian government, was returned to its place of origin (for the exceptional importance of this agreement see: http://eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/international-cultural-property-protection/bilateral-agreements/italy). The famous krater painted and signed by Euphronios (see Figure 30.1) comes from the Greppe S. Angelo necropolis. It depicts the death of Sarpedon, son of Zeus and king of the Lycians, killed by Patroclus during the Trojan War. Illegally exported and bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the krater became the symbol of the operations involving the leading international museums and the Italian State (Silver 2005; see further, Chapter 30).

In the same plateau area of Cerveteri, a research project by Queen’s University at Kingston (Canada) excavated the “hypogeum of Clepsina” (Torelli and Fiorini 2009). The 2012 campaign uncovered a small, semi-subterranean structure, partly cut in the bedrock and partly built in blocks, and three wells, partially filled in during the Late Republican period. The earliest occupation though, recorded by earlier University of Perugia excavations, dates to the end of the eighth to the early seventh centuries BCE, while the latest, according to the inscription on the hypogeum, reaches the Severan period (Colivicchi 2012; 2015).

Pyrgi

The sanctuary of Pyrgi lies along the coast. Together with Tarquinian Gravisca, it is another example of an emporium or port of trade, and as such, it accumulated considerable wealth. As documented by Greek and Latin literary sources (Diodorus Siculus 15.3; Strabo 5.225–226), its fame extended far beyond the borders of Etruria. Recent studies have identified two distinct centers (Belelli Marchesini et al. 2012). The larger one, on the north, is characterized by monumentality due to the attention of the rulers of Caere (e.g., Thefarie Velianas). This was the site of the sanctuary of the goddess Uni, assimilated by the Phoenicians to Astarte, later flanked by Thesan, assimilated by the Greeks to Leucothea and Ilizia (Verzar 1980). Two imposing temples to the two divinities were erected between the end of the sixth and the first half of the fifth centuries BCE. They were in tufa with complex terracotta architectural decorations that included the famous high relief with the saga of the “Seven against Thebes” (Temple A) (see further, Chapter 26 with Figure 26.2).

An open cult area (Area C) has been documented between the two buildings. It was here that the three famous gold plaques with inscriptions in Etruscan and Phoenician had been ritually deposited. They refer to the dedication of Temple B by the “king” of Caere, Thefarie Velianas. The southern nucleus has no particular architectural features, but the wealth of votive offerings is impressive. The divinities worshipped there were the goddess Cavatha and her consort Aplu/Śuri (Apollo) (according to Jannot 2005: 146), but also just Śuri (see Turfa 2012: 66). The numerous Attic black- and red-figure vases were often grouped in votive deposits varying in shape and size, in addition to bronze artifacts and terracotta statues (Baglione and Belelli Marchesini 2013).

5. Vulci

In Vulci, one of the leading settlements controlling the southern sector of Etruria (Moretti Sgubini 2006), an Archaic tomb has recently come to light (Moretti Sgubini 2002–2003). It is known as the Tomb of the Sphinx after a nenfro sphinx c.50 centimeters long, probably set at the entrance to protect the deceased and accompany them to the underworld. The tomb is in the important necropolis of Osteria in which some of the most important hypogea, including the Orientalizing Tomb of the Sun and the Moon, were found (for interesting aerial research on the necropolis see Pocobelli 2007). The archaeological park of Vulci has been the driving force behind a series of studies and surveys that have made for a better understanding of the urban layout of the Hellenistic–Roman phase as well as the structure of the monumental fourth-century BCE walls (http://english.vulci.it/mediacenter/FE/home.aspx). The park also includes the well-known François Tomb, one of the most important examples of Etruscan paintings, revealing a unique Etruscan view of the episode in which Macstarna/Servius Tullius is shown while helping one of the Vibenna brothers (Buranelli 1987; see further, Chapters 17 and 25).

6. Veio/Veii

Thanks to the “Progetto Veio,” sponsored by the Soprintendenza per l’Etruria Meridionale and several professorships at the University of Rome, study of the Portonaccio sanctuary area, excavated in the first half of the twentieth century, has resumed. The objective is that of providing long-awaited answers to various questions raised by the systematic publication of the area. Interest was also centered on Piazza d’Armi, where Gilda Bartoloni and Francesca Boitani further investigated the so-called oikos and documented the layout of the private buildings, apparently organized in a regular layout as early as the Archaic period. Traces of an ancestor cult existed in Campetti as far back as the first half of the ninth century. As revealed by the votive deposit of Veio-Campetti (Bartoloni et al. 2013), it continued throughout the history of Etruscan Veio up to around the end of the fifth century BCE. An important element in the religiosity of Iron Age and subsequent populations is the relationship with the deceased of one’s family or group, protectors of the living and consequently venerated as such. The remains of a late Bronze Age settlement have also been identified in the historical city, of particular significance with regards to the development of the territorial population before the formation of the city itself. The most striking data from the necropoleis come from the laboratory excavation and subsequent restoration of Tomb 1036 of Casale del Fosso, undertaken 100 years after its discovery (the tomb was found in 1915 and presented in 2001). It was the tomb of a political and religious leader who was buried around the middle of the eighth century BCE with the symbolic objects of his power and authority: a mace, two bilobate shields, two cuirass disks as well as a crested helmet, three spears, a short sword and an axe (Moretti Sgubini 2002–2003: 135).

7. Sovana

Sovana is famous for the so-called Ildebranda Tomb, named after Ildebrando Aldobrandeschi of Sovana, who served as Pope Gregory VII from 1073 to 1085. Recently, another important funerary monument known as the Tomb of the Winged Demons has been brought to light, thanks to collaboration between the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana and the University of Venice (Maggiani, Barbieri, and Pellegrini 2005). Paradoxically, the decorative elements were in good shape because the tomb had collapsed in antiquity. The aedicule is at the center of a terrace around 8 meters long. It has a deep central room. Inside the figure of the deceased is shown reclining for the banquet holding the patera (a shallow drinking cup) in his right hand. The traces of color still extant are of particular interest (Barbieri, Cuniglio, and Pallecchi 2006). Two statues of winged female demons, probably Vanth figures, appear on either side of the central niche. The imposing marine demon with wings and a fish tail in the gable may be Scylla, as in the Tomb of the Siren (for Scylla and the Etruscans see Harrison 2013: 1099–1100). Two lions were placed symmetrically on the area in front of the facade, an element not previously encountered in Sovana.

8. Conclusion

Excavations continue to cast new light on pre-Etruscan and Etruscan civilization in southern Etruria and demonstrate the need both for further archaeological exploration and critical studies of the material yielded by past excavations. The application of newer forms of scientific analysis, such as archaeometrical analysis, has enhanced the traditional picture of one of the most important ancient civilizations in Italy. The work of international teams over the last few decades, moreover, has proven of prime importance in furthering our understanding of the Etruscans’ life, culture, and contributions.

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GUIDE TO FURTHER READING

Haynes 2000 provides a comprehensive survey of Etruscan civilization in which she discusses well-known aspects of their culture together with new discoveries up until her publication date. Torelli 2001, edited by a leading Etruscologist, remains one of the best works on the Etruscans: extremely well-illustrated with color photographs, maps and plans, it represents a comprehensive and up-to-date catalogue that accompanied an exhibition on the Etruscans at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. The essays cover topics as varied as the forms and styles of Etruscan art and architecture to issues related to their origins and economic, social and political forms. Torelli also co-edited another catalogue (Torelli and Moretti Sgubini 2008) of a show held in Rome, on the four major Etruscan cities in modern Latium (Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Veii, and Vulci) with important contributions by leading scholars. Leighton 2004 offers an updated overview of history of Tarquinia, one of the most important cities in southern Etruria, while Mandolesi and de Angelis 2011 discusses one of the site’s newly discovered tombs (the Tumulo della Regina). Turfa 2013 is the most recent collection of contributions made by many American and European Etruscologists: southern Etruria is well-represented in articles by Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni (Tarquinia), Maria Paola Baglione (Pyrgi), and Simonetta Stopponi (Orvieto, Campo della Fiera excavation). The Foundation for the Museum Claudio Faina in Orvieto publishes the papers given at the annual meetings with extraordinary regularity, and for Inner Southern Etruria, the proceedings of the 2004 conference are particularly meaningful (Della Fina 2005). For Orvieto and its connection with Bolsena, updated information can be found in the catalogue edited by Della Fina and Pellegrini 2013 in which there are important contributions by F. Roncalli (Etruscan sanctuaries of Velzna), P. Bruschetti (necropoleis) and G. Camporeale (natural resources, local crafts and artisans). Finally, there is a new set of volumes, co-edited by Nancy de Grummond and Lisa Pieraccini, that will be published by the University of Texas Press; the first one focuses on the city of Caere and it will be followed by one on Veii. The chapters are written by scholars and intended for English readers interested in up-to-date information about the 12 most important Etruscan cities.