Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

98

Transcript of Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

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,fuv*ofi &rt4'.'

THE,LANDOFTHE, E,TRI-]SCANS

from Prehistory to the Middle Ages

edited by Salvatore Settis

Texts by Marisa Bonamici, Riccardo Francovich,Renata Grifoni Cremonesi, Andreina Ricci

and Leonardo Rombai

Drawings by Giovanni Caselli

#*n //qr4,/

Scala Books

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The publisher wishes to dedicate this book to thememory of Ferruccio Marchi, master designer,

art publisher and Florentine gentleman.

CONTENTS

PREFACE, 3

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, 5

THE PREHISTORICAL AGE, 11

THE ETRUSCAN PERIOD, 12

THE ROMAN PERIOD,1.4

THE MIDDLE AGES. 16

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREAS, 18VEII AND THE FALISCAN PLAIN, 18Prehistorical Implements, 22VOLSINII,27The Language and Origins of the Etruscansr 30CHIUSI AND PERUGTA.32The Banquet in Etturiar 36AREZZO, FIESOLE, AND FLORENCE, 38Religion and Divination,42 .PISA, LUCCA AND LUNI,47Agriculture and Agrarian Landscape, 50VOLTERRA, POPULONIA AND SIENA, 54Metallurgy,58

VETULONIA AND RUSELLAE, 63Ceramics Workshopsr 66VULCI, SOVANA AND COSA, 69Trad,e,74TARQUINIA AND CAERE, 80Slaveryr 82Hilltop Towns in Tuscany: Scarlinor 89

Museums of Etruria, 94Index ofPlaces. 96

In order to enable the reader immediately to distinguish be-tween the different historical periods dealt with in each ofthe nine geographical areas examined, the first part ofeverychapter (dealing with prehistory) has been ser in italics, thesecond part (Etruscan and Roman period) is in roman, andthe third (Early Middle Ages) is in a smaller typeface.

The texts are by the following authors:Renata Grifoni Cremonesi - PrehistoryMarisa Bonamici - Etruscan oeriodAndreina Ricci - Roman oerircdRiccardo Francovich - Early Middle Ages

Couer: $one ttatile of Apolhfrzn the sanctaarl of Scasato at Falerii,intpired b1 a statae of Ahxander tbe Great b1 tbe Greek scalptorLlsippas (late 4th centary B.C.). Rone, Villa Ciulia.

Title page: tbe tomb known as "Pltltagorat't lair" at Cortona (2ndnntary B.C.).

Back coaer: a tomb in tlte necropolis of Norchia (4tb-3rd centaryB.C,) .

1. Tarqainia, end ua// of the "Tonba degli Auguri" (540-520B.C.). On eitber side of tbe doorway wlsicb slnbolized tbe world oftbe dead, twofgures greet the onlooker.

O Copyright 1985 by SCALA, Istituto FotograficoEditoriale, Antella, FirenzeEditing: Daniele CasalinoLayout: Fried RosenstockDrawings: Giovanni CaselliMaps: Ilaria CasalinoProduced by SCALAPhotographs: SCALA (M. Falsini, N. Grifoni, M. Sarri)with the exception of:. nn. 5 3 (F. Papafava); 8 5, 8 6, 1 1 5(Pubbliaerfoto, Milan); 1 1 6 (Archaeological Museum,Grosseto); p.89AI,III, IV (R. Francovich)Printed in Italy by Sogema Marzari, Schio

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PRE,FACE

Tbe land of the Etrascans is not sinpfu tbe stage on which

their remarkable bistory anfolded. It playd an inportantroh in the long line ofeuents tbat began well before thefor-mation of the Etruscan nation and continued beynd its

slow assimilation aithin tbe ciailization ofRone.The territory between tbe Tiber and the Arno, both

becaase of its uarie! of landscape and potential resnttrces(from its uast forests to its mineral reserues) and becaaseof the balance between inland and coast (idealfor maritime

trade), ffirs as tbe essential elements for an understand-

ing of its history, And, conuersei, it is tbe aork of tbe his-

torians and archaeologists tbat alloas us to reconstruct tbe

characteristics of tbe nataral enaironment in dffirent per-

iods. Hilltop uillages and tbe deuelopnent of arban com-

nunities; regulation of watercoarses and agrarian organi'

zation of the land; deuelopment of commanication routes, b1t

riaer or on land (ap to the Roman roads); manttfuctaringagricultural and trading actiaities; mechanisms of caltaral

and social dffirentiation: in all these spberes man and tbeland are tbe protagonists. And it is not a casual collectionof euents, but a conplex historical deaelopment,from wbichspringthe roots ofoar present.

Following a circular geographic route, fron Veiinortbaards to Fiuole and Pisa, and tben soutb again toTarquinia and Caere, this book attempts to illustrate tbebistory of eacb area. Oar sn,lrces are mostl1 archaeological

fnds, ratber tban written docaments. Our historical sur-aeJ gnes beynd tbe Etruscan and Roman periods to tbeearj Middle Agu, but it is not our intention to proue tbeexistence of a continuitl tbat too nanl facts could easillrefuta IVe intend merell to illastrate the essential e/e-nents of an exemplary case of close interaction betaeenman and the land he liues on.

Saluatore Settis

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2. Map of Etruria.

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THE NATURALENVIRONMENTb1 Leonardo Rombai

Thanks to both historical and archaeologicalsources, we are able to reconstruct the major en-vironmental features of Etruria, as well as thecomplex role played by the natural habitat (geolo-gical structure and development of the soil, cli-mate, inland watercourses and coastline, flora).

The arca between the Tiber and the Arno-and also the stretch ofland further north, asfar asthe River Magra and the Appennines, annexed byAugustus to the 7th Region-was basically notvery different at the time of the Etruscans fromwhat it is like now. Some aspects of the landscape,however, must have been quite different, althoughthese changes are not the work of nature, but ofman, who over the past two and a half thousandyears (albeit somewhat discontinuously) hascaused the destruction of a great deal ofthe spon-taneous flora and the alteration of its composition.Man has changed the course of rivers and driedthe plains, he has built towns, villages and roads.

By the first millennium B.C., the inland plains,in the mountainous areas around the Appennines,were no longer marshy, and the plains near thecoast had been created by the filling in of the gulfs,while all volcanoes in Tuscany and Latium had al-ready been extinct for thousands of years. Eventhe structure of the mountains (shapes, position,altitude and slope) was almost exactly the same asit is today; the earth's surface has simply been low-ered-the result of erosion-by one or twometres. The only topographical element thatdiffers in any considerable way is the coastlinenear flat areas, where the rivers, with their silt,have slowly filled in all the marshy areas. As earlyas the 7th-6th centuries B.C. the dunes along thecoast had akeady formed into continuous sand-bars, creatingabanier isolating the inland marshylakes from the sea. In other words the coastlineconsisted in crescent-shaped inlets alternatingwith promontories-as is, for the most part, stillthe cas*but did not have the pronounced juttingareas around the deltas of the Tiber, the Arno andthe Ombrone. The mouths of these rivers were ac-tually recessed by five kilometres in the case of thefirst two, and by two in the case of the Ombrone.

Large expanses of marshland also filled someof the lower-lying inland plains, for the rivers fre-

3. 'l-be

ntountainous beecb aood on Mount Amiata.

quently flooded. The rivers'courses were charac-terrzed by curves and bends, with many rrmlfica-tions; all the beds were very wide and obviouslywithout any artlfrcial banks. The River Clanis flow-ed towards the Tiber directly from Arezzo, theSerchio (Auser) ran south of Lucca and one branchemptied into the Lake of Bientina, the otherinto the Arno at Pisa. The Ombrone originally flow-ed into Lake Prile until it managed, at the be-glnning of the Christian era, to change its coursesufficiently to empty directly into the sea. Yet,basically, the course of the rivers was not too dif-ferent from that oftoday.

Before the development of the Etruscan socie-ty and economy, the flora of the region consistedprimarily in woods. The changes in climate whichoccurred after the pre-historical eras did not modi-fy the characteristics of the natural flora estab-lished after the last ice age: starting from the coast-line and moving towards the highest peaks of theAppennines, there were a succession of funda-mental botanical groupings, more or less the sameas today. These began with the Mediterraneanevergreen shrub (without, however, the umbrellapine, which was only introduced by the Romans);there then followed the Submediterranean drywood, consisting primarily in pubescent oak, andthe Submountainous Turkey oak wood, both ofthem without chestnut-trees which, although indi-genous, spread after the Middle Ages as cultivatedtrees; and finally the Mountainous beech wood,also including many conifers such as the silver firand the Norway spruce.

At that time there must also have been large

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1. T-he ntountainaus siluer fir aood on Mount Antiata; in tbe dis-tance the c/a1 hil/s of Radicofani.

5. Hydrrgrapbic uap ( Etruria.

stretches of plain-growing forest, made up of al-der, elm, common oak, poplar, willow and ashwhich-together with the hydrophyte herbaceousand shrubby vegetation typical of damp areas-developed throughout the marshy lands andaround the lagoons and wherever the surface wascovered with water. Today there are only smallareas of it left at San Rossore near Pisa.

The development and expansion of the Etrus-can civthzation caused a gradual but profoundtransformation of the environment, particulaily interms of water courses and flora. The Etruscansdeserve their fame as expert regulators of watercourses. They radically changed the appearance ofthe marshy plains and lagoons, not by actual drain-age, but probably through a widespread series ofworks increasing the natural (and, in some cases,artificial) drainage of the water, in order to makethe agricultural land permanently cultivable andthe level of the lakes uniform, thus making fishingand navigation possible. At the same rime, on thehigher plains and on the coastal and inland hills,they began to exploit the resources of the forests,using the wood to build ships and houses and asfuel for the metal industry. The clearings wereused as cultivable land and pasture.

Under the Etruscans. the increased number of

fhc Natural [ ' .nvironment

human settlements, the drainage systems and theintroduction of the plough allowed for the wide-scale cultivation of grain and textile fibres, ofvines and fruit trees. This form

'of agriculture

changed the appearance of the landscape, creatingthe geometric pattern of "closed fields" (with thevines, tied high up to their supporting trees, instraight rows marking the borders of the squarefields). All the areas around the settlements in southern Etruria began to have this regular appearance.The only exception was the stretch north of theArno-a natural border between the Etruscansand the Ligurians-which was only won over tothis kind of agricultural colonization in the 2ndcentury B.C. when the consular roads, the Cassiaand the Aurelia, were extended to Luni.

The Romans reorganized and further devel-oped this system of regular square plots in theplains with mixed cultivation, at the expense ofthe wood and pasture land. They introduced thecultivation of the olive and of the cvDress. whichflourished at least until the end of thl^late republi-c^n ^ge. Later, the transition from small, single-family farm units to the large landed estates basedon slave labour led to the degradation and regres-sion of the agricultural areas-especially at thetime of the later Roman Empire-with an increase

o

l.agoonr and Iakes in classical t ime:

Rrr cr counes changed in classical t imes

\ larshiancls in the imperial age and the Nliddle Ages

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fhe \atural Environment

of wood and pasture land and a decrease of culti-vated zones.

In other words, the natural environment of-fered huge possibilities to a culturally and techno-Iogically developed society. Firstly, the conforma-tion of the land and the composition of the soilwere favourable to agriculture, for there weremany fertile stretches (the volcanic soil on rhe pla-teaux of Tuscany and Latium and the irrigationprovided by the flooding of rivers on the plains)which the Etruscans cultivated with very advanc-ed agricultural techniques. The mineral resourcesin the central and western part of the region-theso-called "mineral Etruria"-are also connectedwith the geological formarion: the top soil,consisting in clay and calcareous deposits and sand-stone, allowed easy access to the older forma-tions below, rich in copper, tin, lead containingsilver, iron, cinnabar, ochre and so on.

Almost all the to\Mns and the minor agricultu-ral centres were built on top of hills, the so-called"Etruscan position." This is undoubtedly connect-ed with the geological characteristics of the re-gion: the Etruscans grasped the exceptional defen-sive advantages offered by the narrow tufa pla-teaux, from which thev could keep watch over thevalleys, the rivers, the fords, the ioastal ports and

6. Map of the spantaneous uegetation in Etruria.

7. The riaer Fiora, wbith marks the nortbern border of uolcanicEtraria.

the towns on the hillsides. This choice-whichalso offered more favourable climatic condi-tions-was determined by the Etruscan politicalset-up and not, as some would have it, by the factthat the plains were uninhabitable because offlooding or malaia. And in fact, when the regionwas unified under the Romans, settlements sprangup throughout the plains.

The natural resources were copious. The im-mense forests produced wood for building and forfuel, which was also used in the minins industrv.The manufacturing industry protp.r.Jthanks iothe ample water supplies, to the easy access to min-eral deposits and to ports for export. At the mouthsof the major rivers, as well as in the inlets be-tween the promontories, there were safe harboursfor trading vessels; the river valleys were impor-tant communication routes with the interior.Etruria's very position, umbi/icus Italiae, was extra-ordinarily favourable.

The coastal lagoons, like the Prile, offered in-exhaustible reserves of fish and wildlife as well asshelter for boats. The hygienic condition of thecoast and of the Tiber and Chiana valeys musrhave been fairly good, since several settlementssprang up in these areas which later were to be sodeadly. Malaria, if there was any at all, certainly

l ]ccclr u oods and mountain meadS*,

Dccirluous oak woocls

lilcrgreen oak woods and l\lediterranean shrub

\ lcscirhcrmic woocls

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' I he Natura l [ -nv i ronmenr

E. ,1 uine.Tard at .lorano, growing an lhelafa /erraces.

9. Ceonorpho/rlqical and minera/ nap ofIttraria.

10. Lake Accesa, whirh lies in the middleof a /arge minera/ basin exp/oited durin,qc/assica/ /imes.

T

tpsItrnEwn oI\o

]:j':::,"::t1::^""'""") Cffsmarl, scal) argt l laceous rock, etc)

, ' \ l lur ial plains

\ lountain ranges

\ lountain lakes 0

Volcanic structures

Nlesozoic calcareous rock

Nlar ine Pl iocene

Continental Quatetnary

Volcanic tufa

(;rani te

I ron

Copper

I-eacl

Tin

I{ercury

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I hc Natural L,nvironment

,.-1ti;:,i.f :,

did not constitute a serious menace, for the popu-lation led a very active and productive life. It wasnot until the 3rd-5th centuries A.D. that malariareached the height of its destructive power.

During the period of the Roman Empire, how-ever, the creation of large landed estates and thedecline of productive activities and trade-sinceEtruria was no longer on the maior communica-tion routes between Rome and the Po valley-caused the economic decline of the cities. The pop-ulation of the cities decreased and many coastaltowns were abandoned completely; new "castles"

were built on the hilltops in the interior.Even before the destruction caused by the bar-

barian invasions in the 5th century A.D. (andeven more so in the late Middle Ages when the re-gion was the victim of raids by Arab pirates), coast-al Etruria was already described as a desolate, in-hospitable and unhealthy wasteland. Naturalphenomena, such as the silting up of the rivermouths which caused the plains to turn intoswamps, favoured the spread of malana. Pisa wasthe only Roman town, thanks to its favourable po-sition at the mouth of the most important Tuscan

valley and its natural harbour, that remained an

urban settlement of any importance during the

late Middle Ages. Several new towns grew up

along the maior communication route of the time,

the Via Francigena or Romea, which connected cen-

tral and western Europe to the capital of Chris-

tianity through the Cisa pass, Pontremoli, Lucca,

Altopascio, Fucecchio, San Gimignano (later Pog-

gibonsi), Siena, Radicofani and Acquapendente'

The importance of this road definitively moved-

the economic, cultural and demographic centre of

Etruria towards the interior: a process which cul-

minated in the 13th and 14th centuries when Flor-

ence asserted her supremacy by gaining control

over the routes leading to the Appennine passes in

the Mugello towards Bologna.

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I l. .\lttp of srll/rrtett/s in Elruria in t/a.; 12. .lhard with a grrffito (front Vado al/',lrancio, Upper Pa/eo/itbic). I:/areme,I-/o re nt i n e Pre h is tori ca/ M as ea nt.

1 ). Iitrtcrurl, obferl.r (lirtrt I tttlti,ttt,,,Irtut/itltir). Pi.ra, ln.r/i/ale of' . lt/ltrop,,

/,t4t

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THE PRE,HISTORICAL AGEb1 Renata Griftni Cremonesi

The earliest evidence of man in the region whichis today Tuscany and Latium is given by someshards found near Bibbona and in the area aroundLivorno. Later, about 300,000 years ago, HomoErectus lived in open-air settlements and used bi-facial implements. During the Middle Palaeolithicperiod, we have evidence of large settlements ofNeanderthal Man, who lived in Europe between80,000 and 35,000 years ago and used chippedstone implements (Mousterian culture). The Up-per Palaeolithic period, during which m^n ac-quired his modern physical ^ppearance, is verywell documented. In Tuscany there is evidence ofall the different phases: from the Ulutian cultureto the Aurignacian, from the Gravettian to theEpigravettian. At the end of the Wi.irmian rce ̂ ge,about 9,000 years ago, in a hot and dry climate,microlithic cultures began to spread. Evidence ofthese is found even at quite high altitudes on theTuscan-Emilian Appennines and it is attributed tothat er^ called the Mesolithic, which witnessed rad-ical transformations of the habitat.

The transition to the Neolithic period is char-acterrzed primarily by the development of a pro-ductive economy, with the introduction of agricul-ture and animal husbandry, as well as by thespread of new technologies, such as pottery-making and the polishing of stone implements.The oldest Neolithic ltalian culture, dating fromabout 7,500 years ago, is documented only by afew fragments of unbaked impressed potteryfound at Pisa, on the island of Pianosa and atPienza.Incised line pottery appears to have beenmore widely spread, and shards have been foundover a wide area between the Po valley and Tus-cany and Latium, in a timespan th^t goes from6,200 to 5,400 years ago. Our evidence comesmostly from caves used as burial and worshipsites; we have little documentation about the

settlements. The Lagozza culture, dating from4,700 yearc ago, spread primarily over the west-ern Po valley; finds of polished black pottery incaves around Pisa and Siena attest its presence inTuscany. This culture is evidence of the gradualtransition to the metal ages, until the affirmationof the Aeneolithic cultures, derived probably fromcontact with Eastern Mediterrane^n peoples. TheAeneolithic period (2400-1800 B.C.) is well docu-

mented by a large number of tombs containingcopper v/eapons, stone axes and hammers, and ar-rowheads, evidence of new ideologies and cus-toms. While northern Latium and southern Tus-c ny ^re dominated by the Rinaldone culture withits typical tomb shaped like an artrfrcrzl small grot-to, the area around Siena and the Colline Metalli-fere (between Siena and the coast) use ditch gravesand in northern Tuscany burial sites are in naturalgrottoes, more related to the Po valley and the Li-gurian and Provengal cultures than to those ofcentral and southern Tuscany.

During the Bronze Age (1600-1000 B.C.) theAppennine and sub-Appennine cultures flourishin southern Tuscany, Umbria and Latium: theireconomy is agricultural and pastoral. AIso at thistime, we have the appeatance of the proto-Villanovan culture, which marks the end of thisefa.

The earliest stages of the Bronze Age are veryscarcely documented. The Appennine culture,charzcterized by pottery decorated with spiral Pat-terns, and the sub-Appennine culture, with pot-tery without decoration but with elaborate han-dles, are present in southern Tuscany and Latium.

Many important fortified centres spring upduring the period of the proto-Villanovan culture;they bear witness to an increase in trade and thedevelopment of Bronze Age cultures towards ear-ly forms of urban communities.

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THE ETRUSCAN PERIODb1 Marisa Bonamici

One can begin to speak of an Etruscan peoplewith the advent of the so-called Villanovan culture(9th-8th centuries B.C.). During this period, thepopulation lived in reed or wood huts; the tombsconsisted of little wells dug in the ground contain-ing biconical ossuaries and, in the later period (8thcentur/), of inhumation of the deceased with per-sonal objects.

Towards the middle of the 8th century B.C. anevent that was to have an extraordinary effect onthe Italian peninsula took place: the first Greek col-onizers, coming from Chalcis and Bretria, set uptrade bases in Campania. In their search for me-tals, they soon came into contact with Etturia, at-tracted by the mineral wealth of Elba and the areaaround Campiglia, the Colline Metallifere and theTolfa Mountains. This was the beginning of a per-iod of remarkable development for the Etruscansand, thanks to the metal trade, also of social diffe-rentiation. It is at this stage that the Etruscans ac-quire not only those luxury items that constitutethe most remarkable aspect of the "Oriental" styletombs of the 7th century, but also the essentialtechnological innovations in the field of metal-working and pottery and, especially towards thebeginning of the 7th century, writing. An aristo-cratic class, consisting of those who controlledtrade. was created and their role was to be funda-mental throughout Etruscan history. Also at thistime the population began to increase and gradual-ly cities were formed-towards the end of the cen-tury in the more developed areas of southernEtruria, later in the northernpart of the region.

The later history of the Etruscans is only thelogical development of these beginnings: Etruriais active in the world of maritime trade and estab-lishes a continuous and profitable commercial andcultural exchange with Greek and Oriental trad-ers. At the same time, the development of itscraftsmanship, throughout the 7th and 6th centu-ries, gives rise to a democratically-minded middleclass, particulady in southern Etruria (Caere, Veii,Volsinii). This middle class is also responsible forthe move towards colonization (beginning of the5th century), which led to the founding of Capuain Campania and of Manabotto and Felsina (Bo-logna) north of the Appennines.

In 47 4 B.C. the Etruscans were defeated by the

Cumans and the Syracusans: this marked the be-ginning of the decline of their trading activitiesand, consequently, of their contact with the Greekworld. But the recession only really affected thecoastal towns-except Populonia-while the in-land cities continued to thrive on agriculture andthe sale of their manufactured objects to thecentres north of the Appennines.

By the 4th century, with the invasions of theGauls in the north and of the Samnites in Cam-pania, Etruria was reduced once again to its ori-ginal territory, but this brought the region a re-newed prosperity. The population returned to thecountryside and the aristocracy conquered newpowers, very soon creating a relationship of con-flict with the lower classes. The history of Etruriais from this time onward merely the history of itsrelationship with the growing power of Rome, be-ginning with the traumatic fall of Veii (396 B.C.)and culminating, after vartous wars and truces,with the separate alliances (foedera) that the Etrus-can cities were forced to sign in the first half of the3rd century. The terms of these alliances musthave been very harsh. Lir,y gives a list of the trib-utes that Rome demanded of the Etruscan citiesin 205 B.C., just before Scipio's expedition to Afri-ca: wood and agricultural produce from Caere,Tarquinia, Volterra, Perugia, Chiusi and Roselle;iron from Populonia; arms, metal implements andgrain from Arezzo.

During the 2nd century southern Etruria ex-perienced an economic decline, for it was al:an-doned by the aristocracy who had settled in Rome.Northern Etruria, on the other hand, which wasnot abandoned by the aristocracy, was on thecommunication routes from Rome to the nofthand enjoyed a period of great prosperity. In 90B.C. the Etruscans v/ere granted Roman citizen-ship; this put an end to their apparent autonomyand marked the beginning of a new historical per-iod.

I{

d

*. , i:si*i{lll*',r.*r;i*iii; ;&t

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i hc E t ruscan Per iod l 3

11. On'ieto, (.rucifissrt de/-l'ali necroprt/i.r (6th 5tb rcnttry B.(..).

1 1. 1.s71talt:ri, Band j/accitt necrofttlis, arra of /Le " rlriuot,l .\'rttt' j"

(:t/t 6tL rertury B.C.).'l ' ltis.qrrtap of ltrtu/as lontbs, eac/.t ol'nLic/Ltotrlains the buria/ p/ace of'sat,era/ ntenbtrs rll a lani/y c/an, .s/t,ta,slcar/y /be txislence fi'an arislorracy,.

16. Htl .r/tapad un itt brmze /anina a,llh re/ief duora/iort.r (.front

|'tr/ci, aroand t/te ntid-8t/t centary B.(.'.). Rone, l'i//u (,ia/ia.'l /tisdterarl, urn /akes l/-r s/tape.f rolt l/tt ltou.re.r rtf't/tt l:i//anot,at f>eriod,n,illt ur rn'a/,groatd-p/an attd n,ooden bunts.

17. Brotie .r/alat rtf /lte Orator (f ron l)i/a, tear Pera,qia, /ate 2ndtr ear/1' 1.rl rcnla11, B.(..). I'/orerce, Arcltaert/oqica/ trluseunt.

'l'/",e

.tld///( il)ttr a t'o/itv 2llirin,q, a.r tbe itscriptiul sd)'s, t, tlte .qrtd 'l

t\urs frtlt ..'lt'/t i)Ide/i, a tttnthtr of l/te ari.rlrrracl'.ft'ont lbe areaarrtttnrl l)t rt,qia.

1 6

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1 4

THE ROMAN PERIODbl AndreinaRicci

The systematic conquest of Etruria, begun byRome in the 4th century, suffered several set-backs. After the fall of Veii rn 396 B.C.. the townsof Sutri and Nepi were also conquered in 382 B.C.Livy considered these towns "the barriers andgateways of Etruria." The reaction to these defeatsby the other Etruscan cities was different: some,like Caere, signed alliances with Rome (Caere wasgranted the position of ciaitas sine snfragio, equalitywith Rome but with no right to vote); others or-ganized a strong opposition, like Tarquinia andFalerii, who took arms against Rome in 358 B.C.and succeeded in forcing Czere to abandon herpro-Roman position and join the league of Etrus-can cities.

Towards the end of the century, Volsinii andPerugia lead a new opposition against Roman ex-pansionism. But the defeat at Sentinum n 295 B.C.marks the beginning of a series of victorious Ro-m n c mpaigns against Etruscan cities, followedby the confiscation of most of their land and areotganrz tion of the communication routes. Onthe new conquered territories the Romans found-ed Castrum Novum and Pyrgi rn 364 B.C., andAlsium and Fregenaein 245, conceived as militaryoutposts controlling the coast (these are the yearsof the first war with Carthage) and those portionsof Etruscan territory not yet entirely under Ro-man domination. The continuing battles in south-ern Etruria led to the destruction of Falerii andVolsinii (later rebuilt on different sites); but someEtruscan cities of the interior remained neutral,like Statonia and Saturnia which were consideredprefectures and connected to Rome by the ClodianWay built before 2258.C.

In the Etruscan cities of the north, however,Rome signed alliances with the local ruling classesand the only military interventions are more likepolice actions, requested by the local aristocracy,such as, for example, Rome's intervention inArezzo in 302 B.C. in order to quell a revolt of theserfs. By the end of the 3rd century northernEtruria is connected to Rome by the Cassian Way.The process of colonization continues throughoutthe 2nd century, but the aim is no longer strictlymilitary-the Gauls had been defeated in225B.C.New towns are founded: Saturnia in 183 B.C..Gravisca in 181 B.C. and Heba sometime between

| 8. Vieu of the coast near Pygi.

19. Fahrii Noui, city gate dedicated to Japiter ( jrd century B.C.).

20. Siutri, Anplsitbeatre (1st ceiltilry B.C./).

21. Nunziatella (near Cosa), the aalls surrounding Villa del/eColonne ( 1il antury B.C.).

Page 16: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

The Roman Period

167 and 157 B.C. The Roman aristocracy beginsto take over the ager publicus, public land, aprocesswhich will lead, in the following century, to thespread of villas in the countryside. In northernEtruria, and especially in the area around Volter-ra, there are still large landed estates based onslave labour, whereas around Chiusi and Perugianew settlements spring up, varying in size fromsingle farms to fairly large towns. This has usuallybeen attributed to the social integration ofpart ofthe slaves. The Aurelian \Way is prolonged at theend of the century (Via Aenilia Scaur) because ofrevolts in Liguria.

In the early 1st century (89 B.C.) almost all thepopulations of Italy are granted Roman citizen-ship. The Etruscan cities which had sided withMarius during the civil w^r ^re punished by thevictorious Sulla with massacres, confiscation ofland and destruction. Sulla also gives 120,000 ofhis soldiers land near Fiesole, Arezzo, Volterraand Chiusi. The population and land distributionin the region is thus radically altered, even thougha few lzrge family estates manage to survive-theCilnii in Arezzo and the Cecinae in Volterra. Thiskind of colonization, aiming at distributing land to

the veterans, continues throughout the century.Under Augustus the whole of Etruria became

part of the 7th Region and a new form of coloni-z^tion, aimed at stopping the decline of some cit-ies, was begun. This was then continued by hisdirect successors. The policy of restoration includ-ed also the rediscovery of ancient Etruscan tradi-tions and during this period the region became thecentre of the most important industries based onslave labour. From the 2nd century A.D. onward,most of the cities began to decline and, in thecountryside, most of the settlements were aban-doned. Only a few large estates were left (mari-time villas), mostly imperial property. A descrip-tion of the coast, made at the beginning of the 5thcentury by Rutilius Namatianus, a few years afterthe invasion of the Goths, shows the survival ofonly a few scattered communities.

Page 17: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

1,6

THE MIDDLE, AGESb-y Ri cca r d o F r an cou i cb

Tuscany, or Tuscia, in the Middle Ages was not ahomogenous territorial or administrative unit. Itconsisted of the territories of Lucca, Luni, Pisa,Volterra, Pistoia and Florence, in the north, andof those of Siena, Arezzo, Chiusi, Perugia, Orvie-to, as well as the royal lands donated to the Popeby Charlemagne-Sovana, Roselle, Populonia,Toscanella and Castro-in the south. After theGothic domination, the Longobards gave the re-gion a certain amount of unity, beginning in 570,setting up the duchy of Lucca, which under theFranks became a county. The first Frankish countwas Boniface (81,2-823), who had come to Italywith Charlemagne and founded the dynasty whichwas to rule over the region for a century anda half. During this period the ties with Corsicaand Sardinia were strengthened. Adalberto I(845-898) was called marquis of Tuscany, but itv/as not until the second half of the 10th centurythat the region became a marquisate. It was thisinstitutional org nrzation that allowed the devel-opment of that kind of autonomy which formsthe basis of feudal seignories. The organization ofthe large feudal propefties was based on the cartis,which denoted both the type of rural dominationand the actual buildings housing this power. Thebasic characteristic of this system was the divisionof the estate in two parts: the part belonging di-rectly to the lord (pars doninica) and the rest of theland which was divided into small plots, usuallycomprising a house lived in by slaves or freedmen.

In the early Middle Ages Tuscany was in greatdecline. The areas in the valley of the Arno wereswampy until at least the 10th century and onlythe small parts above the water were cultivated(such as the plain around Lucca). The area of theMaremma around Siena was almost entirely unin-habited and Bishop Giovanni (end of the 9th cen-tury) described the churches in ruins and thewhole of Tuscany as a disease-ridden region-rather like Rutilius Namatianus's description, orthat of Sidonius Apollinans in 467.

The plains were abandoned and the populationmoved back to the hills, where they pursued pas-toral activities. Agriculture, by now only just self-sufficient, was based on wheat, wine and olive oil.A document from Lucca, dating from 764, illuS-

trates the basic diet: a loaf of wheat bread. aquarter of an amphora of wine and the same quan-tity of a mixture of beans and millet flour, with anoccasional addition of meat. The settlements werevery poor: huts and houses made of mud seem tohave been the norm, as recent archaeological stud-ies have proved. Groups of dwellings carved outof the rock.were cornmon in southern Tuscany aswell as in a few other areas, such as the sandstonehills around Siena. Settlements of this kind lastedfor a long time, in some cases till modern times.

The system of consular roads, which had re-mained efficient until the rule of Theodoric, soondeclined under the Longobard domination, serv-ing only as means of local communication. It wasonly later, with pilgrims and merchants, that theyresumed their original importance.

The Longobards found two routes leading toRome: the Aurelia, along the coast, and the Cassia,which went through Pistoia, Florence, Chiusi andBolsena. But the Aurelia, exposed to dangers com-ing from the sea, passed through a desolate andswampy countryside. The Cassia, on the othefhand. was abandoned not so much because of theincreasing marshland in the Chiana valley, but be-cause it was so close to the boundary with the Ex-archate. This reduced the importance of the Tus-can mountain passes towards east and the majorcommunlcation route became the pass of the Cisafurther north. This is one of the reasons why Flor-ence lost her supremacy ovef Lucca, which hadbecome the major centre along the new route,called Via Francigena. The Via Francigena ledfrom Luni to Lucca through Camarore, then itreached the river Elsa south of San Miniato viaFucecchio, continuing on to Poggibonsi andSiena; then it followed the valley of the Arbia toBuonconvento, San Quirico and Radicofani andfinally, through the valley of the Paglia, it reachedBolsena, Montefiascone and Viterbo. A north tosouth route that was to last a long time.

'it - i.iR,q$; r.: :-., rir:r*i*iili;ir!i*r,,- ur:-.!x ..,,.-.;*GiL **;*d

Page 18: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

The Midd lc Ages t /

) 1

22. Go/d "rrtcelte" or .vtta// crosse.r (frrtnt

.\idnla Ciu/ia, Itcu, 7//t cenlarl'). I:/orenct,

.1 nh aert/r4i rd /,\ 1 tt s t u nt.

21. .\u'atta, ciboriant rl'lbe churrlt rl .\,ar/a

,\Ia ri a ( 8 tlt - 9 th renlt 11, ).

21. "]Jyzatt/itte" brotze be/t hack/es (frort

/tnth - ) a/ Gran.gia, second ha/f'rtf tlte 7t/t

rc t / u r 1' ). (, ro.r.r e / 0, .' 1 rc /L a e r,/ o qi ra / t\ 1 u.r t u n.

Page 19: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

THE ARCHEOLOGICAL ARE,AS

VEII AND THE FALISCAN PLAIN

Finds fron tlte apper Palaeolitbic period come from tbe Cauernette Faliscbeand from Vignanello (Pigorini and Villa Giulia Museums in Rone). TheNeo/itbic is documented in tbe Grotto of Monteuenere on the Lake of Vicnincised line pottery probabfu connected to worsbip practices-as we// as in tbeCauernette Falische and in tbe Vannaro Grotto at Corcbiano (Vi//a Giulia).Tbe BronTe Age is we// repruented b1 the uillage on tlte Appennines calledMonteuenere, b1 the bronw and iron objects found at Narce, b1 tbe proto-Villanoaan settlements and tombs at Veii and b1 tbe pile-dwellings on LakeBracciano (Vi I la Gi u lia).

The plateau of Comunit), the site first of villages and later of the cityof VEtt, and the necropolises on the surrounding hills and valleyshave provided us with major finds of the Villanovan culture-thanks especially to the Anglo-Italizn exc v^tron of Quattro Fonta-nili. These finds have helped in the study of this culture in the rest ofEtruria (objects at Villa Giulia and at the Museum of Civita Castel-lana). Also important is the 8th-century B.C. pottery from the Ci-clades and Euboea (and the later imitations produced locally), whichare the result of trade with the first Greek colonizers; Veii con-trolled the mouth of the Tiber and thus held a privileged position indealings with the Greeks. This was in fact the primary reason of theconflict with Rome and Veii was the first victim of Rome's expan-sionist policy.

The first "Oriental" phase (first half of the 7th century) flour-ished here and the objects found in the tombs clezrly show the in-fluence of Caere and the Faliscan Plain (objects at the Archaeologi-cal Museum in Florence, atYtlla Giulia and at the Pigorini Museumin Rome). There ^re very few finds of objects related to the aristo-crzclt among which a few burial sites and the recently discoveredchamber tomb at Monte Oliviero, with an array of princely objects(at Villa Giulia), similar in composition to those found in the Rego-lini Galassi tomb in Caere. Also exceptional is the painted "Tomb ofthe Ducks" (second quarter of the 7th century), now open to thepublic at Riserva del Bagno: the fuieze of little ducks is reminiscentof geometrical Etruscan ceramics showing Euboean influence. The*Chigi olpe" is also unique: it was produced and decorated on com-mission by Corinthian craftsmen around 650 B.C. (Villa Giulia).Among the more recent "Oriental" finds, only the Campanatomb atMonte Michele shows any autonomous artistic tradition. Its endwall is embellished by a painted decoration (animals on the lower le-vel, and two knights accompanied by men on foot above) whichshows a polychrome technique and a late "Oriental" style similar tothe contempor^ry Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics.

The community of Veii became an urban settlement towards thebeginning of the 6th century when a group of permanent construc-tions were built on the acropolis (Prazza d'Armi). At the centrestood a rectangular temple, which was abandoned at the end of thecentury when the sanctuary of Portonaccio, dedicated to Meneraa

Page 20: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

\ e i i rn r l t l r c I a l i sc rn l ) l r in

2i. C/ay sldtae rl Apo//r,, front llte acro/erin (fittt //te sarclaur1, rtf' Porlonacrirt a/I rii, /ute 6tb cen/ury B.(.). Ilonte, l,'1//a

Page 21: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

20

2 6. | 'eii, Ronan road.

27. Itrii, excatatirtts al the sanctuary ofPorlonario (/an 6t/t centarlt B.(.). 171 y11,f,'n.,4r,,unl. t/r lorK aal(r r6(nnir.

28. I'eii, rains of tlte Roman ai//a at (,ant-pel/i. lt tbe backqround, tbt water cisttrn.

29. 'l

/te "OLigi o/pe" produced by Corin-/ltiar rrafisnten (nn /eii, tttid Zlh centaryB.(.). ktnte, I'i//a Ciu/ia. On this side,slarltn,q al the top: battle scenes, prnnssion rf'fui.qltt.r fi/lrnina a rbariot, ltuntin. scenes.

da,

(Minerva), was built outside the city. At Portonaccio, just as at Cam-petti (see below), evidence of conrinuous religious practice until thethe 1st century is provided by many ex-votos, some of which are ofgreat interest, such as the one offered by the celebrated Aaile Vi-piennas, citizen of Vulci or the small statue depicting Aeneas carry-ing Anchises-an episode taken over by groups of Romans as asymbol of their move to the newly conquered city. The sanctuary,which is open to the public, consists of a central structure (probablya cella with alae) with, next to it, a large pond used in the religiousceremonies and filled by a network of little canals. In front there is asmail building which contained an altar and the votive gifts. But themost interesting aspect of this monument are the large clay sratues,

Vci i anc l the [ ]e l i scan P la in

Page 22: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

u'hich originallv stood on the peak of the roof, represenring Apollo,l,atona, Ileracles ancl Hermes (Villa Giulia). They arc the work ofthe sculptor from Veii, Vulca, famous in antiquity, who was also thcauthor of the decoration of the temple of Jupiter on the CapitolineI I i l l in Rome.

'fhe contemporary foundation, in the centrc of the city, of thc

sanctuary of Campetti cledicated to the goddess Vei (who can beidentified with the Roman Cercs), worshipped in Etruria ancl Romcby the lower classes, probably indicates a political supremacy of thcplebeians. This perhaps explains why, although Latin sources reFer to"kings" of Veii, the objects found in the (rth ancl 5rh-cenrurv tombsare never very lavish. Thesc "kings" were probably tyrannical fig-ures and there may well have bccn laws banning cxcess luxu[,',basecl on Solon's legislation ancl inspired by equalita.rian ancl anti-aristocratic sentiments. The citv continuecl to prosper throughoutthe 5th century, thanks to its well-developed agriculture, as u,.e cansee Lry the surviving unclerground drainage concluits all over thecountryside, among which the so-callecl Ponte Sodo (see p. 50), stil lvisible today. lt was in this period of prospcrity that Veii was in-fluenced by the classical (]reek style, examples of which arc the "NIa-

lavolta Head" ancl thc statue of a young man, Lloth in the manner ofPolycleitus (from Portonaccio, now at Villa Giulia). Accorcling loLivy, the city was conquered by the Romans in 39(r B.C., after a ten-1'ear sicge. The Roman conqucst was macle easier by thc fact thatpart of the league of lrtruscan cities, rulccl by an oligarch], atran-cloned Veii because of its anomalous monarchv.

1 l

)0. I:nt.qltett/ ol a.rtr/p/rd ttd puitt/ttl

/nul, prrlub/y /.ur.r (fiort I'u/trii '\'tr.rti,i.

lirs/ /u/l / t/tt 1//t tutltrr.'y l).(..). I\ortt,

I i//,t Oir/ia.

) l. Irtfaslo tttf (fnrt Xar,;:, .srrutrl ltu/f Q1/r

-/lt rtt/trr'1' I).(..). Ilortt, I

'i//t (,itr/it.

.1/ut.4 /lte rirt.r /bert art .rtt/plrra/ dttlr,t

/itrt.t: tt nut /to/dtn.q fiur Lor.rt-r utrl /n',,

/nr.;t.r'/ttatl.r.

qff i : " . 1

i b * . j * , , , r , . ,

qu*r*i",. ,;,..

]II

Page 23: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

22Prehistorical Implements

The first implemenrs manufacturecl byman werc simple shards, chipped atone end (choppers) founcl in Afrjca,and which date from tu/o or two and ahalf million years ago; some have alsobeen found in Europe. This elemen-tary utensil gradually developed intot!. bifacial implement (antgdala),chipped probably with the aid of astone hammer. The flakes were used aswell, but gradually the chipping tech_nrque succeeded in producing flakes ofa determinate shape; the ea.liert o.reswere u'ide and thick, rhe later ones,produced with a wood or bone billet,were thinner. Durinq the N iddle pa-laeolithic more complicated proce-dures came to be used: a core of flintwas roughly prepared and then reguiarshaped f lakes were chipped off and re-touched at the edges to be used aspoints and scrapers. In the Upper pa-laeolithic, man refined theie tech-niques even further; he managed to ob_tain long, thin blades provi. t ing a widerange ofspecialized tools, proving thatthe communities of hunters were in_volved in a variety of activities. Bonewas also widely used during the pa-lacol i thic. Thc oldest tools that weknow of are bifacials made of boneflakes found in Latium, but the use ofthis material was widespread in theL pper Pa laeo l i th ic : aw ls , g ravers ,points, harpoons, perforators, oftenclecorated or sculpted. Unfortunatelywe havc no cvidence oF obiects pro-duced in o ther mater ia ls (wood.leather, vegetable fibres, and so on)and wc can only guess at the actualfunction of rhe srone tools. During the\ leso l i th ic the predominant f l in i in -dustry is that of pygmy flints or micro-liths in the shape of triangles, trape-ziums and crescents, which were plob_abll used as arrowheads. During thcNeolithic, stone tools were maJe ofobsidian (volcanic glass) as well asflint. Generally they u,ere of regularshapes, frcquentl l r rapezoidal, andwere often used as reaping-hooks; thefirst dressed stone bifaaial arrowheadsalso appeared. A technological innova-tion were celts (ax or adz heads) edgedby grinding and polishing. Bone con-tinued to be used for points, needles,hooks and harpoons. Grindstones,used as early as the Upper Palaeolithic,became more u'idespread as agricultu_

ral activity developed: large pieces ofsanclstone or volcanic stone were used.w i th smal le r ones as mul le rs . Forweaving, Neolithic man used terracot_ta or stone spindles and loom weights;fragments of fabrics have been fo"undin pile-dwellings. During the Aeneo-lithic we find stone arrowheads withtangs, retouched on both sides, withsmall nails to fix them to the handles.as well as f lat axes and narrow points.During,the Bronze Age, metal objectsreplaced stone ones "l-ost entirely:we.have found swords, daggers, poinisancl also tools such as a*is, sickles.saws and chisels. Bronze ornaments(brooches, necklaces and bracelets)and amber objects replace the previouishel l , bone, stone or tooth ornaments.In the pile-dwellings of northern Italya variety of wooden vases and otherutensils have been found; these enable

Ius to have a better picture of the com-plex agricultural and manufacturingactivities of this period. The first ex_amples of the wheel appeared at thistlme.

,dR\

ffifri#h,rsit;^iq$,,-ffi/F- f1'+-y22

4h€ew&,. #,.Vi,"ii

ffbi l l D!i E i !us-19

ffiW

t\gFn\FU,,js (lj i i i

Page 24: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

L Reconstruction of prehistorica/ inple-nenls: sbards from the Lower Palaeolithic( 1 7 ), .fron the Middle Palae olithic( 8 - 1 1 ), .fron the Upper Palaeolithic(12-)0), and fron the Mesalitbic( 3 1 - 1 1 ) .

II. Pa/aeo/itbic shard. F/orence, FlarentinePrehislarica/ Museam.

III. Two adzes in dressed ttone (Neo/ithi)Pisa. Ins/ilule of Anlhropology.

IV. Bone implements: spata/a, point, spear-head (Neo/ithic). Pisa, Insitate af Antbro

Po/,,gt.

V. Grindstone (Neolithi). Pisa, Institateof Anthropology.

VI. Copper adz (Aeneo/ithic). Pisa, Institate af Anthrapology.

VII. Terracotta wbarl .for weauing (Neo-/ithir). Pisa, Institute of Antbropo/og1.

Page 25: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

32. Lucus Feroniae, the liuing qaarters oftbe Volusii Vil/a (1st centurJ B.C.).

)3. Lucas Feroniae, mosaic floor of tbeperistlle of the Volaii Vi//a.

34. Ltcus Feroniae, the basilica (1st cen-tary B.C.). In the foreground, tbe inlaidmarb/efloor.

Vcii and the Faliscan Plain

During its cultural development and later during the conflictwith Rome, the only territory which remained allied to Veii was theFaliscan plain. This area, with the towns of FalpRri, NARCn andC,tpexe (in antiquity considered a colony of Veii), was inhabited bya non-Etruscan population who spoke an Italic langtage, Faliscan,similar to Latin. The finds in the tombs of this region from the 9thto the 6th century bear witness to a civiliz^tion very similar to con-temporary Veii and southern Etruria, both in the form of the burialsites (cremation tombs in tufa stone containers, followed by shaftsin tree-trunks and chamber tombs) and in the objects found in them(impasto, bronzes, bucchero, original Greek ceramics and imita-tions). An element, however, typical only of the Faliscan tradition isthe influence derived from the Sabines and other inhabitants of La-tium, visible in the impasto vases with animal figures and foliage,incised and incaved, dating from the 7th and 6th centuries (VillaGiulia).

The most remarkable period of development in this area tookplace in the 5th century, at atime when Falerii became a tealurbansettlement (and Narce was abandoned); the sanctuaries of Vignaleand Scasato were built in the city, those of Sassi Caduti and Celleoutside the walls. The latter was dedicated to Juno Curitis and theruins of patt of its structure have survived. Terracottas of great in-terest have been found on the sites of all these buildings (Villa Giu-lia). Just to mention a few: two fighting warriors, from Sassi Caduti(beginning of the 5th century); a bearded head in the style of Phi-dias's Zeus at Olympia; works influenced by the style of 4th-centuryGreek artists, like the statue of Apollo from Scasato, inspired by Ly-sippus's portrait of Alexander the Great, the two statues of a mznand a woman inspired by Praxiteles, from Celle and Scasato, and thehead of a m^n from Scasato in the manner of Skopas. In this artisticatmosphere, strongly influenced by Greece, to*"rdr the end of the5th century a workshop producing red-figure ceramics was foundedin Falerii. This workshop, probably set up by immigrant Attic ar-tists, has left us such masterpieces as the krater of "the painter ofDiespater" and that of "the painter of Aurora" (Villa Giulia).

ln 394, after the defeats of both Veii and Capena, Falerii is forcedto sign a truce with Rome which will lead, after various ups and

Page 26: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Veii ancl the Faliscan Plain

downs, to the rebellion of 241ending with the complete destructionof the city.

After Vgu was conquered by Furius Camillus in 396 B.C., the wor-ship of Juno Regina was transferred to Rome and a large part of theconquered land was distributed to the Roman plebeians (an attemptat solving the conflict between patricians and plebeians). A class ofsmall landowners was thus created and their presence is evident inthe archaeological finds. The countryside appears to have beendensely populated, while the cities were being progressively aban-doned as early as the 2nd century, Later the villas, the centres oflzrger estates, replaced the smaller settlements established by thesmall-holders and farmers. The ruins of a grznd late-republican villaare still visible near Anguillara. Some of the villas grew up withinthe cities themselves incorporating existing constructions. At theCampetti villa (1st century B.C.) a cistern and semi-circular nym-phaeum are still visible. In front of the nymphaeum a black andwhite mosaic was found. The sanctuary of Portonaccio was used un-til the 1st century B.C. (as is shown by the votive offerings). Shortlyafter it was abandoned, a road was built across the site.

Augustus's project, followed also by his immediate successors, ofreviving the declining city of Veii (and other centres of Etruria) ledto the creation of the Manicipiun Augustum Veiens, which was embel-lished by several important buildings, such as the temples of Marsand of Victory, a public bath building (the ruins are known as the"Bagno della Regint') and a porticas Aagusta, commissioned by Ti-berius. Twelve Ionic columns of Carcara marble, discovered in1912-17, are now visible in the atrium of Palazzo Wedekind inRome (PiazzaColonna).

But, despite these attempts, the city progressively declined, whilethe surrounding countryside remained densely populated. Thecountryside here was in fact abandoned much later and much moreslowly than elsewhere. The so-called "Muracci di Santo Stefano"(near Angulllara) are in fact the ruins of a 2nd-century A.D. villa,later converted into a place of Christian worship.

From the site of Lucus FpRoxrag (Colonia lalia Lucoferoniensis),founded probably around the middle of the 1st century B.C., the

25

15. Lucus I:eroniae, //te anpbitbeatre ( 1stcenturT B.C.).

)6. Lucus Feroniae, the Aerariant (lstcentury B.C.).

1 7. Lucus Feroniae, warebouse counterwith built-in doliun.

Page 27: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

26

t8

Vcii and thc Iialiscan Plain

who_le valley of the Tiber is visible. The southernp^rt of the plateauis taken up by the sacred wood of the goddess Feronia (of Sabineorigin), protectress of animals. The worship of this deity is yery ^n-cient and the neighbouring populations (Latins, Sabines, Etruscansand Faliscans) gathered here. The settlement grew up at the edge ofthe sacred wood. The forum belongs to the eailier stage of the life ofthis city, before the arrival of the volusii saturninii famiry in Augus-tan times. Along the north-western side of the forum stood thJa-silica and the entrance to a small underground room where the colo-ny's treasure (aerarium) was kept. At the foot of the basilica there aretwo small temples, and there were various shops along one of thelong sides of the square. There are also the ruini of a bath building,probably built in the 1st century A.D., which continued to functionuntil quite late, at least until the end of the 5th century. one can alsosee the remains of a house dating from the republican period andthose of an amphitheatre which is very small and leads us to believethat the- city was not densely populated. Near the amphitheatre theruins of a public bath have been found. A visit to tha volusii villa,on the Autostrada del Sole, which has been largely preserved, is wellworthwhile.

After the destruction of Falerii veteres in 241 B.c.. a cerrainamount of time elapsed before the new city, FALERII NOVI, wasbuilt in 220.The old city stood on the site of present-day civita cas-tellana; the new one, a few miles away, on the site of today's SantaMariadi Falleri. It was rectangular in plan and sprang up around thevia Amerina which crosses it. The insulae ar. telt".rgnlar. The wallssurrounding the town have watchtowers and gates. Inside, the ruinsof atheatre have been found; outside the walli stand the remains ofan amphitheatre, which was presumably built around the 1st cen-tury A.D. Many important engineering works took place in the

38. Croand-plan of the moantain church of.lanta Maria del Parto at Sutri.

19. Satri, tbe moantain church of .lantaMaria de/ Parto (6th century ?).

o o

t r t rt r t lt r t rt r t rt r t ro ot r t r

O 5 m

Page 28: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

2 7

course of the history of Falerii Novi, such asAmerina and the Fosso Tre Ponti acqueduct.

Unlike the majority of the cities of Etruria,thriving in the late-classical period.

the bridge over the

this town was stil l

The most well-known ancl widely spreacl t,vpes of rural settlements in Lattum tnthc 8th and 9th centuries are the domuscultae,large landed estates aclministercd b,vthe Papacy and which had come into being thanks to bequests. Some of thesehave been stucliecl both topographically and archaeologically: among them, SantaRufina, not far from Rome, and Santa Cornelia, near Veii, where an early meclie-r.al church has come to light. It stands in the administrative centre of the estate,

which was enlarged bv Pope Hadrian I increasing thefandus Capracorant, clonatedin the 8th century to the deacon of Santa N{aria in Cosmedin by dux Eustarhius.\\ e still know very little about the decline of these settlements in the plains, buttheir disappearance may be related to the dangers of the times (Nloslem raicls) anclto the clevelopment during the 1Oth century of hilltop communities. These com-munities, a revir.al of pre-Roman customs, could not be reachecl by vehicles on

u'heels; thev were naturally fortified and far rcmoved from the major communtcation routes, in a region where the distances between the citics, such as CivitaCastellana, Nepi and Sutri, were considerable.

Religious buildings dug out of the tufa stone are one of the more frequentcharacterist ics of this phenomenon of hi l l top communit ies, so common in north-

ern I-atium. The church of Santa Nlaria del Parto, west of the Cassian Way, near

Sutttt, stands in an area v'here the l-ongobard occupation was shorter-Sutriwas only conquered by I-iutprancl in 728-and its influence less radical, com-pared to the more central parts of their conquerecl territory. The church consistsin a nave and two aisles separated by square pilasters and longitudinal arches.There is also a large flat-roofed presbytery with four pilasters. Inside, among \rervbadl,v damagecl frescoes dating from the 12th to 14th centuries, there are two fig-

ures in red (a dove with an olive branch ancl a fish) on the two pilasters near the

presbvtery, which can be datecl to the 6th century thanks to their stylistic similar-itv with contemporarv churches in southern ltaly, in particular around Syracuse.The existence of rooms dug out of the rock nearby has suggested that there mav

have been catacombs on this site before the church, whereas it is almost certainthat the pre-existing structures incorporated in the church were usecl as burial

sites and as dwellings at the time of the Etruscans. The remains arouncl the

church were probably medicval houses.

VOLSINII

Tbe Lower Palaeolithic is represented fu, sbards found at Monte Peglia, tbeMiddle b1 those found near Oruieto and tbe Upper b1 tbe Tane del Diauolo(Deuil's Lairs) at Parrano (Archaeological Maseum, Perugia). Tbe Neo-lithic period is ae// represented both at tbe Grotta Bella of Montecastrilli andat the wells called Pozzi della Piana at Titignano, connected to the worsltip ofwater. The Aeneolithic has je/ded fnds at Terni Acciaierie (Pigorini Mu-seum in Rome and Ciaic Museun in Terni), at the Rinaldone necropolis(Montefiasnne) and in the tomb of Fosso Conicchio (Pigorini Museun). TheBronze Age is represented b1 Appennine and sub-Appennine materialsfoundat the Tane del Diauol0, Grotta .San Francesco al Titignano, Pozzi della Pianaand Crotta Bella.

On the territory that by the end of the 6th century was under thedirect rule of Vctr-stNtt (the present Orvieto), in other words thearea between the north and east shores of Lake Bolsena and the Ti-ber and the Paglia, there is evidence of the Villanovan culture both inthe village of Gran Carco and in Volsinii itself. The village of Gran

Page 29: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

40. Oriental-Greek marble sturue (aroandtbe end of tbe 6tb centary B.C.). bnieto,Ciaic Museum. Tb* statie of a iaked god-der was the objut of worsbip in" tbetanctuary of the Cannicella necropolis.

41. Bronze aotiae rtatue of a warrior ffir-i:g:./ib!!ion (fron Todi, earj 4tb ceitaryB.C.). Vatican, Gregoriar Etruscan Mi_

Vols in i i

ca*o is now under the water of the lake, near the east shore (thefinds are in Bolsena and at villa Giulia). The finds at volsinii arc inthe Faina Museum; one can also visit ihe excavation of the 6th-5thcentury necropolises under the church of Sant'Andrea. During theperiod of the "oriental" style, volsinii was not one of the cities thatimported precious objects and no artifacts indicating the existenceof an aristocracy have come to light.

From the first half of the 6th ientury we find evidence in volsiniiof anorganized urban community, but one which is particulady..dem-ocratic" in its set-up, a fact revealed primarily in ihe necropolis ofcrocifisso del rufo (op.r to the pubric). Here, the tombs are all sim-ilar in shape, size and quality of objects; they appear to have beenF{ 9", according to a sirictly planned design'ani each one is identi-fied by the name of the o*neiloblects in tle Faina Museum and intheP.alazzo dei Papi in.orvieto, together with an exhibition explain-ing the recent restorations). At thii time the first craftsmen's work-shops were set,up and the products (impasto, bucchero, bronzevases) were sold to-the neighbouring towns, Grotte Santo Stefano,Grotte di castro, civita del Fosso d'Arlena, celleno, Bagnoregio,which nonetheless ̂ pw^r to have been economically indeplndeni.

By the second half of the century, volsinii had bicom. " p.orp.r-9us ci_ty, thanks to its geographical position enabling it to controlthe Tiber and chiana valleys, and thanks also to orginized, agricul-ture on-the fertile plain. By this stage orvieto was involvedln thetrade of Greek-oriental artistic pro-ducts, among which one mustmention the famous "venus" (civic Museum, within the Faina Mu-seum). It comes from the sanctuary at the centre of the cannicellanecropolis, which was dedicated to the goddes s'vei here given thezppeuznce of a funerary Aphrodite, a custom common in Greece.The production of bronze objects is also interesting vases for com-Tot- ot1g., objects of great artistic value in a Ionic iyle, such as foilsfor the decoration of carts (the so-called Ferroni foils from Todi, inthe Archaeological Museum in Florence, and the bronzes from cas-telsan

\rarizno,partly now in the Archaeological Museum in peru-g,ta)_ayd small sculptures like the so-called Mlars from Ravenna (inthlfllseym_in Leyden) Objects of this kind were widely exportedto umbria,

|omagna, Emilia and to piceno. By this time v;lsiniihad won political supremacy over the arez and, this caused the de-cline and even abandon of some of the smaller settlements, such asthe neighbouring citadel of Acquarossa ; border towns, on the otherhand, were strengthened.

. lrying the second half of the 5th century and the beginning ofthe 4th, the local workshops were influenced by the style 3f pniai"r.Examples of this are the architecturar terracottas of ihe temple ofBelvedere (the excavation is open to the pubric), those found at thecannicella necropolis and in via San Leonardo (FainaMuseum) andthe bronze statue of Mars found in a sanctuary near Todi (now inthe Gregorian Museum in the Vatican).

In the 4th century, some powerful land-owning families had un-derground tombs built for themselves outside ihe city. Amongthese, the Golini tombs at Settecamini and the Hescanas tomb aIPorano, decorated with paintings praising the family and filled with

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Vols in i i 29

4 1

luxurious personal objects (now in thePalazzo dei Papi). This seemsto indicate a prevalence of the countryside and of the aristocracyover the city, which must eventually have led to the civil strife men-tioned in the sources. This paved the way for the Roman army'sconquest of the city in 264 B.C. The inhabitants that survived weremoved to a new city and the worship of Vertumnus, common to allEtruscans, was transferred to Rome. The conquering consul, M.Fulvius Flaccus, celebrated the event offering a group of bronze sta-tues to the sanctuary of Sant'Omobono in Rome, as war booty. Thetufa bases with the commemorative inscriptions have survived.

There is practically no mention of Vot-stNtt in our sources after the Roman con-quest. The city only resumed a certain importance in the 6th century A.D. whenit is mentioned in the writings of Paul the Deacon and Pope Gregory the Great.The only remains worthy of mention are the fragments of mosaics in the crypt ofthe church of Sant'Andrea.

Vot.stNtt Novt, which replaced the old Volsinii (Orvieto) like Falerii Novi re-

42. .\arcopltagas from T-orre .lan Seaero,

frort a tomb belonging to the agrarian aristo-crac.y (araund the nid-4th centary B.C.).Oruieta, Ciaic Museum. On the /ong side,Achil/et sacrtfces tbe

'frolan prisoners to the

Manes af Patroclos; on tbe thort side, Ufyssusacri/icu a ram before the entrance to Hades.

4). T'ua ceramic amphoras, wih relief de-corations shrwing a batt/e rf the AmaTont(early 3rd century B.C.). Oruien, CiuiMuseum. Tbh type of uase, produced -first atVakinii and later at Volsinii Nrni, is eai-dence of the crntinuity between tbe two towrc.

14. Arcbitectural tenacatla fron tlte ari-toratic residence at Acquarossa, with ahanquel scene (aroand the mid-6th centuryB.C). Viterbo, Ciuic Museun.

Page 31: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

30The Language and Odginsof the Etruscans'Ihe

Etruscan language, often mistak-tnly considered the most mysteriousaspect of the so-called "Etruscan mys-rcry," is in fact only part ial ly undlr-stood. This does not mean that Etrus-can inscriptions are not legible and, inthe vast maiority of cases, perfectly un-derstandable. It means that it is a lan-guage which has not come down to usthrough a manuscript tradition, and istherefore known almost exclusivelyfrom epigraphs, most of which are frr-nerary inscriptions offering only a re-stricted and repetitive range of infor-mat10n.

So far as we know, Etruscan is notan Indo-European language; it hasphonetic and morphological connec-tions with the language documented atLemnos by an inscription dating fromthe late 6th century B.C. It would seemlikely that Etruscan and Lemnian arethe last relics of an ancient languagecommon to the whole Mediterraneanreglon.

Modern research makes no use ofetymological methods, based on thecomparison of Etruscan with otherknown languages. It studies the lan-guage on the basis ofinternal evidenceprovided by the texts themselves, and

has obtained remarkable results in theunderstanding of the onomatologicalformulas, now perFectly clear. of manygrammatical structures and of somesyntactical con st ruct ions.

What we have said so far implies aclear distinction between the conceotoF language and the concepr of alpha-bet, which consists only in a system ofslgns expressing the language itself.The Etruscan alphabet presents noproblem; it is perfectly readable, for itis basically simply tne Greek alphabetbrought over by the Euboean colon-izers, with a few adjustments. It began

to be used in the early 7th century and,srnce lt was an lnstrument of trade, atfirst it was used only by the aristo-cracy. Later, with the birth of urbancommunities, writing v/as taught inthe temples, such as the Portonacciotemple at Veii, and began to be used torecord public events (see the lamina ofPyrgi), lists of magistrates, and so on.At the same time, the practice of writ-ing spread, until in ttre Znd century inthe terr i tory of Chiusi and perugiaeven the cinerary urns oF slaves andfreed men were normallv inscribeclwith the names of the deceased.

Page 32: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

The "problem" of the origins of theEtruscans is in fact a false problem. in-vented by lg th -century h is to r ians in -spired by the myth of nationalism. An-cient historians had akeady pointed tothe origins of the Etruscans. Accord-ing to Herodotus, the Greek 5th-century B.C. historian, they came fromLydia before the Trojan war (13th cen-tury B.C.); according to Dionysius ofHalicarnassus, who lived at the time ofAugustus, the Etruscans had alwaysbeen in Etruria. These two theorieshave given rise to two differentschools of thought: on the one hand

there are those who see the Etruscan"()riental" style as evidence of theirOriental origin, on the other thosewho consider the isolation of theEtruscan language proof of the exis-tence of this people in the region be-fore the migration of all other popula-tions. Another trend of modern scho-larship has advanced the theory thatthe Etruscans came from the north,producing as evidence the similarity ofthe Villanovan culture to that of thenorthern "urn fields." Faced with thesethree different hypotheses, none ofthem without contradictions, in 1947

3 1N{assimo Pallottino Presented the

problem in a new light. Paliottino

claimed that it was wrong to approach

the problem of the birth of a popula-

tion from the point of view of "place

of origin," as the ancients did. On the

contrary, we must study civilizations

in terms of "formation" and look to

the historical develoPment of the

Etruscans.

I. Iuarl tablet showing the Creek alpltabet,

lron rigbt to:left (fron the Circolo dqq/i

luori at Marsiliana d'Albegna, 6 5 0 - 6 2 5

B.C.). The lablet was part of the callection rtl

personal abjecfi foand in a tomb; it indicates

that writing in this perind was the preroga-

tiue af the aristacrac-y.

II-IV. Gold /aminasfrom the sanctuarl' al

Plrgi; the first to the left has a Phoeniciattinscription, the atber tul are in Etruscan(late 6th century B.C.). Rone, Villa Ciu-

/ia. Tbe inscriptions record that the king rtl

Caere, Thefarie Velianas, dedicated T'ent

ple B to the gaddess Uni

V. Inscribed boandarl, stone, recarding the(tgreemefil between the Ve/thina and A"funa

.faniliu reached after a terrilaria/ dispate(fron the area around Peragia, eari 2d

,:::;? u, ) Pertgia, Archaealogical Mu

L/1. Lead laminafram Maglianrt (5th-6//r

centar-l B.C.). F/orence, Archaeologica/

Museun. The inscription is spira/-sbaped

and couers both tides; lhe crtntent is rather

abscare, bat since it records tbe narnes ttfdei-

ties it ma-1' haue been a deuotional object.

; ) . . 1 ,

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J Z

placed Falerii (civita castellana), was founded on rhe shores of Lake Bolsena in264 B.c. The new colony hacl control over such important communrcationrou tes as the V ia Cass ia and the new V ia Tra iana and th i i accoun ls fo r i rs s ta tus .Some families, originally from volsinii Novi, became very important in Rome.There are only a few ruins of buildings of the republican perioj, in particular theforum and the theatre (the latter was cliscoveied only thanks to aerial photo-graphs). Among the consrructions dating from the F'lavian period we -uri -.n-t ion the amphi rheat re and a new lo rum (paved w i rh marb lc s lahs) , anc l the bas i l i -ca tha t opened on to i t . Th is bas i l i ca was t rans formet l in ro a Chr is t ian church inthe 4th century A.D. and remains of catacombs (4th-5th centuries) have alsobeen found. This indicates that, unlike other towns of Etruria, volsinii Novi didnot undergo a process of depopulation during the early ancl micldle imperial age.The remains of two pri'ate houses, dating from the republican period-(2nd cJr-tury B.C.), are most interesting: each one has its own small sanctuary dedicateclto Dionysus, which shows how widely spread the cult of the mysteri is and theirrites was_ even in private homes. f'hese small places of worship were destroyedaround the second half of the 2nd century A.D., after the Roman senate haclbanned thc celebration oFBacchanalia in t8'6 B.C-.

CHIUSI AND PE,RUGIA

Tbe Lower Pa/aeoJithic is represented in tbe region of ctttust onfi b1 o bxfn-ci/ inplenent at Montepalciano; tbe Middle Palaeolitbic, fu finds in tbecrotta di Gosto and in tbe Grotta Lattaia and Grotta San Francesco onMount cetona (Arcbaeological Museum, Perugia). Tbe Neo/itbir period iswe// represented in a// its stages: tbe uillage of Pienza with pottery-with in-pressed patterns, tbe Grotta dell'orso at Sarteano witb incised line potterl(Arcbaeological Museum, Florence), tbe Grotta Lattaia with pottery il rnri-ous traditions (Arcbaeological Museum, Peragia). Euidence of the Aeneolitlticperiod isfound in a// tbe aboae-mentioned grottoes and in the Baca del Rospoat cetona (Antiquariam, cetona) and at spedaletto near pienza (Arcbaio-logical Museam, Florence). Thefndsfrom the Bronze Age are uerl abandant,especiafu in tbe Grotta dell'orso at Sarteano and in the grottoes of Beluerde atcetona, wbere there are remains of nnbs,firep/aces, wbeat storage, be/onging toa1/ tbe dffirent stagu of tbe BronTe Age (Arcltaeo/ogical Masean, peiagia).on top of Mount Cetona and at casa carletti there are two fortified oioti-V i //anoaan setl /emenls.

Tbe Lower and Middle Palaeolitbic are represented in the territory of pt:,-

\u f t !fut b faci a / i mp / e m e n t s a n d Mo a s t e r i in s b a r d s fou n tl oro* d-p irogi a,Lake Trasimeno and Norcia; tbe upper Palaeolitltic b1 sltardsfoand near pe-rugia and b1 tbe small stone statue known as the "Trasimeno Venus."

, The Neo/ithicperiod is represented on/1 b1 the Norcia hut (Archaeo/ogim/Musearn, Peragia). For tbe Aeneolitbic, we ltaae the ditcb tombfrom Marscia-no (Ciuic Maseum, Bologna). Bronze Age remains are /nrre abundant,includlng tbe proto-villan,aan necr,polises of Monteleone di Spoleto (Ar-chaeological Maseam, Florence) and Panicarola, and tbe oblecti in gold andb ronTe fro m G a a / d o T a d i n o ( Ar cb ae o / ogi ca / M a s e a m, pe rugi a ).

In the territory of crilust, broadly speaking between I-ake Trasime-no and N{ount Amiata, from the Villanovan period through ro the7th century the population was scattered and did not tenJto formurban-type communities (Chiusi, Chianciano, Sarteano, Cetona, Ca-stelluccio di Pienza, castiglione del Lago, Dolciano). The buriarswere individual, in shafts and in biconical ossuaries, and later (7th

Page 34: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

( .h ius i and Perug ia

century) in anthropomorphic jars and ossuaries (canopic urns); therituals did not change and there is no sign of inhumation or aristo-cratic differentiation (objects in the museums of Chiusi, Siena andFlorence). All this indicates an economy and a social organtzationbased entirely on agricultural activity-considerably backriard com-pared to the developments of southern Etruria.

It is only at the end of the 7th century that we find the first cham-ber tombs with multiple graves; they are placed around the futurecentre and are thus evidence of a rising aristocracy moving towardsurban organization. The personal objects found in them are frequent-ly lavish: bronze ossuaries placed on thrones (see the example fromDolciano in the Museum at Chiusi, with the head of the canopic urn,which may not be related to it), Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics andluxury items imported from southern Etruria (see, for example, theivory pyx from the Panra, now in Florence). From the first half ofthe 6th century onwards, the local artistic market is more and moredominated by importations, such as the famous Frangois krater,commissioned from the Attic oainter Kleitias and oainted around550 B.C. (Archaeological Museum, Florence), and by the advent ofcraftsmen from southern Etruria, such as the ones from Vulci whomanufactured stone funerary statues (sphinxes, lions, female figures,in the museums of Chiusi and Florence). By the second half of thecentury, Chiusi experienced all the typical phenomena that accom-pany the growth of acity, from the development of craftsmanship tothe military control of the countryside, and the abandoning of thescattered small communities (such as Dolciano, Sarteano, Cetona).The first to be abandoned was the aristocratic citadel of MuRLo, inthe upper valley of the Ombrone, on the border between Chiusi'sterritory and that of Rusellae. Here, the recent American excavationhas brought to light a square-plan building with an inner courtyard,decorated with splendid architectural terracottas (Palazzo Pubblico,Siena). The building had been intentionally abandoned in 525, at thesame time as the birth of the city and the rise to power of ICng Por-senna, who first began Chiusi's expansionist policy. Chiusi also musthave taken part in the foundation of Marzabotto, since some distinc-tive graphic symbols are used only in these two towns. By the sec-

33

4 6

, t 1

45. Stane cinerarl, urn, witb a re/ief duoration sbawing a banquet scene (rant Chiusi,520-500 B.C.). Flarence, Archan/ogimlMavam.

46. Incised /ine ceramir (t*, Crrttadel|Orso at Sarteano, Nn/ttlti). Florence,A rcba e o/ ogi ca / M u s e u n.

47. Appennine caltare ceramics (fron Cnttade/l'Orsa at .larteana, Bntnw Age) Phtrence,Archaeo/ogical Masean.

18. Row/s (front Antro del/a Nace, Celona,Brrnzr lqe). Fhtrence, Archaealqqica/ ,\4a

Page 35: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

(ihiusi and Pcrugia

19. il[ur/0, excauations of tbe aristocraticai/la (aroand 5 80 B.C.).

10. Canopic nrn .from the Mie/i .leruadion//ectirn (f., Castellaccio di Pienza).(biusi, Nationa/ Muteum. As ofen bap-

.pened in Chiasi in the 19th centary, tbis urnuds pill togelber using objats that bear nore/atnnship to each other: a bronzr ossuary(ud of the 7th century), a terracotta head(*d ,,.f tbe 6tlt nntary) and a terracottalbrrtne.

ond half of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th centuries the localartistic _production ap,pears to be well-organized in workshops and,except fo^r the painted tombs done by craftsmen from Tarquinia lttreTomb of the Monkey is open to the public), consists in canopicurns, heavy bucchero and above all local stone funerary monuments(inscribed stones, sarcophagi, urns) decorated with banquet scenes,dances and ceremonies related to the funeral ritual.

After the end of the 6th century the tradition of the canopic urnswas. replaced by local stone sculpted ash urns, influenced by Greekart in its various stages: from the Ionic to the classical (see the fa-mous "Mater Matuta" and the two sarcophagus lids with a couple ata banquet in the Archaeological Museurnin Florence).

The prosperity of the city, which derived both from the controlover the chiana valley and from agricultural activities (see, fore.xanlplet the legend of Arruns who went to sell wine, oil and figs tothe Gauls) continued in the 4th century, in the Hellenistic p.rioaand through the whole of the 2nd century-and was accompaniedby a remarkable artistic production. In the first half of the 4th centu-ry a tradition of red-figure ceramic was set up; from the end of thecentury onwards, specialized craftsmen began to create sarcophagiand urns with relief decorations in pure Hellenistic style (museumsof Florence, chiusi and Siena). An interesting example of this styleis the tomb of Pellegrina (open ro the public), which also offers aninsight into the organization of the aristocracy.

In the 2nd century, probably as a result of the revolts of 196B.c., large numbers of slaves were set free and were qranted smallplots of land. New famlly names began to appear and, in the territo-ry around Chiusi, the small countryside underground tombs werefilled with little terracorta urns, made from -orrldr and decoratedwith scenes related to peasant beliefs.

The territory of Pp,RuctA, broadly speaking between rhe easternshore of Lake Trasimeno and the Tibir, developed more or lessalong the same lines as that of chiusi. \we know very little of the

Page 36: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

35(-hiusi and Perugia

Villanovan period and of the 7th century. By the second half of the6th century'-e harr. evidence of poweifnl aristocratic strongholdsin the countryside, documented by the finds at San Valentino (nowin Munich) and Castel San Mariano (partly in Munich, Partly in Pe-rugia). These aristocrats commissioned the bronze decorations fortheir carts and other prestige items from the workshops of Chiusiand Orvieto, as well as from southern Etruria. The chamber tombs,dating from about 500 B.C., of the Palazzone necropolis (an Anti-

quarium there is open to the public) and the use of writing indicatethe birth of an urban organizztion, which teveals its cultural debt toChiusi through the imported bucchero vases and the sarcophagus of

Sperandio (Archaeological Museum, Perugia).Although we have little documentation for the 4th century, the

importation from Chiusi of the bronze sarcophagus, in the mannerof Phidias, now in Leningrad, indicates a growing prosperity. In the3rd and 2nd centuries an even greater degree of prosperity is shownby the construction of the city walls (Porta Mania and Porta di Au-

gusto) and by the growth of the necropolises. The tombs are mainlyformed by several chambers, each containing many little urns, pro-

51. Sculpted stone group, with the deceasedsbwn rulining at a banqaet next to a femaledenon (Lasa) anrolling tbe scroll of his duttry Qnd of the 5th century B.C.). Florence,Archaeologtcal Museum. Tbe srulptare showshow dorej the workshaps in Chiusi were incontact with dassical Greek sjhs.

52. Peragia, Palanone necropolis, Tonb of

the Vo/amni, centra/ chamber with tbe arnsof the members of the fani\. At the centre,tbe urn of the founder Arnth Velinna(sennd half of the 3rd century B.C.); to tbefarleft the urn of P. Volumnias (Aagastanperiod), showing that the tomb was re-usedby a distant descendant af the originalfanii.

53-54. Peragia, the cil gates dedicated to

Aagastus and Mars (3rd-2nd centurlB.C.). Both these gates were origina/i builtb1' the Etrucans and later nodifed by theRomans.

Page 37: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

36The Banquet in Etruria

ln Etruscan artistic production the

theme of the banquet reappears con-

stantly: vrhat is its meaning, what is

the ideology behind these representa-

tions. in all their different contexts?

The earliest representation of a ban-

quet in Etruscan art is the one on the

c1.rera.y urn from Montescudaio,

where the deceased, waited on bY a

maidservant, sits on a throne before a

table prepared for a feast, according to

the customs of the time (around the

middle of the 7th century) in Greece

and the Orient. The scene is clearly a

reference to the age-old custom of the

funeral banquet, held by the relatives

and at which the deceased was be-

lieved to be present. Towards the mid-

dle of the 6th century, it became the

custom in Greece to take part in ban-

quets lying on beds, surrounded bY

music and dance; this practice, com-

mon only to the dlite, was considered a

sign of prestige. The scenes on the ar-

chitectural reliefs found at Murlo and

Acquarossa are of this kind, and the

banouet takes on the function of self-

portiayal of the exclusive aristocratic

caste.The representations of banquets

on the 6th and 5th-century funeral

monuments, such as the painted tombs

at Tarquinia or the reliefs at Chiusi,

obviouily had the same function: to re-

cord the moment in which the rePre-

sentatives of the aristocracy were unit-

ed around the deceased in the cerimo-

nial feast, thus stressing their solidity

and oower.From the late 5th century on-

wards, this kind of banquet is some-

times replaced by a banquet taking

place in the Elysian fields, as is the

case in some late painted tombs (Orco,

Scudi and Golini). Here we have a

blend of the two meanings of the

scen-the aristocratic and the escha-

tological. The latter meaning is parti-

cularly obvious in the figures ofthe de-

ceased, especial ly in the cinerary urns

and on the lids of urns and sarcophagi

found at Chiusi (4th-3rd century).

They are portrayed with crowned

heads and bare chests, attributes nor-

mally associated with heroes, fzr rc'

moved from the world of the living.

I. Cinerary arn from Montescadaio, detai/

of the lid (650-625 B.C.). Florence, Ar-

chaeological Mateam. The deceased is por-

trayd seated on a throne at a banquet, at'

tended to b1 a maidseruant.

Il. Fresco showing a banqaet scene,from tbe

Tonb of the Leopards at Tarquinia (first

half of the 5th cmtury B.C.).

III. Reconstruction of a banqaet. Tbe drau-

ing shows uarioas e/ements taken fromEtruscan porlralals of banquets. ln a lauish

and splendid room, tbe participants lie (in

the case of the nen) or sit (in the case of the

women) on coachet, whi/e a nusician play

theflute.

it),

Page 38: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Ohiusi and Perugia

duced locally in Hellenistic style (many examples in the museum).Exceptional in this sphere are the tomb of the Volumni (Velinna, inEtruscan), in which six splendid 3rd-century urns and one from theAugustan period have been preserved (on view in the Palazzone ne-cropolis), and the recently discovered tomb of the Cae Cuta, withthe sarcophagus of the founder (second half of 3rd century) andthe urns of the other members of the family down to the 1st centu-

ry B.C.By this time the countryside was charactenzed by numerous set-

tlements, indicating intensive cultivation of the land. An inscribedstone from the 2nd century, found at Pian Castagneto (now in theArchaeological Museum, Perugia), records the agreement betweenthe Velthina family and the Afana family regarding a border contro-versy. Also from the countryside-from the valley of Sanguinetonear Lake Trasimeno or from Pila, southwest of Perugia-is the fa-mous bronze statue known as The Orator (Archaeological Museum,Florence, see p. 13). The inscription tells us that this is a donation toa sanctuary by Aule Meteli (Aulus Metellus), dating from around theend of the 2nd century, just before the Etruscans, like the rest of theItalic peoples, were granted Roman citizenship.

After the last great battle between Romans and Etruscans at Sentinumin 295 B.C., CnruSI fell under Roman domination. In the 2nd cen-tury the city witnessed a revolt of the serfs (which involved Arezzoas well). It appears that during the 1st century Sulla granted his civilwar veterans land around the city. From then on, the inhabitantswere divided between Clusini aeteres (old inhabitants) and Clusini noui(the new colonizers). We know very little of the life of the cityduring the imperial period. Some buildings dating from the Roman

55. Jugs fron tombs around Chiasi (firstbalf of tlte 7th century). Chiasi, Archaeolo-gical Maseum.

56-59. Earj medieua/ objuts fron theArcisa necropolis. Cbiasi, Arcbaeologica/Museum. Co/d "rocette" or tma// crotses(56); sbield stads (57); sword and spear-head (58); si/uer fibala in the second st1le(5e)

Page 39: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

38

period have been found under the cathedr ar (a rarge cistern with sev-eral aisles still exists under the bell tower); som"e inscriptions andsculptures are preserved in the local museum. The pr...n.. of thechristian catacombs at San Mustiola and Santa c"t r'n^, on the out-skirts of. th9 city, wourd seem to indicate that the .ity -r, fairry im-portant in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.

. As early as the 2nd century B.c., in the territory of chiusi andthat of. Perugia the number of country settlements had increasedprobably because the slaves had been freed. unlike southern Etru-ria, where the countryside was divided into large t^.ra.J.rtrtes bas-ed on slave labour, here the serfs had been fr""r.J ir..dom andland after the great revolts they had led.

Since PgRuGrA had sided with Antony in the civil war, in 40P.c. * was conquered and sacked by the victorious octavian (be//unPerusinum). Augustus granted the city privileges and promoted herreconstruction: the Portl di Augusto dates fr6m this iime althoughthe inscriFtions were added late-r. one of these i"r.riprio^ recallsthat the.city was granted ius coloniae (colonial rights) ,r.ri., ir.b..riu-nus Gallus (mid 3rd cenrury A.D.), a privirege" thit at the time wasonly nominal and probably due to the^fact thTt it was the emperor,sbirthplace.

Cutust lay on the old Cassian Way and was the sear of a diocese as early as the 4thcentury' It became Longobard later than the cities further "".rt,, ,i*.'rt was fair-ly close to the boundary with_ the Byzantines, who had o..rrpi.i p;;;gr" and theislands on Lake Trasimeno. we stili know very lrttle abo,-,i-t'r,e;;; the earlyYig$. Ages, or about

.the countryside where the traces of th. o...rputro' u..visible primarily t:. lk. lavish tombs, among which the one rhat was excavatedbetween 1913 and 7914 at Arcisa. In 1933 olh., to-b, came to lieht rr.r, the bar_racks of the carabinieri and, more recently, others still i" ,n. ..riir.-o"r rh. ,o*.,and under the cathedral (founded "ro,r.,d in. Ort, ...,r.rry;.-A_o;;;. objectsfound at Arcisa, and now visibre in the museum, we must mention: jeweilery

decorations for belts (8th century), gold crosse s, spatbae (swords) *d ,hi.rdr, ^splendid fibula with a decoration-con*sisting of a human n.ua ..r.ro,..rded by ani-mal heads. Some of the tombs aiso contai[ed pottery: late classical red impastojugs, confirming the absence of purely Longobard artistic proa,r.tio.,r.-

AREZZO, FIESOLE AND FLORENCE

Tbe Lower Palaeolith\ is ,t{!t*tt4fui bfacial inplenentsfound in tbe ua//e1of tlte Arno; the Middle *i,uppo niotihthi, ori dotorrirri ol, rorious re-mains of nmmunitiu; wortblt-of note is trte skullfoand d oi;;-(,,craniode//'o/no") last centary, casts of whicrt are n,u to ie seen in tbe Arcbanlogt1/ Musean of Are72o, tbe Prebistorical Museum of Florence and the Ar-cbaeologtcal Museum of pyugia. Trte Neolitrtic periid is docunenied onj b1axes and adws in dressed stonefound on trte suface; tbe Aeneolitiic, b1, ior6,of the Rinaldone culture at M)rciano della cblaia *a "t n"ii,1otn qr_chaeological Museum, 47ezz0). Tbe finds duumenting tbe Bronze Age are,:ry.tr, an,ng then tle two swordi from Frassinei and Terontola (Ar_cbae ol ogi ca / Muse u m, Arezzo ).- - Bfacial implements ttalte beey foynd at Montelupo and in the pesa ua//e1;Moysj3rian lbjects nme.from, trti Muge//0. shardi docunenting-ril uiaanand upper Palaeolitbic ltaul leenfouni at Fucenbio, pran, Trqlii-)nd in tbePesa ualley Findsfron tbe Neo/i/bicperiod are ueryfew; tie Ae1eolitbic is re_

Page 40: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

.\rczzo. Fiesolc ancl Florencc

60. 'the

terracottaframe of the pedinent r'tf

a tenple (from zXrezzo, piazza San Jacoprt,aroand 480 B.C.). Arezzo, Archaealrgical

I:;::.,

'the relief decnratirtt shous batt/e

61. Fiesole, Etrascan tenple. In tlte.fore-

ground, the stairt leading to tlLe enlranrc.

Originally bui/t in the 3rd centurl B.C. and

rebui/t, on the sane gronnd-p/a4 in tbe 1:l

centurT B.C.

62. puinta Fiorentino, Mala tho/os lortb,

lhe interior looking towards tlte entrance

(6 i0-600 B.C.). Thefalse uau/t is created

b1, rows of prrgressiuefy prajecting stotte

s/abs.

pruented b1 a tonb at Montespertoli and b1 renains found on tbe sufan.

Finds fron the Appennine culture come from Dicomano; tbe sab-Appennine

cultare is represented fu thefinds at Fiesoh and tbe three huts of Stabbia (Ar-

chaeological Museum and Prehistorical Maseum, Florence).

The towns of northern inland Etruria, between Cortona and Fie-

sole, along the Arno and Chiana valleys, all experienced a similar

development at the time of the Etruscans. They were all on the ma-jor route leading north, beyond the Appennines, and, except for

Arezzo, developed into proper urban communities relatively late.

The archaic peiiod is represented in the territories of Arezzo and

Cortona by lavish tombs, such as the two "melons" at Sodo and at

Camucia containing remarkable "Oriental" style objects. These

tombs were used between the end of the 7th and the 4th centuries

and indicate the presence of aristocracies in the countryside, pfactis-

ing agriculture and controlling the routes through the valleys.-ConroNa itself only appears to have become a city in the 4th

century (the 3rd-century walls and the Academy Museum are open

to the pubtic) and only begins to figure in Etruscan history quite

late-in the war against Rome in 310 B.C.By the end of the 6th century the maior centre of the area was

Page 41: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

40Arezzo, Fiesole and Florence

63. Arezzo, Roman ampbiteatre (|st cen-tur1A.D.).

64-65. Two examphs of "Aretini" aases(1st century B.C.-lst antury A.D.).A rezRo, A rcbaeologi ca / M a se u m.

Axazzo. Ar9"g the earriest evidence are the first city walls (someparts are still intact), a necropolis of ditch tombs (poggio al bole),and some sanctuaries documented either by architectuffterracottas(such as the slab ftomPiaz-za. SanJacopo, now in the ArchaeologicalMuseum) or by votive offerings iuch^as the one from Fonte vene-3ia1a gglsisting of small bronze male and female figures (Archaeo-logical Museum, Florence; other similar ones in Arlzzo\. in the 4thcentury Arezzo witnessed rebellions by the serfs: the first one,around the middle.of

the _century, was quelled by Aulus Spurinna;the second, in 302, by theRoman army. During this period i+rrr-:ricentury) the prosperity of the city is docomerrled by a few, bot re_markable, buildings, such as the masonry walls (partly stiil stand-ing); amongthe artifacts dating from this period "i. ^i"y coins andthe famous bronze statue of ihe chimaen, probably produced inArezzo where there were metallurgical workshopr. A-o.rg the ob-iects dating_from the 2nd century aie the Hellenistic style te?racottasfound at Catona (Archaeologiial Museum, Florence) and at the.t"l_.!""ry of Castelsecco,.rlear the city, which consisied of manybuildings, including a small theatre._ There is very little evidence from the villanovan and archaicoriental-periods in the territory of Fmsole ^p^rt fuom some frag-ments of pottery in the museum in Fiesole uid ^ few finds in thecentre of Florence. In the 7th-6th centuries the most characteristicaspect of this area ate the grand tombs, like the tsro tboloi at euintoFiorentino (Montagnola and Mula, both open to the pubric), the tu-mulus of Montefortini and the tomb of tihe Boschetii at Comeana(near Artimino; some.of the objects are in the Antiquarium of theY.d:i villa), containing artifacts in gold and ivory, mostly pro_duced in southern Etruria. These u.. tf,. tombs of thl local .robititywho controlled the road to Manabotto and Bologna along th!valley of the Reno. Until quite late the population u#d in scatteredsettlements, if we are to believe the evidence offered by the typical

Page 42: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

\ r e z z r ' , I i e s n l c . t n ( l F l o r c n c c

local stone funerary steles decorated in Ionic style with warriors or

with banquet and dance scenes (museums in Florence and Fiesole)and the little bronzes from the small sanctuaries of the area (excel-

lent examples in the local museum).Fiesole became an urban community in the Hellenistic period,

when the walls (3rd century, in part still standing) and a temple con-

sisting of a cella and alae were built.

As early as 302 B.C, the revolt of the serfs in Axvzzcl against the

most powerful local family, the Cilnii (the ancestors of Maecenas),led to the intervention of the Roman consul Valerius Maximus.During the 3rd century Arezzo became part of Rome's network of

alliances, but the city retained a great productive capacity and con-tributed an enormous number of bronze weaPons towards Scipio'scampaign in Africa in 205 B.C.-a sure sign of its economic pro-sperity. At the time of Sulla the city became a colony: the new in-

habitants were called Fidentiores to distinguish them from the old ones'Arretini aeleres. Later, at the time of Caesar, more colonizers settledhere: they were called Iulienses. With the increase of population,Arezzo spread outside the city walls; the most recent set of walls,dating from the 4th-3rd century, was built in half-baked bricks. An-

other element that favoured Arezzo's prosperitv was the construc-tion of the Cassian Way (before 217 B.C.) connecting the city to

Rome and the rest of inland northern Etruria.By the middle of the 1st century B.C. there were many ceramics

industries producing fine tablew^tei terr^cotta, plates, goblets and

glasses, covered by a thick layer of coral-red glossy paint. These

vases, called "zretim," were extremely sought aftet and reached eventhe furthest outposts of the Roman empire. This industry continuedto prosper until the middle of the 1st century A.D. when many

other Italian centres started producing similar wares and the comPe-

tition of other orovincial manufacturers contributed to its decline.

6 6. Fieso/e, Ratnan theatre ( 1 st cenlary

A.D. ) .

67. I:iesrtle, rains of the Rantan balhs (1sl

centur1,A.D.).

68. T'ba Rortan city of [:/orence, aitb the

sarrottndin.q diuisinn into "rcnturies" and

the Rontan roads.

Page 43: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

42Religion and Divination

.,\s early as the Middle Palaeolithic,funeral rites presuppose a continuationof life after death (tools and food offer-ings in the tombs). The objects foundin tombs dating from the Upper pa-laeolithic prove that there must havebeen a belief in a very complex spiri-tual world, about which we know lit-t le .

The Neolithic agricuitural econ-omy v/as tied to fertility rites and cultsof the changing seasons; evidence ofthese lies in the holes in grortoes con-ta in ing oFfer ings , wh ich l l so may beconnected to funeral rites and spiritsof the underworld, and in srone circleswith human remains, vases and otherprecious objects. There is also evi-dence of the worship of water deities.Similar rites continued throughout themetal ages, and in some cases-the samesite was used continually from theNeolithic to classical times. Mesalithicmonuments and stele statues, fo-und inEurope and in the western Mediterra-

nean region, are evidence of evenmore complex cults.

According to the Roman historianLir,y, the Etruscans \yere a people par-ticularly given over to religious wor-ship, for they excelled in its practice.Latin writers, such as Cicero ̂ nd S.rr.-ca, reca\l that the Etruscans used a se_ries of written doctrines, both reliqiousand civil (Libri fu/garaks, harutpirini, ri-taales). The revelation o[ these textswas ascribed to the boy Tages, mir-aculously born out of a furrow in thecountryside near Tarquinia. The foun-dation of all doctrine (tn Latin, disci-p/ina) was the division of the heavensinto sixteen regions, the dwellings ofthe gods; to rhe easr the favouiableones, to the west the unfavourable.This division, based on the two axeseast-west and north-south, determinedthe allocation of any space that was tobe used for either ,^.."d o. civil prac-tlces, starting from the cities, which

were founded along the two axes. Thissystem of division was used every-where, down to the animal liver whichwas the most common, but not theonly, instrument used for divining, orinterpreting the will of the gods. Weknow of this from several figurativerepresentations and from the smallbronze model of a liver (late 2nd cen-tury B.C.) now in Piacenza. The outerpart is divided into sixteen parts, andeach one is inscribed with the name ofa god. The science of divination waspractised exclusively by the baraspices(in Etruscan, netsuis), who formed anaristocratic caste and wore soecialclothing. They were honoured and re-spected even in Rome, from the 4th

;,ff.,".t B.C. until the late classical per-

The Etrusca disciplina was the aspect ofreligion in which the Romans felt moststrongly the influence of the Etrus-cans. It is thanks to the fact that the

Page 44: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

I IRomans adooted this ritual that it hascome down to us. According to Varro,the ritual surroundins the foundationof Rome was based on the ritual of thefoundation of Etruscan cities. Anclduring the Punic wars Rome made useof haruspices brought in from Etruria(in fact there were no haraspices amongthe Roman high priests). During the2nd century B.C., perhaps after thediscovery of impostors, the RomanSenate decreed that there should be afixed number of people authorized topractise divination: it is possibly at thistime that the college of the sixty haru-spices was instituted in Tarquinia. Un-der Emperor Claudius the discipline ofdivination was included amons thebranches of the off icial Roman rel i-glon.

I. Recanstruction af a diuinatian cereTtlzn-y.The drawing e/aborating ancient portra-yals,recznstract: a scene in which the haruspex,in a ritaa/ pase and with spetia/ c/othinginterprets an anima/ liuer beJitre an attentiueaadience, conscioas of the solennity of tl:eteremon-)t.

II. The urn af Atle Lecu (ear/1, 1st centuryB.C.). Volterra, Gaarnacci Museam.

'fhe

dercayd is portra.yed as an haruspex,readingthe omens of an anima/ /iuer.

IV

III. Reuerse side of a bronze ntinor showingthe n-ythical seer Calchas dressed as anharuspex exaruining an aninta/ /iuer (frantValci, ear/y 4tb century B.C.). Vatican,Cregorian H,trascan Masea m.

IV. Bronze nodel of a sbeep's /iuer (frantDecima di Cosso/enga, /ate 2nd-ear/1 1stcentary B.C). PiacenTt, Ciair Museunt.Nanes of deities are inscribed in tbe dffirentshaped sabdiuisians.

Page 45: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

44

69. Co/d thread uyd fnr brocade (fronAre7lo,1Aril balf rf the 7th century,). F-/or_ence, Archaeo/agica/ Maseam.

7-0 Cald pendant earrings (from Are72o,Jir:t ha/f rf tbe 7tb centarl,). F/orence, Ar_cbaeo/ogica/ Maseunt.

The traderirarks stamped orpthese vases provide us with useful in-Formation about the character ist ics of this industry.

There are m^ny important remains of the Roman Arezzo. Thebasic plan of the town appears to dare from the time of caesar. Anexact copy of the Elogia in the Forum of Augustus in Rome has beenfound in the forum, near the cathedral. R,iins of the amphitheatreand of the foundations of the rhearre are visible. The ArchaeologicalNluseum stands on the site of the amphitheatre and houses a marvel-lous col lect ion of "aret ini"

vases.In the course of the 2nd century A.D. the city suffered a pro-

nounced decline, p^rtly a result of the waninq ceramics industrv anclDaftly because the cassian way had been morred further "-"y fro-the city centre.

_ During the civil war, FIEST)I-E sided with Marius; at the end ofthe war, the victorious Sulla reacted by founding a colony there. Afire' probably at the time of the civil war, destioyed the Etruscantemple which was reconstruced at the time of Suila with the addi-tion of a portico with columns and steps. A roacr connects the tem-ple and the theatre, which. was parrly dug out of the hillside; nearbythere are baths built at the time of Arrgustus. The rocar museumhouses a good collection of Roman mar;ials. The deveropment ofFlorence in the 1st century A.D. led to Fiesole's rapicl decline.

when, at the time of caesar, Ft-,Rpxcu (F/r,reitia\ became a Ro-man colony, ir was given a regular plan, built around cardines (streetsrunning north-south) and decumani (streets running east-wesi). Theintersection of these streets gave rise to brocks of rTarying sizes. Ar-chaeological research has shown that the forum -.ni hrr.. been atthe centre of the city; several pubtic builclings were built along itssides, such as the capitoliun. Some areas within the walls remainedfor a long time without buildings but, by the 1st century A.D., thetown had spread even outside rhe wails, especially ro th; sourh. ro-wards the Arno. At the same_rime, many .r.- p.rbri. buildings werebuilt: baths in the area behind the capiti/iun, inrl a thearre. Ii seemsthat to build the theatre part of the wails haclto be clemolishec-I.

Page 46: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

\rezzo, [] iesole ancl lr lorencc

Like other towns of northern Etruria-but in contrast to thosefurther south-it seems that Florence survived as a city until quitelate. During the 2nd century the forum was enlarged and pavedwith marble slabs; new baths, a temple to Isis and an amphitheatrewere built outside the walls. Still fairly prosperous in the 3rd and 4thcenturies, Florence underwent further transformations and becamethe capital of Tuscia et Umbria at the time of Diocletian (297 A.D.).By the 4th century the city had spread to the north as far as PtazzaSan Lorenzo, where, at the end of the century, St Ambrose conse-crated a Christian basilica. To the south. the citv had reached theArno.

At the time of the I-ongobards, the diocese of Ap,l'zzct ruled over an enormousarea, ftom the Casentino to Cortona and from Nlontevarchi to the river Arbia,but we have so little information that we are unable to reconstruct either theevents of the first three centuries of the early N'Iiddle Ages or the characteristicsof the region, except along very general lines. The most valuable element availa-ble to modern researchers is the network of churches, which, however, have nofragments of sculpture dating from the first phase of I-ongobard domination.There are some materials from the Longobard period in the Nledieval and NIod-ern Nluseum in Arezzo'. among these, a rax (sort of long knife) and two spathae(swords) which an X-rav examination have revealed to be damascened. But themost inieresting materiais come from the excavations on the site of the old cathe-dral, on the Pionta hi l l (razed to the grouncl by the Nledici in 1561): in the tombof a small girl there were, as well as the gold thread from the brocade veil, a pairof gold earrings with pendants with regular settings-green glass paste andamethyst drops-in a late Roman style very popular among the Byzantines andadopted also by the I-ongobards (first half of the 7th century; there are other ex-amples in the Archaeological Nluseum of Grosseto and in that of Florence, founclat Santa Crist ina near Bolsena)

Among the few examples of earlv medieval architecture in Tuscany, the onlyone that seems to have kept its original characteristics is the little temple of SantoStefano in the plain of ANc;t tt,tRt. Today it is in the diocese of Arezzo, but it wasoriginally in that of Citti di Castello, a city that probably grew up around a By-zantine fortification and later developed into a l-ongobard outpost. The builclingis square in plan, built in bricks and clecorated with blind arches outside. Insicle,the nave and two aisles are divided by round arches, resting on columns, anci avestibule. The church, which probably dates from the 7th century, is connectedto the civilization of Ravenna. It has also been suggested that it represents thetheological symbol of the Trinity, in an area which was for a long time Arian.

In the war between the Greeks and the Goths, FL<tnnNr-tt was a Byzantinestronghold and was besieged by Totila. During the l-ongobard occupation, to-gether with eastern Tuscany, frlorence was part of a region whose main centreswere l,ucca and the new Via Francigena, for neighbouring Romagna was still dom-

75

76

71. Co/d eanings (fron .lanta Cristinanear Bo/sena, frtt ha/f of the 7th rentary).F/arence, Arcltaeo/r4i ca/ M u seu m.

72. Angbiari, tenp/e af Santo.ltefano (7thcentur.y ).

7i. F/orence, the apse of tbe charch of .lantaReparata.

74. l/nrence,.fragntents of the mosaic.flaar oftlte origina/ churcb ofSanta Reparata (6thcenlury ).

7 5. Cround-p/an of the ear/y Christianchurch of .lanta Reparata.

76. Croand-plan of tbe pre-Romanesqaeand Romanesque church af Santa Reparata.

"d tL ]

fl' 1 1

7r---=|l ( i lL _

U

t n

; ) .

Page 47: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

46\rezzo, I; iesolc and Florenct

r f l finated by the Byzantines. Under the Fra.nks, the city became the seat of acounty; under the ottonians, it became part of the marquisate of ruscanv. Flor_ence, wirh its Roman origins, had a uniqu,e relationship with Fiesole, of Eiruscanorigin: both were the seats of dioceses, but their territ-ories were more or less in_terwoven. It.was only in 1,125 that Frorence definitively asserted its hegemony,destroying what little autonomy Fiesole had left.

The excavation of Santa Reparata, under the catheclral of Florence, has pro-vided us with a wealth of matirials documenting the history of the city i. the\licldle Ages, especially between the 4th and 11th1ent,.,.ie.. fhe Roman occuDa-tron came to an end at the-beginning of the 5th century, when the city was con-quered by Radagaisus in 406. The church ofSanta Reparata was founded aroundthe year 500. Even in its name it is evidence o[ rrery close ties with the relisionpractised in Ravenna and the Exarchate. Ten panels of the f loor mosaic hrue"rr.-vived: they are decorated with quatrefoils, wirh facing lozenges and peltas, sur-rounded by swastikas, circles and meanders with peac6cks in"the midile. lt is sosimilar to decorations from the region along the northern Adriatic, that it enablesus to date it at the 6th century. \r)7e know ihat the church was in use cluring the7th century thanks to the objects found in a Longobard tomb. A seco.,d pf,ase,"carolingian" (9th century), witnessed the constriction of a crvDt and the addi-tion of two trapeze-shaped t]r1_ets, forming almost a rransept. Ii was probably atthis time that the seat of the bishopric was iransferred from

^San Loreizo to Santa

Reparata by Bishop Andrea. The body of the founding bishop, Saint Zenobius,was also moved to the site which, until 1965, was called the..mortuarv chaoel ofSaint Zenobius" and consti tuted the only trace in Santa ,\ lar ia del Fio." j f th.earlier cathedral. A third phase, Romanesque, dates from the time of Bishoo Ge-rardo (mid- l l th century ) , who came f rom Burgundy. Th is phase i l c lose ly con-nected to cluniac architecture. The church was completely- reconstrr.,cted. andthe side chapels and small apses were added as well as pi lasters with transversalarches at the crossing. and a rough marble and stone pavement. The style was ba-sically."retrospective", indicating solidarity with cluny, as opposed ,o .,p.og...-sive", like the cathedral of Pisa built soon afterwards.

The Archaeological Nluseum in Ftl,sot-tr houses several earlv medieval ob-jects from Longobard necropolises around the thearre, inptazza Mino da Fiesoleand villa Marchi, as well as some pottery found in a well in piazza Mtno(1Oth-11th century). we know neitherthe size nor the exact location of the earlvmedieval settlemenr, although it must have been nearbv and certainly within theEtruscan walls. The tombs, dating from the late 6th and 7th centuries, are builtof upright stones, covered in stone slabs: the reconstruction of one such tomb isvisible at the entrance to the excavations. The pottery found in them consistedmostly of objects produced local ly, but there *.r. ^iro some imporred pieces.such as an AFrican bowl or_a set of bott les very similar to rhose pioduced' in thearea of the lower Rhein valley. A particularly interesting collection of personalobiects belonging to a woman includes fragments of gofi brocade and necklaceclasps..Among the men's personal objects th.re we.e sfearheads, spatltae (swords)and bejewelled belt buckles and decorations, a techniqueiypical ofLongobaid crafts-manship in Italy. The pottery from the well in piazza Mino, mostlv iable and kit-chen goblets, were found in 1879 together with some wooden buckets, on vrewin the same room of the museum. one of these, examined with c14, has enabledus to date the objects at the 10th-1 1th centurv.

78

77. I,{ecklace clasps (Jron tonb 21 at Fie-s o/e, 7 tb - 8 tb cen ta ry ). Fi esol e, Arcltae ologi -ca/ Museam.

78. Fragmenx of damascened belt decora-tions (7th-8tb centary). Fiesole, Arcbaeolo-gical Museam.

79. The deuelopment of the cig of Flarenceup to tbe earj Midd/e Ages.I l c ' l : t h c R o m . t n c r \ , i ' , l J ( . r .l lccl clottccl l ine: thc maximum expansion cluringthc Roman period (2nd ccntury ,,\.D.; arouncl1 0,000 rnhabitants).Creen: the Bvzantine ca:trazt (511-568; around1, (X)0 inhab i tan ts ) .l)urple: the Caroiingian u'alls (late 9th centurr';around 5,000 inhabitants).Yellou': the walls built bv Countcss i\ lati ldc( 1 078; arounci 20,000 inhabitants).L The river \ lugnone during the Roman period.II. The river Nlugnonc after its course u'as changcd in 107ti - toda\"s Via Tornabuoni.

Ianf i rea t ro /

all\/,^ - I

Page 48: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

47

PISA, LUCCA AND LUNI

The Lower Palaeolitbic is represented b1 shards foand at Liuorno, b1bifucial implenents around Liaorno and in the lower Arno ualle-y. Numeroassarface fnds from the Moasterian period are in tbe area around Liuornrt, atMassaciurcoli and in caaes of tbe Apuan Alps. The Upper Palaeolitbic is we//documented in almost a/l its aspects in tbe area around Liuorno, at Massaciur-n/i, in the lower ua//e1 of tbe Arno and in the Lima ualley Microlithic meso-lithic finds come from the passes on the Appennines. The l\eo/ithic period isdocumented b1 inpressed cerarnicsfound near Pisa, particulari at tbe RiparoLaRomita at Asciano, which has prouided us witb objectsfron the Neolitb-ic-represented fu incised line potterl and the cultures of Lagozza andDiana-througb to the barbarian inaasions. On the sand danes near San Ros-slre we haue found eaidence of a settlement characte rized b1 incised line potteryand late Lagozza cultare oblects; other Lagoz2a ca/tare remains werefound atGrotta del/'Onda and at Massaciurcoli. The documentation of tbe l{eolithic isalso abundant: tbere arefindsfron its earj stage (Ronita, Grotta del Leone,Grotta dell'Onda, San Rossore) and fron /aler periods, characterized b1 thelocal influences of the Rinaldone cultare and other northern trends, representedonj fu tombs in creaices and caues in tbe ruounlainous areas (Monte Pisano,Apaan Alps, Garfagnana, Lunigiana). There are also elementsfrom the bel/-shaped uase mlture. The Bronze Age is less we// represented, witb just afew

fragments at Romita, some non-representatiue finds at Coltano and occasiona/

fragnentsfound in tbe proto-Villanoaan grottoes and sbelters at Cabbro, Li-rnone and Pariana. Also worlhl of mention, in Lunigiana, are the ste/e-statuesdatingfron a// the aarioas metal ages. (Materials are in tbe ArcbeologicalMuseum in Florence, in the Florentine Prehistorical Maseam, at the FaculQ rtfAntbropologJ at Pisa, at tbe Ciuic Museam in Viaregiq at Vil/a Cuinigi inLucca, at tbe Archaeologica/ Museum at Caso/a in Lunigiana and at tbeMalaspina Castle at Pontrenoli).

The territory of Pts,t consisted in the stretch of the Arno valleyfrom San N'liniato to the sea and the coastal area from Castiglioncel-1o to Serravezzain archaic times, to Camaiore from the middle of the3rd century B.C. onwards. I-ike the territory of Fiesole, it was a typi-cal border region, as is proved also by the variability of its northernfrontier. The stretch along the coast was clotted with small settle-ments from the end of the 7th century onwards; these communitiesprospered thanks to maritime trade. Among them were Massarosaand the town documented by the warehouse discovered tn Piazzadei Cavalieri in Pisa, where the large number of amphoras is evi-dence of the importance of this commercial port used by Phocaeanmerchants. From the 5th century, the connections between the ter-ritory of Pisa and the towns on the other sicle of the Appennines isdocumented by ceramics, small bronze statues and typical pear-shaped marble inscribed stones resting on square bases decoratedwith rams'heads which will soon be on view in the new Nluseo del-I'Ooera della Primaztale tn Pisa. These finds show the ties betweenPisa and Volterra (there are similar objects in the Guarnacci NIu-seum in Volterra) and Nlarzabotto and Sasso N{arconi. The com-munication route-along the valley of the Arno, the Serchio and theL,nza-is documented bv manv finds. such as the tombs in the Bien-

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l) isa, Lucca and Luni

80. Lagozzt calture ceramics froru Grottadel Leone, Agnano, I"leolitbi). Pita, Insti-/ute rf Antbropa/0g1,.

81. S*le-statues from Lunigiana (neta/ages). La Spezia, Ciuic Museum.

:-] i:t . _ 1

l * ; r ' ' : '

t#

tina basin (at that time crossed by the river Auser, today calred Ser-chio) with their Attic gold jewellery and potterf, and the necropolisof Ponte a Moriano (first half of the 3rd ientury) with its many ref-erences to the aristocratic family Perma, also found at Spina (see theitems now in Villa Guinigi in Lucca).

We know very little of the development of pisa. From aroundthe middle of the 3rd century B.C., it became a Roman strongholdagainst the Gauls and the Ligurians, who were beginning to movesouthward, and against Hannibal. The strong pfesence of the Ro-m^n atmy in the area led to the foundation of Lucca in the territoryof Pisa (180 B.C.) and of Luni in Ligurian territory (177 B.C.). Th;prosperity of the are ^t the time is documented by a few finds inPisa, by the tombs of Fonte vivo (on the site of the town hall of SanMiniato) and by the pre-Roman ruins under the baptistry of Lucca.Here, as well as the kelebai (black ceramics of Volterran origin), ar-chaeologists have also found imported objects. particularly worthyof mention are two female statues in marble (end of the 3rd cen-tury), one from Pisa (new Museo dell'Opera della primaziale) andthe other from San Miniato (Archaeological Museum in Florence),comparable to the volterran sculpture of the time. After the founda-tion of Luni, it appears that Pisa lost importance as a port, while thesmall port of castiglioncello developed and flourish.d fo. the wholeof the 2nd century (tombs in the Archaeological Museum in Flo-rence ).

Is-was only under Augustus that LuccA was included in the regionof Etruria and its territory was divided into "centuries.,' Lucca-hadpreviously been a fairly important centre because of its positionalong the communication routes, and it remained one under the Ro-mans. In 56 B.C. it was in Lucca that Caesar, pompey and Crassusmet to renew their agreement (First Triumvirate).

The city was surrounded by walls (some parts are still visible at

Page 50: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

l) isa, I-ucca and l-uni

Santa Maria della Rosa) and laid out according to a regriar planrather like those of military camps (castra). During the late imperialage, the walls were provided with watchtowers. Within the wallsthere was a theatre (ruins near Sant'Agostino), while outside therewas an amphitheatre,later incorporated into some medieval build-ings that maintained, however, its circular shape. The arca of thearena is today the Piazza del Mercato. Objects found in Lucca andsurroundings are in the Villa Guinigi Museum.

The port of LUNI (Luna was the pre-Roman name) overlooks thegulf of La Spezia. It must have been important, active and accessibleto the Romans even before the founding of the colony (177 B.C.). Itwas from here that Consul Cato set off towards Spain in 194 B.C.The town, on the left bank of the Magra, became part of Etrurizandmarked its northern boundary. It was probably at the time of thefounding of the colony that the town was given its regular plan,with the usual grid of streets intersecting at right angles. The areawhere the forum was built must have been a public space even be-fore; two temples, dating from the very first years of the colony,stood there (the architectural terracottas which decorated them arein the Archaeological Museum in Florence). On a slightly higher lev-el and facing in a different direction, there was the Capitoliun) a tri-partite temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) built laterthan the first two temples. The Via Aenilia Scauri separates the Ca-

Pitzlian from the forum. At that stage it was the continuation of theVia Aurelia, and will be called that after the 3rd century A.D. In re-cent years, systematic excavations have taken place in Luni, bring-ing to light many buildings including some private houses, many ofwhich arc yery large and have mosaic floors. The walls were builtpartly in concrete, p^rtly in large blocks of local stone. Both RutiliusNamatianus at the beginning of the 5th century A.D. and Ciriaco ofAncona in the 15th mentioned the existence of marble walls, butthey probably mistook the ruins of some other building for the city

82. Lacm, ruins of the Roman wa/lt in thecharch of .lanta Maria della Rosa.

83. Base af a narb/e cippas, decorated withrams' heads (fron the area aroand Pisa,ear/y 5th centurl B.C.). Pisa, Maseade//'( )1tera dd/a Prinazia/t.

Page 51: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

50Agriculture and the Agrarian landscape

The earliest agricultural activity is doc-umented by palaeobotanical remains(wheat, barley, millet, beans, lentils)and by agricultural tools: f.ragments ofsickles, grindstones and stone mullers,wells and underground silos for thepreservation of foodstuffs.

The appropriation of land and thesubsequent setting up ofborders lies atthe root of the development of theEtruscan people: the boundaries of theland are considered sacred. thev arethe projection of a cosmic order tasedon the separation of the elements, as isshown by the prophecy of Vegoia andby the numerous inscribed stonesmarking property divisions (see p. 31).In agriculture, contact with the Greekworld introduced several more ration-al innovations: the practice of fallow-ing (the alternation of leguminouscrops and wheat crops), the cultivationof the vine (7th century) and of theolive (5th century), and even the in-strument used for measuring the land,the groma, for which even the namewas borrowed from the Greek. Classi-cal writers tell us how remarkably fer-tile the Etruscan fields were. so muchso that the Roman populace, after thefall of Veii, wanted to move to rhenewly conquered territory because itwas more fertile (Livy). But we alsoknow that all this fertility was due toman's interyention as well. This inten-sive agricultural activity did not de-cline even when Etruria lost its inde-pendence, for all the Etruscan cities,except Arezzo and Populonia, suppliedScipio's African campaign (205 B.C.)with agricultural produce and timber.

The agrarian landscape of Etruria inRoman times is strictly connected tothe territory's political and administra-tive set-up. On the land controlled bythe al l ied cit ies the tradit ional Etrus-can cultivation methods continued topredominate, whereas in those areaswhere the Roman presence was moredirect, such as the colonies, the land-scape began to look more like that ofLatium and Campania. The land wasdivided anto centuries (a svstem ofmeasuring and dividing the land ac-cording to the intersection of axes atright angles) and the plots granted tothe colonizing farmers. The colonizers

lived in the city if their property wasnearby, or in farms on the land. Thefields surrounding these modest dwell-ings, usually housing only one family,were used for mixed crops. The vine,for example, was "married" to sup-porting trees and the rest of the fieldwas taken up by grain, vegetables andleguminous plants, and whatever elsemight be necessary for the survival of

the family. Often, however, the pro-duce of the land was not sufficient andthen portions of public land (agerpabblica:) were taken over, primarilyas pasture land. When th. high-ranking citizens of Rome, mostlymembers of the Senate, began to ap-propriate the land, setting up largelanded estates controlled bv villas. theagricultural activity becami more spe-

II

Page 52: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

cialized and intensive. The crops weremostly exported. For the most part thecultivations consisted in vines, olives,fruit trees, leguminous plants andgrain (in rotation on the same fields)and anything else that was necessary tofeed the numerous agricultural labour-ers that lived in the villa. The maioritvoF these workers were slaves. Duringthe middle and late imperial age theland became progressively more theproperty of the emperor, and the ap-pearance of the landscape changedconsiderably. Intensive cultivation wasreplaced by extensive (the alternationof wheat, fallow and pasture). The vil-las were replaced, starting in the 2ndcentury A.D., by a few very large build-ings (among which the maritime villas)connected to the development of thesevast and underpopulated estates.

The peasants and farmers were proba-bly the ones who were less affected bythe fall of the Roman empire and theimpact with the Germanit tribes, forthe Longobards adopted the Romanlaws governing land division. The sys-tem of the cartis, which in Tuscany isdocumented primarily through thelarge ecclesiastical estates, was organ-ized rather loosely around the curtis it-self. the direct descendant of the lateRoman vllla. Large estates might con-sist of more than one curtis, even quitefat apart from each other. Divisionand subdivision were the fundamentalcharacteristics of early medieval agra-rian landscape, both because of mixedcultivations and for the very nature ofthe cartis, vrithin which the propertywas divided tnto sorti, mansi andpetia deterra. Some of these had a house onthem where freed men or serfs lived,while the overlord's part, controlleddirectly, consisted also of pasture landand woods. During the early MiddleAges many changes took place in thedistribution of settlements and popula-tion: the initial preponderance of scat-tered settlements in the olains was re-placed progressively by-hi l l top com-munities.

I. The so-called "Ponte Sodo" at Veii (5tbcentury B.C.). ActaaQ, it is an artifcialtannel wbich was used to cbange the cotrse oftbe Cremera riaer.

II. Reconstruction of tbe large pigsj in tbeRortan ailla at Settefinatre near Cosa.

5 1III. Snall bronTe aotiue statae of a ntanpkugl)ing (from Arezzq late 5th centarl'B.C.). Rone, Vi//a Giulia.

IV. Re/ief sbowing slaues prusing grapes.Aq u i le i a, Archaeo/ ogi ca / Mu se a m.

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I) isa, Lucca and Lunj

84. Lucca, the arcades of the Ronan an-phitbeatre.

85. Lacca, aeria/ uiew; in'the lower part,the market sqaare built on the site of the Ro-nan Amphitheatre.

walls. Outside the walls, the ruins of the amphitheatre ̂ re still visi-ble, and, within the walls, there was a theatre built in the Julian-Claudian period. The relatively small size of this theatre makes onesuppose that the population was quite small. An event which addedto the prosperity of the town must have been the discovery of thequarries of white marble, called Lunensian or Carrarzmarble, whichwas used for the first time, according to Pliny, in 48 B.C. Between40 and 30 B.C. its usage became widespread and, by the time of Au-gustus, it was used in large quantities in Rome and the provinces.The blocks of marble were transported by sea to the mouth of theTiber, then carried to the various parts of the capital. The town ofLuni must also have prospered thanks to the surrounding fertileplain. Both Pliny and Martial speak of the famous large cheeses andPliny thought that the wine from Luni was the best in Etruria. Theamphoras used for transporting wine are evidence of a thrivingwine trade as early as the 1st century B.C.

Of Roman PISA, on the other hand, we know very little. Thereare inscriptions which document its importance, among which theElogia pisana, recording the honours tributed to Caius and LuciusCaesari (2-4 A.D.), which can be seen together with other Romanitems at the Camposanto. The location of the various buildings inthe city is still not known (there are remains of baths, known as"Nero's baths," near Porta a Lucca). Many pieces of Roman marble(mostly from Rome and Ostia) -.r. ,..rr.i in the construction oflater important buildings, such as the cathedral. Many Roman sarco-phagi were also reused between the 11th and 15th centuries; theymay be seen at the Camposanto.

'We know very little about eady medieval LUCCA, despite the fact that it was the

capital of the region; it was occupied by the Longobards very early-probably be-fore 570-and they settled within the Roman walls, as is documented by thefinds at Santa Giulia and San Romano, later spreading out to the countryside aswell (see, for example, the burial site at Marlia). Among the Longobard objects

Page 54: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

53Pisa, I-ucca and Luni

Found in the tombs are the little gold cfosses, sometimes decorated with geo-

metfic or animal pattefns (in relief-or engraved), which were sewn onto the cloth

.orreri.rg the facetf the deceased. For a long time it was believed that this custom

*^ r.f;'fy Germanic, but more recent studies have proved that it is Italic or Me-

diterranean in origin. Five gold leaf crosseswere found in more than one tomb at

Santa Giulia, wheie the ve!, ehborate gold apparel of a knight was also discov-

ered. All these obiects u." ,ro* in the-museum at villa Guinigi together with

oarts of a Darade shield forrnd at san Romano (7th century): the unbo, the central

;;;;;,h.';hield, and the metal-plate_s that decorated the wooden part,- showing

hrchangel Michael, protector ofihe Longobards, or Daniel in the lion's den, or

even the deceased himself.

Longobard presence in the area is also documented by the finds atPiazzadel

Serchio-and San Lo.enzo a Vaccoli (where the Longobards first settled and began

,h.i. .o.,q,r..t of Tuscany), by the f.amo5 "Lamina" of Agilulf (^

ry.ld leaf pec-

;;;;l ;t;;-.nt), found i"'ir'. vutai"ievole area (now in 'Lt B-gtJl-"-National

Museum of Florence) and, above all, by the discoveries in Piazza dei Miracoli in

pisa. where there was a necropolis iaid out on Roman foundations. Here,

belts with precious stone decorations were found; the Patterns ^consist of

entwined snakelike animals (second half of the 7th century, Museo di San Matteo

in pisa) that arecomparable io north Tyrolean belts of the same period..

The decline of the cities and of the urban organization .is particularly evident

as early as the 6th century at LUNI, where a systimatic archaeological dig, begun

o^ty uh* years ago, has brought to_light two extremell Poo. houses in the area

that had been the forum. They"show ho"les urhere the poles stood and.stones from

earlier constructions have been used. They are evidince of an obviously wide-

sOread |ifestyle that archaeologists, howevei, still know little about, except that it

riust have e*isted even beforJthe arrival of the Germanic tribes.

in. Longobard presence is documented by the bronze objects from tombs

(burial by infiumation), frequently even within the city walls: fibulas, buckles, ar-

Lin^, ^rra brooches, all more or less in the Byzantine tradition but quite similar

i" "U1..,, found in ihe Longoburd necropolises at Castelvecchio (Verona), Tes-

tona (Turin), Santa Giulia (Lucca) and so on'

Ait., "rr'i.rt.rruption of almost a century, archaeologists have recently ,re-sumed work on the basilica of Luni. The construction was formally a cathedral

from the middle of the 9th century untrl 1204, when the seat of the diocese was

transferred toSarzana.The basilica vras built in at least three different stages and

its foundations are Roman.

86. Luni, aerial uiew of the Roman am-phitheatre.

87. Bronze laminas belonging to a parade

shield (fron San Komano' second balf of the

7th centurl. Lucca, Vil/a Cuinigi'

88. Bronze spurs, spearheads, plaque y!stads (from ian Romano, second half of the

7th centurl). Lacca, Villa Cainigi.

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VOI-TE,RRA. POPULONIA AND SIE,NA

The Lower Palaeolitbic is represented bl sbardsfound at Bibbona and b1a bi-facial inplementfrom Monastero d'Ombrone; tbe Midd/e Palaeolitbic b1 sar-face fnds along the ualley of the Merse and tbe Farma. Tbe archaic tJpperPalaeolitbic is documented at Montalcino and the Graaettian at Mante .fanSauino. An incised shard, showing a bison, wasfoand at Lustignano. The Neo-litbic is represented on/1 fu a .few fragments of inpressed pottery found atPiornbino, wbile tbe Aeneolitbic is docuruenled b1 the ditch tombs at Pornar-ance, Cuardistall0, Canigliano and Monteroni d'Arbia, b1 tbe Grotta diSant'Antimo near Montalcino and b1 the little grotto tomb al Montebradoninear Volterra. Tbe Bronze Age is represented b1 tbe co//ections of ear/1 objects

found at Canpiglia, Castiglion d'Orcia, Souicille and Populonia, and b1 uar-iaus other single fnds. (Objects in tbe Pigorini Museunt in Rome and in theArchaeo/ogical Museums of Siena and Florence).

Materials dating from the Villanovan culrure (9th-7th centuriesB.C.) have been found near V()I-TuRRA, in the necropolises of Ba-dia, Ripaie and Guerruccia; they show close connecrions with thecivilization of Bologna at the time (see the objects in the GuarnacciN{useum in Volterra). The "Oriental" phase was less developed here:it was stil l tied to the Villanovan tradition, as far as funeral ritualwas concerned, although it also shows some analogies with contem-por^ry southern Etrurian civilizations. Particularly interesting arethe cinerary urn of Nlontescudaio (mid-7th century) which has on itslid, executed in an elementary sculptural form, a representation ofthe deceased at a banquet; the bucchero rtyathos from Nlonteriggioni,imported from southern Etruria (examples in the Guarnacci NIu-seum); the q I tomb from Badia (about 650-625 B.C.) on view in themuseum, which contained h,truscan-Corinthian oil jars proving thatVolterra had commercial ties with southern h,truria, via the port ofPopulonia. From the early 6th century onwarcls, the typtcal tbolostombs began to be used throughout the area: they are formed byrows of stone slabs, each row projecting further than the previousone, sustained by a central pilaster. All these tboloi, or beehivetombs, were found in the valley of the Cecina, at Casale Nlarittimo(reconstructed in the Archaeological Museum in Florence), at Ca-saglia (reconstructed in the garden of the town hall of Cecina), atBolgheri and at Bibbona (no longer standing). The objects in them(Archaeological N{useum, Florence), mostly imported from south-ern Etruria, are analogous to the contemporary ones from Populo-nia, which in the archaic perioci was the area's only port. Somesoufces even state that Populonia was founclecl bv Voiterra. It islikely that it is also thanks io the ties with Populonia that a caskerfull of Phocaean and Massalian coins (Archaeological Nfuseum,Florence) arrived in Volterra and that the artistic acrivities of the sec-ond half of the 6th century were characterized by a "Ionic" style:inscribed steles with figures of knights (examples in the museum),some bronze statuettes and the so-called "Lorenzini head" (about480 B.C.), in marble, probably belonging to rhe full-figure starue ofa gocl.

It was at this time, thanks particularly to rhe copper mining inthe area, that the city as such was born; the walls were built (no

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Volterra, Populonia and Siena

longer standing) as well as stone buildings with tiled roofs on theAcropolis. The marble bases of inscribed stones, decorated with,u-rt heads, and the recurrence of the name Kaikna on three stelesin Bologna are evidence of Volterra's participation in the re-founding of Felsina (Bologna) and the foundation of Marzabotto(early 5th century).

From the 4th century to the end of the 2nd, Volterra experiencedits period of greatest prosperity, probably thanks to its well-organized plan of intensive agriculture which we have discoveredthrough the presence of several small settlements scattered through-out the countryside. By this time Volterra ruled over a vast territory:the stretch of coast from the river Fine to Bolgheri, the valleys of theCecina and of the Era, the valley of the Elsa and the fortress ofMonteriggioni. The city built a new set of enormous walls (whichare still standing in some places, such as Badia), began to coin mon-ey and to produce atypical kind of ceramic ware (red-figure kratersand ceramic varnished black and then painted; examples in theGuarnacci Museum). This pottery was exported, throughout the4th,3rd and 2nd centuries, to the towns of northern Etruria, of I-i-gt:.ia, beyond the Appennines as far as Adria and Spina and even to

5 5

89. Reconstruction of the tho/os tonb of (.a-

sa/e Marittintt, (araund 620-600 B.(..).I:/orence, Arcbaeo/rgira/ Museu rt.

90. Stone.funeraql' ste/e, witlt dedicalarf itt-scription to Auile I'ite, porlra.led as d Ddrrior ( 5 5 0- 5 2 5 B.C.). Llaherra, CuartattMusean.

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Volterra, Populonia and Siena

Corsica (Aleria). Particularly important is the collection of cineraryurns (Archaeological Museum in Florence and Guarnacci Museumin Volterra) which follow, at a remarkably high artistic level, thevarious currents of the Hellenistic period (Microasiatic, Rhodic,Pergamonic, Classicistic). The Hellenistic style is also evident in thearchitectural terracottas found in the temple on the Acropolis,which was rebuilt during the first half of the 2nd century B.C. Butthis flourishing artistic activity soon came to an end, for the aristo-cracy stopped commissioning works, so anxious were they to be-come an integral part of the Roman state. Evidence of this can befound in the portraits of local magistrates, commissioned by them-selves, on urns dating from the early 1st century and also in the his-tory of the Ceima-Caecinafamily.

PopuroxrA is the only Etruscan city that even the ancient geo-graphers considered anomalous for its position on the sea. It owedits orosperity, which lasted uninterruptedly from the archaic periodto late Hellenism, to the mineral resources in the arca of Campigliaand on the island of Elba: the maritime transportation of these -itt-erals made its port the most developed of the arca. On the coast ofthe bay of Baratti, Villanovan necropolises, belonging to two sepa-rate communities, have been found at Poggio del Molino, Poggio allaPorcareccia, San Cerbone and at Granate. These show close links

91. Reconstruction of the Inghiranti tonb alVo/terra (2nd centurl B.C.). Flnrence, Ar-chaeologica/ Museum.

92

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Voiterra, Populonia ancl Siena

,/*q{#qf-

,t

with the culture of the Nuraghe, perhaps brought here by phoeni-cian traders. As early as the end of the 9th century B.C. they werebuilding chamber tombs for multiple burials, covered by a domemade by progressively projecting stone slabs. Between the mid-8thand the mid-7th centuries, contact with Greek merchants in searchof mineral ore does not seem to have brought much prosperity tothe region, probably because this trade was mediated by the motepowerful (and more socially evolved) communities of southernEtruria. Despite this, in the first half of the 7th century some largemound tombs were built (for example, those of the Flabelli or of t6eCarri, which can be seen in that part of the necropolis that is open rothe public). The marvellous collection of objects found here is evi-dence of a rigidly aristocratic and warrior ideology: iron weapons,andirons, grills and locally manufactured chariots. From the lasi dec-ades of the 7th century and throughout the 6th, the number of im-ported artifacts (Etruscan-Corinthian, Corinthian, Greek-Orientaland Attic ceramics) which have been found in the tombs-from theearliest mound tombs, to the aedicu/ae, to the sarcophagi, to the cas-sone tombs-increased considerably; it also reflects an acquaintancewith Greek-oriental culture which influences even the local artisticactivities, such as the acroteria and the palm-shaped decorations atthe top of stone steles (examples in the Archaeological Museum inFlorence and in the local museum).

Towards the middle of the 6th century the necroDolises were alltransferred to the flat stretch of coast along the bay und " ,.t of wallswas built (in part srill standing), which enclosed the two pogi(hills), Poggio del Molino and Poggio del Castello. This leads us to

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92. I'o/turra, the arched gate (3rd-2ndcentarl B.(.).

9). A/abaster urn from Vo/terra (late3rd centary B.(.). Vatican, GregorianEtrascan Masean. On the /id, lhe deceasedroup/e; on the base, Pelops ki/ls Enamaos.'l'lte

sty/x shows the inf'luence of the art o/'Perqanton.

91. Branze cainfrom the Vo/terra mint, re-yerse side ()rd centur.l B.C.). Along tberin, tbe inscription Velathri (Vo/terra),.atthe centre, a do/pbin and tbe yntbol of itsaa/ae. V a/te rra, G u arnacci Mas eu rt.

9 5. Branze rtatuette af a warrior (fron Po-pa/onia,frst half of the 5th century B.(.).F/nrence, Archaea/ogica/ Musea m.

Page 59: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

58Metallurgy

'I'he science of metallurgy reached Italy

cluring the 3rd millennium B.C. and isclocumented at first by copper and ar_senic daggers and flat axes, as well asby traces of mining activities founcl inTuscany and Trentino. During theBronze Age, the use of -.tri- *u,widespread, not only for weapons butalso for tools (axes, sickles) u.rd or.,u_ments (collars, brooches, bracelets).The many stone moulds that have beenfound prove that the processing alsotook place Iocally.

Traces of mining activity have beenfound in the area around Massa Marit-tima and Campiglia, where the smelt_ing furnaces for iron and copper wereplaced near the mines (the onls at ValFucinaia, at Campiglia, in use from the8th century B.C. onwards, are open to

the public). The iron ore mined on theisland of Eiba, on the other hand, wasprocessed at Populonia after the 6thcentury.

In the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.metal objects were manufactured al_most exclusively at Vetulonia, Vulci,Tarquinia and Caere; the old proce_dure of rhinly hammered layers, loinedtogether with r ivets, *rs ,s.d. Lat.r.al ' ter the 6th-5th cenlury, the work_shops in sourhern Etiuria (Vulci.Caere , Vo ls in i i ) and those in in landnorthern Etruria learnt from theGreeks the practice of soldering andbegan to make more use of the cist ineprocedure, special ly in the productioiof vases. These innovations led. on theone hand, to much shorter productiont imcs an t l inc reased quant i t ies , mak inqEtruscan produce competit ive on

other Italian and central Eurooeanmarkcts; and on the other made i t oos_sible to create large-scale statues, ofwhich the Mars from Todi, the Chi_maera and the Orator ard the only sur_viving examples.

Vfe have very little information aboutmining activity in Roman times, andwhat little we have has yet to be prop_e.rly studied. The processing of iron,tne most common metal in Etruria,probably continued much as before. AtPopulonia, an analysis of the quantityot lron present in the scrap--muchmore_than in the prev ious per iod-would seem to indicate " mrrih faste.but less. accurate processing technique.According to the informatlon we havetoday, iron processing in popuionia in-creased in the 3rd and 2nd centuries.

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probably because of the increase in de-mand fiom Rome. Pliny mentions Po-oulonia's vast contribution of iron toRome at the time of the second Punicwar. But in the lsl centurv iron oro-cessing seems ro Fal l oft quite sud<len-ly, more or less at the same time as thedevelopment of metallurgical activitiesin Carnia, in the Alps. The coppermines of Vetulonia and Populonia,and the cinnabar (used for leagues)ones on Mount Amiata, apper to havesuffered the same fate, probably be-cause of the competition afforded bythe mines in the Iberian peninsula.

I. Bronze axes and ingols (fron Cantpi,q/iaX[aritlinta, ear/1, BronT.e Agi). F/orence,,4 rcbaeological Maseu n.

II. Bronze lamina mrt (ront the O/no Be/-/o necropo/is, BisenTio, sennd ha/f of tlte 8thceaturl, B.(.). Rone, lli//a Cia/ia.

III. Bronze lanina lhrone uitb relief'decor-ation (rort the Barberini tamb al Prenestu,

first lta/f of the 7th rentury B.C.). Ronte,l:i/la Ciu/ia.

II'. Re/ie/ shawin.q a h/arksrtitlt'.r n,ork.rhrtp. . 1qui/tia, .1rtbuco/,tgica/,\Irstttrtt.

VIl. Bronze slatue of'a (himaera, with a uo-/iue inscriplion (from Arezzo, early 4ilt cettlary B.C.). F/nrence, Arcbaeo/ogiu/ XItr-JuttTl.

Page 61: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

60

9 6. Palnette-shaped crowning f'stone ste/es(second ba/f of the 6tb centary,). Populonia,Casparri Museunt.

97. Papa/onia, Archaic wal/s (around thenid-6th century B.(.).

98. Papa/onia, aedicala and cassane tombs(6th-5th centary B.C.). In the foregraand,the aedicala tontb known as the 'tonb of thebranzc stataette naking an ffiring.'

99,, Populonia, Porcareccia necropa/is, F/a-belli tumulus, with lwo stone ste/es infront oftbe entrance (second balf of the Vtb rcntar1,B.C.).

Voltcrra, I)opulonia ancl Siena

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believe that the community had become a city and it is significantthat it should have happened at the same time as the processing ofthe minerals from Elba became publiclv administered. An industrialfactory was built for this prtpo.. ouiside the city, at Poggio allaPorcareccia; it contained also housing for the workers and was useduntil the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. Also at this time Popu-Ionia began to coin its own money, an indispensable instrument forthe development of the metal trade; it coined sporadically at first,but began to issue regular series (coins with Gorgon head) at the be-ginning of the 4th century and continued through to the middle ofthe 3rd.

The city's prosperity continued during the 5th and 4th centuries,as is shown by the importation of ceramics from Attica (the two hyd-rias by the painter Meidias in the Archaeological Museum in Flor-ence are remarkable), and later from Latium, southern Etruria and

Page 62: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Vol tc r ra , I )opu lon ia and S ienr

Campania. Not even the two expeditions led by the Syracusans in453 B.C. against the mining district seem to have caused much da-mage.

. It was d-uring the 4th century that the industry of metal process-ing reached its peak, as can be deduced from the vast accu;ulationof scrap that buried the old necropolis. At the same time, the city be-came very powerful politically, as is shown by the construction of anew set of walls with towers (visible along the road leading to thecastle) that isolated the whole promontory from the mainland. Alsoat this time, the new hilltop fortresses on the island of Elba werebuilt to protec the mines. During the 3rd century, popuronia musthave joined rhe system of alliances with Rome and in 70s g.c. tLr.city supplied iron for Scipio's campaign in Africa. During the 2ndcentury, the port continued its activity of metal trade, but the pro_cessing had by then been rransferred ro Pureoli (Pozzuoli).

During the civil war VoLTERRA sided with Marius and this causedSulla's revenge: in 80-79 B.C. he besieged the city and eventuallyconquered it, depriving the inhabitants of Roman citizenship. But itdoes not seem that Sulla then transformed the city into a colony, ashappened in many other parts of Etruria.

The construction of the major public buildings is due to the mostimportant local families. The theatre, for example, was built in theearly 1st century A.D. by A. Caecina Severus and his son Sixtus. Atthe foot of the stage there were statues of Roman emperors (at theGuarnacci Museum there are two statues of Augustus and one ofLivia). The names inscribed on the seats-among which the nameof the family of the poet Persius-provide interesting material forthe study of the local notables. The theatre was modernized and re-stored several times during the 1st and2nd centuries, and in the 3rdcentury it was definitively abandoned and used as a rubbish dump.Behind the stage there is a large portico and a building housingbaths. A large cistern which supplied water to the whole city dateifrom the Augustan period. Just outside Porta San Felice, on theAcropolis, there are the ruins of baths and private houses (somefloor mosaics can be seen in the Guarnacci Museum).

We know very little about the territory around Volterra, for ithas not yet been studied systematically. Research has recently beenundertaken at the villas of San Vincenzino and San Gaetano atVada. But we can state fairly certainly that there were many largelanded estates based on slave labour, as was common in northernEtruria, while the areas further south were divided into smaller prop-erties.

We have very little information about Poput-oxtA in Romantimes. We know that the city supplied iron for Scipio's campaign inAfrica (205 B.C.). Coins dating from the 2nd century B.C. provethat at the time the city was still in existence. But the imperial agemust have brought a rapid decline, and we know that Strabo saw thecity in a state of total abandon, inhabited only by workers involvedin the metal industries. The production of iron, which had been par-ticularly intensive during the middle and late republican period (andperhaps even slightly later), has left us seven metres of accumulated

6 1

1 0 0

102

1()0. llc,/terra, the Roman tbeatre ( 1slcentury A.D.).

101. Vo/terra, the steps of tbe Romantheatre.

102. Valterra, the mosaicJloor af tbe baths( 1st century A.D.).

Page 63: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

105

Volterra, Populonia ancl Sienr

scrap along the coast of the bay of Baratti. There are ruins of a fewseaside villas along the coast of the promontory. Among these,worthy of mention is the one of Poggio del Molino, where scholarsof the last century found a Nilotic mosaic dating from the first halfof the 1st century B.C. (sold, outside Italy, to private antiquedealers). In the museum of Populonia there are some inscriptionsdating from the Roman period.

The town of SrEx,t (Saena), which probably became a colonyunder Augustus, grew up on the site of a previous settlement, possi-bly an Etruscan community called Saina. The town never really be-came important, despite its favourable position along the CassianWay. Very few materials have been found; they are in the local ar-chaeological museum and among them is z portr^it of the so-calledPseudo-Seneca. The recent discovery of some Roman period potterysuggests, among other things, that the centre of the town was nearCastelvecchio. Lower down, more or less where today's Piazza delCampo stands, there was the city's forum-which was called campas

fori. There are ruins of villas on the surrounding territory (at VicoBello, Pieve alBozzone andLa Befa), but they all seem to have been

103. Montanenti, l2tlt-centary tower be-longing to tbe castle keep (B on the p/an). Tothe left, tbe excauatiorc (1000 on the plan)reueal the /ate medieua/ constructions.

104. Montarrenti, the peasants' aillage(5000 on tbe p/an). Under the late medie-aa/ constructions we cafl see tbe boles for thebeam of the earl1 medieual houses.

1 0 5. Cround-plan of the castle of Montar-renti. At the centre, tbe buildings forningthe castle keep, surrounded b1 tbe peasantt'ui//age.

106. Melted bronze belt cap and disc-shaped gold fbala (fron Volterra, late 7thcen t a ry ). Flore n ce, Arcbae ologi ca / M u seu m.

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Page 64: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

63quite small. They must, however, have survived until quite late. oro-bably from the Augustan period until rhe 5th century A.D.

The bishopric of Stgxn was from the very beginning one of the smallest in Tus-cany, surrounded as it was by the two great dioceset of volt..r" and Arezzo. Thelatter p_ractically reached as far as the gates ofthe city itself, This was the result ofthe different degree of importance of these cities in the Roman period. Duringthe,first years of the Longobard occuparion, Siena had no bishop, but its militariand administrative territory grew considerably, at the expense'of Arezzo. Thisfact underlies the numerous Grritorial quarreli between tire two dioceses whichwere.only. definitively resolved in the earlv 13th century when it was decidecl thatthe churches of the area, claimed by Siena, were to be considered under the acl-ministration of Arezzo. Some of these churches still house interesting fragmcntsof early medieval sculpture. The economic development of Siena wis clue to itsposition along the Via Franctgena.

very few marerials dating from the early Ntiddle Ages, mostly housed in theArchaeological N{useum in Siena, have been found in thJarea ofthe city; rraces of"pre-Romanesque"

settlements in the countrysicle are equally few and far be-11v1en.

c]1ly recently the excavation of the castle of r,roNr,rRRuN'r.r (dicoese ofvolterra) has provided us with some archaeorogical information. It is a'tvpical ex-ample of a fortified village, the centre of the administration of a landecl estate,and its existence is documented from the mid-12th century. Today Nlontarrentrconsists of the vast ruins of a castle keep, with two towers and other houses, andan abandoned town below, enclosed by a set of walls. The houses, inhabited untilthe late Nliddle Ages by peasants an.l iharecroppers, show that the land had beenregula.rly divided up. The excavation of the upper part and apartial study of thetown have shown that the sett lement, during i is earl iest.t"g., l l rh-tOth cenrur-re_s), consisted of irregular builclings, partly in wood, spreaJover the whole areaof the later castle, without any ..town-planning"

as s,rch.

VE,TULONIA AND RUSELLAE

Tbe lower Palaeolithic is represented fu brfacial inplenents found at piandell'Osa; tbe Middle an! Upper palaei/itbic,

fu, surfacefinditbrougboat theterritory, in tbe Grotta La Fabbrica at Alberese, in tbe erotta cali Gioyan-na.at li1ysa (Ciuic Museam of Rtgto Enilia), and b1t surfacefnds on tbeisland of E/ba. In the Grotta Vado all'Arancio near Massa Maiittina tbereaere craaettian tombs, witb seaera/ interesling artfacts, including a bumanprofi/e (Florentine Prebiltoriyl Maseum). Fiom the I\eolitltic p"eriod a fewimpressed ceramics baue beenfoand at Elba and pianosa, wbile fu) docamenta-tion of the Aeneolitbic and, tbe Bronze Age is mucrt greater: traces of niningactiaities in tbe cinnabar /odes on Moant Arniata, birials in artifiiial sna/lgrottoes at Pianosa and in natara/ grottoes e/sewbere, sucb as Grotta San Gia-seppe at Rict Marina on fr,lga (Antiquariam of Marciana Marina), Grotta(//o s.coslietn (F/orentine Pre/tistorical Museam), small grottoes at bianizzo-li and Prato (ciuic Museum at Massa Marittina), Griua del Fontino (ob-lects at tbe Florentine Prebistorica/ Museum). Tbe jater beriods are rlctcumenr-ed b1 ruins datingfron the Appennine caltare t n Mouit Amiata and fut tbeproto-villanouan necropolis at Sticciano Scalo (ciuic Maseum at Grossei antlArcbaeological Museam in Florence).

vpruroxtA prospered thanks to the mineral resources afforded bvthe colline Metallifere and its fortunate position on the lagoon ofLake -Prile (now drained). The Villanovan necropolise, o.r ih. ,.rr-rounding hills belonged to rwo distinct .o--.rnities; the objectsfrom the earliest period found in them are very modest. But from

Page 65: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

1 07. Funerary uase (from Grotta San Cia-seppe, Iiland of Elba, Aeneolithic). Pisa,I n s t i tu te of A n t h ropo / ogy.

108. Bell-sbabed uases and bone buttons(from Grotta- del Fontino, Aeneolithie).Florence, Florentine Prehistorical Museum.

109. Vetulonia, Tonba del Diaaolino, atumulas tomb with a sqilare chanber topped

@ afalse uaalt supported b1 a central pilas-ter (around 620-500 B.C.).

Vetulonia and Rusellae

the middle of the 8th century onwards there was an increase in thewealth of the inhabitants: ambers were imported from the north,Nuraghic materials from Sardinia and glass paste and a Phoeniciancup from the Orient (Archaeological Museum in Florence; some ex-amples in the local Antiquarium). The necropolis, and by this stagealso the settlement by the Lake of Accesa (Civic Museum of MassaMarittima), show that the community of Vetulonia began very eadyon to administer the metal trade, perhaps through the mediation ofVulci or Tarquinia. Soon metal processing was also done locally.The "Oriental" style tombs (7th century), consisting of severalditches within a single circle of stones, were filled with real trea-sures: gold jewellery and precious vases imported from southernEtruria and the Orient, Greek ceramics, Oriental bronze cauldronsand elegant products of the local metal industry (tripods, cauldrons,bronze incense burners, gold objeas; Archaeological Museum inFlorence). Dating from the second half of the 7th century there arehuge chamber tombs, topped by false vaults sustained by pilasters.Among these the tombs of Diavolino and Pietrera are open to thepublic.

Towards the middle of the 6th century B.C., when the city wallswere built, Vetulonia began to show signs of decline, as can be de-duced from the necropolis; perhaps its role as mining centre was be-ing taken over by the growing town of Populonia. On the otherhand, prosperity appears to have continued uninterruptedly both inthe aristocratic countryside tumulus tomb at Poggio Pelliccia nearGavorrano (with burials from the mid-7th to the early 5th centuryB.C.) and in a building in the city, possibly a temple, at Costa Mura-ta, where Etruscan and Greek ceramics from the early 6th to themid-5th centuries have been found.

The city of RuseLtAE (Roselle) began to be important around themiddle of the 6th century. Since we have found no interesting arti-facts of local production, Rusellae's pov/er must have been based onthe control over the valley of the Ombrone and on agricultural

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Page 66: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Vetulonia ancl Rusellae

activities. The decline of Vetulonia and the rise of Rusellae must.however, be connected in some way.

Rusellae illustrates very well the various stages in the life of atown of ancient Etruria: from the 7th century B.C. (the date of theoldest house) to the 9th centurv A.D.. when the Christian basilicawas built. We know very little about the necropolises, for no syste-matic excavations have yet been made; but we can get an idea of thegrandeur of the city by the enormous set of cyclopean stone walls(mid-6th century B.C.), marking the birth of the city as such, also doc-umented by the presence of contemporury architectural terracottas,similar to the ones found at Murlo, in the upper valley of the Om-brone. The prosperity of Rusellae is shown in the 5th century by theimportation of Attic ceramics, and in the Hellenistic period by therestoration of the walls, the new houses built on the southern hill-side and by the constructionof a temple in the 2nd century, docu-mented by architectural terracottas in the Microasiatic style.

According to Silius Italicus, it was VaTuloNtA that handed downto Rome the usage of emblems of power, such as thefasci or the cur-ule chair; but Vetulonia, during the Roman period, was no morethan an insignificant milnicipian.

65

1 1 2

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110. Head ctf a slone statue of a ,v0man(ront tbe tamulus of Pietrera al Vetulonia,650-525 B.C.) F/orence, ArchaealogicalMuseunt.

'I'he stJle af the scalptare c/ear/1,

shows the influenrc of snal/-scale Orienta/scalpture.

1 1 1. Vetulonia, tamulas of Pietrera(650-625 B.C. ) .

1 1 2. 'fn,o

gold brarclets (fron the tuntalusof Migliarine at Vetalonia, 620-600 B.C.).F/orence, Archaeo/ogtcal Museum. Theseuere made in a /oca/ workshop, using tbe

f ligree techniqae.

1 1 ). 'l'wo

bronze horse's bits, produced /o-caQJ (fron the necropolis of Lake Accesa,second half af the 8th century B.C.). MassaMaritti ma, Archaealogim/ Musea n.

Page 67: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

66Ceramics Workshops

During the Neolithic period and the

metal ages pottery was made bY hand

and cooked over an open fire; the lathe

was not used until the late Bronze Age.

Several kinds of ceramics were pro-

duced: from rough clay ones with only

vaguely smoothed surfaces, to fine red

or black polished ones, yellow vessels

made of the finest clay, generallY

painted red or brown.

The Etruscans' production of ceram-

ics, between the 9th and 2nd centur-

ies, developed continuously in terms of

quantity; it could be manufactured in

the home by the women, or on a latge

scale in organined workshops. From

the technological point of view, a qual-

itative develoDment occurred around

the middle of the 8th century when

contact with the first Greek colonizers

introduced the use ofthe lathe and the

practice of refining clay. From this

iime onward, ceramics were produced

bv specialized workers who often

signed their works. Until the 3rd cen-

turv. Etruscan ceramics were imita-

tions of Greek models, and took on

their shapes, names and decorations:

Etruscan geometric ceramics (Sth cen-

tury), Etruscan-Corinthian (7th-6th),

Ionic style (6th), Attic and Magna

Graecian red-figure vases (5th-4th),

Attic and Car-lpar'ian black varnish(4th-3rd). Even bucchero, a typically

Etruscan black ceramic based on local

traditions, was influenced by imported

models in its shapes and decorations(Phoenician, Corinthian, Greek Orien-

tal styles).

Among the various different types of

ceramics produced in Etruria, some

were intended primarily for export(black varnish ceramics and fine drink-

ing cups) and others were used locally

or regionally (common use ceramlcs

and dolia). Pratically none of the work-

shops that produced these vases have

been identified, except the ones in

Arezzo which were located inside the

city walls. Thanks to the numerous

and varied trade marks stamped on the

vases, we are able to reconstruct the

organization of these factories. In

Arezzo, where about ninety different

workshops have been identified, the

workers were slaves and their numbers

varied according to the size of the fac-

tory. In some cases there was only one

slave, in others ten or tv/enty, and in

some even sixty. In the larger work-

shoos the internal division of labour

muit have relied on a complex organi-

zation, requiring some slaves to fulfil

rather generic functions, while others

were truly specialized workers. The

processing, in fact, went from the sim-

plest tasks, such as the digging of clay

or the storage of the vases, to the more

complicated procedures of refining the

clay and varnishing and baking thepots: the most difficult and delicate

iasks were naturally the modelling and

the decoration ofthe vases. These iobswere done by highly specialized slaves

who signed each vase with their per-

sonal stamp, and it is these markings

that have made this reconstructlon

possible. The procedure, however, was

not always like this. The trademarks

on vases produced elsewhere, eventhough in imitation of the ones made

at Arezzo ("Italic" or "late Italic" ceram-ics), are not the signatures of the

individual craftsman, but more gener-

ally of the manufacturing "company."

It is likely that this indicates a differentlabour organization, but we still know

too little about it to be certain. The

systematic excavation of some of the

workshoos found in Arezzo wouldhelp to ans-e. this question and many

others as well.After the 6th century A.D. ceramicproduction declined enormously; the

lavish late Roman sets of tablewaredisappeared and the only kinds of pot-tery used were a few kitchen obiects,such as the jar and the dish (which was

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Page 68: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

essential for the cooking of farinaceousfoods and began to be used at thistime), and the table tankard. None ofthem were glazed and their decoration,if any, consisted in simple wavey linepatterns. The Longobards used mainlypottery produced locally, even as bur-ial objects; this explains why in Etruriano Dots like the ones from the north-ern Italian necrooolises have beenfound, and only a fiw objects importedfrom North Africa or from centralEurope (Museum of Fiesole). This sit-uation remained constant until atleast the 12th century.

This decline in ceramic productiondenotes a change in the manufacturingorganizatton: the large, almost indus-trially organized production centresmust have disappeared, while smallworkshops, covering a small market,spread and in some cases the produc-tion was even handled "in the home."It was not until the birth of late medie-val enamel factories in Orvieto. Viter-bo, Pisa, Montelupo and Siena thatproduction increased enough for Tus-cany to become a centre of ceramicsexport again.

I. Appennine culture ceramics (fron Crottadel/'Orso, Sarteano, Bronze Age). F/orence,Archaeologi cal Maseu m.

II. Proto-Vi/lanzaan zssaary (fron Stic-ciano Sca/o).and bowl (fron Grotta dell'Or-so, Sarteano, Bronze Age). Florence, Ar-chaeological Maseam.

IIL Etruscan-Corinthian amphora, decor-ated with friezes of aninals b1 the so-calledPainter of the Bearded Sphlnx (fron Vulci,late 7th century B.C.). Rome, Vi//a Cialia.

IV. Bucchero bucket with relief decorationsshowing a frieze of animals, inJlaenced fu 51-rian and Pboenician models (from Caere,6 5 0 - 6 2 5 B.C.). Rone, V i//a Ciulia.

IX

V. Crater b1 the so-called Painter of Dawn(fron Fa/erii, 3 7 5 - 3 5 0 B.C.). Rone, Vi/-la Ciulia. On this side, Dawn rising out oftbe sea on a cbariot drawn b1 four horses,'seated next to lter is ber /ouer Titon.

VI. Rennstraclion of Etrascan reramirc.This drawing illustrates the dffirent kindsof Etruscan ceraminfrom the 9tb to the 2ndcentaries B.C.1. 9th rentary B.C.2. 8/b centarl B.C.3. 7th untury B.C.1. 6tb antary B.C.5. 5tb nntary B.C.6. 4tb- Jrd nntaries B.C.t'. 2nd renturl B.C.

VIL A nould for "Aretini" uases (lst

':::;, U, ) Are72o, Archaeological Mr-

VIII. An "Aretino" uase ( lst centuryB.C.- 1 st centarJ A.D.). Arey2o, Archaeo-/ogica/ Maseum.

IX. unpainnd eeranic tankards (rom

Fiesole, 10th-11th nnt*ry). Fiaoh, Ar-

chaeological Maseam.

X. Ceramie bottles (fron Fiesole, 7th cen'turl). Fiuole, Arcbaeological Museum.These objects are uery similar to the ones tbat

were produced in the lower aa//e1 of the

Rbein at tbe same time.

6 7

- r A l ln-- 0 J,ll- - -u r\ v " / l \\ / \ / F\_1

5 q-----/ I (:--:) a \_:!

/\

l i i ll . i ' J---\______-----J

\-------7

t \I -__J-.,\ /

VVI

Page 69: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

114. Rusellae, tlte citl wal/s (nid-6th cen-tury B.C., with later additions).

115. Rusellae, aerial uiea of the excaua-tions.

116. Statae of a loung giil (kuse//ae, lstcentury A.D.). Crosrcto, ArchaeologicalMuseum.

1 17. Rasellae, uiew of tbe excauations.

1 18. Gold earring (firct balf of tlte 7th cen-tury ). Crosseto, Arcbaeological Maseum.

Vetulonia and Rusellae

RUSELLAE, on the other hand, was a very important centre ofthis region and we have far more information about it. The earliestrecords tell us of the war with Rome in the early 3rd century B.C.,which lasted a few years and ended with Rome's conquest of thecity. We also know that Rusellae supplied wheat to S-ipio's cam-paign in Africa (205 B.C.). The town became a nanicipium and, later,under Augustus, a colony. It seems that at this time ihe city was re-duced to a much smaller area, concentrated around the forum.Thanks to the ruins brought to light by the excavations begun in the1950's, we have discovered that in the Augustan period a ipa.e wasflattened in order to create aplateauwherethe forum was built. Theforum consisted of a square in the centre, with no paving. Thesquare was crossed by a little cobblestone road; another similar roadran along the west side of the square. on this side, large terracingwalls supported a portico. The whole area was eventually flattenedout in the 1st century A.D. and from this time on several changestook place: the existing buildings were restored and enlarged and

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69

many new ones were built. A paved road was constructed along theeast side of the square, possibly following the course of the cardomaximus (the main street running along the north-south axis). Atthe north-east corner of the square, this street turned east at rightangles, thus becominga decamanzs (east-west axis). This is quite unu-sual, for normally there were tv/o or more streets that intersectedperpendicularly. At the corner, where the street curved sharply,there was probably a fountain. The basilica, on the east side of thesquare, was rectangular in plan; it had a raised entrance atrium withsteps leading up to it. The internal space was surrounded by rows ofcolumns, eight on the long sides and four on the short ones. The ori-ginal construction of the basilica would apper to date from the Au-gustan period, whereas the raised entrance hall, with its very diffe-rent building techniques, cannot have been built before the imperialage. The seat of the Aagustales (a body of six men who organtzedthe worship of Augustus and were elected annually) stood along theshort side of the square. This building was rectangular, and its wallswere covered with marble slabs; near the apse, two stone bases havebeen found, which probably supported the statues of Augustus andLivia. In the niches along the long sides there were probably statuesof members of the lulian-Claudian dvnastv (several of these are 1nthe Archaeological . \ lur.u- in Grosieto). 'Rusel lae's decl ine beganin the 2nd century.

Desoite the economic ancl social transformations that characterized the territon'of the Nlaremma from the late imperial age onwarcl, and ciespite the decline of thecit i ' i tself , RtrSHLt-.. \1, was the seat of the diocese from the 5th century unti l i t wastransferred to Grosseto in 1 138.

'Ihe Longobard necropolises scattered over the

territorv indicatc that the city had a very small population; this is also confirmedbv the fact that onlv one important public builcling \r,'as constructed over theu'hole periocl: the Christ ian basi l ica. Bui l t on Roman ruins, i t consists of a nar.eancl tu.o aisles, with a raised narthex and presbytery and a square apse with tworooms leading off i t . Rel iefs and pi lasters, decorated u' i th gui l loches, swastikasancl rosettes (8th-9th centuries), covered the lefthand wall ofthe apse.

But the most intcresting objects come from the Longobarcl necropolis of Ca-sette c'li Nlota (a fev' hundred vards south of Rusellae), consisting of fourteentombs, ancl from the larger necropolis of Grangia, probably connected to thcto\\'n of l\fontecavoli (on a hill a few miles south of Grosseto). The study of thisnecropolis has revealecl that onlv the central and earliest nucleus of tombs con-tainecl personal objects. The personal objects belonging to women in the tombsof Grangia consist mainl,v in disc-shapecl fibulas, one of which has an ornamentin the ccntrc, cross-shaped {tibulas and pearls; the men's objects are mostlv bronzeornaments for belts, buckles ancl shielc'l decorations. All these objects can be dat-cd at thc 7th centur.,' in anaiogy with similar materials founcl north of the Alps.

VUI-CI. SOVANA AND COSA

Fron the Palaeolithic period tbere are sbardsfound at Montauto di Manciano;

fron the Mousterian cultare, at Cala dei Santi and Settefinestre. Apartfromthe Neolitbic fragnents foand at Vulc| it is not until the Aeneolitbic periodtbat we fnd an1 euidence of communities represented b1 tonbs in artificialsmall grottoes (Rinaldone cu/ture) found especialfu in the ua//e1 of tlte Fiora(tbe "Tomb of the lYidow" bas been reconstructed at tbe Pigorini Museum inRone) between Pitig/iano, Manciano, Capalbio and Caraaicchio, and at Far-nese. Tbe be//-shaped uases found at Torre Crognola (Vulci) and the barial

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70

1 1 9S\%$ie.*

1 1 9. Funerary objects (frotzt Prnte San Pie'tro, Viterba, Enea/ithic). F/orence, Ar-rhaeo/agica/ Museum.

120. Va/ci, Ponte del/a Badia, an the riaerFiora (first half of tbe 1st centafy B.C.).

Vulc i , Sor an . r . tn r l ( , r r . r

grottoes at Panta degli Stretti (Argentario) and at sassi IVeri (capalbio)appear to indicate the transition to tbe Bronze Age, cbaracterized in its ear_liest stage b1 stores of bronze objects (Manciano, Montemerano and Saturnia)yd bq. tbe pile-dwellings on Lake Mezzano. Tbe later periods are representedfu, ui/lages a/ong the Fiora (Ponte san Pietro, crostolito di Lanone) antJ byeaidence of worsbip of water and agricaltaral deities in grottoes. The niunber ofsettlertents increased greatl1 in tbe proto-Villanouan age: manJ uillages sprangap,.often on the site of existing ones, and tbe1, were cbaracleriwd fu inni wal/sand buts and b1t tumulus tombs. Among the most interesting are Crosloletto diLamone, sorgenti della Noaa and Bisenzio. obiects are at tbe villa GiuliaMuseum and Pigorini Museam in Rome, at rbi museuru in vu/ci ancl at theAnliquariam in Saturnia.

The vast rerritory that eventually fell under the rule of vut-ct-thevalleys of the Fiora and of the Albeqna-is indicati'e of the rela-tionship between city and countrysidi in southern Etruria. Duringthe early villanovan period (9th century B.c.) and for mosr of thElater (8th century), our information comes almost entirelv from thearea of the future city, with the four necropolises of osteria, cavalu-po, Cuccumella and Polledrara, which continued to be used even inthe following centuries (materials in the Antiquarium of castellodella Badia and in the villa Giulia Museum in Rome; particularly in-teresting is a small bronze statue of Nuraghic origin found at cava-lupo, grgvlfg that trade with Sardinia began very early). During thesecond half of the 8th century the aristocracy of Vulci must havebeen in close contact with the Greek colonizers, probabry becausethey controlled the routes towards the mines of northern Etruria.This contact is shown by the presence in vulci of Euboean cera-mics, brought here by the Greek colonizers of pitecusa (Ischia), suchas the krater from Pescia Romana (Grosseto N{useum), and by the

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Vulci, Sovana ancl (losa

121 122

imitations produced locally by immigrant craftsmen (such as the bi-conical ossuary in the Antiquarium in Vulci).

During this period the investment of excess wealth led to thef:rst agrarian appropriations and numerous aristocratic citadelssprang up throughout the territory (Castro, Poggio Buco, Pitigliano,Sovana, Saturnia, Marsiliana, Magliano, Orbetello), all of themplaced in strategic positions controlling the communication routes.There are many necropolises in these zre s) some of which are opento the public. One of these is the one at Pocclo BUCo, with ditchgraves and chamber tombs, some of which consisting of severalrooms, with sculpted pilasters and support beams, showing the in-fluence of Caere. In the necropolis of CasrRo, the chamber tombsare decorated with stone sculptures in the shape of real and imagi-nary zntrnals; a unique entrance path to one of the tombs is lined onboth sides by rows of animal statues; a large altar is topped by tufacornices decorated in the corners with heads of rams and lions (ma-terials in the Antiquarium of Ischia di Castro). At SarunNIA onecan visit the necropolis of Pian di Palma, with tumulus tombs builtout of stone slabs. But the most prosperous of all those communitiesappears to have been M,qRSILIANA, in a strategic position for thecontrol of the routes to the Colline Metallifere; in its tombs at Ban-ditella, (ditch graves within stone circles), were the burial sites ofwarriors accompanied by remarkable personal objects, especially the"Circolo della Fibula" and the "Circolo degli Avori" in the Archaeo-logical Nluseum in Florence. These objects are more interestingeven than those found in contemporary tombs at Vulci, such as theTomb of the Chariot (Tomba del Carro) with its embossed bronzefoils, now in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome.

The destruction of Marsiliana in the late 7th century, and thegradual decline over the course of the next century of the othertowns, mark the definitive supremacy of the city over the country-side. This historical event is recalled also in the paintings of theFrangois tomb, where among the enemies of the heroes of Vulci,

1 21. Eaboean crater, decorated with geo-metric patterns (fron Pacia Romana, around

(/rOrU r.r. Grotseto, Archaeological Ma-

122. Tlrrbenian ampbora (from Vu/c|575-550 B.C.). Vatican, CregorianEtruscan Museum. Thfu tlpe of ceramicuase, prodaced b1 Athenian craftsmen excla-siue/1 for the Etruscan market, was consi-dered a laxary item. In tbe topfrieze, Her-cules strug/es aith the centaur; in tbe otbers,anima/ scenes.

123. Satarnia, Pantone necropolit, TombA, a tamalus with a sqaare cbanber andslab wal/s (675-650 B.C.).

Page 73: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

1 24. Vu/ci, /ate repub/ican period hoa.re.

125. Vahi, Roman slreet.

126. Valci, late repab/ican period ltouse.

1 27. .ltatue ofa centaar in tuft stone (fromlhe necntptt/is of Ptggto Maremma; Vu/ci,early 6th century B.C.). Rane, Vi//a Giu-/ia. ln Vu/ci, slatues of real and irta,ginaryanirtalt were p/aced at gaardians in front ofthe enlrance lo lhe tombs.

Vulci, Sovana and Cosa

Aaile and Caile Vipinas, there is also a warrior from Sovana. Vulci'speriod of greatest prosperity lasted from the late 7th century to themid-Sth, as is shown by the numerous chamber tombs (exceptionalis the one at Cuccumella, a tumulus, with an inner chamber withsteps) containing Greek-Oriental and Corinthian ceramics, and laterAttic and Ionic ones (materials in the Antiquarium in Vulci and inthe Villa Giulia Museum, in particular the tomb of Panatenaica).During this period many workshops producing ceramics were setup, often by Greek craftsmen such as the Painter of Swallows, aGreek-Oriental (bowl in the Villa Giulia Museum), or the Painter ofthe Bearded Sphinx, of Corinthian origin (objects from the tomb ofthe same name at Villa Giulia), or later, after the mid-6th century,by craftsmen of lonic origin. Also remarkable during the 6th and5th centuries is the sculpture (see such masterpieces as the centaurand the sea-horse at Villa Giulia) and the production of bronze vasesand implements (for example, the Warrior's Tomb, late 6th century,at Villa Giulia). Objects produced at Vulci v/ere exported to distantlands, as is shown by the precious objects, such as decorated ostricheggs, found in northern Etruria and in the Marches, by the ceramicsof the "Ciclo dei Rosoni" found in Carthage and Provence, by thebronzes found all over Etruria proper, in Campanian and Po ValleyEtruria, in non-Greek areas of southern Italy and in central-northern Europe, and above all by the wine amphoras found allover the western Mediterranean, indicating also that Vulci had aflourishing and specialized agricultural activity.

After the decline of coastal southern Etruria in the second half ofthe 5th century, Vulci took part in the renaissance of the 4th cen-

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Vulci. Sovana and Cosa 73

128

tury. New public works were built, such as the walls and the greattemple (ruins open to the public); nev/ aristocratic tombs, with T-shaped central chambers (at Ponte Rotto), and magnificent burialsites dug out of the rock, wrth aedicula facades (sculpted tympanumsin the Antiquarium). The Frangois tomb, dating from the secondhalf of the 4th century, is particularly interesting. The paintings thatdecorated it (transferred to Villa Albani in Rome in 1857, shortlyafter their discovery) show the influence of Apulian painting. Theyillustrate a complex story, in which the killing of the Trojan prison-ers by Achilles and other characters from Greek mythology is inter-spersed with duels beween the heroes of Vulci and warriors fromRome, Sovana, Volsinii and Falerii. These battles, although in the fiction of the paintings taking place in the distant past (late 6th cen-tury), must have been intended as symbolic of the struggle of south-ern Etruscan cities against Rome. The two most famous sculptedsarcophagi, with a couple lying on the lid, are in Boston; another, il-lustrating a battle between Amazons, is now at the Villa Giulia Mu-seum.

During this period, as happened elsewhere in southern Etruria,the towns that had prospered during the archaic age experienced anew development. Among these, Sovnxa, where new elaboratetombs u/ere constructed in the rock of the hillside; many of them arenow open to the public, such as the Tomb of Hildebrand (first halfof the 3rd century), carved into the rock in the shape of a temple,with beautifully ornamented capitals, or the Tomb of the Siren andthe picturesque pathway, called Cavone, with Etruscan inscriptionson the walls. Sovana and the other smaller towns continued tothrive even after Vulci began to decline. Vulci was defeated by Q.Coruncanius in 280 B.C. and alarge part of its territory was confis-cated. But the smaller tov/ns were favoured by Roman policy which

128. Sna// chest in bronTefoil, decoratedwitb a.frieze of a battle with AmaTons, in-spired b1 Greek models (front Valci, ear/13rd century B.C.). Vatican, CregorianEtruscan Maseam. The handle isftrned bytao twans mrrying a Joung bo1, ar7 trr, o,their backs. This chest shaws what a highleuel of artistic achieaement had bun reacbedb1 the craftsmen of Vu/ci on the eae of thewar pith Rome.

129. Pedinent af the tenple of Ta/amone,detat/ shawing Oediput. F/orence, Archaec,-/ogical Maseam. The tenple was rebuilt andmodernized in the f rst balf of the 2nd cen-tury B.C. in accordance aith the Romanpa/iry of strengthening tbe outposts of theterritory around Valci.

1 10. Souana, Hi/debrand Tonb, facade intbe style of a tenph (first half of the 3rdcentary B.C.).

Page 75: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

74Trade

The existence of trade is documentedduring the Palaeolithic period by theuse of flint from distant countries andby the presence ofnon-indigenous sea-shells. During the Neolithic, obsidianwas imported from Lipart, Sardiniaand the Aegean islands. During theBronze Age, Italy was involved in theexchanges between northern Europeand Mycenae and took part in thetrade of metals and amber.

From the middle of the 8th century tothe end of 7th, Etruria exchanged withforeign merchants, who were oftenintegrated in Etruscan society, mineralproducts for luxury items (ceramics,jeweliery, precious metal vases), pre-cious raw materials (gold, silver, ivory,amber) and agricultural produce (oiland wine). After the late 1th century,the Etruscans began to play an activerole in marit ime trade, export ing wineand pottery (ugs and goblets) to thewestern Mediterranean countr ies.Their oresence in the eastern Mediter-tunrui is documented bv the soread of"bucchero" in this region and by theGreek legends telling of the cruel ex-ploits in that arca of the "Tyrrhenian

oirates."But the competition, first of the

Phocaeans (battle of Aleria in 545B.C.), then of the Greeks and later ofthe Syracusans (battle of Cumae in 474B.C.), eventually forced the Etruscansto abandon maritime trade. They thenconcentrated on overland trade, ex-changing ceramics and bronze vaseswith the populations on the other sideof the Appennines and, in some cases,even beyond the AIps.

Among the products of the Etruscaneconomy, some were destined solelyfor internal consumption, others weresold on local or regional markets andothers still, especially during the laterepublican period and the early impe-rtal age, covered a vast export market.Among the latter, wine was the mostimportant. ln Fact, in the organizationof the villas based on slave labour. theproduction and export of wine wasone of the major sources of revenuefor the new large landowners. The ex-port trade was essentially maritime,since overland transport was often im-possible and always much more expen-sive. The wine was carried in ceramic

containers, amphoras, and was storedin the holds of large trading shipswhich sai led from al l the major portsand reached the imoortant cities on thewestern shores of ihe Mediterranean.The wine then often continued itsjourney along navigable rivers and wassold even in faraway places. The evi-dence of this widesoread commercelies in the remains of amohoras discov-ered by archaeologists. Scholars havestudied these amphoras in depth and,among all ceramic objects, they are thebest known. But there is still an unan-swered question concerning their pro-duction: we do not know whether am-phoras specifically produced for theexport of wine were made by the ceram-ics industries or by the estates pro-ducing the wine. Together with thewine and other foodstuffs, the exporttrade also dealt with fine tablewareproduced in various parts of Etruria.In some cases, these obiects (Arezzoceramics, black varnish vases, and soon) have been found in very distantoarts of the world. The remarkablecommercial success of the oroduce ofEtruria (and of l taly in general) laterdeclined considerably and export wasreduced to a regional scale. This wasthe result of the development of theprovinces: Spanish oil, wine fromGaul, African wheat took over and inthe end Etruria was even import ing

fine tableware from the orovinces.During the late I st century A.D. in rhecountryside around Cosa, the land-owners abandoned the wine pressesand began to invest in other activities,such as animal breeding. This was thebeginning in Etruria, as elsewhere,of the great transformation whichbrought about the collapse of the manu-facturing industries and the spread ofthe large, underpopulated landedestates.

During the early Middle Ages the mainactivity in Tuscany, as in the rest ofcentral and northern Italy, was agricul-ture. Money was used only on excep-tional occasions, to buy large quanti-ties of merchandise; normally it wassimply hoarded. Most sales and pur-chases were done by barter. The ar-chaeological evidence from the periodof Longobard domination shows usthat valuable objects, such as the goldjewellery placed in the tombs with thedeceased, were only rarely locally pro-duced, while ceramic wares were al-most entirely local. This situation last-ed until the 10th century, when Pisaand Genoa challenged the hegemonyof Arabs and asserted their suoremacvon the coasts and the islandi of thlMediterranean. These two cities beganto invest their war booty in the con-struction of mercantile shios which

Page 76: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

carried, as well as the agricultural sur-plus (mainly oil and wine), also thefirst Arab ceramics that decorated somany north-western Tuscan churchesafter the 1 1th centurv.

L Reconstraction of a trade uessel. To tbe

right, cross-sedion of the bald containingwine

amphoras.

IL In the republican period Etruria ex-ported. a wide uariery of prodacts ta the pro-

uinces.Grecn: Italic potte4'( )range: quality foodstuffs

III. In the inperia/ age the export oJ Etrus-can prodacts declined, while the importation

fron the prouinces increased.Yellou': export of local products (u'ine and

potterv)Rlue: u'ine and fruit

l)urple: u'inc, oil and pottervRed: wine, oil, f ish sauce and potterv

Green: wine an<l potteryBrown: u'ine and pottervC)range: quality foodstuffs

IV. Anphoras ased Jar /ransparling wine

fram Etraria, found in the wreck of a Ra-

nan ship near Albenga. Albenga, Ciuic

Musettm.

V. I7ine amphora witb a painted inscrip'

75tion giuing the name ( the owner (/ate 7thcentarl B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian Etras-can Museum. Daring the 7th and 8th cen-turies Etrascan wine was exparted in can-tainei.rs /ike these to the lVestern Mediterra-

VI. Branze tfipld, with scu/ptaral decora-tions (fram Vulci, late 6tb century B.C.).Vatican, Cregorian Etrascan Museam. Atthe tap, Herca/es and afena/efgure; at theboltom, three reclining sileni. Simi/ar exam-p/es foand at Spina, at Dtirkhein in Cer-man-y and at Athens are eaidence of howfar-reachingVa/ci's export trade was.

VII. Bucchero kantharos (from soatbernEtraria, /ate 7tb-ear/1, 6th century B.C.).Florence, Arcbaeological Maseam. This jagwas ased for drinking wine; at the height aftbc Elrasuns' maritime expantion, i/sasage spread throughoat the Mediterranean.

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76

1 ) 1 . Cosa, the uta//s ( j rd- 2nd centurl,B.c.).

1)2. Cosa, ruins of the Capitoliant (2ndcentury B.C.).

13). Satarnia, tlte C/odian lYa-y and theRaman gate (225 B.(.).

Vulci, Sovena antl (-osa

allowed them to take over the confiscated land; Rome thus benefitedfrom the traditonally antagonistic relationship between the smalltowns and the former ruling city.

After the Roman conquest (280 B.c.) vur-ct lost the majority of itsland which was divided into prefectures and colonies, some foundedex n0u0) others by developing existing communities.

The city probably onlv kept control over rhe cenrral-eastern landsurrounding it; the coastal stretch, between Vulci and the sea, be-came public land (ager pablicus) and the city's port (Regisvilla) wasabandoned.

There are ruins and archaeological finds documenting the life ofvulci under the Romans. It was here that Aurelius cotta's mile-stone, marking the distance of 70 miles from Rome, was found;Aurelius cotta was responsible for the construction of the viaAurelia, probably in 241 B.c. Along the main east-west srreer of thecity (decumanus) an inscription documenrs the restoration of a build-ing during the imperial age. Walking down the decumanus one cansee the ruins of a late republican house where floor-mosaics withgeometrical patterns were found; nearby is an area where the bathsstood.

D_uring the 3rd century the prefecture of Statonia (today, Castro)was formed just north of Vulci, and further north, the prefecture ofSaturnia. Both these towns, as we have seen, existed before the Ro-m_an conquest. On the coast, on the other hand, the Roman colonyof Cos,q (today, Ansedonia) was founded in 273 B.C. The city,whose name probably derived from the earlier Etruscan settlement(located on the site of nearby orbetello), has been excavated and istoday-almost entirely open to the public. Surrounded by a polygonalset of walls, like those at Saturnia, Cosa covered ^n ut€^ oflverthirty acres; the town-planning was based on the customary straightstreets, regularly intersecting at right angles (the cardines runningnorth-south, and the decumani running east-west). The forum wassurrounded by public buildings such as the basilica, the comitium,the curia, and was very similar in plan to the Roman forum. The

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Vulci, Sovana and Cosa

{uf

highest point of the city, the sacred arez (arx), was where the tem-

ples stood. The Capitolium stood on alaLrge platform; it was built inihe 2nd century B.C. on the ruins of an older temple dedicated prob-

ably to Jupiter. Among the private buildings, a domus has been ex-cavated and almost entirely reconstructed near the entrance gate onthe south-east side of the city.

\

1 34. Sxtefnestre, tbe fortifcatioru of tbeRoman ailla ( l st centary B.C.).

1 3 5. Settefnestre, tbe portico of the Romanailla ( l st centurJ B.C.).

136. keconstruction of tbe uilla at Sette-

fnestre.

Page 79: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

1 3 7. Talanone, rains of the Roman uilla at

Madonna delle Grazie (1st centary A.D.).

1)8. Talanone, tbe cistern of tbe Romanuilla at Madonna delle Crazie ( l st centuryA.D.).

Vulci, Sovana md Cosa

There are remains of the walls of SarunNn, which we men-tioned earlier, still visible near the Porta Romana; this was wherethe Clodian Way, built in225 B.C. to connect Rome to Saturnia, en-tered the city. Among the other ruins in Saturnia, t castellum aqaarilm(a public building where the distribution of water took place) hasbeen identified, as well as a group of baths near the present-day sul-phur springs.

In the 2nd century Saturnia became a Roman colony (183 B.C.),while the colony of Heba (situated on the site of Present-day Mag-liano) was founded on the coast, north of Cosa, probably between1.67 and 157 B.C. Heba was founded on an ^rea of Etruscan terri-tory, presumably allied to Rome, ruled over by the city of TALA-MoNE. Talamone stood on the hill that today is called Talamonac-cio. \We know from literary sources that in 225 B.C. the famous bat-tle between the Romans (led by Atilius Regulus and Aemilius Pa-pus) and the Gauls took place on the outskirts of Talamone. The dis-covery of a mass grave, with remains of men and horses mixed withquicklime, along the coast at Campo Regio is considered to be con-nected to this battle. Our sources also tell us that Marius landed atTalamone in his search for allies against his enemy Sulla. And it wasSulla who was probably responsible for the sack of the city in 82B.C. \7e do not know whether the city managed to survive for anylength of time after that; nor do we know whether the numeroussmall farms that sprang up throughout the countryside are theconsequence of the abandoning of the city. What we do know is thatTalamone continued to prosper throughout the whole of the 2ndcentury and this is shown by the new decorations added to the tem-ple on the top of the hill. Among these are several architectural ter-racottas and the famous pediment (now in the museum in Orbetel-lo) which has recently been dated at the second quarter of the 2ndcentury B.C. Why such an elaborate new decoration was added atthat time is still uncertain. Next to the temple a votive tablet withminiature reproductions of agricultural implements and weaponswas found; this has been interpreted as the offering of ex-soldiers(ueteran) who had been granted land in the new colonies foundednearby (perhaps at the time of the foundation of Heba).

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79V u lc i . Sover t r r tn r i ( i r s r r

The history of the land along the coast is at present more well

known than that of the inland towns. The river Albenga was the

boundary between the territory of the colony of Heba, to the north'

and Cosa, to the south. As early as the 3rd century B.C. (but the ma-jority of our archaeological evidence dates from the 2nd), the coun-

tryside appears to have been dotted with many small farms where

the colonizing farmers lived. The excavation of the farm of Giardino

Vecchio (near Cosa) has confirmed the theories based on the sufface

finds: the farms, belonging to peasant smallholders, appear to de-

cline in the early 1st century B.C., at the same time as the develop-

ment and spread of large estates based on slave labour. The small

farms *.t. i.t.o.porated into large properties in the hands of

wealthy landowners (the presence in the area of the Domitii

Oenobardi and the Sixti families is documented).One of these villas, at SETTEFINESTRE near Cosa, has been com-

pletely excavated. The living quarters of the landownets (pa-rs

urbana) and the agricultural part have been brought to light. The

former was elaborately decorated with painted wall plaster, stuccoes

and colourful floor mosaics; the other part contained the machinery

for the production of wine (exported to almost all the western Medi-

terranean countries) and oil, the gtanary, the stables for the animals

and the living quafters of the slaves employed in agriculture. This

kind of agricultural organization reached its peak between the mid-

1st century B.C. and the mid-1st century A.D. and began to decline

during the 2nd century. The buildings were abandoned or convert-

ed to other uses, and replaced by new, luxurious and enormous con-

structions, usually along the coast (maritime villas). We have no evi-

dence as yet of any productive activity connected to these new con-

structions except for the reservoirs for the breeding of fish; but none

of them has been systematically excavated. It would be very interest-

ing to establish the connection between the maritime villas and the

4 r , , r . t . ! l f

1 j9. Sauana, the ear/y rnedieual crlpt ofthe

catltedra/ ( 7 th century ).

11(). Buck/e and decoratitte re/iefs fron abe/t (fron Grangia, second balf af the 7th

century). Grosseto, Archaea/ogtca/ Maseum.

1 4 0

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80

surrounding countrysi de, organrzed as a large landed estate. Amongthese villas, one should mention the one at Santa Liberatz, on thenorth coast of Monte Argentario, and the one at Madonna delle

Grazie, near present-day Talamone. At least a few of these villas,

such as the one near Talamone, continued to exist until the late 5th

century, surviving the invasion of Alaric and the Goths and despitethe fact that the neighbouring inland areas had become progressive-ly more swampy and uninhabitable. Mzlana began to spreadthrough the swamps (and continued until quite recently) until the

countryside was completely abandoned towards the late imperial

age. Rutilius Namatianus, describing his iourney from Rome to

Gaul betwen 412 and 416, said that the coast of Etruria was deserted.From this time onwards the total lack of archaeological evidence,

which continued throughout the early Nliddle Ages, coincides with

the desertion of the countryside.

From the late imperial age onwards, SCIVANA must have ruled over the territorics

of Cosa (on the coast) and Saturnia (inlancl). Under the Longobards, it was the

seat of a gastaldo (chamberlain) and probably exerted supremacy over the other ci-

ties of southern Etruria, even though Lucca extended its domains into Sovana's

territory where the population must have been very sparse. The rise to power in

Sovana of the family of the Aldobrandeschi dates from the 9th century: in 862

Count Ildebrando exchanged with his brother Geremia, Bishop of Lucca, a consl-

derable amount of property he owned in that diocese for those his brother pos-

sessed at Sovana and Rusellae. I-ater, the Aldobrandeschi became a widespread

feudal seigneury in southern Tuscany.The archaeological finds are few but not unimportant. The Longobard pres-

ence is documented by obiects found in tombs at Sovana: relief plaques and

buckles, of a "romance" type, have been found above all in the Nlaremma are^, lfl

particular in the necropolis of Grangia (near Grosseto), dating from the earlv 7th

cenrury. Other contemporary objects, with traditional late-classical relief pat-

terns, have been found at nearby San N{artino su1 Fiora (late 7th century).

The territory of Sovana, which was still Byzantine in 592, was incorporated

into the I-ongobard state at the time of Agilulf, and for a long time its boundaries

were ill-defined. But the obiects found at Crocignanello (Pitigliano), and now in

the Archaeological Museum in Grosseto, ^pper to be completely Longobard.

There is very little left of the early medieval buildings in Sovana. The cathe-

dral, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, was largely rebuilt in the 14th century,

so that there is little left ofthe 12th-13th century building that, in turn, had re-

placed the original pre-Romanesque structure. In any case, the octagonal dome

can be dated at the 1Oth century, and the crypt, with a nave and four aisles divid-

ed by colonnettes, dates from the Sth. Near the ruins of San Nlamiliano, which

was probably the first catheciral built on ruins of Etruscan and Roman buildings,

there is the Romanesque church of Santa Nlaria. Here, near the high altar, ls a re-

markable pre-Romanesque (8th-9th century) ciborium, with four columns with

imitation Corinthian capitals and carved ornaments in the shape of leaves,

bunches ofgrapes inside circles, peacocks and doves (see p. | 7) '

TARQUINIA AND CAE,RE

The Lower Palaeolithic is aell documented at Torre in Pietra and Castel diGuido (where there are also remains ('Homo erectus). Tbe Middle Palaeo-lithic is present at Castel Malnome and Torre in Pietra; tbe tJpper Palaeo-lithic at Palidoro and Norcbia (Riparo Biedano), and objects in the Pigoriniand Vi//a Gialia Museums. The l{eriithic period is documented at Palidoroand at tbe Patrizi grotto at Sasso di Furbara, abere there was a remarkabletonb of a man with a drilled skull (Pigorini Masean). The Aeneolithic is

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Tarquinia and Caere

not aell documented: small grotto tombs at Tarquinia, a tomb at Norcbia and

fragnents at Palidoro. Tbe Bronze Age fu represented b1 a uarieg of fndlAlong tlte coast toaards Ciaitaueccbia there are seaeral Appennine cultureconmunities, uitlt dolmen-t1pe graues at Pian Suhano. Tbe largest nunber ofsettlements is to be _fo*d in tbe hilj nastal stretclt (Appenninq sub-Appennine and proto-Villanouan uillages, tbe latter fortfied). At Luni ontbe Mignone tltere aas an Appennine calture comnunitl where M-ycenean cer-anics of tbe 14th nntury B.C. baue beenfoand; later objects representing thesab-Appennine and proto-Villanoaan cilltures werefound in tbe same uillage.Otber settlements, witlt documentation fron tbe Appennine to tbe proto-Villanouan, are at San Giouenale and Torrionaaio (Monte Romano). BetaeenTolfu and Allumiere tbere are also proto-Villanoaan tumulus graues; incin-eration necropolises are at Allumiere, Costa de/ Marano (witb a riclt collectionof bronze objut:) and at Sasso di Furbara. (Objuts at tbe Pigorini Museum,Villa Giulia Munum, at tbe Antiquariam of Sasso di Farbara and at themilftum of Alluniere).

The pre-eminence of TanqutMA over all other Etruscan cities isindicated among other things by the legends that attribute its foun-dation to Tarchon, the friend (or son, or brother) of the mythicalTyrrhenus. And in fact, the Villanovan culture-the earliest Etrus-can civilizztion-found in Tarquinia its highest expression. Therewere settlements on the two plateaux, called Civita, the side of thefuture city, and Monterozzi, where huts have been excavated andare now open to the public. The necropolises of Civitucola, PoggioGallinaro, Poggio Selciatello, Poggio dell'Impiccato, Villa Bruschi,Le Rose and Le Arcatelle were all connected to these settlements(objects now in the museums of Florence and Tarquinia and in thePigorini Museum). The Tomb of the Warrior, now in Berlin, datesfrom the late period of this culture; in it a complete armour was

141. Tarqainia, Tomb of the Baron (late6tb centary B.C.). Tbe frieze shows threescenet of leauetaking the one on the end wa//sbous a couple witb their two loung uu onborseback.

Page 83: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

82Slavery

From classical texts and inscriptionswe know that in Etruscan society therewere various forms of serfdom (totalor partial exclusion from civil and poli-tical rights), denoted by the lack of afamily name. As eady as the 6th cen-tury B.C. there were slaves who weretotally dependent from their masters,and were employed in domestic labouror as craftsmen. An example is the sig-nature of the painter of the Tomb ofthe Jugglers (late 6th century) in Tarquinia: he signed himself Arantb Hera-canasa, the first being his individualname, the second the genitive of hismaster's family name.

Those that Latin writers called ser-ui were probably half-free men, that isindividuals who were personally freeand benefitted from civil rights, suchas the right to ov/n properry, but hadno political rights. This can be de-duced from the prophery ofthe nymphVegoia (an Etruscan text of the eady1st century B.C., or according to otherscholars of the 3rd centurv. which hascome down to us only in iis Latin ver-sion) which threatens vengeance onthe part of Tinia-the Etruscan |u-piter-against all those, masters orserfs, who shall change the borders oftheir property. The class of the serfs,probably of Italic origin, was responsi-ble from the 4th century onwards forrevolts demanding political rights,which in some cases led to Roman in-tervention . In the 2nd centurv B.C.. ininland northern Etruria wherethe pres-ence of Rome was less direct, therewere slaves whose names were oftenof Greek origin; they were called laatniin Etruscan, derived from the wordlautn meaning family. During the Hel-lenistic period, there is evidence of agreat number of lastni and serui beinggranted freedom; this is documentedin particular by old individual namesnow being used as family names andtransmitted from father to son.

In Rome, like in Greece, despite theoccasional contrasting opinions, sla-very was considered part of the rightof the people (ias gentian). The slave,seruas, had no political rights and wasnot considered a member of the citv:he was like an object and, ". sr.h,could be bought or sold. Slaves couldbe bought in slave markets, like the fa-mous one on Delos in the Aegean.

Page 84: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

One of the major sources of slaveswere wars, since the victor couldeither kill the enemy or reduce himinto slavery and therefore sell him.There were two kinds of slaves: oublicand orivate. The former *.r. .--ployed in works of public utility, inmanufacturing industries and as crafts-men. They were highly specialized andin some cases became respected pro-fessionals. This created deeo diffe-rences between individual slaves: onemight even be the Emperor's privatecounsellor, while another might spendthe rest of his life as a humble stone-cutter. The serai were sometimes giventhe permission to have property andownings, but this permission could berevoked at will by the master. Privateslaves were used for domestic laboursin the city (fanilia urbana) or for agri-cultural tasks in the country (faniliarastiea). The ones employed in thecountryside were organized in a mili-tarv fashion: thev were divided ingroups of ten (dicariae), were super-vised by monitores who were in turnunder the control of the ailicus. Veknow from ancient texts that slaveswere considered agricultural imple-ments. In fact, the farm's propertieswere divided into three kinds of in-struments: tools (instrumenttm matum),animals (instranentum vmiuocale) andslaves (instrumentum uocale). A greatdeal of care was taken in the upkeep ofthe slaves, for the death ofone ofthemwas considered a great financial loss.They were encouraged to have child-ren, and a female slave who gave birthto four children was granted freedom.When we consider the technology ofthe classical world, we must point outthat these men were in many casesmuch more efficient than the tools ormachineries of the time; in a sense, theslaves were the real Roman techno-logy.

I. Detail of the painted decoration of the Go-/ini I tanb at Oruieto, sbowing a slaue get-ting wine from a bowl (first half rf the 4thcentary B.C.). Oruieto, Palazza dei Papi.

II. Re/ief showing slaues working a wine-press. Aquileia, Archaeological Museam.

III. Terracotta arn portraling tbe heroEcltetlo armed on/1 witb a plough (fronChiasi, 1 5 0- 1 2 5 B.C.). Rome, Villa Cia-/ia. This kind of ilrn uas ofien ased b1s/aues,freed men and artisans, at can be seenb1 tbe inscriptions; tbel were made from

83moa/ds and produced in large qaantities.

IV. Reconstruction of tlte wine-press in theRoman ailla at Settefnestre near Cosa.

IV

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84 I ; t r c l u i n i r L e n r l ( . l c r r

#'ffid,u1

u; ' j;*l

112. 'I'arqainia, 'l.r.,ttb

rl' Huntin.q andI;isltin,q (around 5 J0 B.(..). Detai/ of' theend n,a// sban,itt.q a fishin.q,rcrnt.

found, as \\'ell as bronzes and ceramics in an imitation Cy'cladicstvle, pror.ing that Tarquinia was in contact u'ith the first Clreek co-lonizers. After the early "()riental" stage, represente(l bv the "Roc-

choris" tomb (early 7th centun') famous for rhc.fa-1,en r vesc u'ith theinscription b,v the pharaoh of the same name (Tarquinia \luseum),the citv unclerwent a periocl of cleclne. According to tradition this tswhen the noble (-orinthian merchant Demaratos arrived.

At thc beginning of thc 6th ccntury a ncw pcr iocl of prospcri tvbegan for Tarquinia: the harbour temple of Gtt,\ttlsr-,-\ u,as founcleci.Thc inscriptions, in Greek until 480 B.C., shou' that the temple u'ascleclicatecl to the worship of Aphroclite, Hera ancl l)emetra; the r.o-tir.e offerings were mostlv macle br, artisans ancl merchants tromeastern Greece. The onlv exception is thc stonc enchor-stock dedi-catcd to Apollo arounci ,180 b1, Sostratos of ,,\egina, a rich merchurntalso mentioncd b,v I {croc-lotus. Thc numcrous presence of Greektrac'lers \\, 'as also responsible for thc clcvelopmcnt, fiom the first halfof the 6th centurV onu,arcls, of Ionic stvlc artistic procluctions, suchas the stone slabs cor.ering tombs clecoratecl with relicfs (in thc localmuseum) ancl the earliest paintecl tombs, clating from after 5,10.,,\mong these u,'e must mcntion thc tombs of Auguri (Circctings),Giocol ier i Qugglers), (-accia (Hunt ing), Pesca (tr ishing), ' for i (Rul ls)ancl llaronc (Baron), in some of u,hich thc u'ork of immigrant Io-nian artists is clearlv iclentifiable.

Bv the 4th century, Tarquinia controllccl a largc inlancl tcrritorr

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farquinia ancl Caere

(Tuscania, Norchia and castel d'Asso) developing its agricultu ral re-s_ources and exploiting its position along the iommunication routes.The powerful ruling fao'ily, the Spurinnas, owners of the Tomb ofthe ogre (orco), gave Tarquinia the supremacy within the revived

F,11s.gl.leagpe, on the eve of the war against Rome (35g-351B.c.). This renewed economic and cultural flourish is revealed alsoby the reconstruction of the temple called "Ara della Regina" (ruinson the hill of the civita, while the fictile relief of winged horses is inthe museum), by the stone sarcophagi in the museum]some decorat-ed with reliefs, others painted, such as the famous sarcophagus ofthe Amazons (Archaeological Museum in Florence), and 6'y thepainted tombs, showing thenew ideology tending towards the glori-fication of the aristocracy (orco, Scudi, Giglioli and rifone toirbr;.In this last tomb, dating from the late 3rd .e.rtory 8.C., zscene witha procession of magistrates significanrly expresses the desire of inte-gration in the Roman state.

The territory of cennE was densely populated by small settle-

T:"tr.i" the plains along the coast from the earliest villanovan per-iod. The objects found in the necropolises around the site of the fu-ture city (Sorbo and cave della pozzolana) are relativelv modest:they can be seen in the local museum and at the villa iiulia l,lu-seum. Even tombs dating from the later villanovan period haveprgserved only modest objects, unlike in other parts of i,truria. It isonl'r in the 7th century that the materialculture of the citv beqins to

143. Two terracotta winged borses (romtbe "Ara della Regina" tenple in Tarqai-nia wbere tbel pmbabj were part of tbe de-coration of tbe nain beam; second balf of the4tb century B.C.). Tarquinia, NationalMuseum.

144. Cerueteri, Banditaccia necropolis, in-terior of tbe Tonb of "Capite/li" (earj 6tbcentury B.C.).

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145. Lldria fron Caere (550-525

B.C.\. Kone, Villa Gialia' The decoration

sbops Hercules leading the tbree-headed dog

Cerberas to King Earlstheas who is frigbt'ened and hides in a largejar.

146. Siluer cap mantfactared in an Orien-

tal workthop, with relief decorations (rom

tbe Kegolini-Galassi tomb in Caerei

675-650 B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian

Etruscan Maseam. The oatsidefrieze shoat

a procession of armed men; tbe middle one,

hant;ng scenes; the inner roandel, a battle

between tuo lions and a ba//.

farquinia and (-aere

flourish, thanks probably to the mineral resources of the Tolfa

mountains. An aiistocratic 6lite begins to emerge, documented for

us by princely tombs of unsurpassed splendour. The Regolini Galas-

si tomb in the necropolis of Sorbo is the finest example: it consists

of a first tumulus (then incorpofated into a later one with peripheral

tombs) including two long and narrow rooms along the same axis

and covered by a false vault. Two niches carved out of the tufa stone

open off the first room. The splendid collection of personal objects

oi the three people buried here is now in the Gregorian Etruscan

Museum in the Vatican. It includes very fine gold jewellery, silver

cups and chalices, ivory objects, shields, urns' bronze bases, a c rt, a

thion-some produced locally and some imported from various

parts of the Near East-and bucchero and ceramic goods imported

irom Corinth and eastern Greece. Dating from this same period (se-

cond quarter of the 7th century) is the necropolis of Banditaccia,

now open to the public, on the plateau to. the north-east of the city.

Here, in extraordinary quantity of tombs-tumulus, cube-shaped,

chamber-illustrates the whole range of funeral architecture in

Caere between the 7th and 3rd centuries B'C.After the 7th century the development of the city caused the pop-

ulation of the territory to concentrate in a few communities (some

of which are documented by necropolises open to the public) along

the coast (La Scaglia near Civitavecchia, La Castellin^ ne r Santa

Marinella, Pyrgi, Montetosto, Cerr, Alsium), in the Tolfa moun-

tains, in the valley of the Mignone (Rota, Pisciarelli) and along the

border with the territory of Veii (Monterano). Some of them, espe-

cially the ones along the borders, were given defence walls in the

4th century. During the 7th and 6th centuries-see the obiects in

the local museum ^nd ^t Villa Giulia:-^s well as the Corinthian,

Oriental Greek, Laconizn and Attic ceramics imported from

Greece, we find artifacts produced locally, principally bucchero. The

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Tarquinia and Caere

147. Sarcopbag'ts of tbe Amazors (fronTarqainia, t50-125 B.C.). Florence, Ar-cbaeological Museam. Detail uitb an Ama-zon on borseback -fiSbtkg a Creek watioryon tlte outside tbere is ar inscription record-ing that tbe sarcopbagus is dedicated toRantba HucTnai b1 her son.

148. San Giotterah, excaaations of ltoases'Tbe ground-plan of tbe town dates from the6th-5th centurv B.C.

invention of bucchero was the work of the craftsmen of Caere, as isshown by tomb No. 2 at Casaletti di Ceri in the local museum, bythe Calabresi tomb in the Gregorian Museum and by the Montetos-to tumulus at Villa Giulia. Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics' such asthe large amphoras, the coloured group of bizzane figures or the*human masL group," exported to southern France, were found inlater tombs. And finally, dating from the mid-6th century, there arethe "hydrias from Caere," the work of an immigrant Aeolian artistwho painted scenes from Greek mythology, esPecially the labours ofHercules, in a lighthearted and playful spirit. During this period thedevelopment of a sort of "middle class" composed of pro-Greekmerchants and craftsmen (see the Tbesaaros at Delphi) is document-ed by the new tombs in the nofrh-eastern Part of the Banditaccia ne-cropolis: these are no longer tumuli, but die-shaped tombs, and theyare phced next to each other in straight lines, indicating thal the de-ceased were all considered equals. Also in the second half of the 6thcentury, when the city allied with the Carthaginians against the na-val power of the Phocaean Greeks (battle of Aleria, 545 B.C.), alarge number of public buildings were constructed: the temPles atMontetosto and Furbara, the temPle of Vigna Zoccoli (in the city)with inscriptions in Greek to the goddess Hera (in the local mu-seum). The sacred Lre in the port of PYRGI was enlarged and en-riched by Th{arie Velianas, who is referred to as king of Caere in agold foil with a Phoenician inscription, but was probably ^ tyranni---al figure supported by the plebeians. The sanctuary was connectedto tha crty by a monument^lgute: it consisted of a Greek type temple(B) dedicated to the Etruscan goddess Uni (the sarne as the Latin

Juno and the Greek Hera) and the Punic goddess Astarte, errtd alzterEtruscan type temple (A). The excavations and the Antiquarium areopen to the public; the fictile high-relief from temPle A shordng thebattle between Tidaeus and Melanippus and copies of the three gold

Page 89: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

149. Stone relief sbowing tbe battle betpunTldeus and Melanippas, witb Atbena andZeus looking on (rom Tenph A at Pygi,aroand 460 B.C.). Ronq Villa Gialia.

150. P1rgi, excaaatiorc on the site of Ten-ph B (late 6tlt century B.C.).

Tarquinia and Caere

foil inscriptions (two in Etruscan, one in Punic) commemoratingthe dedication of the temple are in the Villa Giulia Museum. Aschool of ceramic u/orkers, working at first in the Ionic style andlater in the Aeginan, was active at this time, producing among otherthings the architectural sculptures from Pyrgi and the Sarcophagus"degli Sposi" in Villa Giulia, ^nd ^ sarcophagus lid with a youngm n at a banquet (Cerveteri museum).

After a period of cultural isolation (second half of the 5th cen-trry), charactenzed only by the importations from Attica found inthe "Tomb of the Greek Vases" (Villa Giulia) and by the foundation,towards the end of the century, of the "Tomb of the Sarcophagi" (lo-cal museum and Gregorian Museum), the city experienced a culturalrevival. The sanctu^ry at Pyrgi was restored after it had been sackedby Dionysius of Syracuse (384 B.C.) and new tombs were founded,such as the "Tomb of the Reliefs," decorated with painted stuccoesshowing weapons and utensils of daily usage. During the invasionof the Gauls in 390, the Roman vestal virgins took refuge irr Caere,for, unlike its traditional enemy Veii, the city was allied to Romeand was soon granted the rights of Roman citizenship excluding thevote (ciaitas sine sufragio). This alliance explains the presence in Caereof several important Roman citizens, documented by the tomb ofthe Claudii (who changed their nalne to the more Etruscan Clautie)and by inscriptions in Latin and Etruscan on "Genucilia" disks, a ty-pical local product. The good relations between Caere and Romecontinued throughout the 4th century (with the only exception ofthe war between Rome and Tarquinia in 358-351), until the early3rd century when Caere joined the other cities of southern Etruriain their revolt against Rome.

The territory between Ferento-Acquarossa to the nofth and SanGiovenale to the south, comprising the basin of the Fosso tsiedanoand the upper valley of the Mignone, has all the characteristics of acommunication route, beginning from the archaic period until thelate 3rd or early 2nd century B.C. when the Clodian Way was built.This area was the land of Caere and Tarquinia and the material cul-ture'il/as influenced by these two towns, predorninantly l:y Ca.ere inthe archaic period, and by Tarquinia fnrnn the 4th century ,8.C. orr-

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-

Hilltop Towns in Tuscany: Scadino

Fortified hilltop villages are one of thefundamental aspects of medieval andmodern Tuscany. The development ofthese settlements cafl be studied ori-mari ly thanks to archaeology, for i t isnot until the 11th century that writtendocumentation begins to be at allabundant. Some recent excavationshave shown us how complex the phe-nomenon really is and how many trans-formations these settlements have un-dergone. The case of Scarlino is exem-plary. It u/as a castle documented fromthe end of the 1th centurv. on theborder between the dioceses of Roselleon one side and Populonia and Massaon the other. The early medieval settle-ment, consisting in huts with fire-places and a frescoed church, grew upon a site of much earl ier communit ies.There are, in fact, traces of a lateBronze Age settlement (12th-1ith cen-tury B.C.) which was then practicallyabandoned during the archaic Etrus-can period; between the 5th and 1stcenturies B.C. there was a large hilltopfortress, surrounded by walls that weremore than two metres thick. Durinsthe imperial age, the site was al l buiabandoned, while the ^re ^t the foot

of the hill and along the coast becamepopulated by villas and other smallerfarming communities. When the earlymedieval settlement developed it fol-lowed a model that was more than athousand years old. The hilltop hadprobably been fortified since it wasfirst settled, but during the 10th cen-tury the fortifications had to bestrengthened. Even the houses becamemore solid and the huts were reolacedby stone houses with terracotta rooFtiles, surrounded by a huge set of wallsthat enclosed the whole hilltoo. Thevi l lage underwent several renovationsuntil the 13th century: for example,the old church was replaced by a newRomanesque one. But, basically, itsgeneral appearance did not changemuch. It was only at the beginning ofthe 14th century that serious changestook place. 'The

arca occupied by theoriginal castle was taken over by a fortand a new set of walls was builtaround the houses that had grown upoutside the original settlement, includ-ing the Romanesque church of SanDonato, built in the first half of the13th centurv.

89

I. Cround-plan of tbe castle of Scarlino.

II. Tbe castle of Scarlino.

1il. .'lcar/ino. The interior of tbe citade/:earl1 medieual beam boles, Hellenistic andmedieua/ elements.

IV. Scarlino. Inside the 15th-centarychurch tbere are the ruins of the apset of twachurches: aboue, the Romanesque one and atihe centre, tbe 9th-century one.

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Page 91: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Tarquinia and Caere

151. Castel D'Asso, faeade of tomb 5i,with afake door and tbe invription aboue itgiuing the name of tbe owner, Arntbal Ceises(6tb nntary B.C.).

1 5 2. Norchia, the hillside neropolis(4th- 3rd centurJ B.C.).

1 5 3. Stone sarcophagas showing a recliningnuple (fron Caere, late 6th century B.C.).Rone, Vi//a Ciulia.

wards. Three of the very few excavations of private houses in Etru-ria are in this region: AcquanosSA, with private houses and an aris-tocratic residence built around a square internal courtyard with por-ticoes, and Luwt and SAN GIoveNarB in the upper valley of theMignone. Another characteristic of this are are the spectacularmountain necropolises carved out of the rock: BLERA and SRN Gru-LIANO, used in archaic times, CasTer D'ASSo and NoRcnIA, dat-ing from the later period.

The long struggle against Rome was finally concluded with TaR-

QUINIA's defeat in 281, B.C. The city was forced to surrender alargestretch of coastland which became public land (ager publicus) and itscontrol over the towns and villages of its territory, which rapidly be-gan to acquire ^ grc^ter degree of autonomy.

During the 2nd century B.C. Tarquinia's old port, which hadbeen abandoned after the defeat, resumed activity thanks to thefoundation of the Roman colony of Gravisca in 181 B.C.. The planof this town, like most other coastal colonies, is similar to that of amilitary c^mp (castriln) with streets running parallel to each other.At the end of the civil war (90 B.C.), the towns in the area whichhad already become independent of Tarquinia became nunicipia.

During the Augustan period, despite all attempts at increasingthe population (as at Gravisca), a period of irreversible decline be-g^nfor Tarquinia and it continued all through the imperial age.

Roman presence at Tarquinia is documeqted, among otherthings, by a street near the Ara Reginae, a sacred building restoredmany times, even during the imperial age. Also in the centre of Tar-quinia are the ruins of a small house with a large pilastered roomnext to it: here there were dolia for the preservation of foodstuffs.Roman control over the area caused the extinction of some large lo-cal families and the entry of others into the Roman senate. The lat-ter were responsible for the construction of many public buildings.In the early imperial age the elogia of the Spurinnae (an important lo-cal family whose members were arrlspices in Rome and even becameconsuls) were placed in the Ara Reginae together with the statue ofTarchon, the mythical founder of Tarquinia, and thefasti of the col-

Page 92: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

Tarquinia and Caere

lege of sixty haruspices, who interpreted for the Roman senate themeaning of unusual or exceptional events. The decline, which beganin the 3rd century, is documented by the scarsity of archaeologicalfinds, with the exception of a very grand late classical house in thecentre of Gravisca.

Defeated by the Romans in the 273 8.C., CaERg lost about halfof its territory, in particular the coastal ^re ; m ny towns that untilthat time had served primarily as centres of worship (e.g. Pyrgi)were abandoned. Some coastal colonies are founded in the region:from south to north, Fregenae which became a colony in 245 8.C.,Alsium, near a previous Etruscan settlement, founded tn 247 8.C.,and Pyrgi, founded in 264 B.C. on the site of the most importantport on Caere's territory before the Roman conquest.

The colony of PyRcr is surrounded by a set of polygonal walls,similar to those of Cosa, founded in the same period. The harbour,which is today underwater, has been identified by aerial Photo-graphs. The colony of CesrnuM NOVUM (near present-day SantaMarinella) was also founded in 264 B.C. near an earlier settlement.'We

know from an inscription that the town had a theatre, a curia(the seat of the colony's magistrates) and a tabularium (the town's ar-chive). All these newly founded coastal towns had the function ofcontrolling both the sea and the Etruscan inland, still not complete-ly subjugated. The construction of the Via Aurelia (probably tn 241B.C.) connected these centres to one another and to the other tov/nsalong the coast as far as Cosa.

The inland territory was organized as a prefecture under the ruleof a magistrate nominated directly by Rome @raefectu:). No new co-lonies were founded in this area, unlike what happened along thecoast, and the only new town that was built was Forum Clodii,founded in the 2nd century along the Clodian Way (built in 225B.C.) connecting Rome to Saturnia.

During the republic^n'age many villas were built, both along thecoast and in the inland. We do not know whether the maritime vil-las (which became more numerous and important in the early andmiddle imperial age) were the centres of productive activities likethe ones in the inland, but we do know that they had large pools

154. Sarcophagas of the Magistrate (fron

Caere, Tomb of the Sarcopbagi, late 5th cen-

turl B.C.). Vatican, Gregorian EtruscanMuseum. The frieTe shows the joarne-y to

Hades of tbe deceased on a cbariot, with aprocession inc/ading tbree musicians and a

man earrying a staf.

1 5 5. Blera, a tomb in the necropolis (6tb

century B.C.).

Page 93: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

92 l r rqu in ia and ( -acrc

used for fish-breeding. Near Arsrutt (between San Nicola and Palo)i;here were severai vilias-one of which belon*,ed to Pompey. Themost interestinq are the one at the castle of Palo. with polychromemosaic-s now in the ca.stle itself, anci the one at San Nicola. Amongthe villas around Castrum Novum" we must rention the one at Groi -

tacce, with very large fishponds.During the Augustan age the area experienced a new period of

prosperity. At Caere, a theatre, ^ caesareum (where the Caesars werehonoured) and other important public buildings, such as an aque-duct, were built. Nothing remains of these constructions today. Itseems that during this period Caerc was once ag rn granted the sta-tus of arrtonomous manicipium, but it was probably only a formahty,for in practice the city's subordination to Rome continued un-changed.

Despite Au.gustus's attempts at reviving the cities of this area,they continued to decline. I)uring the irnperial age this decadencebr-carrie even more pronounced anci by the 2nd century A.D. all theitr(-,t.: jmriori-arr' cit;es vrere abtndc;,ned. 'l'he

viilas appeat. to have re-mai,i,,erl the- rnlv artitt,= elenrents in aterritotr,- p.hi,'h was becomins,

t ) /

158

1 5 6. Tarquinia, the pauing of tbe port.

157. Santa Marinaila, rains of tbe lalerepablican period ui//a at Crottacce.

158. Grauisca, a dolium avd for the pre-vruation offood,fron a late republican per-iod priuate house.

1 f 9. Santc ll z;.ztl,lt, rtis: r{ l!,e &trn:tail/a er Crottacce,

160. Pyrgi, iht Castram (3rd centwryB.C.).

Page 94: Settis the Land of the Etruscans,1985

93Tarqu in ia rn t l Cacrc

progressively more the property of the emperor.^ Il was Traian who was responsible for the last important inter-

vention in the region (107-108 A.D.): the construction of the har-

bour of Centumcillae (Civitavecchia). This port and the surround-

ing town are the only ones that survived until the 5th centufy, as we

kn-ow from Rutilius Namatianus. Tfavelling through the atea at the

beginning of the 5th century, he was struck by Centumcellae's vita-

litv compared to the fest of the coastland, which was already an un-

inirabitei marshland.East of the city, on a hill overlooking the harbouf, thefe are the

remains of Trajan's famous villa (mistakenly identified with the site

of Aquae Tauri). It consists of a smaller nucleus, built during the

late ripublican period, and a larger one, built later' Among th:

ruins, scholars have identified several large rooms used as baths, a li-

brary and the hospitalia (apartments for guests). Fragments of the vil-

las fioor decorations are now in the museum at Civitavecchia. The

site of Aqu ae T auri is present-day Ficoncella, near a sulphur spri ng.

TuscaNra, which became rhe seat of a diocese only in 649, p\ayed an importantrole under the Longobards as a border town, in the centre of a territory rvith sev-

eral pre-exist ing ciitas (Tarquinia, Ferentis, as- well as the future \/iterbo' a new-

ly founded tow-n not far from the abandoned ciaitas of the Sorrii.renses). In the

early Middle Ages the development of Tuscania is connected to its position along

the blodian W"-"y, between the Cassian and the Aurelian, on a fairly flat stretch of

land connected io the sea by the river Nlarta, navigabie at the time. On the hill of

San Pietro the Romanesque church of the same name is interesting for. the pres-

ence of early medieval motifs in its decoration. Here, recent excavations have

brought to light archaeologicai strata from the late Bronze Age to the Modern

Era. ihe ear"ly medieval Gvels document the existence of buildings probably

made out of wood. But the most important early medieval find is not quite in the

centre of the town: it is the crypt ofsan Giusto, consisting of three cellae trichorae,

with cross-vaults without intiados and barrel-vaults. The architectural design is

reminiscent of the crypt of San Salvatore on Mount Amiata and also has similari-

ties with the crypt of the abbey of Farneta in the Chiana valley'

1 6 2

161. 'I-ascania,

tbe hill of San Pietro with

the apses af tbe churches of Santa Maria

Maggiare and San Pietro.

162. Tuscania, San Ciusto, the crypt con'

sisting of three cellae trichotae with a

cross--aaah resting on co/umns taken from a

rained classical building. This is the oldesl

a rrbi /er/ u ra/ s t nrrl a re i n T asran ia.

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94

Museums of Etruria

AI-BANO I, AZI AI,E _ CIVIC MUSEUMThe archaeological section houses local materials from theprehistorical, proto-historical, Roman and early Christianperiods.

ALLUMIERE _ PREHISTORICAL MUSEUMOF UPPER LATIUMNlaterials from prehistorical and proto-historical periods,including Villanovan vases and objects from Etruscantombs.

AREZZON,I ECENATE ARCH AEOLOGICAL MUSEUMPrehistorical materials and Etruscan and Roman urns. c€ra-mics, bronzes and statues. The collection of the so-called'vasi Aretini' is particularly interesting.

ASCIANO - ETRUSCAN MUSEUMObjects from the necropolises of Poggio Pinci.

BOI-OGNA - CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMA vast collection of prehistorical, Villanovan, Etruscan, Ro-man and medieval materials from the region around Bolog-na and also from other parts ofltaly. Particularly interestingare the furniture items and household implements.

CAPENA _ ANTIQUARIUM OF LUCUS FERONIAEObjects from the excavation of Lucus Feroniae and the ne-cropolis of Capena.

CASOLA IN LUNIGIANAARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMPrehistorical materials and stele-statues from Lunigiana.

CECINA - CIVIC ANTIQUARIUMMaterials from local excavations, in particular from anEtruscan tomb and a Roman villa.

CERVETERI - NATIONAL MUSEUMVillanovan, Etruscan and Roman materials from the areaaround Cerveteri: vases, sarcophagi, terracottas and funer-ary objects.

CHIUSI - NATIONAL ETRUSCAN MUSEUMA vast collection of Etruscan and Roman materials from ex-cavations in the area: ceramics, cinerary urns, sarcophagiand bronzes.

CIVITA CASTELLANANATIONAL FALISCAN MUSEUMArchaeological finds dating from the 10th to the 3rd cen-turies B.C. found in the Faliscan Plain.

CIVITAVECCHIANATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMVillanovan, Etruscan, Roman and medieval materials fromexcavations in the area.

COLLE VAL D'E,LSAARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMEtruscan funerary objects, ceramics and coins from local ex-cavations or acquired as gifts.

CORTONA - MUSEUM OF TTIEETRUSCAN ACADENIYEtruscan and Roman gold jewellery, coins, ceramics andbronzes from various sites.

FIESOLE - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMMaterials from the excavations of the nearby Etruscan tem-ple and from the Roman theatre and baths.

FLORENCE - ARCHAEOLOGICAL M USEUMOF CENTRAL ETRURIAPrehistorical materials from excavations in Tuscany. Etrus-can and Roman sculptures, bronzes, urns, ceramics, goldjewellery and coins which formed the Medici and Lorrainecollections, originally housed in the Uffizi. Etruscan monu-ments and tombs have been reconstructed in the tooo-graphical section.

FLORENCE \

FLORI]NTINE PREHISTORICAL MUSEU MPrehistorical objects (weapons, implements, graffiti) and di-dactic material illustrating the various prehistorical cukures.

GROSSETO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL M USEUMPrehistorical materials, Etruscan and Roman funerarv ob-jects, urns, statues, bronzes and coins from the local excava-tions, in particular at Rusellae. Also a small section of me-dieval archaeology.

GROTTAFERRATANlUSEUM OF THE ABBEY OF SAN NILOPrehistorical and Etruscan materials.

GUtsBIO-CIVIC N{USEUMInscriptions, statues, coins and other objects from the pro-to-historical and Roman periods, from the Roman theatreand local excavations.

ISCHIA DI CASTRO _ CIVIC ANTTQUARIUMNlaterials from the excavations ofthe Etruscan necroDolisesof Castro.

I . A S P E Z I A - C I V I C M U S E U MPrehistorical, proto-historical, Roman and early Christianmaterials from the excavations at Luni. The collection ofstele-statues is particularly interesting.

LUCCA _ NATIONAI , MUSEUN{ AT VIL I -A GUINIGIEtruscan and Roman materials as well as an importantmedieval section including objects from excavationi in thearea around l-ucca-

LUNI _ NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMMaterials from the excavations at l-uni, primarily datingfrom the Roman period.

MARCIANA _ ARCHAEOI,OGICAL NI USEUMPrehistorical and Roman materials from various communi-t ies on the island o[ Elha.

MASSA _ CASTELLO NIALASPINAPermanent exhibition of prehistorical and Roman materialsfrom the area.

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NIASSA MARITTIMAARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMObjects from the Etruscan tombs of the area and a collec-tion of Roman coins.

MONTALCINO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMPrehistorical and Etruscan materials from the area.

ORBETELLO _ CIVIC ANTIQUARIUMEtruscan and Roman funerary obiects and other materialsfrom the excavations in the area. in particular from Cosa.

ORTONOVONATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMRoman archaeological finds from the excavations in thearea around Luni.

ORVIETO - FAINA MUSEUMArchaeological finds mostly from the Etruscan necropolisesaround Orvieto. The collection of Greek and Etruscanvases is particularly interesting.

ORVIETO - CATHEDRAL MUSEUMThe archaeological section houses funerary obiects from thenecropolises around C)rvieto.

PERUGIA - NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICALNIUSEUM OF UMBRIAPrehistorical materials from central Italy. Urns, bronze la-minae and funerary objects from the Etruscan necropolisesof the area. Bas-reliefs and inscriptions from the Romanperiod.

PISA _ MUSEO DELL'OPERA DELLA PRIMAZIALEAn archaeological collection of Etruscan and Roman sta-tues, sarcophagi and architectural fragments.

PONTREMOLICIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMPrehistorical and Roman finds from Lunigiana, in particularstele-statues.

POPULONIA _ ETRUSCAN MUSEUMVases, fragments of sarcophagi and funerary obiects fromthe excavations of the Etruscan necropolises of Populonia.

ROI\{ E _ CAPITOLINE MUSEUMSEtruscan vases and funerary objects. Sculptures, mosalcs,coins and other materials from excavations of Roman sites.

ROME - MUSEUN{ OF THE INSTITUTEOF'ETRUSCAN STUDIESCasts and reconstructions of Etruscan cities and settle-ments.

ROME - PIGORINI PREHISTORICAL ANDETHNOGRAPHICAL MUSEUMN{aterials from the palaeolithic, aeneolithic, bronze and ironages, from all over Italy and in particular from Latium.

ROME - NATIONAL ETRUSCAN MUSEUMATVILLAGIULIAProto-historical, Italic and Etruscan materials from La-tium, southern Etruria and Umbria. Sculptures, ceramics,bronzes, gold jewellery, funerary objects and other materialsfrom excavations, arranged topographically.

95

ROME. VATICANGREGORIAN ETRUSCAN MUSEUMSculptures, ceramics, bronzes, gold jewellery, funerary ob'jects and other materials from excavations in the necro-polises of southern Etruria. The objects from the Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cerveteri are particularly interesting.

SAN GIMIGNANO _ ETRUSCAN MUSEUMEtruscan archaeological finds from various excavations inthe area.

SATURNIA _ ANTIQUARIUMEtruscan and Roman materials form excavations in thez f e a -

SIENA - NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

Prehistorical materials, Etruscan and Roman urns' sarco-

phagi, sculptures and ceramics from excavations around

Siena (Val d'Elsa, Amiata, Chiusi).

SPOLETO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMPrehistorical objects, Roman and medieval sculptures, in-

scriptions and architectural fragments.

TARQUINIA - NATIONAL ETRUSCAN MUSEU M

Etruscan materials from the necropolises of the area: sarco-

phagi, detached frescoes, vases, bas-reliefs and funerary ob-

,ects.

TERNI - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMProto-historical materials from the necropolises of the area.

TERNI _ ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLE,CTIONAT PALAZZO CARRARASarcophagi, inscriptions, steles and other Roman and me-dieval materials.

TODI - ETRUSCAN ROMAN MUSEUMItalic, Etruscan and Roman sculpture, gold iewellery, cera-mics and inscriptions.

TUSCANIA - NATIONAL MUSEUMMaterials from excavations in Tuscania and the surround-ing ar ea; in particular sarcophagi.

VETULONIA - CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMMaterials from excavations in the city: funerary obiects andVillanovan, Etruscan and Roman ceramics.

VITERBO-CNIC MUSEUMVillanovan, Etruscan and Roman materials from excava-tions in the area around Viterbo.

VOLTE,RRA _ GUARNACCI ETRUSCAN MUSEUMPrehistorical materials; a wide range of Etruscan cineraryurns, Etruscan and Roman gold jewellery, sculpture, cera-mics, coins and other materials from the area around Vol-teffa.

VULCI-NATIONAL MUSEUM' Villanovan, Etruscan and Roman archaeological finds fromthe area.

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Index of Places

Acquarossa, 28, 36, 88, 90; 44Als ium, 14,86,91,92Anghiari,45; 72Arezzo, 5, 1.2, 1.4-16,37-41,44,45, 50, 63, 66,67,74; 60,6 ) - 6 5, 6 9, 7 0, 51 4il, sg/V, 67 Al, VllI

Blera,90;155Bologna (Felsina), 9, 12,40,54,55Bolsena (see Volsinii Novi)

Caere (Cerveteri), 3, 72,14,18, 58, 80, 85-88, 91,92;1 5, 1 44- 1 46, 1 5 t, 1 54; 3lAl-lY, 67AVCapena,24Casafe Marittimo, 54; 8 9Castel d'Asso, 85, 90;. 1 5 1Cas t ro ,16 ,28 ,71 ,76Castrum Novum, 1,4, 91, 92Cetona,32,33;48Chiusi, 12, nl 5, 1, 6, 30, 32-38; 4 5, 5 0, 5 1, 5 5 ; 83AllCivitavecchia (Centumcellae), 81, 86, 93Civita Castellana (see Falerii Veteres)Conona,39,45Cosa, 69, 74,76,78-80, 91; 21, 131, 1 j2;51,41,834Y

Dolciano, 32, 33

Falerii Novi, 26, 27, 29; I 9Falerii Veteres (Civita Castellana), 14, 24, 26, 27, 32,73;t0.67/vFelsina (see Bologna)Fiesole, 3, 15, 38-41, 44, 46, 47; 6 1, 66, 67, 77, 67AX,XFlorence, 9, 16, 33,38, 40, 41, 44-46; 68, 7 t, 74, 79Fregenae, 14,91

Gravisca, 74, 84,90; 1 5 8Grosseto, 69, 80; 24

l{eba (Magliano), 14, 7 7, 78, 79; 3lNl

I-ucca, 5, 9, 16, 45, 47-49, 52, 80; 22, 82, 84, 8 5l,ucus Feroniae, 25l. 3 2- 3 7Luni, 6, 16, 47-49, 52, 53, 81, 90; 8 l, 86

N{anciano,69, 70Marsil iana. 71

Marzabotto, 12, 33, 40, 47, 55Massa Mar i t t ima,58,63Montescudaio, 36, 54; 364N{ur lo, 33,36, 65; 49

Narce, 18,24; i 1Nep i , 14 ,27Norchia, 80, 85, 90; 1 52

Orbete l lo ,71,76()rvieto (see Volsinii)

Perugia, 12, 1.4-76, 30,32, 34, 37,38; 1 7, 5 2- 54, 31/VPisa, 3, 5, 9, 77, 16, 46-48, 52, 53, 67,74; 8 jP is to ia, 16Pitigliano, 69,71,80Poggio Buco, 71Populonia, 72,16,50, 54, 56, 58-61, 64,89;95,97-99Pyrgi, 14,30, 86-88, 91; 1 8, 1 49, 1 50, 1 60;31fi1-IY

Quinto l' iorentino, 401' 6 2

Rusellae (Roselle), 12, 16, 33, 63-65, 68, 69, 80, 89;1 1 4 - 1 1 7

San Giovenale,90;148Sarteano, 32, 33; 4 6, 47, 674, lISaturn ia, 14,70,71, ,76,78, 80, 91; 12j , 1 j3Siena, 9, 1nl, 16, 33, 54, 62, 63, 67Sorano, 8Sovana, 16,71,73,80;23, 1 t0, 1 t9Sutr i , 14, 27:20, i8 , 39

Talamone, 78, 80; 129, 1 t7, 1 )8Tarquinia, 3, 72, 74, 34, 36, 42, 43, 58, 64,80, 8 1, 82, 84,85, 88, 90, 93; 1, 1 4 1 - 1 4 t, 1 47, 1 5 6; 36AlTuscania, 85, 93; 1 61, 1 62

Ve i i , 3 , 1 ,2 ,74 , 18 ,20 ,27 ,24 ,25 ,27 ,30 , 50 , 86 , 88 ;25 -29 ,51 .4Vetulonia, 58, 59, 63-65, 68; 1 09- 1 1 2Vi terbo, 76, 67,93; 1 19Volsinii (Orvieto), 72, 74, 16, 27-29, 58, 67, 73;14 ,4 t .83nVolsinii Novi (Bolsena), 1,6,32;4 j, 71Volterra, 12, 15, 16, 47, 48,54, 55, 61, 63;1 0 0 - 1 0 2 , 1 0 6Vulci , 20, 33, 58, 64,69-73,76; 16, 120, 122,43/ilt.67Arr.75/Vr

9 1 , 9 2 - 9 4 ,

1 24- 1 29;

This book has been produced with the help of

T

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