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from Prehistory to the Middle Ages edited by SalvatoreSettis
Texts by Marisa Bonamici, Riccardo Francovich, Renata Grifoni Cremonesi, Andreina Ricci and Leonardo Rombai
Drawings by Giovanni Caselli
#*n //qr4,
Books Scala
The publisher wishes to dedicate this book to the memory of Ferruccio Marchi, master designer, art publisher and Florentine gentleman.
VEII AND THE FALISCAN PLAIN, 18 Prehistorical Implements, 22 VOLSINII,27 The Language and Origins of the Etruscansr 30 CHIUSI AND PERUGTA.32 The Banquet in Etturiar 36 AREZZO, FIESOLE, AND FLORENCE, 38 Religion and Divination,42 . P I S A ,L U C C AA N D L U N I , 4 7 Agriculture and Agrarian Landscape, 50 VOLTERRA, POPULONIA AND SIENA, 54 Metallurgy,58 VETULONIA AND RUSELLAE, 63 Ceramics Workshopsr 66 VULCI, SOVANA AND COSA, 69 Trad,e,74 TARQUINIA AND CAERE, 80 Slaveryr 82 Hilltop Towns in Tuscany: Scarlinor 89 Museums Etruria, 94 of Index ofPlaces.96
In order to enablethe readerimmediatelyto distinguishbetween the different historical periods dealt with in each of the nine geographical areas examined, first part ofevery the chapter (dealing with prehistory) has been ser in italics, the secondpart (Etruscan and Roman period) is in roman, and the third (Early Middle Ages) is in a smallertypeface. The texts are by the following authors: RenataGrifoni Cremonesi- Prehistory Marisa Bonamici - Etruscan oeriod AndreinaRicci- Roman oerircd RiccardoFrancovich Early Middle Ages Couer: $onettatile ofApolhfrzn thesanctaarlofScasato Falerii, at intpired b1 a stataeof Ahxander tbe Great b1 tbe Greekscalptor Llsippas (late 4th centary B.C.). Rone, Villa Ciulia. Title page:tbe tombknownas "Pltltagorat't lair" at Cortona(2nd nntary B.C.). Back coaer: tombin tlte necropolis Norchia (4tb-3rd centary a of B.C,). 1. Tarqainia,endua// of the "Tonba degliAuguri" (540-520 B.C.). On eitbersideof tbe doorwaywlsicb slnbolized tbe world of tbedead, twofguresgreettheonlooker. O Copyright 1985 by SCALA, Istituto Fotografico Editoriale, Antella, Firenze Editing: Daniele Casalino Layout: Fried Rosenstock Drawings:Giovanni Caselli Maps:Ilaria Casalino Producedby SCALA Photographs: SCALA (M. Falsini, N. Grifoni, M. Sarri) 8 with the exception of:.nn. 5 3 (F. Papafava); 5, 8 6, 1 15 (Pubbliaerfoto,Milan); 1 16 (ArchaeologicalMuseum, Grosseto); p.89AI,III, IV (R. Francovich) Printed in Italy by Sogema Marzari, Schio
man and tbe spberes Tbe land of the Etrascans is not sinpfu tbe stageon which and socialdffirentiation: in all these land are tbeprotagonists.And it is not a casualcollection their remarkablebistory anfolded.It playd an inportant wbich thefor- of euents, a conplex historical deaelopment,from but well before tbat began roh in the longline ofeuents continuedbeynd its springthe rootsofoarpresent. mation of the Etruscan nation and Following a circular geographic route, fron Veii slowassimilationaithin tbe ciailization ofRone. tbe The territory between Tiber and the Arno, both nortbaards to Fiuole and Pisa, and tben soutb again to and of becaase its uarie! of landscape potential resnttrces Tarquinia and Caere,this book attemptsto illustrate tbe are and becaase bistory of eacbarea. Oar sn,lrces mostl1archaeological to its mineral reserues) (from its uastforests Our historical sur(idealfor maritime fnds, ratber tban written docaments. inland and coast between ofthe balance elements an understand- aeJgnesbeynd tbe Etruscan and Romanperiods to tbe trade), ffirs as tbe essential for it ing of itshistory,And, conuersei, is tbe aork of tbehis- earj Middle Agu, but it is not our intention to proue tbe tbe existence a continuitl tbat too nanl facts could easill of tbat toriansand archaeologists alloas us to reconstruct e/ein enaironment dffirent per- refuta IVe intend merell to illastrate the essential of characteristics tbe nataral arban com- nents of an exemplary caseof closeinteraction betaeen of iods.Hilltop uillagesand tbe deuelopnent and nunities; regulationof watercoarses agrarian organi' man and the land heliueson. routes,b1t of zation of the land; deuelopment commanication riaer or on land (ap to the Roman roads); manttfuctaring Settis Saluatore of agricultural and trading actiaities;mechanisms caltaral
2. Map ofEtruria.
Thanks to both historical and archaeological sources, we are able to reconstruct the major environmental features of Etruria, as well as the complex role played by the natural habitat (geological structure and development of the soil, climate, inland watercourses and coastline, flora). The arca between the Tiber and the Arnoand also the stretch ofland further north, asfar as the River Magra and the Appennines, annexed by Augustus to the 7th Region-was basically not very different at the time of the Etruscans from what it is like now. Some aspectsof the landscape, however, must have been quite different, although these changes are not the work of nature, but of man, who over the past two and a half thousand years (albeit somewhat discontinuously) has causedthe destruction of a great deal ofthe spontaneous flora and the alteration of its composition. Man has changed the course of rivers and dried the 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 the coast had been created by the filling in of the gulfs, while all volcanoes in Tuscany and Latium had already been extinct for thousands of years. Even the structure of the mountains (shapes, position, altitude and slope) was almost exactly the same as it is today; the earth's surface has simply been lowone or two ered-the result of erosion-by metres. The only topographical element that differs in any considerable way is the coastline near flat areas, where the rivers, with their silt, have slowly filled in all the marshy areas. As early as the 7th-6th centuries B.C. the dunes along the coast had akeady formed into continuous sandbars, creatingabanier isolating the inland marshy lakes from the sea. In other words the coastline consisted in crescent-shaped inlets alternating with promontories-as is, for the most part, still the cas*but did not have the pronounced jutting areasaround the deltas of the Tiber, the Arno and the Ombrone. The mouths of these rivers were actually recessedby five kilometres in the case of the first two, and by two in the caseof the Ombrone. Large expanses of marshland also filled some of the lower-lying inland plains, for the rivers fre-
ntountainousbeecb aood on Mount Amiata.
quently flooded. The rivers'courses were characterrzed by curves and bends, with many rrmlfications; all the beds were very wide and obviously without any artlfrcial banks. The River Clanis flowed towards the Tiber directly from Arezzo, the Serchio (Auser) ran south of Lucca and one branch emptied into the Lake of Bientina, the other into the Arno at Pisa. The Ombrone originally flowed into Lake Prile until it managed, at the beglnning of the Christian era, to change its course sufficiently to empty directly into the sea. Yet, basically, the course of the rivers was not too different from that oftoday. Before the development of the Etruscan society and economy, the flora of the region consisted primarily in woods. The changes in climate which occurred after the pre-historical eras did not modify the characteristics of the natural flora established after the last ice age: starting from the coastline and moving towards the highest peaks of the Appennines, there were a succession of fundamental botanical groupings, more or less the same as today. These began with the Mediterranean evergreen shrub (without, however, the umbrella pine, which was only introduced by the Romans); there then followed the Submediterranean dry wood, consisting primarily in pubescent oak, and the Submountainous Turkey oak wood, both of them without chestnut-trees which, although indigenous, spread after the Middle Ages as cultivated trees; and finally the Mountainous beech wood, also including many conifers such as the silver fir and the Norway spruce. At that time there must also have been large
fhc Natural ['.nvironment
1. T-hentountainaus siluer fir aood on Mount Antiata; in tbe distancethe c/a1hil/s of Radicofani. 5. Hydrrgrapbic uap ( Etruria.
o l.agoonr and Iakes in classical time: Rrr cr counes changed in classical times
\larshiancls the imperialageand the NliddleAges in
stretches of plain-growing forest, made up of alder, elm, common oak, poplar, willow and ash which-together with the hydrophyte herbaceous and shrubby vegetation typical of damp areasdeveloped throughout the marshy lands and around the lagoons and wherever the surface was covered with water. Today there are only small areasof it left at San Rossore near Pisa. The development and expansion of the Etruscan civthzation caused a gradual but profound transformation of the environment, particulaily in terms of water courses and flora. The Etruscans deserve their fame as expert regulators of water courses.They radically changed the appearance of the marshy plains and lagoons, not by actual drainage, but probably through a widespread series of works increasing the natural (and, in some cases, artificial) drainage of the water, in order to make the agricultural land permanently cultivable and the level of the lakes uniform, thus making fishing and navigation possible. At the same rime, on the higher plains and on the coastal and inland hills, they began to exploit the resourcesof the forests, using the wood to build ships and houses and as fuel for the metal industry. The clearings were used as cultivable land and pasture. Under the Etruscans. the increasednumber of
human settlements, the drainage systems and the introduction of the plough allowed for the widescale cultivation of grain and textile fibres, of 'of vines and fruit trees. This form agriculture changed the appearanceof the landscape, creating the geometric pattern of "closed fields" (with the vines, tied high up to their supporting trees, in straight rows marking the borders of the square fields). All the areasaround the settlementsin south ern Etruria began to have this regular appearance. The only exception was the stretch north of the Arno-a natural border between the Etruscans and the Ligurians-which was only won over to this kind of agricultural colonization in the 2nd century B.C. when the consular roads, the Cassia and the Aurelia, were extended to Luni. The Romans reorganized and further developed this system of regular square plots in the plains with mixed cultivation, at the expense of the wood and pasture land. They introduced the cultivation of the olive and of the cvDress.which flourished at least until the end of thl^late republic^n ^ge. Later, the transition from small, singlefamily farm units to the large landed estatesbased on slave labour led to the degradation and regression of the agricultural areas-especially at the time of the later Roman Empire-with an increase
fhe \atural Environment
l]ccclr u oods and mountain meadS*, Dccirluous oak woocls lilcrgreen oak woods and l\lediterranean shrub
6. Map of the spantaneous uegetationin Etruria. 7. The riaer Fiora, wbith marks the nortbern border of uolcanic Etraria.
\lcscirhcrmic woocls
of wood and pasture land and a decreaseof cultivatedzones. In other words, the natural environment offered huge possibilities to a culturally and technoIogically developed society. Firstly, the conformation of the land and the composition of the soil were favourable to agriculture, for there were many fertile stretches(the volcanic soil on rhe plateaux of Tuscany and Latium and the irrigation provided by the flooding of rivers on the plains) which the Etruscans cultivated with very advanced agricultural techniques. The mineral resources in the central and western part of the region-the so-called "mineral Etruria"-are also connected with the geological formarion: the top soil, consisting in clay and calcareousdeposits and sandstone, allowed easy access to the older formations below, rich in copper, tin, lead containing silver, iron, cinnabar, ochre and so on. Almost all the to\Mns and the minor agricultural centres were built on top of hills, the so-called "Etruscan position." This is undoubtedly connected with the geological characteristics of the region: the Etruscans graspedthe exceptional defensive advantages offered by the narrow tufa plateaux, from which thev could keep watch over the valleys,the rivers, the fords, the ioastal ports and
the towns on the hillsides. This choice-which also offered more favourable climatic conditions-was determined by the Etruscan political set-up and not, as some would have it, by the fact that the plains were uninhabitable because of flooding or malaia. And in fact, when the region was unified under the Romans, settlementssprang up throughout the plains. The natural resources were copious. The immense forests produced wood for building and for fuel, which was also used in the minins industrv. The manufacturing industry protp.r.Jthanks io the ample water supplies,to the easyaccess minto eral deposits and to ports for export. At the mouths of the major rivers, as well as in the inlets between the promontories, there were safe harbours for trading vessels;the river valleys were important communication routes with the interior. Etruria's very position, umbi/icusItaliae, was extraordinarily favourable. The coastal lagoons, like the Prile, offered inexhaustible reservesof fish and wildlife as well as shelter for boats. The hygienic condition of the coast and of the Tiber and Chiana valeys musr have been fairly good, since several settlements sprang up in these areaswhich later were to be so deadly. Malaria, if there was any at all, certainly
he Natural [-nvironmenr
E. ,1 uine.Tardat .lorano, growing an lhe lafa /erraces. 9. Ceonorpho/rlqical and minera/ nap of Ittraria. 10. Lake Accesa, whirh lies in the middle of a /arge minera/ basin exp/oited durin,q c/assica//imes.
,'\llurial plains \lountain \lountain ranges lakes 0 structures
tr ]:j':::,"::t1::^""'""") Cffs n E w n
marl, scal) argtllaceous rock, etc) Nlarine Pliocene Continental Quatetnary Volcanic tufa (;ranite I ron Copper I-eacl Tin I{ercury
Nlesozoic calcareous rock
I hc Natural L,nvironment
,.-1ti;:,i.f :,
did not constitute a serious menace, for the population led a very active and productive life. It was not until the 3rd-5th centuries A.D. that malaria reachedthe height of its destructive power. During the period of the Roman Empire, however, the creation of large landed estatesand the decline of productive activities and trade-since Etruria was no longer on the maior communication routes between Rome and the Po valleycausedthe economic decline of the cities. The population of the cities decreased and many coastal "castles" towns were abandoned completely; new were built on the hilltops in the interior. Even before the destruction causedby the barbarian invasions in the 5th century A.D. (and even more so in the late Middle Ages when the region was the victim of raids by Arab pirates), coastal Etruria was already described as a desolate, inhospitable and unhealthy wasteland. Natural phenomena, such as the silting up of the river mouths which caused the plains to turn into swamps, favoured the spread of malana. Pisa was the only Roman town, thanks to its favourable position 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, or the Via Francigena Romea,which connected cenEurope to the capital of Christral and western tianity through the Cisa pass, Pontremoli, Lucca, Altopascio, Fucecchio, San Gimignano (later Poggibonsi), Siena,Radicofani and Acquapendente' The importance of this road definitively movedthe economic, cultural and demographic centre of Etruria towards the interior: a process which culminated in the 13th and 14th centuries when Florence asserted her supremacy by gaining control in over the routes leading to the Appennine passes Bologna. the Mugello towards
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-/orent i ne Prehistori ca/ M aseant.
1 ). Iitrtcrurl, obferl.r (lirtrt I tttlti,ttt,,, Irtut/itltir). Pi.ra, ln.r/i/ale of' . lt/ltrop,, /,t4t
Griftni Cremonesi b1Renata
The earliest evidence of man in the region which is today Tuscany and Latium is given by some shards found near Bibbona and in the area around Livorno. Later, about 300,000 years ago, Homo Erectus lived in open-air settlements and used bifacial implements. During the Middle Palaeolithic period, we have evidence of large settlements of Neanderthal Man, who lived in Europe between 80,000 and 35,000 years ago and used chipped stone implements (Mousterian culture). The Upper Palaeolithic period, during which m^n acquired his modern physical ^ppearance, is very well documented. In Tuscany there is evidence of all the different phases: from the Ulutian culture to the Aurignacian, from the Gravettian to the Epigravettian. 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 of these is found even at quite high altitudes on the Tuscan-Emilian Appennines and it is attributed to that er^ called the Mesolithic, which witnessed radical transformations of the habitat. The transition to the Neolithic period is characterrzed primarily by the development of a productive economy, with the introduction of agriculture and animal husbandry, as well as by the spread of new technologies, such as potterymaking and the polishing of stone implements. The oldest Neolithic ltalian culture, dating from about 7,500 years ago, is documented only by a few fragments of unbaked impressed pottery found at Pisa, on the island of Pianosa and at Pienza.Incised line pottery appears to have been more widely spread, and shards have been found over a wide area between the Po valley and Tuscany and Latium, in a timespan th^t goes from 6,200 to 5,400 years ago. Our evidence comes mostly from caves used as burial and worship sites; we have little documentation about the settlements. The Lagozza culture, dating from 4,700 yearc ago, spread primarily over the western Po valley; finds of polished black pottery in caves around Pisa and Siena attest its presence in Tuscany. This culture is evidence of the gradual transition to the metal ages, until the affirmation of the Aeneolithic cultures, derived probably from contact with Eastern Mediterrane^n peoples. The Aeneolithic period (2400-1800 B.C.) is well docu-
mented by a large number of tombs containing copper v/eapons, stone axes and hammers, and arrowheads, evidence of new ideologies and customs. While northern Latium and southern Tusc ny ^re dominated by the Rinaldone culture with its typical tomb shaped like an artrfrcrzl small grotto, the area around Siena and the Colline Metallifere (between Siena and the coast) use ditch graves and in northern Tuscany burial sites are in natural grottoes, more related to the Po valley and the Ligurian and Provengal cultures than to those of central and southern Tuscany. During the Bronze Age (1600-1000 B.C.) the Appennine and sub-Appennine cultures flourish in southern Tuscany, Umbria and Latium: their economy is agricultural and pastoral. AIso at this time, we have the appeatance of the protoVillanovan culture, which marks the end of this
The earliest stages of the Bronze Age are very scarcely documented. The Appennine culture, charzcterized by pottery decorated with spiral Patterns, and the sub-Appennine culture, with pottery without decoration but with elaborate handles, are present in southern Tuscany and Latium. Many important fortified centres spring up during the period of the proto-Villanovan culture; they bear witness to an increase in trade and the development of Bronze Age cultures towards early forms of urban communities.
b1Marisa Bonamici
One can begin to speak of an Etruscan people with the advent of the so-called Villanovan culture (9th-8th centuries B.C.). During this period, the population lived in reed or wood huts; the tombs consistedof little wells dug in the ground containing biconical ossuariesand, in the later period (8th centur/), of inhumation of the deceasedwith personal objects. Towards the middle of the 8th century B.C. an event that was to have an extraordinary effect on the Italian peninsula took place: the first Greek colonizers, coming from Chalcis and Bretria, set up trade bases in Campania. In their search for metals, they soon came into contact with Etturia, attracted by the mineral wealth of Elba and the area around Campiglia, the Colline Metallifere and the Tolfa Mountains. This was the beginning of a period of remarkable development for the Etruscans and, thanks to the metal trade, also of social differentiation. It is at this stage that the Etruscans acquire not only those luxury items that constitute the most remarkable aspect of the "Oriental" style tombs of the 7th century, but also the essential technological innovations in the field of metalworking and pottery and, especially towards the beginning of the 7th century, writing. An aristocratic class, consisting of those who controlled trade. was created and their role was to be fundamental throughout Etruscan history. Also at this time the population began to increase and gradually cities were formed-towards the end of the century in the more developed areas of southern Etruria, later in the northernpart of the region. The later history of the Etruscans is only the logical development of these beginnings: Etruria is active in the world of maritime trade and establishes a continuous and profitable commercial and cultural exchange with Greek and Oriental traders. At the same time, the development of its craftsmanship, throughout the 7th and 6th centuries, gives rise to a democratically-minded middle class,particulady in southern Etruria (Caere,Veii, Volsinii). This middle class is also responsible for the move towards colonization (beginning of the 5th century), which led to the founding of Capua in Campania and of Manabotto and Felsina (Bologna) north of the Appennines. In 47 4 B.C. the Etruscans were defeatedby the Cumans and the Syracusans:this marked the beginning of the decline of their trading activities and, consequently, of their contact with the Greek world. But the recession only really affected the coastal towns-except Populonia-while the inland cities continued to thrive on agriculture and the sale of their manufactured objects to the centres north of the Appennines. By the 4th century, with the invasions of the Gauls in the north and of the Samnites in Campania, Etruria was reduced once again to its original territory, but this brought the region a renewed prosperity. The population returned to the countryside and the aristocracy conquered new powers, very soon creating a relationship of conThe history of Etruria flict with the lower classes. is from this time onward merely the history of its relationship with the growing power of Rome, beginning with the traumatic fall of Veii (396 B.C.) and culminating, after vartous wars and truces, that the Etruswith the separate alliances (foedera) can cities were forced to sign in the first half of the 3rd century. The terms of these alliances must have been very harsh. Lir,y gives a list of the tributes that Rome demanded of the Etruscan cities in 205 B.C., just before Scipio's expedition to Africa: wood and agricultural produce from Caere, Tarquinia, Volterra, Perugia, Chiusi and Roselle; iron from Populonia; arms, metal implements and grain from Arezzo. During the 2nd century southern Etruria experienced an economic decline, for it was al:andoned by the aristocracy who had settled in Rome. Northern Etruria, on the other hand, which was not abandoned by the aristocracy, was on the communication routes from Rome to the nofth and enjoyed a period of great prosperity. In 90 B.C. the Etruscans v/ere granted Roman citizenship; this put an end to their apparent autonomy and marked the beginning of a new historical period.
i hc EtruscanPeriod
11. On'ieto, (.rucifissrtde/-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/L totrlains the buria/ p/ace of'sat,era/ ntenbtrs rll a lani/y lcar/y /be txislence fi'an arislorracy,. c/an, .s/t,ta,s
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 /tis dterarl, urn /akes l/-r s/tape.frolt l/tt ltou.re.r rtf't/tt l:i//anot,at n,illt ur rn'a/,groatd-p/an attd n,oodenbunts. f>eriod,
17. Brotie .r/alat rtf /lte Orator (f ron l)i/a, tear Pera,qia, /ate 2nd 'l'/",e tr ear/1' 1.rl rcnla11, B.(..). I'/orerce, Arcltaert/oqica/ trluseunt. 'l .tld///( il)ttr a t'o/itv 2llirin,q, a.r tbe itscriptiul sd)'s, t, tlte .qrtd t \urs frtlt ..'lt'/t i)Ide/i, a tttnthtr of l/te ari.rlrrracl'.ft'ont lbe area arrtttnrl l)t rt,qia.
bl AndreinaRicci
The systematic conquest of Etruria, begun by Rome in the 4th century, suffered several setbacks.After the fall of Veii rn 396 B.C.. the towns of Sutri and Nepi were also conquered in 382 B.C. Livy considered these towns "the barriers and gateways of Etruria." The reaction to these defeats by the other Etruscan cities was different: some, like Caere, signed alliances with Rome (Caere was granted the position of ciaitassinesnfragio, equality with Rome but with no right to vote); others organized a strong opposition, like Tarquinia and Falerii, who took arms against Rome in 358 B.C. and succeeded in forcing Czere to abandon her pro-Roman position and join the league of Etruscan cities. Towards the end of the century, Volsinii and Perugia lead a new opposition against Roman expansionism. But the defeat at Sentinum n 295 B.C. marks the beginning of a series of victorious Rom n c mpaigns against Etruscan cities, followed by the confiscation of most of their land and a reotganrz tion of the communication routes. On the new conquered territories the Romans founded Castrum Novum and Pyrgi rn 364 B.C., and Alsium and Fregenaein 245, conceived as military outposts controlling the coast (these are the years of the first war with Carthage) and those portions of Etruscan territory not yet entirely under Roman domination. The continuing battles in southern Etruria led to the destruction of Falerii and Volsinii (later rebuilt on different sites); but some Etruscan cities of the interior remained neutral, like Statonia and Saturnia which were considered prefectures and connected to Rome by the Clodian Way built before 2258.C. In the Etruscan cities of the north, however, Rome signed alliances with the local ruling classes and the only military interventions are more like police actions, requested by the local aristocracy, such as, for example, Rome's intervention in Arezzo in 302 B.C. in order to quell a revolt of the serfs. By the end of the 3rd century northern Etruria is connected to Rome by the Cassian Way. The process of colonization continues throughout the 2nd century, but the aim is no longer strictly military-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 ofthecoast nearPygi. 19. Fahrii Noui, gatededicatedJapiter( jrd century city to B.C.). 20. Siutri, Anplsitbeatre (1st ceiltilry B.C./). 21. Nunziatella (near Cosa), the aalls surroundingVilla del/e Colonne 1il antury B.C.). (
The Roman Period
167 and 157 B.C. The Roman aristocracy begins to take over the ager publicus,public land, aprocess which will lead, in the following century, to the spread of villas in the countryside. In northern Etruria, and especially in the area around Volterra, there are still large landed estates based on slave labour, whereas around Chiusi and Perugia new settlements spring up, varying in size from single farms to fairly large towns. This has usually been attributed to the social integration ofpart of the slaves. The Aurelian \Way is prolonged at the end of the century (Via Aenilia Scaur) because of revolts in Liguria. In the early 1st century (89 B.C.) almost all the populations of Italy are granted Roman citizenship. The Etruscan cities which had sided with Marius during the civil w^r ^re punished by the victorious Sulla with massacres,confiscation of land and destruction. Sulla also gives 120,000 of his soldiers land near Fiesole, Arezzo, Volterra and Chiusi. The population and land distribution in the region is thus radically altered, even though a few lzrge family estates manage to survive-the Cilnii in Arezzo and the Cecinae Volterra. This in kind 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 coloniz^tion, aimed at stopping the decline of some cities, was begun. This was then continued by his direct successors.The policy of restoration included also the rediscovery of ancient Etruscan traditions and during this period the region became the centre of the most important industries based on slave labour. From the 2nd century A.D. onward, most of the cities began to decline and, in the countryside, most of the settlements were abandoned. Only a few large estates were left (maritime villas), mostly imperial property. A description of the coast, made at the beginning of the 5th century by Rutilius Namatianus, a few years after the invasion of the Goths, shows the survival of only a few scatteredcommunities.
b-y ccado F r ancoucb Ri r i
Tuscany, or Tuscia, in the Middle Ages was not a homogenous territorial or administrative unit. It consisted of the territories of Lucca, Luni, Pisa, Volterra, Pistoia and Florence, in the north, and of those of Siena, Arezzo, Chiusi, Perugia, Orvieto, as well as the royal lands donated to the Pope by Charlemagne-Sovana, Roselle, Populonia, Toscanella and Castro-in the south. After the Gothic domination, the Longobards gave the region a certain amount of unity, beginning in 570, setting up the duchy of Lucca, which under the Franks became a county. The first Frankish count was Boniface (81,2-823), who had come to Italy with Charlemagne and founded the dynasty which was to rule over the region for a century and a half. During this period the ties with Corsica and Sardinia were strengthened. Adalberto I (845-898) was called marquis of Tuscany, but it v/as not until the second half of the 10th century that the region became a marquisate. It was this institutional org nrzation that allowed the development of that kind of autonomy which forms the basis of feudal seignories. The organization of the large feudal propefties was based on the cartis, which denoted both the type of rural domination and the actual buildings housing this power. The basic characteristic of this system was the division of the estate in two parts: the part belonging directly to the lord (pars doninica) and the rest of the land which was divided into small plots, usually comprising a house lived in by slaves or freed men. In the early Middle Ages Tuscany was in great decline. The areas in the valley of the Arno were swampy until at least the 10th century and only the small parts above the water were cultivated (such as the plain around Lucca). The area of the Maremma around Siena was almost entirely uninhabited and Bishop Giovanni (end of the 9th century) described the churches in ruins and the whole of Tuscany as a disease-ridden regionrather like Rutilius Namatianus's description, or that of Sidonius Apollinans in 467. The plains were abandoned and the population moved back to the hills, where they pursued pastoral activities. Agriculture, by now only just selfsufficient, was based on wheat, wine and olive oil. A document from Lucca, dating from 764, illuStrates the basic diet: a loaf of wheat bread. a quarter of an amphora of wine and the same quantity of a mixture of beans and millet flour, with an occasional addition of meat. The settlements were very poor: huts and houses made of mud seem to have been the norm, as recent archaeological studies have proved. Groups of dwellings carved out of the rock.were cornmon in southern Tuscany as well as in a few other areas, such as the sandstone hills around Siena. Settlements of this kind lasted for a long time, in some casestill modern times. The system of consular roads, which had remained efficient until the rule of Theodoric, soon declined under the Longobard domination, serving only as means of local communication. It was only later, with pilgrims and merchants, that they resumed their original importance. The Longobards found two routes leading to Rome: the Aurelia, along the coast, and the Cassia, which went through Pistoia, Florence, Chiusi and Bolsena. But the Aurelia, exposedto dangers coming from the sea, passed through a desolate and swampy countryside. The Cassia, on the othef hand. was abandoned not so much becauseof the increasing marshland in the Chiana valley, but becauseit was so close to the boundary with the Exarchate. This reduced the importance of the Tuscan mountain passestowards east and the major communlcation route became the pass of the Cisa further north. This is one of the reasons why Florence lost her supremacy ovef Lucca, which had become the major centre along the new route, called Via Francigena. The Via Francigena led from Luni to Lucca through Camarore, then it reached the river Elsa south of San Miniato via Fucecchio, continuing on to Poggibonsi and Siena; then it followed the valley of the Arbia to Buonconvento, San Quirico and Radicofani and finally, through the valley of the Paglia, it reached Bolsena, Montefiascone and Viterbo. A north to south route that was to last a long time.
'it -
The Middlc Ages
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Finds fron tlte apper Palaeolitbicperiod come from tbe CauernetteFaliscbe andfrom Vignanello (Pigorini and Villa Giulia Museums in Rone). The Neo/itbic is documented tbe Grotto of Monteuenere the Lake of Vicn in on incisedline pottery probabfu connected worsbippractices-as we// as in tbe to Cauernette Falischeand in tbe Vannaro Grotto at Corcbiano(Vi//a Giulia). Tbe BronTe Age is we// repruented b1 the uillage on tlte Appennines called Monteuenere, the bronw and iron objects b1 found at Narce, b1 tbe protoVillanoaan settlements and tombsat Veii and b1 tbepile-dwellings on Lake Bracciano(Vi Ila Gi ulia). The plateau of Comunit), the site first of villages and later of the city of VEtt, and the necropolises on the surrounding hills and valleys have provided us with major finds of the Villanovan culturethanks especiallyto the Anglo-Italizn exc v^tron of Quattro Fontanili. These finds have helped in the study of this culture in the rest of Etruria (objects at Villa Giulia and at the Museum of Civita Castellana). Also important is the 8th-century B.C. pottery from the Cicladesand Euboea (and the later imitations produced locally), which are the result of trade with the first Greek colonizers; Veii controlled the mouth of the Tiber and thus held a privileged position in dealings with the Greeks. This was in fact the primary reason of the conflict with Rome and Veii was the first victim of Rome's expansionist policy. The first "Oriental" phase (first half of the 7th century) flourished here and the objects found in the tombs clezrly show the influence of Caere and the Faliscan Plain (objects at the Archaeological Museum in Florence, atYtlla Giulia and at the Pigorini Museum in Rome). There ^re very few finds of objects related to the aristocrzclt among which a few burial sites and the recently discovered chamber tomb at Monte Oliviero, with an array of princely objects (at Villa Giulia), similar in composition to those found in the Regolini Galassitomb in Caere.Also exceptional is the painted "Tomb of the Ducks" (second quarter of the 7th century), now open to the public at Riserva del Bagno: the fuieze of little ducks is reminiscent of geometrical Etruscan ceramics showing Euboean influence. The *Chigi olpe" is also unique: it was produced and decorated on commission by Corinthian craftsmen around 650 B.C. (Villa Giulia). Among the more recent "Oriental" finds, only the Campanatomb at Monte Michele shows any autonomous artistic tradition. Its end wall is embellishedby a painted decoration (animals on the lower level, and two knights accompanied by men on foot above) which shows a polychrome technique and a late "Oriental" style similar to the contempor^ry Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics. The community of Veii became an urban settlement towards the beginning of the 6th century when a group of permanent constructions were built on the acropolis (Prazza d'Armi). At the centre stood a rectangular temple, which was abandoned at the end of the century when the sanctuary of Portonaccio, dedicated to Meneraa
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2i. C/ay sldtae rl Apo//r,,front llte acro /erin (fittt //te sarclaur1, rtf' Porlonacrirta/ I rii, /ute 6tb cen/ury B.(.). Ilonte, l,'1//a
V c i i a n c lt h e [ ] e l i s c a nP l a i n
2 6. | 'eii, Ronan road. 27. Itrii, excatatirtts al the sanctuary of Porlonario (/an 6t/t centarlt B.(.). 171 y11, t/r f,'n.,4r,,unl. lorK aal(r r6(nnir. 28. I'eii, rains of tlte Romanai//a at (,antpel/i. lt tbe backqround, water cisttrn. tbt 'l 29. /te "OLigi o/pe" produced by Corin/ltiar rrafisnten (nn /eii, tttid Zlh centary B.(.). 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.
(Minerva), was built outside the city. At Portonaccio, just as at Campetti (seebelow), evidence of conrinuous religious practice until the the 1st century is provided by many ex-votos, some of which are of great interest, such as the one offered by the celebrated Aaile Vipiennas,citizen of Vulci or the small statue depicting Aeneas carrying Anchises-an episode taken over by groups of Romans as a symbol of their move to the newly conquered city. The sanctuary, which is open to the public, consists of a central structure (probably a cellawith alae)with, next to it, a large pond used in the religious ceremoniesand filled by a network of little canals.In front there is a smail building which contained an altar and the votive gifts. But the most interesting aspectof this monument are the large clay sratues,
u'hich originallv stood on the peak of the roof, represenring Apollo, l,atona, Ileracles ancl Hermes (Villa Giulia). They arc the work of the sculptor from Veii, Vulca,famous in antiquity, who was also thc author of the decoration of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline I Iill in Rome. 'fhe contemporary foundation, in the centrc of the city, of thc sanctuary of Campetti cledicatedto the goddess Vei (who can be identifiedwith the Roman Cercs),worshipped in Etruria anclRomc by the lower classes, probably indicatesa political supremacyof thc plebeians. This perhapsexplainswhy, although Latin sourcesreFer to "kings" of Veii, the objectsfound in the (rth ancl 5rh-cenrurvtombs are never very lavish. Thesc "kings" were probably tyrannical figures and there may well have bccn laws banning cxcess luxu[,', basecl Solon's legislation ancl inspired by equalita.rian on ancl antiaristocraticsentiments.The citv continuecl to prosper throughout the 5th century, thanks to its well-developedagriculture,as u,.ecan see Lry the surviving unclerground drainage concluits all over the countryside,among which the so-callecl Ponte Sodo (seep. 50), still visible today. lt was in this period of prospcrity that Veii was in(]reek style,examplesof which arc the "NIafluencedby the classical lavolta Head" anclthc statueof a young man, Lloth in the manner of Polycleitus(from Portonaccio, now at Villa Giulia). Accorcling lo Livy, the city was conqueredby the Romans in 39(r B.C., after a ten1'earsicge.The Roman conqucst was macleeasier by thc fact that part of the leagueof lrtruscan cities, rulccl by an oligarch], atranclonedVeii because its anomalousmonarchv. of
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22 PrehistoricalImplements
The first implemenrs manufacturecl by man werc simple shards, chipped at one end (choppers) founcl in Afrjca, and which date from tu/o or two and a half million years ago; some have also been found in Europe. This elementary utensil gradually developed into t!. bifacial implement (antgdala), chipped probably with the aid of a stone hammer. The flakes were used as well, but gradually the chipping tech_ nrque succeededin producing flakes of a determinate shape; the ea.liert o.res were u'ide and thick, rhe later ones, produced with a wood or bone billet, were thinner. Durinq the N iddle palaeolithic more complicated procedures came to be used: a core of flint was roughly prepared and then reguiar shapedflakes were chipped off and retouched at the edges to be used as points and scrapers. In the Upper palaeolithic, man refined theie techniques even further; he managed to ob_ tain long, thin bladesprovi.ting a wide ill D! iEi! range ofspecialized tools, proving that us-19 the communities of hunters were in_ volved in a variety of activities. Bone /F- f1 '+-y22 was also widely used during the palacolithic. Thc oldest tools that we know of are bifacials made of bone flakes found in Latium, but the use of this material was widespread in the L pper Palaeolithic: awls, gravers, points, harpoons, perforators, often clecorated or sculpted. Unfortunately we havc no cvidence oF obiects proI duced in other materials (wood. ral activity developed: large pieces of us to have a better picture of the comleather, vegetable fibres, and so on) sanclstoneor volcanic stone were used. plex agricultural and manufacturing and wc can only guess at the actual with smaller ones as mullers. For activities of this period. The first ex_ function of rhe srone tools. During the weaving, Neolithic man used terracot_ amples of the wheel appeared at this \lesolithic the predominant flini inta or stone spindles and loom weights; tlme. dustry is that of pygmy flints or microfragments of fabrics have been fo"und liths in the shape of triangles, trapein pile-dwellings. During the Aeneoziums and crescents, which were plob_ lithic we find stone arrowheads with abll used as arrowheads. During thc tangs, retouched on both sides, with Neolithic, stone tools were maJe of small nails to fix them to the handles. obsidian (volcanic glass) as well as as well as flat axes and narrow points. flint. Generally they u,ere of regular During,the Bronze Age, metal objects shapes, frcquentll r rapezoidal, and replaced stone ones "l-ost entirely: were often used as reaping-hooks; the we.have found swords, daggers,poinis first dressed stone bifaaial arrowheads ancl also tools such as a*is, sickles. also appeared. A technological innovasaws and chisels. Bronze ornaments tion were celts (ax or adz heads) edged (brooches, necklaces and bracelets) by grinding and polishing. Bone conand amber objects replacethe previoui tinued to be used for points, needles, shell, bone, stone or tooth ornaments. hooks and harpoons. Grindstones, In the pile-dwellings of northern Italy used as early as the Upper Palaeolithic, a variety of wooden vases and other became more u'idespread as agricultu_ utensils have been found; these enable
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L Reconstruction of prehistorica/ inplenenls: sbards from the Lower Palaeolithic ( 1 7), .fron the Middle Palaeolithic ( 8 - 1 1), .fron the Upper Palaeolithic the Mesalitbic and fron (12-)0),
V. Grindstone (Neolithi). of Anthropology.
Pisa, Institate
VI. Copper adz (Aeneo/ithic). Pisa, Insti tate af Anthrapology. VII. Terracotta wbarl .for weauing (Neo/ithir). Pisa, Institute of Antbropo/og1.
II. Pa/aeo/itbic shard. F/orence, Flarentine Prehislarica/ Museam. III. Two adzes in dressedttone (Neo/ithi) Pisa.Ins/ilule of Anlhropology. IV. Boneimplements: spata/a,point, spearhead (Neo/ithic). Pisa, Insitate af Antbro Po/,,gt.
Vcii and the Faliscan Plain
32. Lucus Feroniae, the liuing qaarters of tbe Volusii Vil/a (1st centurJB.C.). )3. Lucas Feroniae, mosaic floor of tbe peristlle of the Volaii Vi//a. 34. Ltcus Feroniae,the basilica (1st centary B.C.). In the foreground, tbe inlaid marb/efloor.
During its cultural development and later during the conflict with Rome, the only territory which remained allied to Veii was the Faliscan plain. This area, with the towns of FalpRri, NARCn and C,tpexe (in antiquity considereda colony of Veii), was inhabited by a non-Etruscan population who spoke an Italic langtage, Faliscan, similar to Latin. The finds in the tombs of this region from the 9th to the 6th century bear witness to a civiliz^tion very similar to contemporary Veii and southern Etruria, both in the form of the burial sites (cremation tombs in tufa stone containers, followed by shafts in tree-trunks and chamber tombs) and in the objects found in them (impasto, bronzes, bucchero, original Greek ceramics and imitations). An element, however, typical only of the Faliscan tradition is the influence derived from the Sabines and other inhabitants of Latium, visible in the impasto vases with animal figures and foliage, incised and incaved, dating from the 7th and 6th centuries (Villa Giulia). The most remarkable period of development in this area took place in the 5th century, at atime when Falerii became a tealurban settlement (and Narce was abandoned); the sanctuariesof Vignale and Scasatowere built in the city, those of SassiCaduti and Celle outside the walls. The latter was dedicated to Juno Curitis and the ruins of patt of its structure have survived. Terracottas of great interest have been found on the sites of all these buildings (Villa Giulia). Just to mention a few: two fighting warriors, from SassiCaduti (beginning of the 5th century); a bearded head in the style of Phidias's Zeus at Olympia; works influenced by the style of 4th-century Greek artists, like the statue of Apollo from Scasato,inspired by Lysippus's portrait of Alexander the Great, the two statues of a mzn and a woman inspired by Praxiteles, from Celle and Scasato,and the head of a m^n from Scasatoin the manner of Skopas. In this artistic atmosphere, strongly influenced by Greece, to*"rdr the end of the 5th century a workshop producing red-figure ceramics was founded in Falerii. This workshop, probably set up by immigrant Attic artists, has left us such masterpieces as the krater of "the painter of Diespater" and that of "the painter of Aurora" (Villa Giulia). ln 394, after the defeats of both Veii and Capena,Falerii is forced to sign a truce with Rome which will lead, after various ups and
Veii ancl the Faliscan Plain
downs, to the rebellion of 241ending with the complete destruction of the city. After Vgu was conquered by Furius Camillus in 396 B.C., the worship of Juno Regina was transferred to Rome and a large part of the conqueredland was distributed to the Roman plebeians (an attempt at solving the conflict between patricians and plebeians).A class of small landowners was thus created and their presenceis evident in the archaeological finds. The countryside appears to have been densely populated, while the cities were being progressively abandoned as early as the 2nd century, Later the villas, the centres of lzrger estates, replaced the smaller settlements established by the small-holders and farmers. The ruins of a grznd late-republican villa are still visible near Anguillara. Some of the villas grew up within the cities themselves incorporating existing constructions. At the Campetti villa (1st century B.C.) a cistern and semi-circular nymphaeum are still visible. In front of the nymphaeum a black and 15. Lucus I:eroniae,//te anpbitbeatre ( 1st white mosaic was found. The sanctuaryof Portonaccio was used un- centurTB.C.). til the 1st century B.C. (as is shown by the votive offerings). Shortly )6. Lucus Feroniae, the Aerariant (lst after it was abandoned, a road was built across the site. centuryB.C.). of Augustus's project, followed also by his immediate successors, reviving the declining city of Veii (and other centres of Etruria) led 1 7. Lucus Feroniae, warebouse counter to the creation of the Manicipiun Augustum Veiens,which was embel- with built-in doliun. lished by several important buildings, such as the temples of Mars and of Victory, a public bath building (the ruins are known as the "Bagno della Regint') and a porticas Aagusta, commissioned by Tiberius. Twelve Ionic columns of Carcara marble, discovered in 1912-17, are now visible in the atrium of Palazzo Wedekind in Rome (PiazzaColonna). But, despite these attempts, the city progressively declined, while the surrounding countryside remained densely populated. The countryside here was in fact abandoned much later and much more "Muracci di Santo Stefano" slowly than elsewhere. The so-called (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 (Colonialalia Lucoferoniensis), founded probably around the middle of the 1st century B.C., the
Vcii and thc Iialiscan Plain
t t t t o t r r r r t t t t
l r r r o r t r
t r t r
38. Croand-plan of the moantain church of .lanta Maria del Parto at Sutri. 19. Satri, tbe moantain church of .lanta Maria de/ Parto (6th century?).
who_le valley of the Tiber is visible. The southernp^rt of the plateau is taken up by the sacred wood of the goddess Feronia (of Sabine origin), protectress of animals. The worship of this deity is yery ^ncient and the neighbouring populations (Latins, Sabines,Etruscans and Faliscans) gathered here. The settlement grew up at the edge of the sacred wood. The forum belongs to the eailier stage of the life of this city, before the arrival of the volusii saturninii famiry in Augustan times. Along the north-western side of the forum stood thJasilica and the entrance to a small underground room where the colony's treasure (aerarium)was kept. At the foot of the basilica there are two small temples, and there were various shops along one of the long sides of the square.There are also the ruini of a bath building, probably built in the 1st century A.D., which continued to function until quite late, at least until the end of the 5th century. one can also see the remains of a house dating from the republican period and those of an amphitheatre which is very small and leads us to believe that the- city was not densely populated. Near the amphitheatre the ruins of a public bath have been found. A visit to tha volusii villa, on the Autostrada del Sole, which has been largely preserved,is well worthwhile. After the destruction of Falerii veteres in 241 B.c.. a cerrain amount of time elapsed before the new city, FALERII NOVI, was built in 220.The old city stood on the site of present-daycivita castellana; the new one, a few miles away, on the site of today's Santa Mariadi Falleri. It was rectangular in plan and sprang up around the via Amerina which crosses it. The insulaear. telt".rgnlar. The walls surrounding the town have watchtowers and gates.Inside, the ruins of atheatre have been found; outside the walli stand the remains of an amphitheatre, which was presumably built around the 1st century A.D. Many important engineering works took place in the
course of the history of Falerii Novi, such as the bridge over the Amerina and the Fosso Tre Ponti acqueduct. Unlike the majority of the cities of Etruria, this town was still period. thriving in the late-classical
The most well-known ancl widely spreaclt,vpesof rural settlements in Lattum tn landed estates aclministercd b,v thc 8th and 9th centuries are the domuscultae,large the Papacy and which had come into being thanks to bequests. Some of these have been stuclieclboth topographically and archaeologically: among them, Santa Rufina, not far from Rome, and Santa Cornelia, near Veii, where an early meclier.al church has come to light. It stands in the administrative centre of the estate, clonated which was enlarged bv Pope Hadrian I increasing thefandus Capracorant, in 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, but their disappearancemay be related to the dangers of the times (Nloslem raicls)ancl to the clevelopment during the 1Oth century of hilltop communities. These communities, a revir.al of pre-Roman customs, could not be reacheclby vehicles on u'heels; thev were naturally fortified and far rcmoved from the major communt cation routes, in a region where the distances between the citics, such as Civita Castellana,Nepi and Sutri, were considerable. Religious buildings dug out of the tufa stone are one of the more frequent characteristics this phenomenon of hilltop communities, so common in northof 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-Sutri was only conquered by I-iutprancl in 728-and its influence less radical, compared to the more central parts of their conquerecl territory. The church consists in 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 \rerv badl,vdamageclfrescoes dating from the 12th to 14th centuries, there are two figures 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 similaritv 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 certain that 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.
Tbe Lower Palaeolithic is represented sbardsfound at Monte Peglia, tbe fu, Middle b1 those found near Oruieto and tbe Upper b1 tbe Tane del Diauolo (Deuil's Lairs) at Parrano (Archaeological Maseum, Perugia). Tbe Neoboth at tbe Grotta Bella of Montecastrilli and lithic period is ae// represented to at the wells called Pozzi della Piana at Titignano, connected the worsltip of water. The Aeneolithic hasje/ded fnds at Terni Acciaierie (Pigorini Museum in Rome and Ciaic Museun in Terni), at the Rinaldone necropolis (Montefiasnne) and in the tomb of FossoConicchio(Pigorini Museun). The b1 BronzeAge is represented Appennine and sub-Appenninematerialsfound al Francesco Titignano, Pozzi della Piana at the Tane del Diauol0, Grotta .San and Crotta Bella. On the territory that by the end of the 6th century was under the direct rule of Vctr-stNtt (the present Orvieto), in other words the area between the north and east shores of Lake Bolsena and the Tiber and the Paglia, there is evidenceof the Villanovan culture both in the village of Gran Carco and in Volsinii itself. The village of Gran
40. Oriental-Greek (aroand marble sturue tbe end of tbe 6tb centaryB.C.). bnieto, Ciaic Museum.Tb* statie of a iaked godder was the objut of worsbip in" tbe tanctuaryoftheCannicella necropolis. 41. Bronze aotiae rtatueof a warrior ffiri:g:./ib!!ion (fron Todi, earj 4tb ceitary B.C.). Vatican, Gregoriar Etruscan Mi_
ca*o is now under the water of the lake, near the east shore (the finds are in Bolsena and at villa Giulia). The finds at volsinii arc in the Faina Museum; one can also visit ihe excavation of the 6th-5th century necropolises under the church of Sant'Andrea. During the period of the "oriental" style, volsinii was not one of the cities that imported precious objects and no artifacts indicating the existence of an aristocracy have come to light. From the first half of the 6th ientury we find evidence in volsinii of anorganized urban community, but one which is particulady..democratic" in its set-up, a fact revealed primarily in ihe necropolis of crocifisso del rufo (op.r to the pubric). Here, the tombs are all similar in shape, size and quality of objects; they appear to have been according to a sirictly planned design'ani each one is identiF{ 9", fied by the name of the o*neiloblects in tle Faina Museum and in theP.alazzo dei Papi in.orvieto, together with an exhibition explaining the recent restorations). At thii time the first craftsmen's workshops were set,up and the products (impasto, bucchero, bronze vases) 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.rci_ty,thanks to its geographical position enabling it to control 9us the Tiber and chiana valleys, and thanks also to orginized, agriculture on-the fertile plain. By this stage orvieto was involvedln the trade of Greek-oriental artistic pro-ducts, among which one must mention the famous "venus" (civic Museum, within the Faina Museum). It comes from the sanctuary at the centre of the cannicella necropolis, which was dedicated to the goddess'vei here given the zppeuznce of a funerary Aphrodite, a custom common in Greece. The production of bronze objects is also interesting vases for comot1g., objects of great artistic value in a Ionic iyle, such as foils Totfor the decoration of carts (the so-called Ferroni foils from Todi, in the Archaeological Museum in Florence, and the bronzes from castelsan \rarizno,partly now in the Archaeological Museum in perug,ta)_aydsmall sculptures like the so-called Mlars from Ravenna (in thlfllseym_in Leyden) Objects of this kind were widely exported piceno. By this time v;lsinii to umbria, |omagna, Emilia and to had won political supremacy over the arez and, this caused the decline and even abandon of some of the smaller settlements, such as the neighbouring citadel of Acquarossa ; border towns, on the other hand, were strengthened. the second half of the 5th century and the beginning of . lrying the 4th, the local workshops were influenced by the style 3f pniai"r. Examples of this are the architecturar terracottas of ihe temple of Belvedere (the excavation is open to the pubric), those found at the cannicella necropolis and in via San Leonardo (FainaMuseum) and the bronze statue of Mars found in a sanctuary near Todi (now in the Gregorian Museum in the Vatican). In the 4th century, some powerful land-owning families had underground tombs built for themselves outside ihe city. Among these, the Golini tombs at Settecamini and the Hescanas tomb aI Porano, decorated with paintings praising the family and filled with
luxurious personal objects (now in thePalazzo dei Papi). This seems to indicate a prevalence of the countryside and of the aristocracy over the city, which must eventually have led to the civil strife mentioned in the sources. This paved the way for the Roman army's conquest of the city in 264 B.C. The inhabitants that survived were moved to a new city and the worship of Vertumnus, common to all Etruscans, was transferred to Rome. The conquering consul, M. Fulvius Flaccus, celebratedthe event offering a group of bronze statues to the sanctuary of Sant'Omobono in Rome, as war booty. The tufa baseswith the commemorative inscriptions have survived.
There is practically no mention of Vot-stNtt in our sources after the Roman conquest. The city only resumed a certain importance in the 6th century A.D. when it 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 of the 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 belongingto the agrarian aristocrac.y(araund the nid-4th centary B.C.). Oruieta, Ciaic Museum. On the /ong side, 'frolan Achil/et sacrtfcestbe prisoners to the Manes af Patroclos;on tbe thort side, Ufyssu sacri/icu a ram before entrance Hades. the to 4). T'ua ceramic amphoras, wih relief decorations shrwing a batt/e rf the AmaTont (early 3rd century B.C.). Oruien, Ciui Museum. Tbh type of uase, produced -first at Vakinii and later at Volsinii Nrni, is eaidence the crntinuity between two towrc. of tbe 14. Arcbitectural tenacatla fron tlte aritoratic residence at Acquarossa, with a hanquel scene(aroand the mid-6th century B.C). Viterbo, Ciuic Museun.
30 The Language and Odgins of the Etruscans
Etruscan language, often mistaktnly considered the most mysterious aspect of the so-called "Etruscan mysrcry," is in fact only partially undlrstood. This does not mean that Etruscan inscriptions are not legible and, in the vast maiority of cases,perfectly understandable. It means that it is a language which has not come down to us through a manuscript tradition, and is therefore known almost exclusively from epigraphs, most of which are frrnerary inscriptions offering only a restricted and repetitive range of informat10n. So far as we know, Etruscan is not an Indo-European language; it has phonetic and morphological connections with the language documented at Lemnos by an inscription dating from the late 6th century B.C. It would seem likely that Etruscan and Lemnian are the last relics of an ancient language common to the whole Mediterranean reglon. Modern research makes no use of etymological methods, based on the comparison of Etruscan with other known languages. It studies the language on the basis ofinternal evidence provided by the texts themselves, and 'Ihe
has obtained remarkable results in the understanding of the onomatological formulas, now perFectly clear. of many grammatical structures and of some syntacticalcon st ructions. What we have said so far implies a clear distinction between the conceot oF language and the concepr of alphabet, which consists only in a system of slgns expressing the language itself. The Etruscan alphabet presents no problem; it is perfectly readable, for it is basically simply tne Greek alphabet brought over by the Euboean colonizers, with a few adjustments. It began
to be used in the early 7th century and, srnce lt was an lnstrument of trade, at first it was used only by the aristocracy. Later, with the birth of urban communities, writing v/as taught in the temples, such as the Portonaccio temple at Veii, and began to be used to record public events (see the lamina of Pyrgi), lists of magistrates, and so on. At the same time, the practice of writing spread, until in ttre Znd century in the territory of Chiusi and perugia even the cinerary urns oF slaves and freed men were normallv inscribecl with the names of the deceased.
"problem" The of the origins of the Etruscans is in fact a false problem. inv e n t e d b y l g t h - c e n t u r y h i s t o r i a n si n spired by the myth of nationalism. Ancient historians had akeady pointed to the origins of the Etruscans. According to Herodotus, the Greek 5thcentury B.C. historian, they came from Lydia before the Trojan war (13th century B.C.); according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived at the time of Augustus, the Etruscans had always been in Etruria. These two theories have given rise to two different schools of thought: on the one hand there are those who see the Etruscan "()riental" style as evidence of their Oriental origin, on the other those who consider the isolation of the Etruscan language proof of the existence of this people in the region before the migration of all other populations. Another trend of modern scholarship has advanced the theory that the Etruscans came from the north, producing as evidence the similarity of the Villanovan culture to that of the "urn northern fields." Faced with these three different hypotheses, none of them without contradictions, in 1947
N{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"place tion from the point of view of the ancients did. On the of origin," as contrary, we must study civilizations "formation" and look to in terms of the historical develoPment of the Etruscans.
I. Iuarl tablet showingthe Creek alpltabet, lron rigbt to:left (fron the Circolo dqq/i luori at Marsiliana d'Albegna, 6 5 0 - 6 2 5 rtl B.C.). The lablet waspart of the callection personal abjecfifoand in a tomb; it indicates that writing in this perind was the prerogatiue af the aristacrac-y. II-IV. Gold /aminasfrom the sanctuarl'al Plrgi; the first to the left has a Phoeniciatt inscription, the atber tul are in Etruscan (late 6th centuryB.C.). Rone, Villa Ciu/ia. Tbe inscriptions record that the king rtl Caere, Thefarie Velianas, dedicated T'ent ple B to thegaddessUni V. Inscribed boandarl, stone, recarding the (tgreemefilbetween the Ve/thina and A"funa reached after a terrilaria/ dispate .faniliu (fron the area around Peragia, eari 2d Mu ,:::;? u, ) Pertgia, Archaealogical
L/1. Lead laminafram Maglianrt (5th-6//r centar-l B.C.). F/orence, Archaeologica/ Museun. The inscription is spira/-sbaped and couersboth tides; lhe crtntent is rather bat abscare, sinceit recordstbe narnesttfdeihauebeena deuotionalobject. ties it ma-1'
placed Falerii (civita castellana), was founded on rhe shores of Lake Bolsena in 264 B.c. The new colony hacl control over such important communrcation r o u t e sa s t h e V i a C a s s i a n d t h e n e w V i a T r a i a n a a n d t h i i a c c o u n l sf o r i r s s t a t u s . a 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 the forum and the theatre (the latter was cliscoveied only thanks to aerial photographs). Among the consrructions dating from the F'lavian period we -uri -.nt i o n t h e a m p h i r h e a t r e n d a n e w l o r u m ( p a v e d w i r h m a r b l c s l a h s ) , n c lt h e b a s i l i a a c a t h a t o p e n e do n t o i t . T h i s b a s i l i c aw a s t r a n s f o r m e t li n r o a C h r i s t i a nc h u r c h i n the 4th century A.D. and remains of catacombs (4th-5th centuries) have also been found. This indicates that, unlike other towns of Etruria, volsinii Novi did not 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 cJrtury B.C.), are most interesting: each one has its own small sanctuary dedicatecl to Dionysus, which shows how widely spread the cult of the mysteriis and their rites was_ even in private homes. f'hese small places of worship were destroyed around the second half of the 2nd century A.D., after the Roman senate hacl banned thc celebrationoFBacchanalia t8'6 B.C-. in
Tbe Lower Pa/aeoJithic represented tbe regionof ctttust onfi b1 o bxfnis in ci/ inplenent at Montepalciano; tbe Middle Palaeolitbic, fu finds in tbe crotta di Gosto and in tbe Grotta Lattaia and Grotta San Francesco on Mount cetona (ArcbaeologicalMuseum, Perugia). Tbe Neo/itbir period is we// represented a// its stages: uillage of Pienza with pottery-with inin tbe pressedpatterns, tbe Grotta dell'orso at Sarteanowitb incised line potterl (ArcbaeologicalMuseum, Florence),tbe Grotta Lattaia with pottery il rnrioustraditions (ArcbaeologicalMuseum,Peragia). Euidenceof the Aeneolitltic period isfound in a// tbe aboae-mentioned grottoesand in the Baca del Rospo at cetona (Antiquariam, cetona) and at spedalettonear pienza (ArcbaiologicalMuseam,Florence).Thefndsfrom the BronzeAge are uerl abandant, especiafuin tbe Grotta dell'orso at Sarteano and in thegrottoesof Beluerdeat cetona, wberethereare remainsof nnbs,firep/aces, wbeatstorage, be/onging to a1/tbe dffirent stagu of tbe BronTeAge (Arcltaeo/ogicalMasean, peiagia). on top of Mount Cetonaand at casa carletti there are two fortified oiotiV i //anoaan /emenls. setl Tbe Lower and Middle Palaeolitbicare represented the territory of pt:,in t bfaci a/ i mp/ ement s and Mo ast er i in sbar dsfou ntl oro* d-pirogi a, \u f !fut Lake Trasimenoand Norcia; tbe upper Palaeolitlticb1sltardsfoand near perugia and b1 tbe small stone statueknown as the "Trasimeno Venus." The Neo/ithicperiod is represented b1 the Norcia hut (Archaeo/ogim/ on/1 , Musearn,Peragia). For tbe Aeneolitbic, weltaaethe ditcb tombfrom Marsciano (Ciuic Maseum, Bologna). Bronze Age remains are /nrre abundant, includlng tbe proto-villan,aan necr,polisesof Monteleonedi Spoleto(Archaeological Maseam, Florence) and Panicarola, and tbe oblecti in gold and bronTe m Gaa/ do T adi no ( Ar cb o/ ogi / M aseam, perugia ae ca fro ). In the territory of crilust, broadly speakingbetween I-ake Trasimeno and N{ount Amiata, from the Villanovan period through ro the 7th century the population was scattered and did not tenJto form urban-typecommunities (Chiusi, Chianciano,Sarteano, Cetona, Castelluccio di Pienza, castiglione del Lago, Dolciano). The buriars were individual, in shafts and in biconical ossuaries, and later (7th
(.hiusiand Perugia
century) in anthropomorphic jars and ossuaries(canopic urns); the rituals did not change and there is no sign of inhumation or aristocratic differentiation (objects in the museums of Chiusi, Siena and Florence). All this indicates an economy and a social organtzation basedentirely on agricultural activity-considerably backriard compared to the developments of southern Etruria. It is only at the end of the 7th century that we find the first chamber tombs with multiple graves; they are placed around the future centre and are thus evidence of a rising aristocracy moving towards urban organization. The personal objects found in them are frequently lavish: bronze ossuariesplaced on thrones (seethe example from Dolciano in the Museum at Chiusi, with the head of the canopic urn, which may not be related to it), Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics and luxury items imported from southern Etruria (see,for example, the ivory pyx from the Panra, now in Florence). From the first half of the 6th century onwards, the local artistic market is more and more dominated by importations, such as the famous Frangois krater, commissioned from the Attic oainter Kleitias and oainted around 550 B.C. (ArchaeologicalMuseum, Florence),and by the advent of craftsmen from southern Etruria, such as the ones from Vulci who manufactured stone funerary statues(sphinxes,lions, female figures, in the museums of Chiusi and Florence). By the second half of the century, Chiusi experiencedall the typical phenomenathat accompany the growth of acity, from the development of craftsmanship to the military control of the countryside, and the abandoning of the scattered small communities (such as Dolciano, Sarteano, Cetona). The first to be abandoned was the aristocratic citadel of MuRLo, in the upper valley of the Ombrone, on the border between Chiusi's territory and that of Rusellae.Here, the recent American excavation has brought to light a square-planbuilding with an inner courtyard, decorated with splendid architectural terracottas (PalazzoPubblico, Siena).The building had been intentionally abandonedin 525, at the sametime as the birth of the city and the rise to power of ICng Porsenna,who first began Chiusi's expansionist policy. Chiusi also must have taken part in the foundation of Marzabotto, since some distinctive graphic symbols are used only in these two towns. By the sec-
45. Stanecinerarl, urn, witb a re/ief duora tion sbawing a banquet scene(rant Chiusi, 520-500 B.C.). Flarence, Archan/ogiml Mavam. 46. Incised /ine ceramir (t*, del|Orso at Sarteano, Nn/ttlti). A rcba o/ogi / M useun. e ca Crrtta Florence,
(fron Cntta 47. Appennine caltare ceramics de/l'Orsa at .larteana,Bntnw Age) Phtrence, Archaeo/ogical Masean. 18. Row/s (front Antro del/a Nace,Celona, Brrnzr lqe). Fhtrence,Archaealqqica/,\4a
(ihiusi and Pcrugia
19. il[ur/0, excauations of tbe aristocratic ai/la (aroand5 80 B.C.). 10. Canopic nrn .from the Mie/i .leruadio n//ectirn (f., Castellaccio di Pienza). (biusi, Nationa/ Muteum. As ofen bapin .pened Chiasi in the 19th centary,tbis urn uds pill togelber using objats that bear no re/atnnship to each other: a bronzr ossuary (ud of the 7th century), a terracotta head (*d ,,.f tbe 6tlt nntary) and a terracotta lbrrtne.
ond half of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th centuries the local artistic to _productionap,pears be well-organized in workshops and, except fo^r painted tombs done by craftsmen from Tarquinia lttre the Tomb of the Monkey is open to the public), consists in canopic urns, heavy bucchero and above all local stone funerary monuments (inscribed stones, sarcophagi,urns) decorated with banquet scenes, dancesand ceremoniesrelated to the funeral ritual. After the end of the 6th century the tradition of the canopic urns was.replacedby local stone sculptedash urns, influenced by Greek art in its various stages:from the Ionic to the classical (see the famous "Mater Matuta" and the two sarcophagus lids with a couple at a banquet in the Archaeological Museurnin Florence). The prosperity of the city, which derived both from the control over the chiana valley and from agricultural activities (see, for e.xanlplet the legend of Arruns who went to sell wine, oil and figs to the Gauls) continued in the 4th century, in the Hellenistic p.rioa and through the whole of the 2nd century-and was accompanied by a remarkable artistic production. In the first half of the 4th century a tradition of red-figure ceramic was set up; from the end of the century onwards, specialized craftsmen began to create sarcophagi and urns with relief decorations in pure Hellenistic style (museums of Florence, chiusi and Siena). An interesting example of this style is the tomb of Pellegrina (open ro the public), which also offers an insight into the organization of the aristocracy. In the 2nd century, probably as a result of the revolts of 196 B.c., large numbers of slaveswere set free and were qranted small plots of land. New famlly names began to appear and, in the territory around Chiusi, the small countryside underground tombs were filled with little terracorta urns, made from -orrldr and decorated with scenesrelated to peasantbeliefs. The territory of Pp,RuctA, broadly speakingbetween rhe eastern shore of Lake Trasimeno and the Tibir, developed more or less along the same lines as that of chiusi. \we know very little of the
(-hiusi and Perugia
51. Sculpted stonegroup, with the deceased sbwn rulining at a banqaetnext to a female denon (Lasa) anrolling tbe scroll of his du ttry Qnd of the 5th century B.C.). Florence, ArchaeologtcalMuseum. Tbe srulptare shows how dorej the workshapsin Chiusi were in contact with dassicalGreek sjhs.
Villanovan period and of the 7th century. By the second half of the 6th century'-e harr. evidence of poweifnl aristocratic strongholds in the countryside, documented by the finds at San Valentino (now in Munich) and Castel San Mariano (partly in Munich, Partly in Perugia). These aristocrats commissioned the bronze decorations for their carts and other prestige items from the workshops of Chiusi and Orvieto, as well as from southern Etruria. The chamber tombs, dating from about 500 B.C., of the Palazzonenecropolis (an Antiquarium there is open to the public) and the use of writing indicate the birth of an urban organizztion, which teveals its cultural debt to Chiusi 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 manner of Phidias,now in Leningrad, indicates a growing prosperity. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries an even greater degree of prosperity is shown by the construction of the city walls (Porta Mania and Porta di Augusto) and by the growth of the necropolises.The tombs are mainly formed by several chambers, each containing many little urns, pro-
52. Peragia, Palanone necropolis,Tonb of the Vo/amni, centra/ chamberwith tbe arns of the membersof the fani\. At the centre, tbe urn of the founder Arnth Velinna (sennd half of the 3rd centuryB.C.); to tbefar left the urn of P. Volumnias (Aagastan period), showingthat the tomb was re-used af by a distant descendant the originalfanii. 53-54. Peragia, the cil gates dedicatedto Aagastus and Mars (3rd-2nd centurl gates were origina/i built B.C.). Both these b1' the Etrucans and later nodifed by the Romans.
36 The Banquet in Etruria
ln Etruscan artistic production the theme of the banquet reappears constantly: vrhat is its meaning, what is the ideology behind these representations. in all their different contexts? The earliest representation of a banquet in Etruscan art is the one on the Montescudaio, c1.rera.y urn from 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 believed to be present. Towards the middle of the 6th century, it became the custom in Greece to take part in banquets lying on beds, surrounded bY music and dance; this practice, common only to the dlite, was considered a sign of prestige. The scenes on the architectural reliefs found at Murlo and Acquarossa are of this kind, and the banouet takes on the function of selfportiayal 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 record the moment in which the rePresentativesof the aristocracywere united around the deceased in the cerimonial feast, thus stressing their solidity and oower. From the late 5th century onwards, this kind of banquet is sometimes 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 aristocratic and the eschascen-the tological. The latter meaning is particularly obvious in the figures ofthe deceased,especiallyin 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 normally associated with heroes, fzr rc' moved from the world of the living.
I. Cinerary arn from Montescadaio, detai/ Arof the lid (650-625 B.C.). Florence, is chaeologicalMateam. The deceased portrayd seated on a throne at a banquet, at' tendedto b1 a maidseruant. Il. Frescoshowing a banqaet scene,from tbe Tonb of the Leopards at Tarquinia (first half of the 5th cmtury B.C.). III. Reconstructionof a banqaet. Tbe drauing shows uarioas e/ements taken from Etruscan porlralals of banquets.ln a lauish and splendid room, tbe participants lie (in the caseof the nen) or sit (in the caseof the women) on coachet,whi/e a nusician play theflute.
Ohiusi and Perugia
duced locally in Hellenistic style (many examples in the museum). Exceptional in this sphere are the tomb of the Volumni (Velinna, in Etruscan), in which six splendid 3rd-century urns and one from the Augustan period have been preserved (on view in the Palazzone necropolis), and the recently discovered tomb of the Cae Cuta, with the sarcophagus of the founder (second half of 3rd century) and the urns of the other members of the family down to the 1st centuBy this time the countryside was charactenzed by numerous settlements, indicating intensive cultivation of the land. An inscribed stone from the 2nd century, found at Pian Castagneto (now in the Archaeological Museum, Perugia), records the agreement between the Velthina family and the Afana family regarding a border controthe valley of Sanguineto versy. Also from the countryside-from near Lake Trasimeno or from Pila, southwest of Perugia-is the famous bronze statue known as The Orator (Archaeological Museum, Florence, seep. 13). The inscription tells us that this is a donation to a sanctuary by Aule Meteli (Aulus Metellus), dating from around the end of the 2nd century, just before the Etruscans, like the rest of the Italic peoples,were granted Roman citizenship. After the last great battle between Romans and Etruscans at Sentinum in 295 B.C., CnruSI fell under Roman domination. In the 2nd century the city witnessed a revolt of the serfs (which involved Arezzo as well). It appears that during the 1st century Sulla granted his civil war veterans land around the city. From then on, the inhabitants (old inhabitants) and Clusini noui were divided between Clusini aeteres (the new colonizers). We know very little of the life of the city during the imperial period. Some buildings dating from the Roman
55. Jugs fron tombs around Chiasi (first balf of tlte 7th century). Chiasi, Archaeological Maseum. 56-59. Earj medieua/ objuts fron the Arcisa necropolis. Cbiasi, Arcbaeologica/ Museum. Co/d "rocette" or tma// crotses (56); sbield stads (57); sword and spearhead (58); si/uerfibala in the second st1le
period have been found under the cathedrar (a rarge cistern with several aisles still exists under the bell tower); som"e inscriptions and sculptures are preserved in the local museum. The pr...n.. of the christian catacombs at San Mustiola and Santa c"t r'n^, on the outskirts of. th9 city, wourd seem to indicate that the .ity -r, fairry important in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. As early as the 2nd century B.c., in the territory of chiusi and . that of. Perugia the number of country settlements had increased probably because the slaves had been freed. unlike southern Etruria, where the countryside was divided into large t^.ra.J.rtrtes based on slave labour, here the serfs had been fr""r.J ir..dom and land after the great revolts they had led. Since PgRuGrA had sided with Antony in the civil war, in 40 was conquered and sackedby the victorious octavian (be//un P.c. * Perusinum).Augustus granted the city privileges and promoted her reconstruction: the Portl di Augusto dates fr6m this iime although the inscriFtions were added late-r.one of these i"r.riprio^ recalls that the.city was granted ius coloniae (colonial rights) ,r.ri., ir.b..riunus Gallus (mid 3rd cenrury A.D.), a privirege" thit at the time was only nominal and probably due to the^fact thTt it was the emperor,s birthplace.
Cutust lay on the old Cassian Way and was the searof a diocese earlyasthe 4th as century' It becameLongobard later than the cities further "".rt,, ,i*.'rt was fairly close to the boundary with_the Byzantines,who had o..rrpi.i p;;;gr" and the islandson Lake Trasimeno.we stili know very lrttle abo,-,i-t'r,e;;; the early Yig$. Ages, or about .the countryside where the traces of th. o...rputro' u.. visible primarily t:. lavish tombs, among which the one rhat was excavated lk. between1913 and 7914at Arcisa. In 1933olh., to-b, cameto 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;;;. objects found at Arcisa, and now visibre in the museum, we must mention: jeweilery decorationsfor belts (8th century), gold crosse spatbae s, (swords) *d ,hi.rdr, ^ splendid fibula with a decoration-con*sisting a human of n.ua ..r.ro,..rded by animal heads.Someof the tombs aiso contai[ed pottery: late classical impasto red jugs,confirming the absence purely Longobard of artisticproa,r.tio.,r.-
TbeLowerPalaeolith\is ,t{!t*tt4fui bfacial inplenentsfound in tbeua//e1 oftlteArno; theMiddle *i,uppo niotihthi, ori dotorrirri ol,roriousremainsof nmmunitiu; wortblt-ofnoteis trte skullfoand d oi;;-(,,cranio de//'o/no") last centary, casts whicrt n,u to ie seen tbeArcbanlogt of are in Musean of Are72o,tbe Prebistorical Museumof Florence the Arand 1/ cbaeologtcal Museumof pyugia. TrteNeolitrtic periid is docunenied b1 onj axesandadwsin dressed stonefound trtesuface;tbeAeneolitiic,b1, on ior6, of the Rinaldone cultureat M)rciano della cblaia *a "t n"ii,1otn qr_ chaeological Museum, 47ezz0). Tbefinds duumenting BronzeAge are tbe ,:ry.tr, an,ng then tle two swordi Frassinei and Terontola(Ar_ from cbaeogi / Muse m,Arezzo). ol ca u Bfacial implements beey ttalte foynd at Montelupo in thepesaua//e1; and -Moysj3rian nme.from, Muge//0. trti shardi docunenting-riluiaan lbjects and upper Palaeolitbic ltaul pran, Trqlii-)nd in tbe leenfouni at Fucenbio, Pesa ualleyFindsfron tbe Neo/i/bicperiod ueryfew; Ae1eolitbic are tie is re_
.\rczzo. Fiesolc ancl Florencc
'the terracottaframe of the pedinent r'tf 60. a tenple (from zXrezzo,piazza San Jacoprt, aroand 480 B.C.). Arezzo, Archaealrgical 'the relief decnratirtt shous batt/e I:;::., 61. Fiesole,Etrascan tenple. In tlte.foreground, 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 B.C. centurT 62. puinta Fiorentino, Mala tho/os lortb, lhe interior looking towards tlte entrance (6 i0-600 B.C.). Thefalseuau/t is created b1, rows of prrgressiuefy prajecting stotte s/abs.
pruented b1 a tonb at Montespertoli and b1 renains found on tbe sufan. Findsfron the Appennine culture come from Dicomano;tbe sab-Appennine cultareis represented thefinds at Fiesoh and tbe threehuts of Stabbia(Arfu Museum and PrehistoricalMaseum,Florence). chaeological The towns of northern inland Etruria, between Cortona and Fiesole, along the Arno and Chiana valleys, all experienced a similar development at the time of the Etruscans. They were all on the major 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 "melons" at Sodo and at Cortona by lavish tombs, such as the two "Oriental" style objects. These Camucia containing remarkable tombs were used between the end of the 7th and the 4th centuries and indicate the presenceof aristocraciesin the countryside, pfactising 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
Arezzo, Fiesole and Florence
Axazzo. Ar9"g the earriestevidenceare the first city walls (some parts are still intact), a necropolis of ditch tombs (poggio al bole), and somesanctuaries documentedeither by architectuffterracottas (suchas the slab ftomPiaz-za. SanJacopo, now in the Archaeological Museum) or by votive offerings iuch^asthe one from Fonte veneof small bronze male and female figures (Archaeo3ia1agglsisting logical Museum, Florence;other similar ones in Arlzzo\. in the 4th century Arezzo witnessed rebellions by the serfs: the first one, around the middle.of was quelled by Aulus Spurinna; the _century, the second,in 302,by theRoman army.During this period i+rrr-:ri century) the prosperity of the city is docomerrledby a few, bot re_ markable, buildings, such as the masonry walls (partly stiil standing); amongthe artifactsdating from this period "i. ^i"y coins and the famous bronze statue of ihe chimaen, probably produced in Arezzo where there were metallurgicalworkshopr. A-o.rg the obiectsdating_fromthe 2nd century aie the Hellenistic stylete?racottas found at Catona (Archaeologiial Museum, Florence) and at the the .t"l_.!""ry of Castelsecco,.rlear city, which consisied of many 63. Arezzo,Roman ampbiteatre cen- buildings,including a smalltheatre. (|st tur1A.D.). _ There is very little evidence from the villanovan and archaic oriental-periods in the territory of Fmsole ^p^rt fuom somefrag"Aretini" 64-65. Two examphsof aases ments of pottery in the museum in Fiesole uid ^ few finds in the (1st centuryB.C.-lst antury A.D.). centre of Florence. In the 7th-6th centuriesthe most characteristic A rezRo, rcbaeologi/ M ase m. A ca u aspectof this areaatethe grand tombs, like the tsro tboloiat Fiorentino (Montagnola andMula, both open to the pubric),euinto the tumulus of Montefortini and the tomb of tihe Boschetii at Comeana (near Artimino; some.of the objects are in the Antiquarium of the Y.d:i villa), containing artifacts in gold and ivory, mostly pro_ ducedin southernEtruria. Theseu.. tf,. tombs of thl local .robitity who controlled the road to Manabotto and Bologna along th! valley of the Reno. Until quite late the population u#d in scattered settlements,if we are to believethe evidenceoffered by the typical
\rezzr', I iesnlc .tn(l Florcncc
local stone funerary stelesdecorated in Ionic style with warriors or with banquet and dance scenes(museums in Florence and Fiesole) and the little bronzes from the small sanctuariesof the area (excellent examplesin the local museum). Fiesole became an urban community in the Hellenistic period, when the walls (3rd century, in part still standing) and a temple consisting of a cella and alaewere 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 contributed an enormous number of bronze weaPons towards Scipio's campaign in Africa in 205 B.C.-a sure sign of its economic prosperity. At the time of Sulla the city became a colony: the new into habitants were called Fidentiores distinguish them from the old ones' Later, at the time of Caesar,more colonizers settled Arretini aeleres. With the increase of population, here: they were called Iulienses. outside the city walls; the most recent set of walls, Arezzo spread dating from the 4th-3rd century, was built in half-baked bricks. Another element that favoured Arezzo's prosperitv was the construction of the CassianWay (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 covered by a thick layer of coral-red glossy paint. These glasses, "zretim," were extremely sought aftet and reachedeven vases,called the furthest outposts of the Roman empire. This industry continued to prosper until the middle of the 1st century A.D. when many other Italian centresstartedproducing similar wares and the comPetition of other orovincial manufacturerscontributed to its decline.
6 6. Fieso/e, Ratnan theatre ( 1st cenlary
A.D.). 67. I:iesrtle,rains of the Rantan balhs (1sl centur1,A.D.). 68. T'ba Rortan city of [:/orence,aitb the "rcnturies" and sarrottndin.qdiuisinn into the Rontanroads.
42 Religion and Divination
.,\s early as the Middle Palaeolithic, funeral rites presuppose a continuation of life after death (tools and food offerings in the tombs). The objects found in tombs dating from the Upper palaeolithic prove that there must have been a belief in a very complex spiritual world, about which we know little. The Neolithic agricuitural economy v/as tied to fertility rites and cults of the changing seasons; evidence of these lies in the holes in grortoes cont a i n i n g o F f e r i n g s ,w h i c h l l s o m a y b e connected to funeral rites and spirits of the underworld, and in srone circles with human remains, vases and other precious objects. There is also evidence of the worship of water deities. Similar rites continued throughout the metal ages,and in some cases-the same site was used continually from the Neolithic to classical times. Mesalithic monuments and stele statues, fo-und in Europe and in the western Mediterra-
were founded along the two axes. This system of division was used everywhere, down to the animal liver which According to the Roman historian was the most common, but not the Lir,y, the Etruscans \yere a people paronly, instrument used for divining, or ticularly given over to religious worinterpreting the will of the gods. We ship, for they excelled in its practice. know of this from several figurative Latin writers, such as Cicero ^nd S.rr.representations and from the small ca, reca\l that the Etruscans used a se_ bronze model of a liver (late 2nd cenries of written doctrines, both reliqious tury B.C.) now in Piacenza. The outer and civil (Libri fu/garaks, harutpirini, ripart is divided into sixteen parts, and taales). The revelation o[ these texts each one is inscribed with the name of was ascribed to the boy Tages, mira god. The science of divination was aculously born out of a furrow in the practised exclusively by the baraspices countryside near Tarquinia. The foun(in Etruscan, netsuis), who formed an dation of all doctrine (tn Latin, disciaristocratic caste and wore soecial p/ina) was the division of the heavens clothing. They were honoured and reinto sixteen regions, the dwellings of spected even in Rome, from the 4th the gods; to rhe easr the favouiable B.C. until the late classicalperones, to the west the unfavourable. ;,ff.,".t This division, based on the two axes east-west and north-south, determined The Etrusca disciplina was the aspect of the allocation of any space that was to religion in which the Romans felt most be used for either ,^.."d o. civil pracstrongly the influence of the Etrustlces, starting from the cities, which cans. It is thanks to the fact that the
nean region, are evidence of even more complex cults.
II Romans adooted this ritual that it has come down to us. According to Varro, the ritual surroundins the foundation of Rome was based on the ritual of the foundation of Etruscan cities. Ancl during the Punic wars Rome made use of haruspicesbrought in from Etruria (in fact there were no haraspices among the Roman high priests). During the 2nd century B.C., perhaps after the discovery of impostors, the Roman Senate decreed that there should be a fixed number of people authorized to practise divination: it is possibly at this time that the college of the sixty haruspiceswas instituted in Tarquinia. Under Emperor Claudius the discipline of divination was included amons the branches of the official Roman religlon.
I. Recanstruction af a diuinatian cereTtlzn-y. The drawing e/aborating ancientportra-yals, recznstract:a scene which the haruspex, in in a ritaa/ pase and with spetia/ c/othing interprets an anima/ liuer beJitre attentiue an aadience, conscioasof the solennity of tl:e teremon-)t. II. The urn af Atle Lecu (ear/1, 1st century 'fhe B.C.). Volterra, Gaarnacci Museam. dercayd is portra.yed as an haruspex, readingthe omens an anima/ /iuer. of
IV III. Reuerseside of a bronze ntinor showing the n-ythical seer Calchas dressed as an haruspex exaruining an aninta/ /iuer (frant Valci, ear/y 4tb century B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian H,trascanMaseam. /iuer (frant IV. Bronze nodel of a sbeep's /ate 2nd-ear/1 1st Decima di Cosso/enga, centary B.C). PiacenTt, Ciair Museunt. Nanes of deities are inscribed in tbe dffirent shapedsabdiuisians.
69. Co/d thread uyd fnr brocade (fron Are7lo,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 inFormation about the characteristics this industry. of There are m^ny important remains of the Roman Arezzo. The basic plan of the town appearsto dare from the time of caesar. An exact copy of the Elogia in the Forum of Augustus in Rome has been found in the forum, near the cathedral. R,iins of the amphitheatre and of the foundations of the rhearre are visible. The Archaeological Nluseum stands on the site of the amphitheatre and housesa marvellous collectionof "aretini" vases. In the course of the 2nd century A.D. the city suffered a pronounced decline, p^rtly a result of the waninq ceramicsindustrv ancl Daftly becausethe cassian way had been morred further "-"y frothe city centre. During the civil war, FIEST)I-E sided with Marius; at the end of _ the war, the victorious Sulla reacted by founding a colony there. A fire' probably at the time of the civil war, destioyed the Etruscan temple which was reconstruced at the time of Suila with the addition of a portico with columns and steps. A roacrconnects the temple and the theatre, which. was parrly dug out of the hillside; nearby there are baths built at the time of Arrgustus. The rocar museum houses a good collection of Roman mar;ials. The deveropment of Florencein the 1st century A.D. led to Fiesole's rapicldecline. when, at the time of caesar, Ft-,Rpxcu (F/r,reitia\ becamea Roman colony, ir was given a regular plan, built around cardines (streets running north-south) and decumani (streets running east-wesi). The intersection of these streetsgave rise to brocks of rTaryingsizes.Archaeological research has shown that the forum -.ni hrr.. been at the centre of the city; several pubtic builclings were built along its sides, such as the capitoliun. Some areaswithin the walls remained for a long time without buildings but, by the 1st century A.D., the town had spread even outside rhe wails, especiallyro th; sourh. rowards the Arno. At the same_rime, many .r.- p.rbri. buildings were built: baths in the area behind the capiti/iun, inrl a thearre. Ii seems that to build the theatrepart of the wails haclto be clemolishec-I.
\rezzo, []iesole ancl lrlorencc
Like other towns of northern Etruria-but in contrast to those further south-it seemsthat Florence survived as a city until quite late. During the 2nd century the forum was enlarged and paved with marble slabs; new baths, a temple to Isis and an amphitheatre were built outside the walls. Still fairly prosperous in the 3rd and 4th centuries, Florence underwent further transformations and became the capital of Tusciaet Umbria at the time of Diocletian (297 A.D.). By the 4th century the city had spread to the north as far as Ptazza San Lorenzo, where, at the end of the century, St Ambrose consecrated a Christian basilica. To the south. the citv had reached the Arno.
At the time of the I-ongobards, the diocese of Ap,l'zzct ruled over an enormous area, 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 the events of the first three centuries of the early N'Iiddle Ages or the characteristics of the region, except along very general lines. The most valuable element available to modern researchers is the network of churches, which, however, have no fragments of sculpture dating from the first phase of I-ongobard domination. There are some materials from the Longobard period in the Nledieval and NIodern 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 the most inieresting materiais come from the excavations on the site of the old cathedral, on the Pionta hill (razed to the grouncl by the Nledici in 1561): in the tomb of a small girl there were, as well as the gold thread from the brocade veil, a pair of gold earrings with pendants with regular settings-green glass paste and amethyst drops-in a late Roman style very popular among the Byzantines and adopted also by the I-ongobards (first half of the 7th century; there are other examples in the Archaeological Nluseum of Grosseto and in that of Florence, founcl at SantaCristina near Bolsena) Among the few examples of earlv medieval architecture in Tuscany, the only one that seemsto have kept its original characteristics is the little temple of Santo Stefano in the plain of ANc;t tt,tRt. Today it is in the diocese of Arezzo, but it was originally in that of Citti di Castello, a city that probably grew up around a Byzantine fortification and later developed into a l-ongobard outpost. The builcling is 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 a vestibule. The church, which probably dates from the 7th century, is connected to the civilization of Ravenna. It has also been suggested that it represents the theological 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-ttwas a Byzantine stronghold and was besieged by Totila. During the l-ongobard occupation, together with eastern Tuscany, frlorence was part of a region whose main centres were l,ucca and the new Via Francigena, for neighbouring Romagna was still dom-
fl '11
75 7r---=|
U n
71. Co/d eanings (fron .lanta Cristina near Bo/sena, frtt ha/f of the 7th rentary). F/arence,Arcltaeo/r4i ca/ M useu m. 72. Angbiari, tenp/e af Santo.ltefano(7th centur.y ). 7i. F/orence,the apse of tbe charch of .lanta Reparata. 74. l/nrence,.fragntents of the mosaic.flaarof tlte origina/ churcb ofSanta Reparata (6th cenlury ). 7 5. Cround-p/an of the ear/y Christian church of .lanta Reparata. 76. Croand-plan of tbe pre-Romanesqae and Romanesquechurch af Santa Reparata.
\rezzo, I;iesolc and Florenct
inated by the Byzantines. Under the Fra.nks, the city became the seat of a county; 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 Eiruscan origin: both were the seats of dioceses,but their territ-ories were more or less in_ terwoven. It.was only in 1,125that Frorence definitively asserted its hegemony, destroying what little autonomy Fiesole had left. The excavation of Santa Reparata, under the catheclral of Florence, has provided 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 occuDatron came to an end at the-beginning of the 5th century, when the city was conquered by Radagaisusin 406. The church ofSanta Reparata was founded around the year 500. Even in its name it is evidence o[ rrery close ties with the relision practisedin Ravenna and the Exarchate.Ten panelsof the floor mosaic hrue"rr.vived: they are decorated with quatrefoils, wirh facing lozenges and peltas, surrounded by swastikas, circles and meanders with peac6cks in"the midile. lt is so similar to decorations from the region along the northern Adriatic, that it enables us to date it at the 6th century. \r)7e know ihat the church was in use cluring the 7th 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 addition of two trapeze-shapedt]r1_ets,forming almost a rransept. Ii was probably at ^San this time that the seat of the bishopric was iransferred from 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 of Saint Zenobius" and constituted the only trace in Santa ,\laria del Fio." jf th. earlier cathedral. A third phase, Romanesque, dates from the time of Bishoo Ger a r d o ( m i d - l l t h c e n t u r y ) , w h o c a m e f r o m B u r g u n d y . T h i s p h a s ei l c l o s e l yc o n nected to cluniac architecture. The church was completely- reconstrr.,cted.and the side chapels and small apseswere added as well as pilasterswith transversal arches at the crossing.and a rough marble and stone pavement. The style was basically."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 objects from Longobard necropolises around the thearre, inptazza Mino da Fiesole and villa Marchi, as well as some pottery found in a well in piazza Mtno (1Oth-11thcentury). we know neitherthe size nor the exact location of the earlv medieval settlemenr, although it must have been nearbv and certainly within the Etruscan walls. The tombs, dating from the late 6th and 7th centuries, are built of upright stones, covered in stone slabs: the reconstruction of one such tomb is visible at the entrance to the excavations. The pottery found in them consisted mostly of objects produced locally, but there *.r. ^iro some imporred pieces. such as an AFrican bowl or_a set of bottles very similar to rhose pioduced'in the area of the lower Rhein valley. A particularly interesting collection of personal obiects belonging to a woman includes fragments of gofi brocade and necklace clasps..Among the men's personal objects th.re we.e sfearheads, spatltae (swords) and bejewelled belt buckles and decorations, a techniqueiypical ofLongobaid craftsmanship in Italy. The pottery from the well in piazza Mino, mostlv iable and kitchen goblets, were found in 1879 together with some wooden buckets, on vrew in the same room of the museum. one of these, examined with c14, has enabled us to date the objectsat the 10th-11th centurv.
anfireatro /
77. I,{ecklaceclasps (Jron tonb 21 at Fieso/e, 7tb - 8 tb cen ry ). Fi esol Arcltae ologita e, ca/ Museam. 78. Fragmenx of damascenedbelt decorations (7th-8tb centary).Fiesole, Arcbaeological Museam. 79. The deuelopment the cig of Flarence of up to tbe earj Midd/e Ages.
I l c ' l : t h c R o m . t nc r \ , i ' , l J ( . r . llccl clottccl line: thc maximum expansion cluring thc Roman period (2nd ccntury ,,\.D.; arouncl 10,000 rnhabitants). Creen: the Bvzantine ca:trazt (511-568; around 1,(X)0nhabitants). i l)urple: the Caroiingian u'alls (late 9th centurr'; around 5,000 inhabitants). Yellou': the walls built bv Countcss i\latildc ( 1078; arounci 20,000 inhabitants). L The river \lugnone during the Roman period. II. The river Nlugnonc after its course u'as chan gcd in 107ti - toda\"s Via Tornabuoni.
b1 The Lower Palaeolitbic is represented shardsfoand at Liuorno, b1 Numeroas the lower Arno ualle-y. bifucial implenents around Liaorno and in sarface fnds from the Moasterian period are in tbe area around Liuornrt, at of and in caaes tbe Apuan Alps. The Upper Palaeolitbicis we// Massaciurcoli in documented almosta/l its aspects tbe area around Liuorno, at Massaciurin in the lower ua//e1of tbe Arno and in the Lima ualley Microlithic meson/i, lithic finds come from the passeson the Appennines. The l\eo/ithic period is near Pisa,particulari at tbe Riparo documented inpressed cerarnicsfound b1 LaRomita at Asciano, which hasprouided us witb objectsfron the Neolitbic-represented fu incised line potterl and the cultures of Lagozza and On Diana-througb to the barbarian inaasions. the sand danesnear San Rosrized b1 incisedline pottery characte of slre wehaue found eaidence a settlement otherLagoz2a ca/tare remainswerefoundat and late Lagozza cultare oblects; of Grotta del/'Onda and at Massaciurcoli.The documentation tbe l{eolithic is alsoabundant:tberearefindsfron its earj stage(Ronita, Grotta del Leone, Grotta dell'Onda, San Rossore)andfron /aler periods, characterizedb1 the of local influences the Rinaldone cultare and other northern trends, represented areas (Monte Pisano, in and caues tbe ruounlainous onj fu tombsin creaices the Apaan Alps, Garfagnana,Lunigiana). Thereare alsoelementsfrom bel/witb shapeduasemlture. The Bronze Age is lesswe// represented, just afew finds at Coltano and occasiona/ fragments at Romita, somenon-representatiue at and sbelters Cabbro,Lifragnentsfound in tbeproto-Villanoaangrottoes rnone and Pariana. Also worlhl of mention,in Lunigiana, are the ste/e-statues datingfron a// the aarioas metal ages.(Materials are in tbe Arcbeological in Museum in Florence, the FlorentinePrehistoricalMaseam,at the FaculQ rtf AntbropologJ at Pisa, at tbe Ciuic Museam in Viaregiq at Vil/a Cuinigi in Lucca, at tbe Archaeologica/Museum at Caso/a in Lunigiana and at tbe Malaspina Castle at Pontrenoli). The territory of Pts,t consisted in the stretch of the Arno valley from San N'liniato to the seaand the coastal area from Castiglioncel1oto Serravezzainarchaictimes, to Camaiorefrom the middle of the 3rd century B.C. onwards. I-ike the territory of Fiesole,it was a typical border region, as is proved also by the variability of its northern frontier. The stretch along the coast was clotted with small settlements from the end of the 7th century onwards; thesecommunities prosperedthanks to maritime trade. Among them were Massarosa and the town documented by the warehouse discovered tn Piazza dei Cavalieri in Pisa, where the large number of amphoras is evidence of the importance of this commercial port used by Phocaean merchants.From the 5th century, the connectionsbetween the territory of Pisa and the towns on the other sicleof the Appenninesis documented by ceramics, small bronze statues and typical pearshaped marble inscribed stones resting on square bases decorated with rams'headswhich will soon be on view in the new NluseodelI'Ooera della Primaztale tn Pisa. These finds show the ties between Pisa and Volterra (there are similar objects in the Guarnacci NIuseum in Volterra) and Nlarzabotto and SassoN{arconi. The communication route-along the valley of the Arno, the Serchio and the L,nza-is documented bv manv finds. such as the tombs in the Bien-
l)isa, Lucca and Luni
i: t. l*;r
' _: 1 ' '
80. Lagozzt calture ceramics froru Grotta del Leone, Agnano, I"leolitbi). Pita, Insti/ute rf Antbropa/0g1,. 81. S*le-statues from Lunigiana (neta/ ages).La Spezia, Ciuic Museum.
tina basin (at that time crossed by the river Auser, today calred Serchio) with their Attic gold jewellery and potterf, and the necropolis of Ponte a Moriano (first half of the 3rd ientury) with its many referencesto the aristocratic family Perma,also found at Spina (seethe items now in Villa Guinigi in Lucca). We know very little of the development of pisa. From around the middle of the 3rd century B.C., it became a Roman stronghold against the Gauls and the Ligurians, who were beginning to move southward, and against Hannibal. The strong pfesence of the Rom^n atmy in the area led to the foundation of Lucca in the territory of 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 in Pisa, by the tombs of Fonte vivo (on the site of the town hall of San Miniato) and by the pre-Roman ruins under the baptistry of Lucca. Here, as well as the kelebai(black ceramics of Volterran origin), archaeologistshave also found imported objects. particularly worthy of mention are two female statues in marble (end of the 3rd century), one from Pisa (new Museo dell'Opera della primaziale) and the other from San Miniato (Archaeological Museum in Florence), comparable to the volterran sculpture of the time. After the foundation of Luni, it appearsthat Pisa lost importance as a port, while the small port of castiglioncello developed and flourish.d fo. the whole of the 2nd century (tombs in the Archaeological Museum in Florence ). Is-was only under Augustus that LuccA was included in the region of Etruria and its territory was divided into "centuries.,' Lucca-had previously been a fairly important centre because of its position along the communication routes, and it remained one under the Romans. In 56 B.C. it was in Lucca that Caesar,pompey and Crassus met to renew their agreement(First Triumvirate). The city was surrounded by walls (some parts are still visible at
l)isa, I-ucca and l-uni
82. Lacm, ruins of the Roman wa/lt in the charch of .lanta Maria della Rosa. 83. Base af a narb/e cippas, decoratedwith rams' heads (fron the area aroand Pisa, ear/y 5th centurl B.C.). Pisa, Masea de//'( )1teradd/a Prinazia/t.
Santa Maria della Rosa) and laid out according to a regriar plan rather like those of military camps (castra).During the late imperial age, the walls were provided with watchtowers. Within the walls there was a theatre (ruins near Sant'Agostino), while outside there was an amphitheatre,later incorporated into some medieval buildings that maintained, however, its circular shape. The arca of the arena is today the Piazza del Mercato. Objects found in Lucca and surroundings are in the Villa Guinigi Museum. The port of LUNI (Luna was the pre-Roman name) overlooks the gulf of La Spezia.It must have been important, active and accessible to the Romans even before the founding of the colony (177 B.C.). It was 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 Etrurizand marked its northern boundary. It was probably at the time of the founding of the colony that the town was given its regular plan, with the usual grid of streets intersecting at right angles. The area where the forum was built must have been a public space even before; two temples, dating from the very first years of the colony, stood there (the architectural terracottas which decorated them are in the Archaeological Museum in Florence). On a slightly higher level and facing in a different direction, there was the Capitoliun) a tripartite temple dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) built later than the first two temples. The Via Aenilia Scauriseparatesthe CaPitzlian from the forum. At that stage it was the continuation of the Via Aurelia, and will be called that after the 3rd century A.D. In recent years, systematic excavations have taken place in Luni, bringing to light many buildings including some private houses,many of which arc yery large and have mosaic floors. The walls were built partly in concrete, p^rtly in large blocks of local stone. Both Rutilius Namatianus at the beginning of the 5th century A.D. and Ciriaco of Ancona in the 15th mentioned the existence of marble walls, but they probably mistook the ruins of some other building for the city
50 Agriculture and the Agrarian landscape
The earliest agricultural activity is documented by palaeobotanical remains (wheat, barley, millet, beans, lentils) and by agricultural tools: f.ragments of sickles, grindstones and stone mullers, wells and underground silos for the preservation of foodstuffs. The appropriation of land and the subsequent setting up ofborders lies at the root of the development of the Etruscan people: the boundaries of the land are considered sacred. thev are the projection of a cosmic order tased on the separation of the elements, as is shown by the prophecy of Vegoia and by the numerous inscribed stones marking property divisions (see p. 31). In agriculture, contact with the Greek world introduced several more rational innovations: the practice of fallowing (the alternation of leguminous crops and wheat crops), the cultivation of the vine (7th century) and of the olive (5th century), and even the instrument used for measuring the land, the groma, for which even the name was borrowed from the Greek. Classical writers tell us how remarkably fertile the Etruscan fields were. so much so that the Roman populace, after the fall of Veii, wanted to move to rhe newly conquered territory because it was more fertile (Livy). But we also know that all this fertility was due to man's interyention as well. This intensive agricultural activity did not decline even when Etruria lost its independence, for all the Etruscan cities, except Arezzo and Populonia, supplied Scipio's African campaign (205 B.C.) with agricultural produce and timber. The agrarian landscape of Etruria in Roman times is strictly connected to the territory's political and administrative set-up. On the land controlled by the allied cities the traditional Etruscan cultivation methods continued to predominate, whereas in those areas where the Roman presence was more direct, such as the colonies, the landscape began to look more like that of Latium and Campania. The land was divided anto centuries (a svstem of measuring and dividing the land according to the intersection of axes at right angles) and the plots granted to the colonizing farmers. The colonizers
lived in the city if their property was nearby, or in farms on the land. The fields surrounding these modest dwellings, usually housing only one family, were used for mixed crops. The vine, for example, was "married" to supporting trees and the rest of the field was taken up by grain, vegetables and leguminous plants, and whatever else might be necessary for the survival of
the family. Often, however, the produce of the land was not sufficient and then portions of public land (ager pabblica:) were taken over, primarily as pasture land. When th. highranking citizens of Rome, mostly members of the Senate, began to appropriate the land, setting up large landed estates controlled bv villas. the agricultural activity becami more spe-
cialized and intensive. The crops were mostly exported. For the most part the cultivations consisted in vines, olives, fruit trees, leguminous plants and grain (in rotation on the same fields) and anything else that was necessary to feed the numerous agricultural labourers that lived in the villa. The maioritv oF these workers were slaves. During the middle and late imperial age the land became progressively more the property of the emperor, and the appearance of the landscape changed considerably. Intensive cultivation was replaced by extensive (the alternation of wheat, fallow and pasture). The villas were replaced, starting in the 2nd century A.D., by a few very large buildings (among which the maritime villas) connected to the development of these vast and underpopulated estates. The peasants and farmers were probably the ones who were less affected by the fall of the Roman empire and the impact with the Germanit tribes, for the Longobards adopted the Roman laws governing land division. The system of the cartis, which in Tuscany is documented primarily through the large ecclesiastical estates, was organized rather loosely around the curtis itself. the direct descendant of the late Roman vllla. Large estates might consist of more than one curtis, even quite fat apart from each other. Division and subdivision were the fundamental characteristics of early medieval agrarian landscape, both because of mixed cultivations and for the very nature of the cartis, vrithin which the property was divided tnto sorti, mansi andpetia de terra. Some of these had a house on them where freed men or serfs lived, while the overlord's part, controlled directly, consisted also of pasture land and woods. During the early Middle Ages many changes took place in the distribution of settlements and population: the initial preponderance of scattered settlements in the olains was replaced progressively by-hilltop communities.
I. The so-called "Ponte Sodo" at Veii (5tb century B.C.). ActaaQ, it is an artifcial tannel wbich was used to cbangethe cotrse of tbe Cremera riaer. II. Reconstructionof tbe large pigsj in tbe Rortan ailla at Settefinatre near Cosa.
III. Snall bronTeaotiuestatae of a ntan pkugl)ing (from Arezzq late 5th centarl' B.C.). Rone,Vi//a Giulia. IV. Re/iefsbowing prusing grapes. slaues Aq ui lei a, Archaeo/ ca Mu se m. ogi / a
I)isa, Lucca and Lunj
84. Lucca, the arcades of the Ronan anphitbeatre. 85. Lacca, aeria/ uiew; in'the lower part, the market sqaare built on the site of the Ronan Amphitheatre.
walls. Outside the walls, the ruins of the amphitheatre ^re still visible, and, within the walls, there was a theatre built in the JulianClaudian period. The relatively small size of this theatre makes one suppose that the population was quite small. An event which added to the prosperity of the town must have been the discovery of the quarries of white marble, called Lunensian or Carrarzmarble, which was used for the first time, according to Pliny, in 48 B.C. Between 40 and 30 B.C. its usagebecamewidespread and, by the time of Augustus, it was used in large quantities in Rome and the provinces. The blocks of marble were transported by sea to the mouth of the Tiber, then carried to the various parts of the capital. The town of Luni must also have prospered thanks to the surrounding fertile plain. Both Pliny and Martial speak of the famous large cheesesand Pliny thought that the wine from Luni was the best in Etruria. The amphoras used for transporting wine are evidence of a thriving wine trade as early as the 1st century B.C. Of Roman PISA, on the other hand, we know very little. There are inscriptions which document its importance, among which the Elogia pisana, recording the honours tributed to Caius and Lucius Caesari (2-4 A.D.), which can be seen together with other Roman items at the Camposanto. The location of the various buildings in the 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 of later important buildings, such as the cathedral. Many Roman sarcophagi were also reused between the 11th and 15th centuries; they may 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 before 570-and they settled within the Roman walls, as is documented by the finds at Santa Giulia and San Romano, later spreading out to the countryside as well (see, for example, the burial site at Marlia). Among the Longobard objects
Pisa, I-ucca and Luni
with geoFound in the tombs are the little gold cfosses, sometimes decorated the cloth or animal pattefns (in relief-or engraved), which were sewn onto metfic it was believed that this custom .orreri.rg the facetf the deceased. For a long time that it is Italic or Me*^ r.f;'fy Germanic, but more recent studies have proved tomb at in origin. Five gold leaf crosseswere found in more than one diterranean of a knight was also discovSanta Giulia, wheie the ve!, ehborate gold apparel together with ered. All these obiects u." ,ro* in the-museum at villa Guinigi shield forrnd at san Romano (7th century): the unbo, the central oarts of a Darade and the metal-plate_sthat decorated the wooden part,- showing ;;;;;,h.';hield, lion's den, or hrchangel Michael, protector ofihe Longobards, or Daniel in the deceased himself. even the atPiazzadel Longobard presence in the area is also documented by the finds (where the Longobards first settled and began Serchio-and San Lo.enzo a Vaccoli "Lamina" of Agilulf (^ leaf pec,h.i. .o.,q,r..t of Tuscany), by the f.amo5 ry.ld found i"'ir'. vutai"ievole area (now in 'Lt B-gtJl-"-National ;;;;l ;t;;-.nt), dei Miracoli in Museum of Florence) and, above all, by the discoveries in Piazza pisa. where there was a necropolis iaid out on Roman foundations. Here, of belts with precious stone decorations were found; the Patterns ^consist (second half of the 7th century, Museo di San Matteo entwined snakelike animals in pisa) that arecomparable io north Tyrolean belts of the same period.. evident The decline of the cities and of the urban organization .is particularly where a systimatic archaeological dig, begun as early as the 6th century at LUNI, houses in the area o^ty uh* years ago, has brought to_light two extremell Poo. from that had been the forum. They"show ho"lesurhere the poles stood and.stones They are evidince of an obviously wideearlier constructions have been used. except that it sOread |ifestyle that archaeologists, howevei, still know little about, tribes. riust have e*isted even beforJthe arrival of the Germanic from tombs in. Longobard presence is documented by the bronze objects frequently even within the city walls: fibulas, buckles, ar(burial by infiumation), but quite similar Lin^, ^rra brooches, all more or less in the Byzantine tradition at Castelvecchio (Verona), Tesi" "U1..,, found in ihe Longoburd necropolises tona (Turin), Santa Giulia (Lucca) and so on' of almost a century, archaeologists have recently ,reAit., "rr'i.rt.rruption a cathedral sumed work on the basilica of Luni. The construction was formally of the 9th century untrl 1204, when the seat of the diocese was from the middle stages and transferred toSarzana.The basilica vras built in at least three different its foundations are Roman.
86. Luni, aerial uiewof the Romanamphitheatre. to 87. Bronzelaminas belonging a parade balf second of the shield(fron SanKomano' Vil/a Cuinigi' 7th centurl. Lucca, plaquey! 88. Bronzespurs,spearheads, half second of the stads (from ian Romano, 7th centurl). Lacca,Villa Cainigi.
The Lower Palaeolitbic represented sbardsfound Bibbonaand b1a biis bl at inplementfrom Monasterod'Ombrone;tbe Midd/e Palaeolitbicb1 sarfacial facefnds along the ualley of the Merse and tbe Farma. Tbe archaic tJpper Palaeolitbic is documented Montalcino and the Graaettian at Mante .fan at Sauino. An incisedshard, showing bison,wasfoandat Lustignano. The Neoa litbic is represented on/1 fu a .fewfragments of inpressed pottery found at Piornbino,wbile tbe Aeneolitbic is docuruenled the ditch tombsat Pornarb1 ance,Cuardistall0, Canigliano and Monteroni d'Arbia, b1 tbe Grotta di Sant'Antimo near Montalcino and b1 the little grotto tomb al Montebradoni near Volterra. Tbe BronzeAge is represented tbe co//ections ear/1 objects b1 of found at Canpiglia, Castiglion d'Orcia, Souicilleand Populonia,and b1 uariaus other single fnds. (Objects in tbe Pigorini Museunt in Rome and in the Archaeo/ogical Museumsof Sienaand Florence). Materials dating from the Villanovan culrure (9th-7th centuries B.C.) have been found near V()I-TuRRA,in the necropolises Baof dia, Ripaie and Guerruccia; they show close connecrions with the civilization of Bologna at the time (seethe objectsin the Guarnacci N{useumin Volterra). The "Oriental" phasewas lessdevelopedhere: it was still tied to the Villanovan tradition, as far as funeral ritual was concerned,although it also shows some analogies with contempor^ry southern Etrurian civilizations. Particularly interesting are the cinerary urn of Nlontescudaio(mid-7th century) which has on its lid, executedin an elementary sculptural form, a representationof the deceased a banquet; the bucchero rtyathos at from Nlonteriggioni, imported from southern Etruria (examplesin the Guarnacci NIuseum); the q I tomb from Badia (about 650-625 B.C.) on view in the museum, which contained h,truscan-Corinthian jars proving that oil Volterra had commercial ties with southern h,truria, via the port of Populonia. From the early 6th century onwarcls, the typtcal tbolos tombs began to be used throughout the area: they are formed by rows of stone slabs, each row projecting further than the previous one, sustained by a central pilaster. All these tboloi, or beehive tombs, were found in the valley of the Cecina, at CasaleNlarittimo (reconstructed in the Archaeological Museum in Florence), at Casaglia (reconstructed in the garden of the town hall of Cecina), at Bolgheri and at Bibbona (no longer standing). The objects in them (Archaeological N{useum, Florence), mostly imported from southern Etruria, are analogousto the contemporary ones from Populonia, which in the archaic perioci was the area's only port. Some soufces even state that Populonia was founcleclbv Voiterra. It is likely that it is also thanks io the ties with Populonia that a casker full of Phocaean and Massalian coins (Archaeological Nfuseum, Florence) arrived in Volterra and that the artistic acrivitiesof the second 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" (about 480 B.C.), in marble, probably belonging to rhe full-figure starueof a gocl. It was at this time, thanks particularly to rhe copper mining in the area, that the city as such was born; the walls were built (no
Volterra, Populonia and Siena
89. Reconstruction the tho/ostonb of (.aof sa/e Marittintt, (araund 620-600 B.(..). I:/orence,Arcbaeo/rgira/ Museurt. ste/e,witlt dedicalarf itt90. Stone.funeraql' scription to Auile I'ite, porlra.led as d Ddr rior ( 5 5 0- 5 2 5 B.C.). Llaherra,Cuartatt Musean.
longer standing) as well as stone buildings with tiled roofs on the Acropolis. The marble bases of inscribed stones, decorated with ,u-rt heads, and the recurrence of the name Kaikna on three steles in Bologna are evidence of Volterra's participation in the refounding of Felsina (Bologna) and the foundation of Marzabotto (early 5th century). From the 4th century to the end of the 2nd, Volterra experienced its period of greatest prosperity, probably thanks to its wellorganized plan of intensive agriculture which we have discovered through the presenceof several small settlements scatteredthroughout the countryside. By this time Volterra ruled over a vast territory: the stretch of coast from the river Fine to Bolgheri, the valleys of the Cecina and of the Era, the valley of the Elsa and the fortress of Monteriggioni. The city built a new set of enormous walls (which are still standing in some places,such as Badia), began to coin money and to produce atypical kind of ceramic ware (red-figure kraters and ceramic varnished black and then painted; examples in the Guarnacci Museum). This pottery was exported, throughout the 4th,3rd and 2nd centuries, to the towns of northern Etruria, of I-igt:.ia, beyond the Appennines as far as Adria and Spina and even to
Volterra, Populonia and Siena
91. Reconstruction the Inghiranti tonb al of Vo/terra (2nd centurl B.C.). Flnrence, Archaeologica/ Museum.
Corsica (Aleria). Particularly important is the collection of cinerary urns (Archaeological Museum in Florence and Guarnacci Museum in Volterra) which follow, at a remarkably high artistic level, the various currents of the Hellenistic period (Microasiatic, Rhodic, Pergamonic, Classicistic).The Hellenistic style is also evident in the architectural terracottas found in the temple on the Acropolis, which was rebuilt during the first half of the 2nd century B.C. But this flourishing artistic activity soon came to an end, for the aristocracy stopped commissioning works, so anxious were they to become an integral part of the Roman state. Evidence of this can be found in the portraits of local magistrates, commissioned by themselves,on urns dating from the early 1st century and also in the history of the Ceima-Caecinafamily. PopuroxrA is the only Etruscan city that even the ancient geographers considered anomalous for its position on the sea. It owed its orosperity, which lasted uninterruptedly from the archaic period to late Hellenism, to the mineral resources in the arca of Campiglia and on the island of Elba: the maritime transportation of these -itterals made its port the most developed of the arca. On the coast of the bay of Baratti, Villanovan necropolises, belonging to two separate communities, have been found at Poggio del Molino, Poggio alla Porcareccia, San Cerbone and at Granate. These show close links
Voiterra, Populonia ancl Siena
' . f \
with the culture of the Nuraghe, perhaps brought here by phoenician traders. As early as the end of the 9th century B.C. they were building chamber tombs for multiple burials, covered by a dome made by progressively projecting stone slabs. Between the mid-8th and the mid-7th centuries, contact with Greek merchants in search of mineral ore does not seem to have brought much prosperity to the region, probably becausethis trade was mediated by the mote powerful (and more socially evolved) communities of southern Etruria. Despite this, in the first half of the 7th century some large mound tombs were built (for example, those of the Flabelli or of t6e Carri, which can be seen in that part of the necropolis that is open ro the public). The marvellous collection of objects found here is evidence of a rigidly aristocratic and warrior ideology: iron weapons, andirons, grills and locally manufactured chariots. From the lasi decades of the 7th century and throughout the 6th, the number of imported artifacts (Etruscan-Corinthian, Corinthian, Greek-Oriental and Attic ceramics) which have been found in the tombs-from the earliest mound tombs, to the aedicu/ae, the sarcophagi, to the casto sone tombs-increased considerably; it also reflects an acquaintance with Greek-oriental culture which influenceseven the local artistic activities, such as the acroteria and the palm-shaped decorations at the top of stone steles(examples in the Archaeological Museum in Florence and in the local museum). Towards the middle of the 6th century the necroDoliseswere all transferred to the flat stretch of coast along the bay und " ,.t of walls was built (in part srill standing), which enclosed the two pogi (hills), Poggio del Molino and Poggio del Castello. This leads us to
92. I'o/turra, the archedgate (3rd-2nd centarlB.(.). 9). A/abaster urn from Vo/terra (late 3rd centary B.(.). Vatican, Gregorian Etrascan Masean. On the /id, lhe deceased roup/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, reyerse side ()rd centur.l B.C.). Along tbe rin, tbe inscription Velathri (Vo/terra),.at the centre, a do/pbin and tbe yntbol of its aa/ae. V a/terra, G uarnacci Mas eurt. 9 5. Branze rtatuette af a warrior (fron Popa/onia,frst half of the 5th century B.(.). F/nrence, Archaea/ogica/Museam.
58 Metallurgy
scienceof metallurgy reached Italy cluring the 3rd millennium B.C. and is clocumented at first by copper and ar_ senic daggers and flat axes, as well as by traces of mining activities founcl in Tuscany and Trentino. During the Bronze Age, the use of -.tri*u, widespread, not only for weapons but also for tools (axes, sickles) u.rd or.,u_ ments (collars, brooches, bracelets). The many stone moulds that have been found prove that the processing also took place Iocally. Traces of mining activity have been found in the area around Massa Marittima and Campiglia, where the smelt_ ing furnaces for iron and copper were placed near the mines (the onls at Val Fucinaia, at Campiglia, in use from the 8th century B.C. onwards, are open to
the public). The iron ore mined on the island of Eiba, on the other hand, was processed at Populonia after the 6th century. 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,loined together with rivets, *rs ,s.d. Lat.r. al'ter the 6th-5th cenlury, the work_ shops in sourhern Etiuria (Vulci. Caere, Volsinii) and those in inland northern Etruria learnt from the Greeks the practice of soldering and began to make more use of the cistine procedure, specially in the productioi of vases.These innovations led. on the one hand, to much shorter production timcs antl increased uantitiesmakinq q , Etruscan produce competitive on
other Italian and central Eurooean markcts; and on the other made it oos_ sible to create large-scalestatues, of which the Mars from Todi, the Chi_ maera and the Orator ard the only sur_ viving examples. Vfe have very little information about mining activity in Roman times, and what 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. At Populonia, an analysis of the quantity ot lron present in the scrap--much more_than in the previous periodwould seem to indicate " mrrih faste. but less.accurate processing technique. According to the informatlon we have today, iron processing in popuionia increased in the 3rd and 2nd centuries.
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probably becauseof the increase in demand fiom Rome. Pliny mentions Pooulonia's vast contribution of iron to Rome at the time of the second Punic war. But in the lsl centurv iron orocessingseemsro Fall oft quite sud<lenly, more or less at the same time as the development of metallurgical activities in Carnia, in the Alps. The copper mines of Vetulonia and Populonia, and the cinnabar (used for leagues) ones on Mount Amiata, apper to have suffered the same fate, probably because of the competition afforded by the mines in the Iberian peninsula.
I. Bronze axes and ingols (fron Cantpi,q/ia X[aritlinta, ear/1, BronT.eAgi). F/orence, Maseun. ,4 rcbaeological II. Bronzelamina mrt (ront the O/no Be/sennd ha/f of tlte 8th BisenTio, /o necropo/is, ceaturl,B.(.). Rone, lli//a Cia/ia. III. Bronze lanina lhrone uitb relief'decoration (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.qa h/arksrtitlt'.r n,ork .rhrtp. 1qui/tia, .1rtbuco/,tgica/,\Irstttrtt. .
Il. Bronzeslatue of'a (himaera, with a uo/iue inscriplion (from Arezzo, early 4ilt cett lary B.C.). F/nrence,Arcbaeo/ogiu/ XItrJuttTl.
Voltcrra, I)opulonia ancl Siena .-,.f,ri.!:. ...-
9 6. Palnette-shaped crowningf'stone ste/es (second ba/f of the 6tb centary,).Populonia, Casparri Museunt. 97. Papa/onia,Archaic wal/s (around the nid-6th centuryB.(.). tombs 98. Papa/onia, aedicala and cassane (6th-5th centary B.C.). In theforegraand, 'tonb of the the aedicala tontb known as the branzcstataettenaking an ffiring.' necropa/is, F/a99,, Populonia,Porcareccia belli tumulus, with lwo stoneste/esinfront of tbe entrance (secondbalf of the Vtb rcntar1, B.C.).
believe that the community had become a city and it is significant that it should have happened at the same time as the processing of the minerals from Elba becamepubliclv administered. An industrial factory was built for this prtpo.. ouiside the city, at Poggio alla Porcareccia;it contained also housing for the workers and was used until the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. Also at this time PopuIonia began to coin its own money, an indispensableinstrument for the development of the metal trade; it coined sporadically at first, but began to issue regular series(coins with Gorgon head) at the beginning of the 4th century and continued through to the middle of the 3rd. The city's prosperity continued during the 5th and 4th centuries, as is shown by the importation of ceramics from Attica (the two hydrias by the painter Meidias in the Archaeological Museum in Florence are remarkable), and later from Latium, southern Etruria and
Voltcrra,I)opulonia and Sienr
Campania.Not even the two expeditions led by the Syracusansin 453 B.C. against the mining district seem to have causedmuch damage.
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;ulation of scrapthat buried the old necropolis. At the sametime, the city becamevery powerful politically, as is shown by the construction of a new set of walls with towers (visible along the road leading to the castle)that isolated the whole promontory from the mainland. Also at this time, the new hilltop fortresses on the island of Elba were built to protec the mines. During the 3rd century, popuronia must have joined rhe system of alliances with Rome and in 70s g.c. tLr. city supplied iron for Scipio's campaign in Africa. During the 2nd century, the port continued its activity of metal trade, but the pro_ cessinghad by then been rransferred ro Pureoli (Pozzuoli). 100 During the civil war VoLTERRA sided with Marius and this caused Sulla's revenge: in 80-79 B.C. he besieged the city and eventually conqueredit, depriving the inhabitants of Roman citizenship. But it does not seem that Sulla then transformed the city into a colony, as happenedin many other parts of Etruria. The construction of the major public buildings is due to the most important local families. The theatre, for example, was built in the early 1st century A.D. by A. CaecinaSeverusand his son Sixtus. At the foot of the stage there were statuesof Roman emperors (at the Guarnacci Museum there are two statues of Augustus and one of Livia). The names inscribed on the seats-among which the name of the family of the poet Persius-provide interesting material for the study of the local notables. The theatre was modernized and restored severaltimes during the 1st and2nd centuries, and in the 3rd century it was definitively abandoned and used as a rubbish dump. Behind the stage there is a large portico and a building housing baths. A large cistern which supplied water to the whole city datei from the Augustan period. Just outside Porta San Felice, on the Acropolis, there are the ruins of baths and private houses (some floor mosaicscan be seenin the Guarnacci Museum). We know very little about the territory around Volterra, for it has not yet been studied systematically.Researchhas recently been undertaken at the villas of San Vincenzino and San Gaetano at Vada. But we can state fairly certainly that there were many large landed estatesbased on slave labour, as was common in northern Etruria, while the areasfurther south were divided into smaller properties. We have very little information about Poput-oxtA in Roman times. We know that the city supplied iron for Scipio's campaign in Africa (205 B.C.). Coins dating from the 2nd century B.C. prove that at the time the city was still in existence. But the imperial age must have brought a rapid decline, and we know that Strabo saw the city in a state of total abandon, inhabited only by workers involved in the metal industries. The production of iron, which had been particularly intensive during the middle and late republican period (and perhaps even slightly later), has left us seven metres of accumulated
1()0. llc,/terra, the Roman tbeatre ( 1sl centuryA.D.). 101. Vo/terra, the steps of tbe Roman theatre. 102. Valterra, the mosaicJloor af tbe baths ( 1stcentury A.D.).
Volterra, Populonia ancl Sienr
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103. Montanenti, l2tlt-centary tower belonging to tbe castlekeep (B on thep/an). To the left, tbe excauatiorc(1000 on theplan) reuealthe /ate medieua/constructions. 104. Montarrenti, the peasants' aillage (5000 on tbep/an). Under the late medieaa/ constructionswe cafl seetbe boles for the beam of the earl1 medieualhouses. 10 5. Cround-plan of the castle of Montarrenti. At the centre, tbe buildings forning the castle keep, surrounded b1 tbe peasantt' ui//age. 106. Melted bronze belt cap and discshapedgold fbala (fron Volterra, late 7th cena ry ). Florence,Arcbae ologica M useu t / m.
scrap along the coast of the bay of Baratti. There are ruins of a few seaside villas along the coast of the promontory. Among these, worthy of mention is the one of Poggio del Molino, where scholars of the last century found a Nilotic mosaic dating from the first half of the 1st century B.C. (sold, outside Italy, to private antique dealers). In the museum of Populonia there are some inscriptions dating from the Roman period. The town of SrEx,t (Saena),which probably became a colony under Augustus, grew up on the site of a previous settlement, possibly an Etruscan community called Saina. The town never really became important, despite its favourable position along the Cassian Way. Very few materials have been found; they are in the local archaeological museum and among them is z portr^it of the so-called Pseudo-Seneca. The recent discovery of some Roman period pottery suggests,among other things, that the centre of the town was near Castelvecchio.Lower down, more or less where today's Piazza del Campo stands, there was the city's forum-which was called campas There are ruins of villas on the surrounding territory (at Vico fori. Bello, Pieve alBozzone andLa Befa), but they all seem to have been
quite small. They must, however, have survived until quite late. orobably from the Augustan period until rhe 5th century A.D.
The bishopric of Stgxn was from the very beginning one of the smallest in Tuscany, surrounded as it was by the two great dioceset of volt..r" and Arezzo. The latter p_ractically reached as far as the gates ofthe city itself, This was the result of the different degree of importance of these cities in the Roman period. During the,first years of the Longobard occuparion, Siena had no bishop, but its militari and administrative territory grew considerably, at the expense'of Arezzo. This fact underlies the numerous Grritorial quarreli between tire two dioceses which were.only.definitively resolved in the earlv 13th century when it was decidecl that the churches of the area, claimed by Siena, were to be considered under the aclministration of Arezzo. Some of these churches still house interesting fragmcnts of early medieval sculpture. The economic development of Siena wis clue to its position along the Via Franctgena. very few marerials dating from the early Ntiddle Ages, mostly housed in the Archaeological N{useum in Siena, have been found in thJarea ofthe city; rraces of "pre-Romanesque" settlements in the countrysicle are equally few and far bec]1ly recently the excavation of the castle of r,roNr,rRRuN'r.r (dicoese of 11v1en. volterra) has provided us with some archaeorogicalinformation. It is a'tvpical example of a fortified village, the centre of the administration of a landecl estate, and its existence is documented from the mid-12th century. Today Nlontarrentr consists of the vast ruins of a castle keep, with two towers and other houses, and an abandoned town below, enclosed by a set of walls. The houses, inhabited until the late Nliddle Ages by peasantsan.l iharecroppers, show that the land had been regula.rly divided up. The excavation of the upper part and apartial study of the town have shown that the settlement, during iis earliest.t"g., llrh-tOth cenrurre_s), consisted of irregular builclings, partly in wood, spreaJover the whole area of the later castle, without any ..town-planning" as s,rch.
Tbe lower Palaeolithic is represented brfacial inplenents fu found at pian dell'Osa; tbe Middle an! Upper palaei/itbic, surfacefinditbrougboat the fu, territory, in tbe Grotta La Fabbrica at Alberese,in tbe erotta cali Gioyanna.at (Ciuic Museam of Rtgto Enilia), and b1tsurfacefnds on tbe li1ysa island of E/ba. In the Grotta Vado all'Arancio near Massa Maiittina tbere aere craaettian tombs,witb seaera/interesling artfacts, including a buman profi/e (Florentine Prebiltoriyl Maseum). Fiom the I\eolitltic p"erioda few impressed ceramics bauebeenfoand Elba and pianosa,wbile fu) docamentaat tion of the Aeneolitbic and,tbe Bronze Age is mucrtgreater: tracesof nining actiaities in tbe cinnabar /odeson Moant Arniata, birials in artifiiial sna/l grottoesat Pianosaand in natara/ grottoese/sewbere, as Grotta SanGiasucb seppeat RictMarina on fr,lga (Antiquariam of Marciana Marina), Grotta (//o s.coslietn(F/orentinePre/tistoricalMuseam), small grottoesat bianizzoli and Prato (ciuic Museum at Massa Marittina), Griua del Fontino (oblects at tbe FlorentinePrebistorica/Museum). Tbe jater beriodsare rlctcumenred b1 ruins datingfron the Appennine caltare t n Mouit Amiata and tbe fut proto-villanouan necropolis Sticciano at Scalo(ciuic Maseum at Grossei antl ArcbaeologicalMuseam in Florence). vpruroxtA prospered thanks to the mineral resourcesafforded bv the colline Metallifere and its fortunate position on the lagoon of Lake (now drained). The Villanovan necropolise, o.r ih. ,.rr-Prile rounding hills belonged to rwo distinct .o--.rnities; the objects from the earliest period found in them are very modest. But from
Vetulonia and Rusellae
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the middle of the 8th century onwards there was an increase in the wealth of the inhabitants: ambers were imported from the north, Nuraghic materials from Sardinia and glass paste and a Phoenician cup from the Orient (Archaeological Museum in Florence; some examples in the local Antiquarium). The necropolis, and by this stage also the settlement by the Lake of Accesa (Civic Museum of Massa Marittima), show that the community of Vetulonia began very eady on to administer the metal trade, perhaps through the mediation of (fromGrottaSanCiauase 107. Funerary Vulci or Tarquinia. Soon metal processing was also done locally. Iiland of Elba, Aeneolithic). Pisa, seppe, "Oriental" The style tombs (7th century), consisting of several / I nsti tute ofA nthropoogy. ditches within a single circle of stones, were filled with real treaand bonebuttons sures: gold jewellery and precious vases imported from southern 108. Bell-sbabeduases (from Grotta- del Fontino, Aeneolithie). Etruria and the Orient, Greek ceramics, Oriental bronze cauldrons Museum. Prehistorical Florentine Florence, and elegant products of the local metal industry (tripods, cauldrons, bronze incense burners, gold objeas; Archaeological Museum in 109. Vetulonia, Tonba del Diaaolino, a tumulastombwith a sqilarechanbertopped Florence). Dating from the second half of the 7th century there are pilas- huge chamber tombs, topped by false vaults sustained by pilasters. b1 @ afalse uaalt supported a central 620-500 B.C.). ter (around Among these the tombs of Diavolino and Pietrera are open to the public. Towards the middle of the 6th century B.C., when the city walls were built, Vetulonia began to show signs of decline, as can be deduced from the necropolis; perhaps its role as mining centre was being taken over by the growing town of Populonia. On the other hand, prosperity appears to have continued uninterruptedly both in the aristocratic countryside tumulus tomb at Poggio Pelliccia near Gavorrano (with burials from the mid-7th to the early 5th century B.C.) and in a building in the city, possibly a temple, at Costa Murata, where Etruscan and Greek ceramics from the early 6th to the mid-5th centuries have been found. The city of RuseLtAE (Roselle) began to be important around the middle of the 6th century. Since we have found no interesting artifacts of local production, Rusellae's pov/er must have been based on the control over the valley of the Ombrone and on agricultural
Vetulonia ancl Rusellae
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activities. The decline of Vetulonia and the rise of Rusellae must. however, be connected in some way. Rusellae illustrates very well the various stagesin the life of a town of ancient Etruria: from the 7th century B.C. (the date of the oldest house) to the 9th centurv A.D.. when the Christian basilica was built. We know very little about the necropolises, for no systematic excavations have yet been made; but we can get an idea of the grandeur 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 documented by the presence of contemporury architectural terracottas, similar to the ones found at Murlo, in the upper valley of the Ombrone. The prosperity of Rusellaeis shown in the 5th century by the importation of Attic ceramics, and in the Hellenistic period by the restoration of the walls, the new houses built on the southern hillside and by the constructionof a temple in the 2nd century, documented by architectural terracottas in the Microasiatic style. According to Silius Italicus, it was VaTuloNtA that handed down to Rome the usageof emblems of power, such as thefasci or the curule chair; but Vetulonia, during the Roman period, was no more than an insignificant milnicipian.
110. Head ctf a slone statue of a ,v0man (ront tbe tamulus of Pietrera al Vetulonia, 650-525 B.C.) F/orence, Archaealogical 'I'he stJle af the scalptare c/ear/1, Museunt. shows the influenrc of snal/-scale Orienta/ scalpture. 1 1 1. Vetulonia, tamulas (650-625 B.C.). of Pietrera
'fn,o gold brarclets (fron the tuntalus 1 12. of Migliarine at Vetalonia, 620-600 B.C.). F/orence, Archaeo/ogtcal Museum. These uere made in a /oca/ workshop, using tbe f ligree techniqae. 'l'wo 1 1). bronzehorse'sbits, produced/ocaQJ (fron the necropolis of Lake Accesa, half af the 8th centuryB.C.). Massa second Maritti ma, Archaealogim/ Musean.
66 Ceramics 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 produced: 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 ceramics, between the 9th and 2nd centuries, 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 qualitative 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 centurv. Etruscan ceramics were imitations of Greek models, and took on their shapes, names and decorations: Etruscan geometric ceramics (Sth century), 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 Oriental styles). Among the various different types of ceramics produced in Etruria, some were intended primarily for export (black varnish ceramics and fine drinking cups) and others were used locally or regionally (common use ceramlcs and dolia). Pratically none of the workshops 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 factory. In some casesthere was only one slave, in others ten or tv/enty, and in some even sixty. In the larger workshoos the internal division of labour muit have relied on a complex organization, requiring some slaves to fulfil rather generic functions, while others were truly specialized workers. The processing, in fact, went from the simplest 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 the pots: the most difficult and delicate iasks were naturally the modelling and the decoration ofthe vases. These iobs were done by highly specialized slaves who signed each vase with their personal 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, even though in imitation of the ones made "late Italic" ceramat Arezzo ("Italic" or ics), are not the signatures of the individual craftsman, but more gener"company." ally of the manufacturing It is likely that this indicates a different labour organization, but we still know too little about it to be certain. The systematic excavation of some of the workshoos found in Arezzo would help to ans-e. this question and many others as well. After the 6th century A.D. ceramic production declined enormously; the lavish late Roman sets of tableware disappeared and the only kinds of pottery used were a few kitchen obiects, such as the jar and the dish (which was
essential for the cooking of farinaceous foods and began to be used at this time), and the table tankard. None of them were glazed and their decoration, if any, consisted in simple wavey line patterns. The Longobards used mainly pottery produced locally, even as burial objects; this explains why in Etruria no Dots like the ones from the northern Italian necrooolises have been found, and only a fiw objects imported from North Africa or from central Europe (Museum of Fiesole). This situation remained constant until at least the 12th century. This decline in ceramic production denotes a change in the manufacturing organizatton: the large, almost industrially organized production centres must have disappeared, while small workshops, covering a small market, spread and in some cases the produc"in the home." tion was even handled It was not until the birth of late medieval enamel factories in Orvieto. Viterbo, Pisa, Montelupo and Siena that production increased enough for Tuscany to become a centre of ceramics export again.
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I. Appennine culture ceramics(fron Crotta del/'Orso, Sarteano, Bronze Age). F/orence, Archaeological Maseum. II. Proto-Vi/lanzaan zssaary (fron SticcianoSca/o).andbowl (fron Grotta dell'Orso, Sarteano,Bronze Age). Florence,Archaeological Maseam. IIL Etruscan-Corinthian amphora, decorated with friezes of aninals b1 the so-called Painter of the Bearded Sphlnx (fron Vulci, late 7th centuryB.C.). Rome,Vi//a Cialia. IV. Buccherobucket with relief decorations showingafrieze of animals, inJlaenced 51fu rian and Pboenician models (from Caere, 6 5 0 - 6 2 5 B.C.). Rone, V i//a Ciulia.
"Aretini" V. Crater b1 the so-called Painter of Dawn VIL A nould for uases(lst (fron Fa/erii, 3 7 5 - 3 5 0 B.C.). Rone, Vi/':::;, U, ) Are72o, ArchaeologicalMrla Ciulia. On this side, Dawn rising out of tbe sea on a cbariot drawn b1four horses,' VIII. An "Aretino" uase ( lst century seatednext to lter is ber /ouer Titon. B.C.- 1st centarJA.D.). Arey2o, Archaeo/ogica/Maseum. VI. Rennstraclion of Etrascan reramirc. This drawing illustrates the dffirent kinds IX. unpainnd eeranic tankards (rom of Etruscan ceraminfrom the 9tb to the 2nd Fiesole, 10th-11th nnt*ry). Fiaoh, Arcentaries B.C. Maseam. chaeological
1. 2. 3. 1. 5. 6. t'. 9th rentary B.C. 8/b centarlB.C. 7th untury B.C. 6tb antary B.C. 5tb nntary B.C. 4tb- Jrd nntariesB.C. 2nd renturlB.C.
X. Ceramie bottles (fron Fiesole, 7th cen' turl). Fiuole, Arcbaeological Museum. Theseobjectsare uery similar to the onestbat were produced in the lower aa//e1 of the Rbein at tbe sametime.
Vetulonia and Rusellae
114. Rusellae, citl wal/s(nid-6th centlte tury B.C., with later additions). 115. Rusellae, aerial uiea of the excauations. 116. Statae a loung giil (kuse//ae,lst of century A.D.). Crosrcto, Archaeological Museum. 1 17. Rasellae, uiewoftbeexcauations. 1 18. Gold earring(firct balf oftlte 7th century). Crosseto, Arcbaeological Maseum.
RUSELLAE, on the other hand, was a very important centre of this region and we have far more information about it. The earliest records 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 the city. We also know that Rusellae supplied wheat to S-ipio's campaign 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 reduced to a much smaller area, concentrated around the forum. Thanks to the ruins brought to light by the excavations begun in the 1950's, we have discovered that in the Augustan period a ipa.e was flattened in order to create aplateauwherethe forum was built. The forum consisted of a square in the centre, with no paving. The square was crossed by a little cobblestone road; another similar road ran along the west side of the square. on this side, large terracing walls supported a portico. The whole area was eventually flattened out in the 1st century A.D. and from this time on several changes took place: the existing buildings were restored and enlarged and
many new ones were built. A paved road was constructed along the east side of the square, possibly following the course of the cardo maximus (the main street running along the north-south axis). At the north-east corner of the square, this street turned east at right angles,thus becominga decamanzs (east-westaxis). This is quite unusual, for normally there were tv/o or more streets that intersected perpendicularly. At the corner, where the street curved sharply, there was probably a fountain. The basilica, on the east side of the square,was rectangular in plan; it had a raised entrance atrium with stepsleading up to it. The internal spacewas surrounded by rows of columns, eight on the long sidesand four on the short ones. The original construction of the basilica would apper to date from the Augustan period, whereas the raised entrance hall, with its very different building techniques,cannot have been built before the imperial age. The seat of the Aagustales (a body of six men who organtzed the worship of Augustus and were elected annually) stood along the short side of the square.This building was rectangular, and its walls were covered with marble slabs;near the apse,two stone baseshave been found, which probably supported the statuesof Augustus and Livia. In the niches along the long sides there were probably statues of members of the lulian-Claudian dvnastv (several of these are 1n the Archaeological .\lur.u- in Grosieto).'Rusellae's declinebegan in the 2nd century.
Desoite the economic ancl social transformations that characterized the territon' of the Nlaremma from the late imperial age onwarcl, and ciespitethe decline of the citi'itself, RtrSHLt-..\1, the seat of the diocesefrom the 5th century until it was was 'Ihe transferred to Grosseto in 1 138. Longobard necropolises scattered over the territorv indicatc that the city had a very small population; this is also confirmed bv the fact that onlv one important public builcling \r,'asconstructed over the u'hole periocl:the Christian basilica.Built on Roman ruins, it consistsof a nar.e ancl tu.o aisles, with a raised narthex and presbytery and a square apse with two rooms leading off it. Reliefs and pilasters,decorated u'ith guilloches, swastikas anclrosettes(8th-9th centuries),covered the lefthand wall ofthe apse. But the most intcresting objects come from the Longobarcl necropolis of Casette c'li Nlota (a fev' hundred vards south of Rusellae), consisting of fourteen tombs, ancl from the larger necropolis of Grangia, probably connected to thc to\\'n of l\fontecavoli (on a hill a few miles south of Grosseto). The study of this necropolis has revealeclthat onlv the central and earliest nucleus of tombs containecl personal objects. The personal objects belonging to women in the tombs of Grangia consist mainl,v in disc-shapeclfibulas, one of which has an ornament in the ccntrc, cross-shaped{tibulasand pearls; the men's objects are mostlv bronze ornaments for belts, buckles ancl shielc'l decorations. All these objects can be datcd at thc 7th centur.,' in anaiogy with similar materials founcl north of the Alps.
Fron the Palaeolithicperiod tbereare sbardsfoundat Montauto di Manciano; Apartfrom fron the Mousterian cultare, at Cala dei Santi and Settefinestre. the Neolitbicfragnents foand at Vulc| it is not until the Aeneolitbicperiod tbat wefnd an1 euidence communitiesrepresented tonbs in artificial of b1 small grottoes (Rinaldone cu/ture)found especialfu the ua//e1of tlte Fiora in (tbe "Tomb of the lYidow" bas beenreconstructed tbe Pigorini Museum in at Rone) between Pitig/iano, Manciano, Capalbio and Caraaicchio,and at Farnese. Tbe be//-shaped uases found at Torre Crognola(Vulci) and the barial
V u l c i , S o r a n . r . t n r l( , r r . r
1 19. Funerary objects(frotzt Prnte San Pie' tro, Viterba, Enea/ithic). F/orence, Arrhaeo/agica/ Museum. 120. Va/ci, Pontedel/a Badia, an the riaer Fiora (first half of tbe 1st centafyB.C.).
grottoes at Panta degli Stretti (Argentario) and at sassi IVeri (capalbio) appear to indicate the transition to tbe Bronze Age, cbaracterizedin its ear_ liest stageb1 storesof bronzeobjects (Manciano, Montemeranoand Saturnia) bq. pile-dwellings on Lake Mezzano. Tbe later periods are represented tbe yd fu, ui/lagesa/ongthe Fiora (Ponte san Pietro, crostolito di Lanone) antJby eaidence worsbip of water and agricaltaral deitiesin grottoes.The niunberof of settlertents increased greatl1 in tbeproto-Villanouan age:manJuillagessprang ap,.oftenon the site of existing ones, and tbe1, werecbaracleriwd fu inni wal/s and buts and b1t tumulus tombs.Among the mostinterestingare Croslolettodi Lamone, sorgenti della Noaa and Bisenzio. obiects are at tbe villa Giulia Museum and Pigorini Museam in Rome,at rbi museuru vu/ci ancl at the in Anliquariam in Saturnia. The vast rerritory that eventually fell under the rule of vut-ct-the valleys of the Fiora and of the Albeqna-is indicati'e of the relationship between city and countrysidi in southern Etruria. During the early villanovan period (9th century B.c.) and for mosr of thE later (8th century), our information comes almost entirelv from the area of the future city, with the four necropolisesof osteria, cavalupo, Cuccumella and Polledrara, which continued to be used even in the following centuries (materials in the Antiquarium of castello della Badia and in the villa Giulia Museum in Rome; particularly interesting is a small bronze statue of Nuraghic origin found at cavalupo, grgvlfg that trade with Sardinia began very early). During the second half of the 8th century the aristocracy of Vulci must have been in close contact with the Greek colonizers, probabry because they controlled the routes towards the mines of northern Etruria. This contact is shown by the presence in vulci of Euboean ceramics, brought here by the Greek colonizers of pitecusa (Ischia), such as the krater from Pescia Romana (Grosseto N{useum), and by the
Vulci, Sovana ancl (losa
121. Eaboean crater, decorated with geometric patterns (fron Pacia Romana, around r.r. Grotseto, ArchaeologicalMa(/rOrU 122. Tlrrbenian ampbora (from Vu/c| 575-550 B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian Etruscan Museum. Thfu tlpe of ceramic prodaced b1 Athenian craftsmenexclauase, siue/1for the Etruscan market, was considered a laxary item. In tbe topfrieze, Herculesstrug/es aith the centaur; in tbe otbers, anima/ scenes. 123. Satarnia, Pantone necropolit, Tomb A, a tamalus with a sqaare cbanber and slabwal/s (675-650 B.C.).
imitations produced locally by immigrant craftsmen (such as the biconical ossuary in the Antiquarium in Vulci). During this period the investment of excess wealth led to the f:rst agrarian appropriations and numerous aristocratic citadels sprang up throughout the territory (Castro, Poggio Buco, Pitigliano, Sovana, Saturnia, Marsiliana, Magliano, Orbetello), all of them placed in strategic positions controlling the communication routes. There are many necropolises in these zre s) some of which are open to the public. One of these is the one at Pocclo BUCo, with ditch graves and chamber tombs, some of which consisting of several rooms, with sculpted pilasters and support beams, showing the influence of Caere. In the necropolis of CasrRo, the chamber tombs are decorated with stone sculptures in the shape of real and imaginary zntrnals; a unique entrance path to one of the tombs is lined on both sides by rows of animal statues; a large altar is topped by tufa cornices decorated in the corners with heads of rams and lions (materials in the Antiquarium of Ischia di Castro). At SarunNIA one can visit the necropolis of Pian di Palma, with tumulus tombs built out of stone slabs. But the most prosperous of all those communities appears to have been M,qRSILIANA, in a strategic position for the control of the routes to the Colline Metallifere; in its tombs at Banditella, (ditch graves within stone circles), were the burial sites of warriors accompanied by remarkable personal objects, especially the "Circolo "Circolo della Fibula" and the degli Avori" in the Archaeological Nluseum in Florence. These objects are more interesting even than those found in contemporary tombs at Vulci, such as the Tomb of the Chariot (Tomba del Carro) with its embossed bronze foils, now in the Villa Giulia Museum in Rome. The destruction of Marsiliana in the late 7th century, and the gradual decline over the course of the next century of the other towns, mark the definitive supremacy of the city over the countryside. This historical event is recalled also in the paintings of the Frangois tomb, where among the enemies of the heroes of Vulci,
Vulci, Sovana and Cosa
124. Vu/ci, /ate repub/icanperiod hoa.re. 125. Vahi, Romanslreet. 126. Valci, late repab/ican period ltouse. 127. .ltatue ofa centaar in tuft stone(from lhe necntptt/is of Ptggto Maremma; Vu/ci, early 6th centuryB.C.). Rane, Vi//a Giu/ia. ln Vu/ci, slatues of real and irta,ginary anirtalt werep/aced at gaardians in front of the enlrancelo lhe tombs.
Aaile and Caile Vipinas, there is also a warrior from Sovana. Vulci's period of greatest prosperity lasted from the late 7th century to the mid-Sth, as is shown by the numerous chamber tombs (exceptional is the one at Cuccumella, a tumulus, with an inner chamber with steps)containing Greek-Oriental and Corinthian ceramics, and later Attic and Ionic ones (materials in the Antiquarium in Vulci and in the Villa Giulia Museum, in particular the tomb of Panatenaica). During this period many workshops producing ceramics were set up, often by Greek craftsmen such as the Painter of Swallows, a Greek-Oriental (bowl in the Villa Giulia Museum), or the Painter of the Bearded Sphinx, of Corinthian origin (objects from the tomb of the same name at Villa Giulia), or later, after the mid-6th century, by craftsmen of lonic origin. Also remarkable during the 6th and 5th centuries is the sculpture (see such masterpiecesas the centaur and the sea-horseat Villa Giulia) and the production of bronze vases and implements (for example, the Warrior's Tomb, late 6th century, at Villa Giulia). Objects produced at Vulci v/ere exported to distant lands, as is shown by the precious objects, such as decorated ostrich eggs, found in northern Etruria and in the Marches, by the ceramics of the "Ciclo dei Rosoni" found in Carthage and Provence, by the bronzes found all over Etruria proper, in Campanian and Po Valley Etruria, in non-Greek areas of southern Italy and in centralnorthern Europe, and above all by the wine amphoras found all over the western Mediterranean, indicating also that Vulci had a flourishing and specialized agricultural activity. After the decline of coastal southern Etruria in the second half of the 5th century, Vulci took part in the renaissanceof the 4th cen-
Vulci. Sovana and Cosa
tury. New public works were built, such as the walls and the great temple (ruins open to the public); nev/ aristocratic tombs, with Tshaped central chambers (at Ponte Rotto), and magnificent burial sites dug out of the rock, wrth aediculafacades (sculpted tympanums in the Antiquarium). The Frangois tomb, dating from the second half of the 4th century, is particularly interesting. The paintings that decorated it (transferred to Villa Albani in Rome in 1857, shortly after their discovery) show the influence of Apulian painting. They illustrate a complex story, in which the killing of the Trojan prisoners by Achilles and other characters from Greek mythology is interspersed with duels beween the heroes of Vulci and warriors from Rome, Sovana,Volsinii and Falerii. These battles, although in the fic tion of the paintings taking place in the distant past (late 6th century), must have been intended as symbolic of the struggle of southern Etruscan cities against Rome. The two most famous sculpted sarcophagi,with a couple lying on the lid, are in Boston; another, illustrating a battle between Amazons, is now at the Villa Giulia Museum. During this period, as happened elsewhere in southern Etruria, the towns that had prospered during the archaic age experienced a new development. Among these, Sovnxa, where new elaborate tombs u/ere constructed in the rock of the hillside; many of them are now open to the public, such as the Tomb of Hildebrand (first half of the 3rd century), carved into the rock in the shape of a temple, with beautifully ornamented capitals, or the Tomb of the Siren and the picturesque pathway, called Cavone, with Etruscan inscriptions on the walls. Sovana and the other smaller towns continued to thrive even after Vulci began to decline. Vulci was defeated by Q. Coruncanius in 280 B.C. and alarge part of its territory was confiscated. But the smaller tov/ns were favoured by Roman policy which
128. Sna// chestin bronTefoil, decorated witb a.frieze of a battle with AmaTons, inspired b1 Greek models (front Valci, ear/1 3rd century B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian Etruscan Maseam. The handle isftrned by tao twans mrrying a Joung bo1,ar7 trr, o, their backs. This chest shaws what a high leuel of artistic achieaement had bun reacbed b1 the craftsmen of Vu/ci on the eae of the war pith Rome. 129. Pedinent af the tenple of Ta/amone, detat/ shawing Oediput. F/orence,Archaec,/ogical Maseam. The tenple was rebuilt and modernized in the f rst balf of the 2nd century B.C. in accordance aith the Roman pa/iry of strengthening tbe outposts of the territory around Valci. 110. Souana,Hi/debrand Tonb, facade in tbe style of a tenph (first half of the 3rd centaryB.C.).
74 Trade
The existence of trade is documented during the Palaeolithic period by the use of flint from distant countries and by the presence ofnon-indigenous seashells. During the Neolithic, obsidian was imported from Lipart, Sardinia and the Aegean islands. During the Bronze Age, Italy was involved in the exchanges between northern Europe and Mycenae and took part in the trade of metals and amber. From the middle of the 8th century to the end of 7th, Etruria exchanged with foreign merchants, who were often integrated in Etruscan society, mineral products for luxury items (ceramics, jeweliery, precious metal vases), precious raw materials (gold, silver, ivory, amber) and agricultural produce (oil and wine). After the late 1th century, the Etruscans began to play an active role in maritime trade, exporting wine and pottery (ugs and goblets) to the western Mediterranean countries. Their oresence in the eastern Meditertunrui is documented bv the soread of "bucchero" in this region and by the Greek legends telling of the cruel ex"Tyrrhenian ploits in that arca of the oirates." But the competition, first of the Phocaeans (battle of Aleria in 545 B.C.), then of the Greeks and later of the Syracusans(battle of Cumae in 474 B.C.), eventually forced the Etruscans to abandon maritime trade. They then concentrated on overland trade, exchanging ceramics and bronze vases with the populations on the other side of the Appennines and, in some cases, even beyond the AIps. Among the products of the Etruscan economy, some were destined solely for internal consumption, others were sold on local or regional markets and others still, especially during the late republican period and the early impertal age, covered a vast export market. Among the latter, wine was the most important. ln Fact, in the organization of the villas based on slave labour. the production and export of wine was one of the major sources of revenue for the new large landowners. The export trade was essentially maritime, since overland transport was often impossible and always much more expensive. The wine was carried in ceramic containers, amphoras, and was stored in the holds of large trading ships which sailed from all the major ports and reached the imoortant cities on the western shores of ihe Mediterranean. The wine then often continued its journey along navigable rivers and was sold even in faraway places. The evidence of this widesoread commerce lies in the remains of amohoras discovered by archaeologists. Scholars have studied these amphoras in depth and, among all ceramic objects, they are the best known. But there is still an unanswered question concerning their production: we do not know whether amphoras specifically produced for the export of wine were made by the ceramics industries or by the estates producing the wine. Together with the wine and other foodstuffs, the export trade also dealt with fine tableware produced in various parts of Etruria. In some cases, these obiects (Arezzo ceramics, black varnish vases, and so on) have been found in very distant oarts of the world. The remarkable commercial successof the oroduce of Etruria (and of ltaly in general) later declined considerably and export was reduced to a regional scale. This was the result of the development of the provinces: Spanish oil, wine from Gaul, African wheat took over and in the end Etruria was even importing fine tableware from the orovinces. During the late I st century A.D. in rhe countryside around Cosa, the landowners abandoned the wine presses and began to invest in other activities, such as animal breeding. This was the beginning in Etruria, as elsewhere, of the great transformation which brought about the collapse of the manufacturing industries and the spread of the large, underpopulated landed estates. During the early Middle Ages the main activity in Tuscany, as in the rest of central and northern Italy, was agriculture. Money was used only on exceptional occasions, to buy large quantities of merchandise; normally it was simply hoarded. Most sales and purchases were done by barter. The archaeological evidence from the period of Longobard domination shows us that valuable objects, such as the gold jewellery placed in the tombs with the deceased,were only rarely locally produced, while ceramic wares were almost entirely local. This situation lasted until the 10th century, when Pisa and Genoa challenged the hegemony of Arabs and assertedtheir suoremacv on the coasts and the islandi of thl Mediterranean. These two cities began to invest their war booty in the construction of mercantile shios which
carried, as well as the agricultural sur- III. In the inperia/ agethe export oJEtrusplus (mainly oil and wine), also the canprodacts declined, while the importation first Arab ceramics that decorated so fron the prouincesincreased. many north-western Tuscan churches Yellou': export of local products (u'ine and potterv) after the 1 1th centurv.
Rlue: u'ine and fruit l)urple: u'inc, oil and potterv Red: wine, oil, fish sauce and potterv Green: wine an<l pottery Brown: u'ine and potterv C)range: quality foodstuffs
tion giuing the name ( the owner (/ate 7th centarl B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian Etrascan Museum. Daring the 7th and 8th centuries Etrascan wine was exparted in cantainei.rs /ike theseto the lVestern Mediterra-
L Reconstraction of a trade uessel.To tbe of right, cross-sedion the bald containingwine amphoras. IL In the republican period Etruria exported. a wide uariery of prodacts ta the prouinces.
Grecn: Italic potte4' ( )range: quality foodstuffs
Anphoras asedJar /ransparling wine fram Etraria, found in the wreck of a Ranan ship near Albenga. Albenga, Ciuic Musettm. IV. V. I7ine amphora witb a painted inscrip'
VI. Branze tfipld, with scu/ptaral decorations (fram Vulci, late 6tb century B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian Etrascan Museam. At the tap, Herca/es and afena/efgure; at the boltom, three reclining sileni. Simi/ar examp/esfoand at Spina, at Dtirkhein in Cerman-y and at Athens are eaidence howfarof reachingVa/ci's export trade was. VII. Bucchero kantharos (from soatbern Etraria, /ate 7tb-ear/1, 6th century B.C.). Florence, Arcbaeological Maseam. This jag was asedfor drinking wine; at the height af tbc Elrasuns' maritime expantion, i/s asagespread throughoat the Mediterranean.
Vulci, Sovena antl (-osa
allowed them to take over the confiscated land; Rome thus benefited from the traditonally antagonistic relationship between the small towns and the former ruling city. After the Roman conquest (280 B.c.) vur-ct lost the majority of its land which was divided into prefectures and colonies, some founded ex n0u0) others by developing existing communities. The city probably onlv kept control over rhe cenrral-easternland surrounding it; the coastal stretch, between Vulci and the sea, became public land (ager pablicus)and the city's port (Regisvilla) was abandoned. There are ruins and archaeologicalfinds documenting the life of vulci under the Romans. It was here that Aurelius cotta's milestone, marking the distance of 70 miles from Rome, was found; Aurelius cotta was responsible for the construction of the via Aurelia, probably in 241 B.c. Along the main east-westsrreerof the city (decumanus) inscription documenrs the restoration of a buildan ing during the imperial age. Walking down the decumanus one can see the ruins of a late republican house where floor-mosaics with geometrical patterns were found; nearby is an areawhere the baths stood. D_uringthe 3rd century the prefecture of Statonia (today, Castro) was formed just north of Vulci, and further north, the prefecture of Saturnia. Both these towns, as we have seen,existed before the Rom_an conquest. On the coast, on the other hand, the Roman colony of 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 is today-almost entirely open to the public. Surrounded by a polygonal set of walls, like those at Saturnia, Cosa covered ^n ut€^ oflver thirty acres;the town-planning was based on the customary straight streets, regularly intersecting at right angles (the cardines running north-south, and the decumani running east-west). The forum was surrounded by public buildings such as the basilica, the comitium, the curia, and was very similar in plan to the Roman forum. The
1) 1. Cosa, the uta//s ( j rd- 2nd centurl,
1)2. Cosa, ruins of the Capitoliant (2nd century B.C.). 13). Satarnia, tlte C/odian lYa-y and the gate (225 B.(.). Raman
Vulci, Sovana and Cosa
134. Sxtefnestre,tbe fortifcatioru of tbe B.C.). ailla ( l st centary Roman tbe 13 5. Settefnestre, porticoof the Roman B.C.). ailla ( l st centurJ of 136. keconstruction tbe uilla at Settefnestre.
highest point of the city, the sacred arez (arx), was where the templatform; it was built in ples stood. The Capitolium stood on alaLrge ihe 2nd century B.C. on the ruins of an older temple dedicated probably to Jupiter. Among the private buildings, a domushas been excavated and almost entirely reconstructed near the entrance gate on the south-east side of the city.
Vulci, Sovana md Cosa
13 7. Talanone, rains of the Roman uilla at Madonna delleGrazie (1st centaryA.D.). 1)8. Talanone, tbe cistern of tbe Roman uilla at Madonna delle Crazie ( l st century
There are remains of the walls of SarunNn, which we mentioned earlier, still visible near the Porta Romana; this was where the Clodian Way, built in225 B.C. to connect Rome to Saturnia, enaqaarilm tered the city. Among the other ruins in Saturnia, t castellum (a public building where the distribution of water took place) has been identified, as well as a group of baths near the present-day sulphur 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 Magliano) was founded on the coast, north of Cosa, probably between 1.67 and 157 B.C. Heba was founded on an ^rea of Etruscan territory, presumably allied to Rome, ruled over by the city of TALAMoNE. Talamone stood on the hill that today is called Talamonaccio. \We know from literary sources that in 225 B.C. the famous battle between the Romans (led by Atilius Regulus and Aemilius Papus) and the Gauls took place on the outskirts of Talamone. The discovery of a mass grave, with remains of men and horses mixed with quicklime, along the coast at Campo Regio is considered to be connected to this battle. Our sources also tell us that Marius landed at Talamone in his search for allies against his enemy Sulla. And it was Sulla who was probably responsible for the sack of the city in 82 B.C. \7e do not know whether the city managed to survive for any length of time after that; nor do we know whether the numerous small farms that sprang up throughout the countryside are the consequence of the abandoning of the city. What we do know is that Talamone continued to prosper throughout the whole of the 2nd century and this is shown by the new decorations added to the temple on the top of the hill. Among these are several architectural terracottas and the famous pediment (now in the museum in Orbetello) which has recently been dated at the second quarter of the 2nd century B.C. Why such an elaborate new decoration was added at that time is still uncertain. Next to the temple a votive tablet with miniature reproductions of agricultural implements and weapons was found; this has been interpreted as the offering of ex-soldiers (ueteran) who had been granted land in the new colonies founded nearby (perhaps at the time of the foundation of Heba).
V u l c i . S o v e r t r r t n r i( i r s r r
4 r , , r . t !. l f
crlpt ofthe the 1j9. Sauana, ear/y rnedieual catltedra/ ( 7th century). 11(). Buck/e and decoratittere/iefsfron a be/t (fron Grangia, secondbalf af the 7th Maseum. Archaea/ogtca/ century).Grosseto,
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 majority of our archaeologicalevidence dates from the 2nd), the countryside 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 basedon the sufface finds: the farms, belonging to peasant smallholders, appear to decline in the early 1st century B.C., at the same time as the development and spread of large estatesbased on slave labour. The small i.t.o.porated into large properties in the hands of farms *.t. wealthy landowners (the presence in the area of the Domitii Oenobardi and the Sixti families is documented). near Cosa,has been comOne of thesevillas, at SETTEFINESTRE 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 Mediterranean countries) and oil, the gtanary, the stablesfor the animals and the living quafters of the slaves employed in agriculture. This kind of agricultural organization reached its peak between the mid1st century B.C. and the mid-1st century A.D. and beganto decline during the 2nd century. The buildings were abandoned or converted to other uses,and replacedby new, luxurious and enormous constructions, usually along the coast (maritime villas). We have no evidence as yet of any productive activity connected to these new constructions except for the reservoirs for the breeding of fish; but none of them has been systematicallyexcavated.It would be very interesting to establish the connection between the maritime villas and the
surrounding countrysi de, organrzedas a large landed estate.Among these villas, one should mention the one at Santa Liberatz, on the north 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 despite the fact that the neighbouring inland areashad become progressively more swampy and uninhabitable. Mzlana began to spread through 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 archaeologicalevidence, which continued throughout the early Nliddle Ages, coincides with the desertion of the countryside.
From the late imperial age onwards, SCIVANAmust have ruled over the territorics of Cosa (on the coast) and Saturnia (inlancl). Under the Longobards, it was the seatof a gastaldo(chamberlain) and probably exerted supremacy over the other cities 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 conslderable amount of property he owned in that diocese for those his brother possessedat 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 presence is documented by obiects found in tombs at Sovana: relief plaques and "romance" type, have been found above all in the Nlaremma are^, lfl buckles, of a particular in the necropolis of Grangia (near Grosseto), dating from the earlv 7th cenrury. Other contemporary objects, with traditional late-classical relief patterns, have been found at nearby San N{artino su1Fiora (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 cathedral, 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 replaced 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 divided 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 remarkable pre-Romanesque (8th-9th century) ciborium, with four columns with imitation Corinthian capitals and carved ornaments in the shape of leaves, bunchesofgrapes inside circles, peacocksand doves (seep. | 7)'
at The Lower Palaeolithicis aell documented Torre in Pietra and Castel di Guido (wherethereare also remains('Homo erectus). Tbe Middle Palaeolithic is present at Castel Malnome and Torre in Pietra; tbe tJpper Palaeoin lithic at Palidoro and Norcbia (Riparo Biedano), and objects the Pigorini at and Vi//a Gialia Museums.The l{eriithic period is documented Palidoro at Sasso Furbara, abere there was a remarkable di and at tbe Patrizi grotto tonb of a man with a drilled skull (Pigorini Masean). The Aeneolithic is
Tarquinia and Caere
not aell documented: small grotto tombsat Tarquinia, a tomb at Norcbia and b1 fragnents at Palidoro. Tbe Bronze Age fu represented a uarieg offndl Along tlte coasttoaards Ciaitaueccbiathere are seaeralAppennine culture conmunities,uitlt dolmen-t1pe grauesat Pian Suhano.Tbe largest nunber of settlementsis to be _fo*d in tbe hilj nastal stretclt (Appenninq subAppennine and proto-Villanouan uillages,tbe latter fortfied). At Luni on tbe Mignonetltere aas an Appennine calture comnunitl whereM-ycenean ceranics of tbe 14th nntury B.C. bauebeenfoand;later objects representing the sab-Appennineandproto-Villanoaan cilltures werefoundin tbe sameuillage. Otber settlements,witlt documentation fron tbe Appennine to tbe protoVillanouan, are at SanGiouenale and Torrionaaio (Monte Romano).Betaeen Tolfu and Allumiere tbere are alsoproto-Villanoaan tumulus graues;incinerationnecropolises at Allumiere, Costade/ Marano (witb a riclt collection are of bronzeobjut:) and at Sasso Furbara. (Objuts at tbe Pigorini Museum, di Villa Giulia Munum, at tbe Antiquariam of Sasso Farbara and at the di milftum of Alluniere). The pre-eminence of TanqutMA over all other Etruscan cities is indicated among other things by the legends that attribute its foundation to Tarchon, the friend (or son, or brother) of the mythical Tyrrhenus. And in fact, the Villanovan culture-the earliest Etruscan civilizztion-found in Tarquinia its highest expression. There were settlements on the two plateaux, called Civita, the side of the future city, and Monterozzi, where huts have been excavated and are now open to the public. The necropolises of Civitucola, Poggio Gallinaro, 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 the Pigorini Museum). The Tomb of the Warrior, now in Berlin, dates from the late period of this culture; in it a complete armour was
141. Tarqainia,Tombof the Baron (late 6tb centaryB.C.). Tbefrieze showsthree scenet leauetaking oneonthe endwa// of the sbousa couple witb their twoloung uu on borseback.
82 Slavery
From classical texts and inscriptions we know that in Etruscan society there were various forms of serfdom (total or partial exclusion from civil and political rights), denoted by the lack of a family name. As eady as the 6th century B.C. there were slaves who were totally dependent from their masters, and were employed in domestic labour or as craftsmen. An example is the signature of the painter of the Tomb of the Jugglers (late 6th century) in Tar quinia: he signed himself Arantb Heracanasa, the first being his individual name, the second the genitive of his master's family name. Those that Latin writers called serui were probably half-free men, that is individuals who were personally free and benefitted from civil rights, such as the right to ov/n properry, but had no political rights. This can be deduced from the prophery ofthe nymph Vegoia (an Etruscan text of the eady 1st century B.C., or according to other scholars of the 3rd centurv. which has come down to us only in iis Latin version) which threatens vengeance on the part of Tinia-the Etruscan |upiter-against all those, masters or serfs, who shall change the borders of their property. The class of the serfs, probably of Italic origin, was responsible from the 4th century onwards for revolts demanding political rights, which in some cases led to Roman intervention . In the 2nd centurv B.C.. in inland northern Etruria wherethe presence of Rome was less direct, there were slaves whose names were often of Greek origin; they were called laatni in Etruscan, derived from the word lautn meaning family. During the Hellenistic period, there is evidence of a great number of lastni and serui being granted freedom; this is documented in particular by old individual names now being used as family names and transmitted from father to son. In Rome, like in Greece, despite the occasional contrasting opinions, slavery was considered part of the right of the people (ias gentian). The slave, seruas,had no political rights and was not considered a member of the citv: he was like an object and, ". sr.h, could be bought or sold. Slaves could be bought in slave markets, like the famous one on Delos in the Aegean.
One of the major sources of slaves were wars, since the victor could either kill the enemy or reduce him into slavery and therefore sell him. There were two kinds of slaves: oublic .-and orivate. The former *.r. ployed in works of public utility, in manufacturing industries and as craftsmen. They were highly specialized and in some cases became respected professionals. This created deeo differences between individual slaves: one might even be the Emperor's private counsellor, while another might spend the rest of his life as a humble stonecutter. The serai were sometimes given the permission to have property and ownings, but this permission could be revoked at will by the master. Private slaves were used for domestic labours in the city (fanilia urbana) or for agricultural tasks in the country (fanilia rastiea). The ones employed in the countryside were organized in a militarv fashion: thev were divided in groups of ten (dicariae), were supervised by monitores who were in turn under the control of the ailicus. Ve know from ancient texts that slaves were considered agricultural implements. In fact, the farm's properties were divided into three kinds of instruments: tools (instrumenttm matum), animals (instranentum vmiuocale) and slaves (instrumentum uocale). A great deal of care was taken in the upkeep of the slaves, for the death ofone ofthem was considered a great financial loss. They were encouraged to have children, and a female slave who gave birth to four children was granted freedom. When we consider the technology of the classicalworld, we must point out that these men were in many cases much more efficient than the tools or machineries of the time; in a sense,the slaves were the real Roman technology. III. Terracotta arn portraling tbe hero moa/dsand produced in large qaantities. Ecltetlo armed on/1 witb a plough (fron IV. Reconstructionof tlte wine-press in the Chiasi, 15 0- 12 5 B.C.). Rome,Villa Cia/ia. This kind of ilrn uas ofien ased b1 Roman ailla at Settefnestrenear Cosa. s/aues,freedmen and artisans, at can beseen b1 tbe inscriptions; tbel were made from
I. Detail of thepainted decorationof the Go/ini I tanb at Oruieto, sbowing a slauegetting winefrom a bowl (first half rf the 4th centaryB.C.). Oruieto,Palazza dei Papi. II. Re/ief showing slaues working a winepress. Aquileia, Archaeological Museam.
I ;trcluinirLnrl (.lcrr e
j;*l u; '
d ,u
'I'arqainia, 'l.r.,ttb 112. rl' Huntin.q and I;isltin,q (around 5 J0 B.(..). Detai/ of' the end n,a//sban,itt.qfishin.q,rcrnt. a
found, as \\'ell as bronzes and ceramics in an imitation Cy'cladic stvle, pror.ing that Tarquinia was in contact u'ith the first Clreekco"()riental" "Roclonizers. After the early bv stage,represente(l the r vesc u'ith the choris" tomb (early 7th centun') famous for rhc.fa-1,en inscription b,v the pharaoh of the same name (Tarquinia \luseum), the citv unclerwenta perioclof cleclne. According to tradition this ts when the noble (-orinthian merchant Demaratosarrived. At thc beginningof thc 6th ccntury a ncw pcrioclof prospcritv beganfor Tarquinia: the harbour temple of Gtt,\ttlsr-,-\ u,asfouncleci. Thc inscriptions,in Greek until 480 B.C., shou' that the temple u'as cleclicatecl the worship of Aphroclite, Hera ancl l)emetra; the r.oto tir.e offerings were mostlv macle br, artisans ancl merchants trom easternGreece.The onlv exception is thc stonc enchor-stockdedicatcd to Apollo arounci,180b1,Sostratosof ,,\egina,a rich merchurnt Thc numcrous presenceof Greek also mentioncd b,v I {croc-lotus. trac'lers for \\,'as also responsible thc clcvelopmcnt,fiom the first half of the 6th centurVonu,arcls, Ionic stvlc artistic procluctions,such of as the stone slabscor.eringtombs clecoratecl with relicfs (in thc local museum) ancl the earliest paintecl tombs, clating from after 5,10. ,,\mong these u,'emust mcntion thc tombs of Auguri (Circctings), (-accia (Hunting), Pesca (trishing),'fori (Rulls) Giocolieri Qugglers), ancl llaronc (Baron), in some of u,hich thc u'ork of immigrant Ionian artistsis clearlv iclentifiable. Bv the 4th century, Tarquinia controllccl a largc inlancl tcrritorr
farquinia ancl Caere
143. Two terracotta winged borses (rom tbe "Ara della Regina" tenple in Tarqainia wbere tbel pmbabj werepart of tbe decoration of tbe nain beam;secondbalf of the 4tb century B.C.). Tarquinia, National Museum. 144. Cerueteri,Banditaccia necropolis, interior of tbe Tonb of "Capite/li" (earj 6tb centuryB.C.).
(Tuscania, Norchia and castel d'Asso) developing its agricultu ral res_ources and exploiting its position along the iommunication routes. The powerful ruling fao'ily, the Spurinnas,owners of the Tomb of the ogre (orco), gave Tarquinia the supremacy within the revived on the eve of the war against Rome (35g-351 F,11s.gl.leagpe, B.c.). This renewed economic and cultural flourish is revealed also by the reconstruction of the temple called "Ara della Regina" (ruins on the hill of the civita, while the fictile relief of winged horses is in the museum), by the stone sarcophagi in the museum]some decorated with reliefs, others painted, such as the famous sarcophagus of the Amazons (Archaeological Museum in Florence), and 6'y the painted tombs, showing thenew ideology tending towards the glorification of the aristocracy (orco, Scudi, Giglioli and rifone toirbr;. In this last tomb, dating from the late 3rd .e.rtory 8.C., zscenewith a procession of magistrates significanrly expresses the desire of integration in the Roman state. The territory of cennE was densely populated by small settlethe plains along the coast from the earliest villanovan perT:"tr.i" iod. The objects found in the necropolises around the site of the future city (Sorbo and cave della pozzolana) are relativelv modest: they can be seen in the local museum and at the villa iiulia l,luseum. Even tombs dating from the later villanovan period have prgserved only modest objects, unlike in other parts of i,truria. It is onl'r in the 7th century that the materialculture of the citv beqins to
and (-aere
Caere (550-525 145. Lldria fron B.C.\. Kone, Villa Gialia' The decoration sbops Hercules leading the tbree-headeddog Cerberas to King Earlstheas who is frigbt' enedand hides in a largejar. 146. Siluer cap mantfactared in an Oriental workthop, with relief decorations (rom tbe Kegolini-Galassi tomb in Caerei B.C.). Vatican, Cregorian 675-650 Etruscan Maseam. The oatsidefrieze shoat a processionof armed men; tbe middle one, hant;ng scenes;the inner roandel, a battle tuo between lions and a ba//.
flourish, thanks probably to the mineral resources of the Tolfa mountains. An aiistocratic 6lite begins to emerge, documented for us by princely tombs of unsurpassedsplendour. The Regolini Galassi 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 produced locally and some imported from various thion-some of the Near East-and bucchero and ceramic goods imported parts irom Corinth and eastern Greece. Dating from this same period (second 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. cube-shaped, Here, in extraordinary quantity of tombs-tumulus, the whole range of funeral architecture in chamber-illustrates Caere between the 7th and 3rd centuries B'C. After the 7th century the development of the city causedthe population 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 mountains, in the valley of the Mignone (Rota, Pisciarelli) and along the border with the territory of Veii (Monterano). Some of them, especially 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
Tarquinia and Caere
of 147. Sarcopbag'ts tbe Amazors (fron ArTarqainia,t50-125 B.C.). Florence, Museam.Detail uitb an Amacbaeological zon on borseback -fiSbtkg a Creek watiory tbereis ar inscriptionrecordon tlte outside is ing that tbe sarcopbagus dedicatedto Rantba HucTnaib1herson.
invention of buccherowas the work of the craftsmenof Caere,as is 148. SanGiotterah,excaaations ltoases' of shown by tomb No. 2 at Casalettidi Ceri in the local museum,by Tbeground-planof tbe towndates from the B.C. the Calabresitomb in the Gregorian Museum and by the Montetos- 6th-5thcenturv to tumulus at Villa Giulia. Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics' such as the large amphoras, the coloured group of bizzane figures or the *human masL group," exported to southern France, were found in later tombs. And finally, dating from the mid-6th century, there are the "hydrias from Caere,"the work of an immigrant Aeolian artist the from Greek mythology, esPecially labours of who painted scenes Hercules,in a lightheartedand playful spirit. During this period the "middle class" composed of pro-Greek development of a sort of at merchants and craftsmen (see the Tbesaaros Delphi) is documented by the new tombs in the nofrh-easternPart of the Banditaccianetombs, and they cropolis: theseare no longer tumuli, but die-shaped arephced next to eachother in straight lines, indicating thal the deceased were all consideredequals.Also in the secondhalf of the 6th century, when the city allied with the Carthaginians against the naval power of the PhocaeanGreeks (battle of Aleria, 545 B.C.), a large number of public buildings were constructed: the temPles at Montetosto and Furbara, the temPle of Vigna Zoccoli (in the city) with inscriptions in Greek to the goddessHera (in the local museum). The sacred Lre in the port of PYRGI was enlarged and enriched by Th{arie Velianas,who is referred to as king of Caere in a gold foil with a Phoenician inscription, but was probably ^ tyranni--al figure supported by the plebeians.The sanctuarywas connected of to tha crty by a monument^lgute:it consisted a Greek type temple the Etruscan goddess Uni (the sarneas the Latin (B) dedicated to alzter Astarte, errtd Juno and the Greek Hera) and the Punic goddess Etruscan type temple (A). The excavationsand the Antiquarium are open to the public; the fictile high-relief from temPle A shordng the battle between Tidaeus and Melanippus and copies of the three gold
Tarquinia and Caere
149. Stone reliefsbowing battle betpun tbe Tldeus and Melanippas,witb Atbena and Zeuslookingon (rom Tenph A at Pygi, aroand 460 B.C.). Ronq Villa Gialia. 150. P1rgi,excaaatiorc thesite of Tenon ph B (late 6tlt century B.C.).
foil inscriptions (two in Etruscan, one in Punic) commemorating the dedication of the temple are in the Villa Giulia Museum. A school of ceramic u/orkers, working at first in the Ionic style and later in the Aeginan, was active at this time, producing among other things the architectural sculptures from Pyrgi and the Sarcophagus "degli Sposi" in Villa Giulia, ^nd ^ sarcophagus lid with a young m n at a banquet (Cerveteri museum). After a period of cultural isolation (second half of the 5th centrry), charactenzed only by the importations from Attica found in "Tomb the of the Greek Vases" (Villa Giulia) and by the foundation, towards the end of the century, of the "Tomb of the Sarcophagi" (local museum and Gregorian Museum), the city experienced a cultural revival. The sanctu^ry at Pyrgi was restored after it had been sacked by Dionysius of Syracuse (384 B.C.) and new tombs were founded, "Tomb such as the of the Reliefs," decorated with painted stuccoes showing weapons and utensils of daily usage. During the invasion of the Gauls in 390, the Roman vestal virgins took refuge irr Caere, for, unlike its traditional enemy Veii, the city was allied to Rome and was soon granted the rights of Roman citizenship excluding the vote (ciaitassinesufragio). This alliance explains the presence in Caere of several important Roman citizens, documented by the tomb of the Claudii (who changed their nalne to the more Etruscan Clautie) and by inscriptions in Latin and Etruscan on "Genucilia" disks, a typical local product. The good relations between Caere and Rome continued throughout the 4th century (with the only exception of the war between Rome and Tarquinia in 358-351), until the early 3rd century when Caere joined the other cities of southern Etruria in their revolt against Rome. The territory between Ferento-Acquarossa to the nofth and San Giovenale to the south, comprising the basin of the Fosso tsiedano and the upper valley of the Mignone, has all the characteristics of a communication route, beginning from the archaic period until the late 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 culture'il/as influenced by these two towns, predorninantly l:y Ca.erein the archaic period, and by Tarquinia fnrnn the 4th century ,8.C. orr-
89 Hilltop Towns in Tuscany: Scadino
Fortified hilltop villages are one of the fundamental aspects of medieval and modern Tuscany. The development of these settlements cafl be studied orimarily thanks to archaeology,for it is not until the 11th century that written documentation begins to be at all abundant. Some recent excavations have shown us how complex the phenomenon really is and how many transformations these settlements have undergone. The case of Scarlino is exemplary. It u/as a castle documented from the end of the 1th centurv. on the border between the diocesesof Roselle on one side and Populonia and Massa on the other. The early medieval settlement, consisting in huts with fireplaces and a frescoed church, grew up on a site of much earlier communities. There are, in fact, traces of a late Bronze Age settlement (12th-1ith century B.C.) which was then practically abandoned during the archaic Etruscan period; between the 5th and 1st centuries B.C. there was a large hilltop fortress, surrounded by walls that were more than two metres thick. Durins the imperial age, the site was all bui abandoned, while the ^re ^t the foot of the hill and along the coast became populated by villas and other smaller farming communities. When the early medieval settlement developed it followed a model that was more than a thousand years old. The hilltop had probably been fortified since it was first settled, but during the 10th century the fortifications had to be strengthened. Even the houses became more solid and the huts were reolaced by stone houses with terracotta rooF tiles, surrounded by a huge set of walls that enclosed the whole hilltoo. The village underwent several renovations until the 13th century: for example, the old church was replaced by a new Romanesque one. But, basically, its general appearance did not change much. It was only at the beginning of the 14th century that serious changes 'The took place. arca occupied by the original castle was taken over by a fort and a new set of walls was built around the houses that had grown up outside the original settlement, including the Romanesque church of San Donato, built in the first half of the 13th centurv. I. Cround-plan of tbe castleof Scarlino. II. Tbe castleof Scarlino. 1il. .'lcar/ino. The interior of tbe citade/: earl1 medieual beam boles, Hellenistic and medieua/elements. IV. Scarlino. Inside the 15th-centary church tbere are the ruins of the apset of twa churches:aboue,the Romanesqueone and at ihe centre, 9th-centuryone. tbe
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Tarquinia and Caere
wards. Three of the very few excavations of private houses in Etruria are in this region: AcquanosSA, with private houses and an aristocratic residence built around a square internal courtyard with porticoes, and Luwt and SAN GIoveNarB in the upper valley of the Mignone. Another characteristic of this are are the spectacular mountain necropolises carved out of the rock: BLERA and SRN GruLIANO, used in archaic times, CasTer D'ASSo and NoRcnIA, dating from the later period. The long struggle against Rome was finally concluded with TaR151. CastelD'Asso,faeadeof tomb 5i, QUINIA's defeat in 281,B.C. The city was forced to surrender alarge it with afake doorand tbe invription aboue stretch of coastland which became public land (agerpublicus) and its Arntbal Ceises control over the towns and villages of its territory, which rapidly begiuingthename tbeowner, of (6tb nntaryB.C.). 152. Norchia, the hillside neropolis B.C.). (4th- 3rd centurJ
gan to acquire ^ grc^ter degree of autonomy. During the 2nd century B.C. Tarquinia's old port, which had been abandoned after the defeat, resumed activity thanks to the foundation of the Roman colony of Gravisca in 181 B.C.. The plan a sarcophagas showing reclining of this town, like most other coastal colonies, is similar to that of a 15 3. Stone nuple (fron Caere,late 6th centuryB.C.). military c^mp (castriln) with streets running parallel to each other. Rone,Vi//a Ciulia. At the end of the civil war (90 B.C.), the towns in the area which had already become independent of Tarquinia became nunicipia. During the Augustan period, despite all attempts at increasing the population (as at Gravisca), a period of irreversible decline beg^nfor Tarquinia and it continued all through the imperial age. Roman presence at Tarquinia is documeqted, among other things, by a street near the Ara Reginae,a sacred building restored many times, even during the imperial age. Also in the centre of Tarquinia are the ruins of a small house with a large pilastered room next to it: here there were dolia for the preservation of foodstuffs. Roman control over the area caused the extinction of some large local families and the entry of others into the Roman senate. The latter were responsible for the construction of many public buildings. In the early imperial age the elogiaof the Spurinnae(an important loin cal family whose members were arrlspices Rome and even became together with the statue of consuls) were placed in the Ara Reginae Tarchon, the mythical founder of Tarquinia, and thefasti of the col-
Tarquinia and Caere
lege of sixty haruspices, who interpreted for the Roman senate the meaning of unusual or exceptional events. The decline, which began in the 3rd century, is documented by the scarsity of archaeological finds, with the exception of a very grand late classicalhouse in the centre of Gravisca. Defeated by the Romans in the 273 8.C., CaERg lost about half of its territory, in particular the coastal ^re ; m ny towns that until that 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 important port 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 Photographs. The colony of CesrnuM NOVUM (near present-day Santa Marinella) 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 archive). All these newly founded coastal towns had the function of controlling both the sea and the Etruscan inland, still not completely subjugated.The construction of the Via Aurelia (probably tn 241 B.C.) connected these centres to one another and to the other tov/ns along the coast as far as Cosa. The inland territory was organized as a prefecture under the rule No of a magistrate nominated directly by Rome @raefectu:). new colonies were founded in this area, unlike what happened along the coast, and the only new town that was built was Forum Clodii, founded in the 2nd century along the Clodian Way (built in 225 B.C.) connecting Rome to Saturnia. During the republic^n'age many villas were built, both along the coast and in the inland. We do not know whether the maritime villas (which became more numerous and important in the early and middle imperial age) were the centres of productive activities like the ones in the inland, but we do know that they had large pools
154. Sarcophagasof the Magistrate (fron Caere, Tomb of the Sarcopbagi,late 5th centurl B.C.). Vatican, Gregorian Etruscan Museum. The frieTe shows the joarne-y to on Hades of tbe deceased a cbariot, with a processioninc/ading tbree musicians and a man earrying a staf. 15 5. Blera, a tomb in the necropolis (6tb B.C.). century
l rrquinia and (-acrc
15 6. Tarquinia, thepauing of tbe port. 157. Santa Marinaila, rains of tbe lale repablicanperiod ui//a at Crottacce. 158. Grauisca, a dolium avd for the prevruation offood,fron a late republican period priuate house. 1 f 9. Santc ll z;.ztl,lt, rtis: r{ l!,e &trn:t ail/a er Crottacce, 160. Pyrgi, iht B.C.). Castram (3rd centwry
used for fish-breeding. Near Arsrutt (between San Nicola and Palo) i;here were severai vilias-one of which belon*,ed to Pompey. The most interestinq are the one at the castle of Palo. with polychrome itself, anci the one at San Nicola. Among mosaic-s now in the ca.stle the 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 (where the Caesarswere prosperity. At Caere, a theatre, ^ caesareum honoured) and other important public buildings, such as an aqueduct, were built. Nothing remains of these constructions today. It seems that during this period Caerc was once ag rn granted the status of arrtonomous manicipium,but it was probably only a formahty, for in practice the city's subordination to Rome continued unchanged. Despite Au.gustus'sattempts at reviving the cities of this area, they continued to decline. I)uring the irnperial age this decadence br-carrieeven more pronounced anci by the 2nd century A.D. all the 'l'he jmriori-arr'cit;es vrere abtndc;,ned. to itr(-,t.: viilas appeat. have remai,i,,erl rnlv artitt,=elenrentsin aterritotr,- p.hi,'h was becomins, the-
Tarquinia rntl Cacrc
162 progressively more the property of the emperor. ^ Il was Traian who was responsible for the last important intervention in the region (107-108 A.D.): the construction of the harbour of Centumcillae (Civitavecchia). This port and the surrounding 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'svitalitv compared to the fest of the coastland, which was already an uninirabitei 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, scholarshave identified severallarge rooms used as baths, a library and the hospitalia(apartments for guests). Fragments of the villas fioor decorations are now in the museum at Civitavecchia. The site of Aqu ae T auri is present-dayFiconcella, near a sulphur spring. an only of rhe whichbecame seat a diocese in 649,p\ayed important TuscaNra,
role under the Longobards as a border town, in the centre of a territory rvith sevwell as the future \/iterbo' a neweral pre-exist ing ciitas (Tarquinia, Ferentis, asly founded tow-n not far from the abandoned ciaitasof 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 presence 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 trichorae, centre of the town: it is the crypt ofsan Giusto, consisting of three cellae 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 similarities with the crypt of the abbey of Farneta in the Chiana valley' 'I-ascania, tbe hill of San Pietro with 161. 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--aaahresting on co/umnstaken from a rained classical building. This is the oldesl arrbi /er/ura/ st nrrl a re i n T asrania.
Museumsof Etruria
AI-BANO I, AZI AI,E _ CIVIC MUSEUM The archaeological section houseslocal materialsfrom the prehistorical,proto-historical,Roman and early Christian periods. ALLUMIERE _ PREHISTORICALMUSEUM OF UPPER LATIUM Nlaterialsfrom prehistoricaland proto-historicalperiods, including Villanovan vases and objects from Etruscan tombs.
Etruscan and Roman gold jewellery, coins, ceramics and bronzes from various sites. FIESOLE - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Materials from the excavations of the nearby Etruscan temple and from the Roman theatre and baths. FLORENCE - ARCHAEOLOGICAL M USEUM OF CENTRAL ETRURIA Prehistorical materials from excavations in Tuscany. Etruscan and Roman sculptures, bronzes, urns, ceramics, gold jewellery and coins which formed the Medici and Lorraine collections, originally housed in the Uffizi. Etruscan monuments and tombs have been reconstructed in the tooographical section. \
AREZZO N,I ECENATE ARCH AEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Prehistorical materialsand Etruscanand Roman urns. c€ramics, bronzesand statues.The collection of the so-called 'vasi Aretini' is particularlyinteresting. FLORENCE ASCIANO- ETRUSCAN MUSEUM Objectsfrom the necropolises PoggioPinci. of
FLORI]NTINE PREHISTORICAL MUSEU M Prehistorical objects (weapons, implements, graffiti) and didactic material illustrating the various prehistorical cukures.
BOI-OGNA - CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM M USEUM A vastcollectionof prehistorical, Villanovan,Etruscan,Ro- GROSSETO ARCHAEOLOGICAL Prehistorical materials, Etruscan and Roman funerarv obman and medievalmaterialsfrom the region around Bologjects, urns, statues, bronzes and coins from the local excavana and alsofrom other partsofltaly. Particularlyinteresting tions, in particular at Rusellae. Also a small section of mearethe furniture itemsand household implements.
dieval archaeology.
CAPENA _ ANTIQUARIUM OF LUCUSFERONIAE Objectsfrom the excavationof Lucus Feroniaeand the necropolisof Capena. CASOLA IN LUNIGIANA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Prehistorical materials stele-statues Lunigiana. and from CECINA - CIVIC ANTIQUARIUM Materials from local excavations,in particular from an Etruscantomb and a Roman villa. CERVETERI - NATIONAL MUSEUM Villanovan, Etruscan and Roman materialsfrom the area around Cerveteri:vases,sarcophagi, terracottasand funeraryobjects.
GROTTAFERRATA NlUSEUM OF THE ABBEY OF SAN NILO Prehistorical and Etruscan materials. GUtsBIO-CIVIC N{USEUM Inscriptions, statues, coins and other objects from the proto-historical and Roman periods, from the Roman theatre and local excavations. ISCHIA DI CASTRO _ CIVIC ANTTQUARIUM Nlaterials from the excavations ofthe Etruscan necroDolises of Castro. I.A SPEZIA-CIVIC MUSEUM Prehistorical, proto-historical, Roman and early Christian materials from the excavations at Luni. The collection of stele-statuesis particularly interesting.
CHIUSI - NATIONAL ETRUSCAN MUSEUM A vastcollectionof Etruscanand Roman materials from excavationsin the area: ceramics,cinerary urns, sarcophagi LUCCA _ NATIONAI, MUSEUN{ AT VILI-A GUINIGI and bronzes. CIVITA CASTELLANA NATIONAL FALISCAN MUSEUM Archaeologicalfinds dating from the 10th to the 3rd centuriesB.C. found in the Faliscan Plain. CIVITAVECCHIA NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Villanovan, Etruscan,Roman and medievalmaterialsfrom excavations the area. in COLLE VAL D'E,LSA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Etruscanfuneraryobjects, ceramics and coinsfrom localexcavations acquired gifts. or as
Etruscan and Roman materials as well as an important medieval section including objects from excavationi in the area around l-ucca-
LUNI _ NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Materials from the excavations at l-uni, primarily dating from the Roman period. MARCIANA _ ARCHAEOI,OGICAL NIUSEUM Prehistorical and Roman materials from various communities on the island o[ Elha. MASSA _ CASTELLO NIALASPINA Permanent exhibition of prehistorical and Roman materials from the area.
M NIASSA ARITTIMA ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Objectsfrom the Etruscantombs of the areaand a collection of Roman coins. MONTALCINO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM from the area. and Etruscanmaterials Prehistorical ROME. VATICAN GREGORIAN ETRUSCAN MUSEUM ceramics,bronzes,gold jewellery,funerary ob' Sculptures, jects and other materialsfrom excavationsin the necropolises of southern Etruria. The objects from the Regolinitomb at Cerveteriareparticularlyinteresting. Galassi
SAN GIMIGNANO _ ETRUSCAN MUSEUM _ CIVIC ANTIQUARIUM in finds from various excavations ORBETELLO Etruscan archaeological Etruscan and Roman funerary obiectsand other materials the area. in from the excavations the area.in particularfrom Cosa. SATURNIA _ ANTIQUARIUM ORTONOVO Etruscan and Roman materials form excavationsin the NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM zfeaRoman archaeological finds from the excavations in the MUSEUM SIENA - NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL areaaround Luni. ORVIETO - FAINA MUSEUM phagi, sculptures and ceramics from excavations around finds mostly from the Etruscannecropolises Siena (Val d'Elsa, Amiata, Chiusi). Archaeological around Orvieto. The collection of Greek and Etruscan MUSEUM SPOLETO - ARCHAEOLOGICAL is vases particularlyinteresting. ORVIETO - CATHEDRAL MUSEUM funeraryobiectsfrom the sectionhouses The archaeological aroundC)rvieto. necropolises
Prehistorical objects, Roman and medieval sculptures, inscriptions and architectural fragments. ETRUSCAN MUSEU M TARQUINIA - NATIONAL Etruscan materials from the necropolises of the area: sarcophagi, detached frescoes, vases, bas-reliefs and funerary obPrehistorical materials, Etruscan and Roman urns' sarco-
PERUGIA - NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL NIUSEUMOF UMBRIA ,ects. Prehistoricalmaterialsfrom central Italy. Urns, bronze laMUSEUM minae and funeraryobjectsfrom the Etruscannecropolises TERNI - ARCHAEOLOGICAL and inscriptions from the Roman Proto-historical materials from the necropolises of the area. of the area. Bas-reliefs period. _
PISA_ MUSEO DELL'OPERA DELLA PRIMAZIALE An archaeological collection of Etruscan and Roman stafragments. tues,sarcophagi architectural and PONTREMOLI CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM Prehistorical and Roman finds from Lunigiana,in particular stele-statues. POPULONIA _ ETRUSCAN MUSEUM and funerary obiectsfrom Vases,fragmentsof sarcophagi of of the excavations the Etruscannecropolises Populonia.
inscriptions,stelesand other Roman and meSarcophagi, dievalmaterials. TODI - ETRUSCAN ROMAN MUSEUM Italic, Etruscanand Roman sculpture,gold iewellery,ceramics and inscriptions. TUSCANIA - NATIONAL MUSEUM in Materialsfrom excavations Tuscaniaand the surrounding ar ea;in particular sarcophagi.
VETULONIA - CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM ROI\{E _ CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS in Materialsfrom excavations the city: funeraryobiectsand Etruscan vasesand funerary objects.Sculptures, mosalcs, Villanovan,Etruscanand Romanceramics. coins and other materials from excavations Roman sites. of VITERBO-CNIC MUSEUM ROME - MUSEUN{OF THE INSTITUTE Villanovan, Etruscan and Roman materials from excavaOF'ETRUSCANSTUDIES tions in the areaaroundViterbo. Casts and reconstructionsof Etruscan cities and settlements. VOLTE,RRA _ GUARNACCI ETRUSCAN MUSEUM Prehistoricalmaterials;a wide range of Etruscan cinerary ROME - PIGORINI PREHISTORICAL AND urns, Etruscanand Roman gold jewellery,sculpture,ceraETHNOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM mics, coins and other materialsfrom the areaaround VolN{aterials from the palaeolithic, bronzeand iron aeneolithic, teffa. ages, from all over Italy and in particularfrom Latium. VULCI-NATIONAL MUSEUM ' Villanovan,Etruscanand Roman archaeological ROME - NATIONAL ETRUSCAN MUSEUM finds from ATVILLAGIULIA the area. Proto-historical,Italic and Etruscan materials from Laceramics, tium, southern Etruria and Umbria. Sculptures, bronzes, gold jewellery,funeraryobjectsand other materials from excavations,arrangedtopographically.
Index of Places
Acquarossa, 36, 88, 90; 44 28, A l s i u m ,1 4 , 8 6 , 9 1 , 9 2 Anghiari,45; 72 A r e z z o5 , 1 . 2 1 . 4 - 1 6 , 3 7 - 4 1 , 4 4 , 4 5 , ,6 3 , 6 6 , 6 7 , 7 4 ; 6 0 , , , 0 6) - 65, 6 9, 70, 514il, sg/V, 67Al, VllI Blera,90;155 Bologna (Felsina), 12,40,54,55 9, Bolsena (seeVolsinii Novi) (Cerveteri), 72,14,18, 58, 80, 85-88,91,92; Caere 3, 15, 144- 146, 15 t, 154; 3lAl-lY, 67AV Capena,24 Casafe Marittimo, 54; 8 9 Castel d'Asso,85, 90;.15 1 Castro,16,28,71,76 CastrumNovum, 1,4, 92 91, Cetona,32,33;48 Chiusi, 12, nl 1, 30, 32-38;4 5, 5 0, 5 1,5 5 ; 83All 5, 6, (Centumcellae), 86, 93 Civitavecchia 81, Civita Castellana Falerii Veteres) (see Conona,39,45 C o s a 6 9 , 7 4 , 7 6 , 7 8 - 8 09 1 ;2 1 , 1 3 1 ,1 j 2 ; 5 1 , 4 1 , 8 3 4 Y , , Dolciano, 33 32, Falerii Novi, 26, 27, 29; I 9 Falerii Veteres(Civita Castellana), 24, 26, 27, 32,73; 14,
Marzabotto,12, 33, 40,47, 55 Massa arittima,58,63 M Montescudaio, 54;364 36, N { u r l o3 3 , 3 6 , 6 5 ;4 9 , Narce, 18,24; i 1 N e p i ,1 4 , 2 7 Norchia,80, 85, 90; 152 Orbetello,71,76 ()rvieto (seeVolsinii) Perugia, 1.4-76, 12, 30,32, 34,37,38; 17, 5 2- 54, 31/V P i s a 3 , 5 , 9 , 7 7 , 1 6 ,4 6 - 4 8 5 2 , 5 3 ,6 7 , 7 4 ;8 j , , P i s t o i a1 6 , Pitigliano, 69,71,80 PoggioBuco, 71 P o p u l o n i a7 2 , 1 6 , 5 0 ,5 4 , 5 6 ,5 8 - 6 1 , 4 , 8 9 ; 9 5 , 9 7 - 9 9 , 6 Pyrgi, 14,30,86-88,91; 18, 149, 150, 160;31fi1-IY 6 Quinto l' iorentino, 401' 2 Rusellae(Roselle),12, 16, 33, 63-65, 68, 69, 80, 89; 114-117 SanGiovenale,90;148 Sarteano, 33; 4 6, 47, 674, lI 32, S a t u r n i a1 4 , 7 0 , 7 1 , , 7 6 , 7 8 ,0 , 9 1 ; 1 2 j , 1j 3 , 8 Siena, 1nl, 33, 54,62, 63,67 9, 16, Sorano,8 S o v a n a1 6 , 7 1 , 7 3 , 8 0 ; 2 3 , t 0 , 1t 9 , 1 S u t r i ,1 4 ,2 7 : 2 0 ,i 8 , 3 9 Talamone,78, 80; 129, 1t7, 1)8 Tarquinia, 72, 74, 34, 36, 42, 43, 58, 64,80, 8 1, 82, 84, 3, 85, 88, 90, 93; 1, 14 1- 14 t, 147, 15 6; 36Al Tuscania, 93; 161, 162 85, V e i i ,3 , 1 , 2 , 7 41 8 , 2 0 , 2 7 , 2 4 , 2 5 , 2 7 , 3 5 0 ,8 6 ,8 8 ; , 0, 25-29,51.4 Vetulonia,58, 59, 63-65,68; 109- 1 12 V i t e r b o ,7 6 ,6 7 , 9 3 ; 1 1 9 Volsinii(Orvieto),72, 74, 16,27-29,58,67, 73;
Felsina (see Bologna)
Fiesole, 15,38-41,44,46, 47; 6 1,66, 67, 77, 67AX,X 3, Florence,9, 16, 33,38, 40, 41, 44-46;68, 7t, 74, 79 Fregenae, 14,91 Gravisca,74, 84,90; 15 8 Grosseto,69, 80; 24 l{eba(Magliano), 7 7, 78, 79; 3lNl 14, I-ucca,5, 9, 16, 45, 47-49,52, 80; 22, 82, 84, 8 5 l,ucusFeroniae,25l.32- 3 7 Luni, 6, 16, 47-49,52, 53,81, 90; 8 l, 86 N{anciano,69, 70 Marsiliana. 71
j, Volsinii Novi(Bolsena), 1,6,32;4 71 Volterra, 15, 16,47, 48,54, 55, 61, 63; 9 1 , 9 2 - 9 4 , 12, 100-102,106 Vulci,20, 33, 58, 64,69-73,76; 120,122,124-129; 16, 43/ilt.67Arr.75/Vr
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