![]() The archaeological site of Vulci | |
Alternative name | Volci, Velch, Velx |
---|---|
Location | Montalto di Castro, Province of Viterbo, Lazio, Italy |
Region | Latium |
Coordinates | 42°25′08″N11°37′54″E / 42.41889°N 11.63167°E |
Type | Settlement |
Site notes | |
Ownership | Public |
Management | Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Etruria Meridionale |
Public access | Yes |
Website | Vulci Archaeological Naturalistic Park (in Italian)-(in English) |
Vulci or Volci (Etruscan: Velch or Velx, depending on the romanization used) was a rich Etruscan city in what is now northern Lazio, central Italy.
As George Dennis wrote, "Vulci is a city whose very name ... was scarcely remembered, but which now, for the enormous treasures of antiquity it has yielded, is exalted above every other city of the ancient world." [1]
Vulci was located near the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea about 80 km northwest of Rome, on the Fiora River, between Montalto di Castro and Canino. Remains of the city can be seen today.
The Vulci, like other Etruscans, became master sculptors in bronze as acknowledged by ancient writers. [2] [3] Although most large bronzes have been lost, there remain some magnificent examples of Etruscan bronze work such as the Chimera of Arezzo and the Monteleone chariot, possibly made in Vulci. [4]
In the 19th century thousands of the ancient tombs of Vulci were discovered, and many were so well known and spectacular, such as the Tomb of the Sun and Moon, that they were included on the Grand Tour of Europe. From these tombs more Attic vases have been found in the Vulci tombs than at any other ancient site [5] (at least by the 1850s) and many of these masterpieces as well as Etruscan bronzes have found their way into the major museums of the world where they can be seen today.
Despite these discoveries most of these tombs were later forgotten and lost.
The Vulci were a tribe or people who gave their name to their city and were one of the legendary twelve peoples of Etruscan civilization who later formed the dodecapolis Etruscan League to protect their interests.
Although the wealth, magnificence and population of Vulci must have been among the first of Etruscan cities, it is mentioned only rarely in ancient literature or potential texts for some periods have been lost; hence the history of Vulci may be reconstructed mainly from archaeology.
In the Villanovan period, the wealth of metal resources in the Colline Metallifere hills was important in the development of trade especially with Sardinia. The most important discovery that testifies to the contact between Etruscans and Sardinians in this period was the Tomb of the Sardinian Bronzes in 1958 in the necropolis of Cavalupo, dated 850–800 BC, of a Sardinian woman of high rank. Among the funeral contents is a magnificent bronze statue of a warrior now in the National Etruscan Museum in the Villa Giulia. Numerous Villanovan fibulas have also been found in Sardinia. [6]
Vulci's expansion in the Orientalising period of the 8th century BC is marked by the start of production of bronze objects such as covered urns in the shape of a house or cone, and the first of these products showed up in Greece towards the end of the century.
The 7th century is represented by the tomb of the Bronze Wagon, and in its later stages valuable and sophisticated products were imported from many Mediterranean markets showing the rise in wealth and culture of Vulci, whilst many Greeks came to live in Vulci as shown by the craftsmanship, manufacture and trade in fine ceramics (e.g. bucchero), bronze and gold.
Vulci's golden age of influence and wealth was in the 6th century BC when it ruled over the cities of Orbetello, Saturnia, Sovana, Castro, Pitigliano and Marsiliana. It became a centre of imports of refined Attic pottery, precious oriental balm, beautiful jewels of the most unusual shapes to satisfy its wealthy citizens, as is shown by the many masterpieces of Greek and Etruscan art from the tombs in national museums today. In return it exported its treasures throughout the Mediterranean: pottery, bronzes and wine.
The original port of Vulci was a quay on the river Fiora but the expansion of trade led it to build a larger coastal port at Regisvilla (or Regae) [7] and it became a major maritime power although it was located some miles up the river, like Rome.
Originally the Etruscans were co-founders of Rome and they continued to dominate it. Vulci had some influence on early Rome, as Servius Tullius and the Vibenna brothers (Caile and Avle Vipinas) were from Vulci. Their names and pictures appear on a fresco in the François Tomb. After the population of Rome had become predominantly Italic, the Etruscan kings were overthrown.
After a time of crisis in the 2nd half of the 5th century, Vulci seems to have undergone a new expansion in the 4th century when the great tombs were built such as the François tomb.
The Roman–Etruscan Wars lasted many years before the Romans gained control over Etruria and the Etruscans were soundly defeated at Lake Vadimo in 310 and 283 BC. [8] Nevertheless, Vulci was strong enough to further resist until Tiberius Coruncanius triumphed over Vulci in 280 BC [9] and the colonia of Cosa was founded in its territory. The Romans took the coast from Vulci, cutting the base of their power which seems to have led to the decline of the city. The Etruscan league splintered apart during the war and the Etruscans were soon assimilated.
Vulci does not seem to have been of great importance in the remaining Roman period, even though the Romans built the Via Aurelia through it in 240 BC. However, large buildings in the city date to this period. A surviving milestone gives the distance to Rome as 70 milia passuum (miles). The road outside the north gate was repaved probably under Trajan's reign (early 2nd century AD), showing that it continued in good repair.
Later Vulci became an episcopal see. The final abandonment seems to be in the 8th century AD.
Recent excavations are discovering much more information on the history and importance of the city. [10]
The former wealth of the town was shown first by the discoveries made in its extensive necropoli starting from the 18th century [11] - Greek vases, [12] bronzes and other remains. From these tombs more Attic vases have been found in Vulci than at any other ancient site. Many of the finds were sold by the excavators and many found their way into the major museums of the world where they can be seen today.
In the 18th and 19th centuries many of the tombs were so well known and spectacular, such as the Tomb of the Sun and Moon, that they were included on the Grand Tour of Europe. Despite these discoveries most of these tombs were later forgotten and lost, except for the Cuccumella tomb, the largest tumulus mound in the whole of Etruria.
The astounding frescoes from the François Tomb, [13] discovered in 1857, illustrating Greek and Etruscan myths, are considered some of the most celebrated of the Etruscans [14] and are now in the private Villa Albani museum in Rome. Another important burial chamber, the so-called Isis Tomb, proved to be a rich source of finds, most of which are now in the British Museum. [15] The frescoes of the Hellenistic Tomb of the Bell-Ringers are preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Florence.
Recent excavations have brought to light more large and spectacular tombs such as the Tomb of the Silver Hands. [16]
The walls were built in the first half of the 4th c. BC before the wars with the Romans and are about 6.5 km in circumference. Several sections can be seen.
Three impressive and strong defensive gates of the five originals are now exposed. The remains of the north gate show an imposing defensive structure. On its west external side a votive ditch was discovered which was rich in materials documenting a cult linked to fertility dating from the Hellenistic era until the end of the first century AD. Near the ditch are tombs carved into a rocky bank. Not far away you can see the facing cross-linked by a building still to be explored.
The West Gate is the starting point of the Decumanus Maximus, the well-preserved east-west road of the city, paved with volcanic stone.
Along the decumanus is an area occupied by a large residential complex. The first building, a large domus north of the decumanus, is preceded by a series of small rectangular rooms, perhaps workshops (tabernae), overlooking the main street. Among these open the two entrances of the Villa (or Domus) of the Cryptoporticus, so named for its unusual and impressive underground rooms (cryptoporticus literally means covered porch, partly underground and was used in Roman architecture to build terraces or a covered market). It is a large and sumptuous private residence built in the classical style of noble Roman houses (domus with atrium and peristyle). Its earliest phase was the late 2nd and early 1st century BC and underwent numerous renovations in the Augustan period. Further changes were made between the Flavian and Hadrianic periods, while in late antiquity parts of the domus were partially reused. Later the area was abandoned and used as a cemetery from the discovery of tombs in the cellar.
The large main entrance leads into a vast atrium, around which are arranged various rooms, divided into bedrooms (cubicula) and living quarters (triclinia). A second entrance leads to a courtyard with a fountain in the centre, the result of the transformation of an original small lobby, probably in the late 1st century AD. This leads to the main lobby and then the rectangular peristyle surrounded by columns on all four sides. At the north-eastern corner of the peristyle are stairs giving access to the upper storey which is lost. The rich floor mosaic which dates from the first phase of the domus is still preserved; the mosaics of the two rooms that open onto the porch are dated to the Augustan age. The porch overlooks an apsidal nympheum which includes a swimming pool probably built in Imperial times.
In the north-western part are thermal baths that were reduced from four to three rooms in the restructuring of the Augustan age. They are composed of a dressing room (apodyterium), a Turkish bath (laconicum) and a room for hot water bath (calidarium), covered with intact mosaic floors supported on columns of bricks to allow the circulation of hot air. Areas immediately south of the baths were a general sector for services directly connected with the decumanus by a narrow private road.
The underground part of the house, the cryptoporticus, is accessed via a corridor to the east of the peristyle covered by a well preserved barrel vault. The underground environment was ventilated and lit from 18 windows that open at the level of the garden above. The function of the underground complex was especially the preservation of products such as wine and oil that needed a suitable environment.
Next to the north-western side of the domus is a series of rooms built probably in the Hellenistic age. It is a complex of two or more buildings of still uncertain date and use. They are characterised by the presence of works of canalisation and different types of paving, using brickwork, tiles and local stone.
In 2003 the foundations of a triumphal arch were discovered on the Decumanus at the west side of the Roman forum. Many fragments were found which allowed reconstruction of the arch, and a long inscription was also found which dedicated it to Publius Sulpicius Mundus who was a Roman senator in around 100 BC.
The temple has an imposing base of sides 36.5 x 24.5 m. The temple had a continuous colonnade on all four sides, doubled on the front by four additional columns; it is preceded by a projection with a central staircase. The temple reveals at least two construction phases; the oldest (late 6th century BC) had numerous architectural terracottas with Ionic columns. In the early Roman Imperial age the temple was rebuilt, which involved the replacement of the wooden elements of the elevation with travertine structures and opus caementicium . Among the many elements of the elevation which have collapsed and are visible around the monument, a fragment of the architrave with inscription can be seen.
On the south side of the Decumanus is an apsidal rectangular building, believed to be a late Roman basilica. Originally with a gabled roof, it has a small apse and shows a combination of building techniques in the walls (especially in the east), such as opus reticulatum and opus incertum .
The Ponte dell'Abbadia [17] over the Fiora is a Roman bridge with a main arch of 20 m span and 30 m above the stream and was built upon an Etruscan bridge. (The Tufo buttresses are very probably Etruscan, for they are evidently the piers of the original bridge.) It carried the ancient road and the Romans, unusually, incorporated an aqueduct on it leading to Vulci about 1.5 km away. The overflow of the aqueduct after it fell into disrepair caused the "curtain of stalactites".
The waters still flow from an aqueduct into the gardens of the adjoining Castello dell'Abbadia.
The site also houses a mithraeum.
The site was described by George Dennis as follows:
It is verily a magnificent structure, bestriding the rocky abyss like a colossus, with the Fiora fretting and foaming at a vast depth beneath. But what means this extraordinary curtain of stalactites which overhangs the bridge on this side, depending in huge jagged masses from the parapet, and looking as though a vast cataract had rolled over the top of the bridge, and been petrified in its fall, ere it could reach the ground?....The stalactites stand out six or seven feet from the wall, and depend to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet. Independently of their remarkable conformation, their colouring — a clear yellowish white — combines, with the grey or reddish masonry, to add to the effect of the bridge.
The Vulci museum is located in the Castello dell'Abbadia and houses an extensive collection of finds.
The Etruscan civilization was developed by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio, as well as what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
Veii was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and 16 km (9.9 mi) north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the city-state of Veii are in Formello, immediately to the north. Formello is named after the drainage channels that were first created by the Veians.
Etruria was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria.
Aita, also spelled Eita, is an epithet of the Etruscan chthonic fire god Śuri as god of the underworld, roughly equivalent to the Greek god Hades.
Tarquinia, formerly Corneto, is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Central Italy, known chiefly for its ancient Etruscan tombs in the widespread necropoleis, or cemeteries, for which it was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status.
Caere is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, to the Greeks as Agylla and to the Phoenicians as 𐤊𐤉𐤔𐤓𐤉𐤀.
Rusellae was an important ancient town of Etruria, which survived until the Middle Ages before being abandoned. The impressive archaeological remains lie near the modern frazione or village of Roselle in the comune of Grosseto.
Bucchero is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro.
The Fanum Voltumnae was the chief sanctuary of the Etruscans; fanum means a sacred place, a much broader notion than a single temple. Numerous sources refer to a league of the "Twelve Peoples" (lucumonies) of Etruria, formed for religious purposes but evidently having some political functions. The Etruscan league of twelve city-states met annually at the Fanum, located in a place chosen as omphalos, the geographical and spiritual centre of the whole Etruscan nation. Each spring political and religious leaders from the cities would meet to discuss military campaigns and civic affairs and pray to their common gods. Chief amongst these was Voltumna, possibly state god of the Etruria.
The Staatliche Antikensammlungen is a museum in Munich's Kunstareal holding Bavaria's collections of antiquities from Greece, Etruria and Rome, though the sculpture collection is located in the opposite Glyptothek and works created in Bavaria are on display in a separate museum. Ancient Egypt also has its own museum.
Etruscan cities were a group of ancient settlements that shared a common Etruscan language and culture, even though they were independent city-states. They flourished over a large part of the northern half of Italy starting from the Iron Age, and in some cases reached a substantial level of wealth and power. They were eventually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic.
Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 10th and 1st centuries BC. From around 750 BC it was heavily influenced by Greek art, which was imported by the Etruscans, but always retained distinct characteristics. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta, wall-painting and metalworking especially in bronze. Jewellery and engraved gems of high quality were produced.
The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy. It is located at 1 piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta.
The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had a persistent military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals in Etruscan culture, warfare was a considerable economic boon to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months; raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as a means of acquiring valuable resources such as land, prestige goods and slaves. It is also likely individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs to honor fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patroclus.
Etruscan vase painting was produced from the 7th through the 4th centuries BC, and is a major element in Etruscan art. It was strongly influenced by Greek vase painting, and followed the main trends in style over the period. Besides being producers in their own right, the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek pottery outside Greece, and some Greek painters probably moved to Etruria, where richly decorated vases were a standard element of grave inventories.
The Isis Tomb is the name of a richly endowed Etruscan tomb that was found at the Polledrara Cemetery, Vulci, Lazio, Italy, in the early nineteenth century. Many artefacts were discovered in the Isis Tomb when it was originally excavated but, as was custom at the time, only objects of high monetary value were kept. Over 60 of these objects are now held by the British Museum, with others scattered across a range of museums around the world.
Etruscan architecture was created between about 900 BC and 27 BC, when the expanding civilization of ancient Rome finally absorbed Etruscan civilization. The Etruscans were considerable builders in stone, wood and other materials of temples, houses, tombs and city walls, as well as bridges and roads. The only structures remaining in quantity in anything like their original condition are tombs and walls, but through archaeology and other sources we have a good deal of information on what once existed.
Etruscan sculpture was one of the most important artistic expressions of the Etruscan people, who inhabited the regions of Northern Italy and Central Italy between about the 9th century BC and the 1st century BC. Etruscan art was largely a derivation of Greek art, although developed with many characteristics of its own. Given the almost total lack of Etruscan written documents, a problem compounded by the paucity of information on their language—still largely undeciphered—it is in their art that the keys to the reconstruction of their history are to be found, although Greek and Roman chronicles are also of great help. Like its culture in general, Etruscan sculpture has many obscure aspects for scholars, being the subject of controversy and forcing them to propose their interpretations always tentatively, but the consensus is that it was part of the most important and original legacy of Italian art and even contributed significantly to the initial formation of the artistic traditions of ancient Rome. The view of Etruscan sculpture as a homogeneous whole is erroneous, there being important variations, both regional and temporal.
Women were respected in Etruscan society compared to their ancient Greek and Roman counterparts. Today only the status of aristocratic women is known because no documentation survives about women in other social classes.
Library resources about Vulci |
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)