VETULONIA
Tuscany, Italy.
A small center
NW of Grosseto, situated on a height that dominates
the plain of Grosseto, at one time below sea level. It
ranks with Rusellae as one of the most ancient and
prosperous cities of N Etruria. The broad marine inlet
below had become a lake by Roman times (lacus Prile),
and later a marsh. Here must have been the port, placed
in a protected corner of the gulf, opposite Rusellae 16 km
away.
The city is mentioned by Dionysios of Halikarnassos
(
Arch. 3.51); Silius Italicus (
Pun. 8.484-489); Pliny (
HN
3.51); and Ptolemy (
Geogr. 3.1.49). Two mediaeval
documents, dated 1181 and 1204 respectively, refer to
Vetulonia and its territory. After the Middle Ages the
name Vetulonia was replaced until 1887 by the name
Colonna di Buriano.
No information has been handed down concerning
the occupation of Vetulonia by the Romans, though this
must have happened peacefully about 241 B.C. during the
construction of the Via Aurelia, on which Vetulonia
came to hold a dominant position. Following the Lax
Julia the VetuIonian population was ascribed to the
tribus Scaptia (Plin.
HN 3.52). A number of inscriptions (
CIL IV, 2375b; II, 41 and 2382-86) attest to the
survival of the Etruscan city until the 2d c. A.D.
An abundance of archaeological material attests the
Vitality of Vetulonia, with alternating periods of prosperity and decline, from the 8th c. B.C. to the 2d c. A.D.
The city, whose sphere included elements of a Villanovan population evidenced by cinerary urns with biconical ossuaries, flourished mainly from the end of the
8th c. B.C. to the end of the 6th c. B.C. After that it apparently declined until Roman times (3d c. B.C.) when it again became a center of some importance. Nothing precise is known of the territorial expansion of the older
Vetulonia, but its flourishing, especially in the 7th c.
B.C., was certainly due to exploitation of the mines of
Massetano. For this reason it is probable that the small
settlements bordering the Lago dell'Accesa, S of Massa
Marittima, became its dependents.
The entire perimeter of the circuit wall is not clearly
defined, but from parts still visible, including the so-called Mura dell'Arce of large polygonal blocks incorporated between two medieaval towers, it probably extended ca. 5 km. Of the actual Etruscan city little is
known as exploration has been limited to a quantity
of shafts and galleries cut in the living rock, and to
several walls and rooms found beneath modern houses.
The exceptional extent of its necropoleis suggests that
a large city occupied the highest summit, where the present town is situated, as well as two other heights to the
NW known as Costa Murata and Castelvecchio. A small
part of the city from the Hellenistic and Etrusco-Roman
periods to the NE of the modern town was excavated at
the end of the last century and recently re-exposed, the
so-called Scavi Città. Along a winding paved street generally following an EW path (decumanus), flanked by
a sidewalk and drain, shops and houses are aligned, separated by cross streets which climb toward Poggiarello
Renzetti and divide the inhabited area into blocks. Still
visible are traces of brick pavement in opus spicatum
or in small rhomboids. Walls of crude sun-dried bricks,
notable traces of which remain, must have surmounted
the unmortared foundation walls. Beyond the decumanus a tunnel with a light-well is visible. It led in through
a large hole to a quadrangular basin with beveled corners,
whose plaster of cement and
pozzolana is still preserved,
today covered over to preserve it. Another rectangular
basin formed of large stone blocks, squared and chiseled, communicated with the drain of the decumanus.
Besides the Scavi Città, in the level zone called La
Banditelle, mosaics belonging to a Roman villa have
been found, as well as ruins of Roman buildings in brick
and cement. In the zone between the Convento and
La Banditelle probably lay the center and the forum
of Roman Vetulonia. An inscription dedicated to Caracalla has been found here and two inscriptions belonging
to a society in honor of Mars. There is also evidence
from several recent test trenches. Recent excavations in
the area called Costia dei Lippi have brought to light
terrace walls of notable strength and remains of buildings flanking a paved Roman road, which seem to indicate occupation of this quarter of the city during the Hellenistic period. Remains of buildings from the Hellenistic and Etrusco-Roman periods were found at Costa
Murata under the present school building, and recent
excavations have turned up other structures closely related to the first, as well as a monumental building, probably a temple.
On the highest hills closest to the city were the Villanovan necropoleis. Around these burials, at a lower level on the same hills, following in immediate topographical and chronological succession the primitive Villanovan
pits, have been found the circular tombs characteristic
of Vetulonia. These are datable to the 7th c. B.C., and
they abound in objects of bronze, gold, silver, and pottery, all characterized by the orientalizing style.
Of the monumental tholos tombs from the most recent orientalizing period along the Via dei Pepolcri, two of the most interesting are visible today: the Tomba della Pietrera and the Tomba del Diavolino. Other smaller
tumulus-covered chambered tombs have been excavated
but are no longer visible, with the exception of the
Tomba del Belvedere, recently reworked and restored,
and a small tomb called the Tomba della Fibula. The
material found in the latter is on exhibit in the Antiquarium of Vetulonia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Falchi,
Vetulonia e la sua necropoli
antichissima (1891); D. Levi, “Carta Archeologica di
Vetulonia,”
StEtr 5 (1931) 13-40; G. Radke,
RE VIIIA
2 (1958) 1874-80;
EAA 7 (1966) 1157-61 (A. Talocchini).
A. TALOCCHINI
