Cerveteri

Tra i personaggi che animarono la vita intellettuale di Roma nella prima metà del secolo XIX, Donna Teresa Caetani, nata de' Rossi, rappresenta sicuramente un caso d'interesse sia per quanto riguarda le vicende dell'alta nobiltà romana, sia per l'archeologia, che proprio in quel periodo iniziava a muovere i suoi primi ed incerti passi verso una propria strutturazione come Altertumswissenschaft, come scienza dell'antichità. In questa sede si tenterà una ricostruzione del profilo biografico di questa nobildonna, dai tratti contraddittori e a volte "scomodi", soprattutto per la società del suo tempo, operando una sintesi tra i dati già editi e quelli inediti, questi ultimi raccolti in archivio, durante le ricerche riguardanti la sua attività di scavo nell'Etruria meridionale.

Il tumulo monumentale di Campo della Fiera è posto esternamente all’area recintata della necropoli dalla Banditaccia, dalla quale dista circa ottocento metri, ed è visibile dal viale che collega la città di Cerveteri al complesso archeologico, la cosiddetta “autostrada” di R. Mengarelli .
Già a partire dal 2006, l’allora Soprintendenza archeologica dell’Etruria meridionale in collaborazione con il NAAC, Associazione di volontari del territorio, era intervenuta con massicce campagne di bonifica e diserbo finalizzate a riportare alla luce il tumulo, non più visibile in quanto ricoperto da rifiuti solidi urbani scaricati negli anni.

Initially conceived as the catalogue for the Gregorian Etruscan Museum and published a century ago, the volume by Giovanni Pinza reflects a particular intellectual development that links the proto-history of Etruria-Latium and Etruscan Orientalizing to the cultural dynamics of the entire Mediterranean basin from the Bronze Age onwards. In what would also be the first 20th century monographic study on the Regolini-Galassi Tomb, the author presents a new study of the tomb in Cerveteri in the light of both his documentary research and his field activity. He examines some of the major themes relating to the tomb, from the origins to a definition of the specific characteristics of the art and culture of the Etruscans. With inspired intuition and subjective interpretations, Pinza’s work concludes the period of 19th century studies, combining Italian palethnology with the Homeric archaeology of Helbig, and foreseeing topics and approaches that would see further developments and which would also be conditioned by ideological stances in the period between the two World Wars. A re-reading today of this pioneering work on relations between the Aegean world, the Near East and Egypt, takes into account the more recent information that has emerged concerning the Regolini-Galassi Tomb and the results from new areas of research.

During recent excavations, a small number of “matt-painted” pottery fragments were found at Caere in Southern Etruria.
The finds belong to a class of Subgeometric pottery produced in Northern Lucania. So far, this pottery has never been
found outside Southern Italy. The present paper aims to reconsider finds of South Italian indigenous pottery in Etruria,
in order to compare the data with the distribution of Etruscan imports in Southern Italy. While in the Early Iron Age,
Tarquinia seems to have played a leading role in the exchange with “Oinotrian” groups settling in Southern Italy, from
the 7th century onwards, archaeological finds point to contacts between Caere and Northern Lucania as well as Daunia.

Nel suo celebre taccuino di viaggio Etruscan Places David H. Lawrence parla più volte del vino che gli capita di bere nel corso dei suoi spostamenti in terra etrusca 1. La prima volta lo fa quando racconta del suo soggiorno a Cerveteri e Ladispoli, le località a nord di Roma in cui ha inizio il suo tour etrusco 2. A giudicare dalla descrizione del pasto e del vino (presumibilmente locale a dispetto di quanto si sta per dire), che gli vengono serviti a Cerveteri nell'unica locanda 133 www.bollettinodiarcheologiaonline.beniculturali.it

The landing place of the Etruscan site of Alsium is not as well-known as the most important of Caere’s harbors, Pyrgi, and its supposed location has fluctuated between the promontory of Palo, where the Roman colonia maritima is located, and the site of the famous so-called “Villa of Pompey”, about 2 km further south.Nowadays the second hypothesis seems to be the most likely. Its geographical position, dominating the alluvial plain of the Tiber, its proximity to the mouth of the Cupino stream, the placement of important necropolises such as S. Paolo and Monteroni along the route from Caere to Alsium, as well as the discovery and rediscovery of a number of interesting contexts are just some of the main indications in favour of this “petite acropole”. However, there is still no archaeological proof of this theory and currently it is only possible to outline a few preliminary considerations about the role played by Alsium, from the Orientalizing period onwards, in contacts with Mediterranean trade routes and, through to the Cupino valley, with the territorial sections overlooking Bracciano Lake and the Tiber valley.

Si presentano i frammenti di statue acroteriali e
frontonali provenienti dall’area sacra di S. Antonio
(testa di sfinge del 530 a.C. ca) e altri materiali
rinvenuti nell’area urbana di Cerveteri purtroppo
non in scavi regolari ma provenienti da recuperi
effettuati ormai qualche anno addietro in circostanze
fortunose che permettono di ricostruire un sistema
decorativo del tipo Veio-Roma-Velletri, con grandi
volute acroteriali, un gruppo di Eracle ed Atena,
e lastre di sima con la sequenza toro con squame,
sbaccellatura e scena figurata.
Numerosi i frammenti pertinenti a statue di diverso
modulo, sia maschili che femminili, databili
nell’ultimo quarto del VI secolo.
Si ricostruisce un panorama estremamente interessante
che attesta il ruolo che anche Cerveteri ha avuto
nell’adozione di elaborate creazioni di coroplastica
– gruppi acroteri ali e frontonali – con soggetti
analoghi a quelli attestati a Roma e nel Lazio, in cui
venivano chiamate le stesse maestranze alle quali
una ben precisa committenza pubblica richiedeva
comuni contenuti propagandistici.

In this paper, we intend to examine some modern huts, in order to help us to understand better and to interpret the archaeological remains of huts. The tradition of building huts in the countryside has today been replaced by that of building stone houses, but huts can still be found in very restricted numbers. They are used for various purposes, for example, as structures reminiscent of the past at local festivities or for use as Storage spaces for agricultural tools. Still to be seen in the 1950s and 1960s, the huts today represent only relics of a past knowledge, which was the result of long experience. Now only a few old farmers or shepherds preserve this knowledge. We will present a couple of modern hut constructions and some archaeological discoveries in the area of Monti della Tolfa north of Rome. In restoring these huts, we take into  account the technical wisdom which has been transmitted orally.

La face de la Gorgone est une figure mythologique des marges, un visage-masque autant repoussant que médiateur, entrée dès le vii e siècle av. J.-C. dans le répertoire des imagiers méditerranéens. En évaluant la notion de « limite » dans son acception métaphorique, cet article propose d'analyser la présence du gorgonéion au sein des contextes funéraires orientalisants de l'Étrurie méridionale. Il s'agit d'interroger la fonction symbolique de l'image dans la tombe, représentée de manière isolée ou bien dans le cadre de programmes iconographiques plus développés qui illustrent l'intégration négociée d'un imaginaire grec au sein des croyances religieuses étrusques. La cité de Cerveteri, particulièrement ouverte aux échanges méditerranéens, a sans doute joué un rôle de premier ordre dans ce processus.

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At the threshold of worlds: the Gorgonic face in the Etruscan funerary imaginary of the 7th century BC

The face of the Gorgon is a mythological figure of the margins. This mask face, as repulsive as it is mediating, entered the repertoire of Mediterranean imagers as early as the 7th century BCE. By assessing the notion of ‘limit’ in its metaphorical sense, this article aims to analyse the presence of the gorgoneion within Orientalising funerary contexts of southern Etruria. The goal is to examine the symbolic function of this particular image in the tomb. Indeed, the Gorgon is either represented isolated or as part of more developed iconographic programmes that illustrate the negotiated integration of a Greek imaginary figure within Etruscan religious beliefs. Particularly involved in Mediterranean exchanges, the city of Cerveteri undoubtedly played a key role in this process.

Article disponible en ligne : https://publications-prairial.fr/frontiere-s/index.php?id=1087

Zusammenfassung:
Objekte im Grabkontext sollen als Sammlung im Sinne der Konzeption Krzysztof Pomians verstanden werden. Nach Pomian werden Gebrauchsfunktionen und dingliche Aspekte von Objekten durch die Aufnahme in eine Sammlung negiert. Herausgelöst aus ursprünglichen Handlungszusammenhängen haben daher Objekte – wie auch die Körper der Toten – im Grab im Wesentlichen als Zeichenträger, Semiophoren in der Terminologie Pomians, zu gelten. Über die exemplarisch herangezogenen Befunde von zwei Gräbern der Nekropole von Pithekoussai auf Ischia, Grab 6 der Westtornekropole von Eretria auf Euböa und der Tomba Regolini-Galassi des etruskischen Caere/Cerveteri wird der Niederlegung von Objekten im Grab als einer Bedeutung produzierenden Handlung nachgegangen. Die in der Forschung als ›Fürstengräber‹ bzw. ›Heroengräber‹ bezeichneten Gräber mit extrem reicher, differenzierter Ausstattung einerseits bzw. mit einem auf wenige außergewöhnliche Objekte reduzierten Inventar andererseits werden als zwei unterschiedliche, historisch bedingte Typen der Distinktion im Rahmen von Bestattungen vorgestellt.

The bas-relief of the Lateran Museum representing three personifications of Etruscan peoples was found during the excavations in Caere in 1840, together with several portraits of members of the julio-claudian imperial family. The analysis of the marble slab allows a reconstruction of the monument as a revetment of an altar decorated by the depiction of the 15 Etruscan peoples of the re-enacted Etruscan league of julio-claudian age. The relief could be a reproduction of a more ambitious monuments of the League dedicated to the emperor.

Gli scavi archeologici nel corso degli anni 2015/2016 nel settore dell'Altipiano delle Onde Marine della Necropoli della Banditaccia di Cervetri, diretti dall'autore, non sono stati finalizzati al semplice recupero e studio dei materiali di corredo, in verità molto interessanti, ma all’approfondimento di alcuni aspetti delle dinamiche di sfruttamento del suolo. Molto chiara è stata la presenza di ampie zone “produttive”, destinate all’estrazione di conci di tufo a servizio del quartiere funerario, urbanisticamente organizzato, del quale si è riusciti a determinare con sicurezza le fasi di vita, di riuso e di abbandono.

The Etruscan-Phoenician relations in the Tyrrhenian area were particularly intense and precocious and lasted throughout
the "first half of the "iirst millennium BCE. On the Etruscan side, Cerveteri was undoubtedly one of the main protagonists of the
international openness to the Phoenician-Punic element, insomuch as a historical source – the "first book of the stories by Herodotus
– reminds the Caeretan-Carthaginian alliance against the Greeks of Phocaea for the political control of the Tyrrhenian commercial
routes. Other well-known literary evidence – such as a passage of Aristotle’s Politics – remind diplomatic agreements between
Carthage and the coastal Etruscan cities, probably including Cerveteri (even if those sources do not explicitly refer to the Etruscan
communities involved). The latter, after all, lived a special relationship with the first Phoenician traders and then with Carthage as
well, to the point that it signed political-military agreements with the Semitic counterpart, aimed to preserve the respective spheres
of action in the Tyrrhenian space: the exceptional epigraphic evidence of the bilingual Pyrgi laminae fully confirms this framework
and contributes to enlarge the discussion to the historical-religious dimension. Finally, the mass of the archaeological record allows
us to include in the debate the question of the commercial network between Cerveteri and the Phoenician-Punic cities of the centralwestern Mediterranean, which can now be revisited thanks to the new data concerning both the Etruscan-Caeretan side and the
Carthaginian, Sicilian and Sardinian one.

Martedì 21 febbraio, alle ore 16.30, al Collegio Romano, Sala Spadolini, sarà presentato il volume speciale del Bollettino d'Arte “Principi etruschi. Le tombe orientalizzanti di San Paolo a Cerveteri”, di Maria Antonietta Rizzo.
Interverranno Caterina Bon di Valsassina e Madrisio, Marina Martelli, Mario Torelli, Fabio Isman. Inoltre, sarà presente l’Autrice.

Collegio Romano, Sala Spadolini
via del Collegio Romano, 27, Roma

This paper presents an effective acquisition and data processing method for landscape surveying aimed at producing cartographic data dedicated to archaeological cartography. The case study presented, part of the Banditaccia necropolis and of the "Via degli Inferi”, allows to analyze in detail the acquisition phases and the vegetation filtering procedures to obtain a single DTM by separately processing photogrammetric surveys from UAV and data obtained with TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner). The aim for this paper is to underline the importance of producing cartographic bases dedicated to archaeological cartography, rather than using cartography created for other purposes.

Today people see fewer real dead bodies than at any time in history. Yet in the modern world we seem almost obsessed with images of death. In an investigation encompassing ancient Jericho, Aztec America, and classical Italy, How Art Made the World discovers what it is that has compelled human beings to surround themselves with images of death for thousands of years.

Death captured the mind of early man, and since then it has driven us to create some of the most powerful images in the world.

The episode starts in Jericho (in the Jordan Valley) where in the 1950 Cecil Western, the British Archeologist, discovered decorated skulls with a reconstructed nose and shells as replacement for eyes. The skulls were found in the walls of homes and it appears they had been placed in specially made alcoves. Since their discovery, other decorated skulls have cropped up all over the Middle East.

All animals have an instinct to avert their own death, it’s a basic survival mechanism. Humans, however, are the only creatures that understand the inevitability of  death. Psychologists understand that there is a way to overcome the fear of death, and that is by creating images of our ancestors. Professors Solomon and Greenberg have done experiments with two groups of students. Using subliminal images they persuaded students to thinks of death. They then showed both groups images of dead celebrities. The subjects were given the choice of how long to look at pictures, and those who were made to think about death wanted to look at images for longer ( Solomon and Greenberg explain this is for reassurance ). In Jericho, in the 1st millennia BC, the average life expectancy was 24. The prospect of death would have terrified them and these artistic representations would have allowed them to keep their ancestors alive.

Reassurance, however, is only part of story. Some have used images of death for opposite effect, to exploit our fear of death. The French painter Jacques Louis David used the image of Marat (the leader of the revolution) murdered in bath to gain support for their cause. The SS used images of the skull and cross bones on their uniforms to strike fear in their victims. The Peruvian Moche created the Waca Da Luna temple to honor their human sacrifices. The walls of this temple show horrific images of death, featuring spiders with human faces and fangs, lizards that have been decapitated and the pottery found their shows people having their eyes pecked out by birds. A mass human grave was found nearby and many of the bodies had been both decapitated and dismembered, the bodies were those that had been sacrificed by the Moche. The neighboring Aztecs, however, did human sacrifice on an industrial scale. In one four-day event, over forty-thousand people were sacrificed. Archeologists believe that the mass sacrifices of the Aztecs were to repay the debt of their sun god, who used his own blood to keep the sun alive. If his debt was not repaid with their most highly prized gifts (their lives) then the sun would go out. This is one of histories most successful regimes of terror, that kept a tight grip on their people, thankful to be Aztec rather than the victims of the sacrifices.

Solomon and Greenberg have collected evidence which shows, that by reminding people of their own death, it drives them to support those that share their values and oppose those who don’t. It’s a universal instinct across time. When we think about death we become more invested in our own belief system (Solomon and Geeenburg). This has been used through out history and one that Christians can relate to best is the image of Christ on the cross, or simply the cross. A symbol of a man oozing blood, dying a terrifying death.

The Etruscans are not as well known as the Romans, but they laid the foundations of Rome, most things we remember of the Romans were in fact traditions from the Etruscans. The main archeological record we have are their tombs, and these contain vivid images of the afterlife. The tombs were designed as houses for the dead with carvings of all they would need in the afterlife. Thousands of years after traces of the Etruscan civilisation had vanished overground, their dead cities surfaced. In 1985 a pipeline for Tarquinia was being laid and during the excavation a new tomb was discovered. Archeologists used cameras to look into the tomb and what they first saw was unexpected. At first they saw the reassuring images they expected, but then they turned the cameras around and on opposite wall were disturbing images of blue demons, rotting flesh, snakes, and a winged devil. The tomb dates back to 420BC and these are the oldest surviving image of hell. In the 200 years leading up to this, the Etruscans created images promising a happy afterlife, but threatened by the rise of the Romans, these tombs acted as a call to arms. Damned or saved these reminded them of what awaited, if they failed in defending against Romans. This is the earliest know use of conflicting images being used together: Redemption images.

Later in AD1500, in Orvieto, the Estrucian capital, the Christians built a cathedral, they painted frescoes showing on one wall the damned going to Hell and the opposite wall the saved going to heaven. Uncannily similar images to those of the tomb and the devils are depicted in a green / blue. The Etruscan legacy, that redemption can lead people to look forward to death, rather than fear it.

When we no longer fear the inevitability of death, not only are we prepared to give up life for a greater good, we do so knowing that we are remembered for it, a heroic death.