VULCI
Italy.
An Etruscan city on the Fiora
river ca. 144 km N of Rome. It was mentioned by the
ancient geographers (Plin.
HN 3.51,52; Ptol. 3.1.43-49;
Steph. Byz., s.v.) and marginally by other Classical writers (Festus 536 L 16-18; Ar
Adv. Nat. 6.7). It was
subdued by Rome in 280 B.C. In its territory, where important centers such as Regisvilla, Forum Aurelii, and
the pagi of Ischia, Castro, and Pescia Romana developed,
the Latin colony of Cosa was founded in 273 B.C.
The city rises on a high almost quadrangular plateau,
bathed on the E side by the Fiora. It was enclosed by a
wall of tufa blocks, which dates to the 4th c. B.C. Several
stretches of it and at least two gates are known. A wide
road with a N-S axis constitutes the backbone of the
inhabited area. Along it are placed a grandiose temple
ad alae from the 4th c. B.C. with a plan identical to the
so-called Ara della Regina at Tarquinia; a beautiful
domus from the 1st c. B.C. with cryptoportico, nymphaeum, and small private baths; and a chapel dedicated
to Hercules with an annex for housing the youths. During
excavations in the 18th c. many public buildings were
discovered, including the forum and the baths; but the
plans and locations of these buildings are today unknown.
At the edge of the city near the N gate was a sanctuary
with a votive deposit from the 1st c. B.C.
Two beautiful bridges spanned the Fiora. The Rotto
bridge, poorly preserved, had five arches and carried the
Via Aurelia vetus. The majestic bridge of the Badia, of
the 1st c. B.C., had three arches, of which the central one
was 20 m wide and 70 m high. Necropoleis extend to
the N and E of Vulci and contain a great number of
tombs; more than 15,000 have been excavated, largely
in the 19th c. The oldest tombs are in the N necropoleis
in the locality called Osteria and at Cavalupo, Ponte
Rotto and Polledrara in the E necropoleis. They consist
of pit tombs of Villanovian culture from the 9th to the
8th c. B.C., often with a tufa cover, containing biconical
cineraria or cineraria
a capanna with accompanying
vases and objects of personal adornment. Two tombs in
the N necropoleis are particularly noteworthy. One contained a small Sardinian bronze from the 9th c. B.C. and the other an urn
a capanna in bronze from the middle of the 8th c. B.C. In the second half of the 8th c. B.C. the use
of pit graves appeared, with rich gifts characterized by
bronzes and by Italo-geometric pottery clearly of Euboean-Cycladean inspiration. From the beginning of the
7th c. B.C. chamber tombs were used, preceded by a room
open to the sky. Among these tombs a recently excavated
chamber is notable for the richness of the bronzes it
contained, including several orientalizing vessels.
By the end of the 7th c., besides Greek pottery, these
tombs contained the characteristic Etrusco-Corinthian
ceramics as well as the local bucchero; and a few decades
later the high relief sculptures representing animals,
monsters, and centaurs were placed as guards at the entrances of the graves. To this late orientalizing phase
belong the
tomba del Sole e della Luna with eight chambers having decorated ceilings in the N necropoleis, the
stately and still not well-known tumulus almost 65 m
in diameter called
la Cuccumella, and the
tomba di Iside.
The latter contained an alabaster statuette, Egyptian
scarabs, figured alabastra, decorated ostrich eggs, and an
interesting hydria of local manufacture. The 6th and
5th c. chamber tombs are among the richest in Attic
ceramics in the Mediterranean, and the importation of
this ware declines only after the middle of the 5th c. B.C.
At the beginning of the 4th c., with the economic and
political revival of Etruria, numerous large tombs were
built with a central T-shaped room and lateral cells. This
type is represented by several beautiful hypogea. The
“François” tomb had exceptional frescos with representations of the deceased, mythological scenes, and a very
rare representation of the Etruscan saga of Mastarna,
Servius Tullius.
After these tombs of the 4th c., more modest hypogea
with a single chamber or with a central corridor were
built, from which open burial cells in the 3d and 2d c.
B.C. They reflect the decline of Vulci during the Roman
period. The city was abandoned in the 8th c. The material
excavated is dispersed among the principal museums of
Europe. In Italy they are preserved at the Museum of
the Villa Giulia in Rome for the most part and in the
local museum of Vulci (Castello della Badia).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Messerschmidt et al.,
Nekropolen
von Vulci (1930)
MPI; R. Bartoccini, in
Atti del VII
Congresso di Archeologia Classica, Roma 1958, II (1960)
257-81
MPI;
EAA 7 (1966) 1208-14 (M. Torelli)
P; A. Hus,
Vulci (1971).
M. TORELLI
