The latest excavation of a late-Orientalizing tomb, located in the area of Colombaie on the southern side of Volterra and partially known since the early twentieth century, has allowed to identify a circular base built with blocks of stone and filled with earth and a pile of small-sized stones. This construction can be interpreted as a mound with a diameter of more than seven meters, placed to protect a hypogeic quadrangular chamber covered with a false dome. The discovery enables to revise the role played by Volterra in the dynamics of diffusion of tumuli in northern Etruria in the late sev enth and early sixth century BC. This place indeed seemed excluded from the adoption of such funerary monuments, widely attested in its territory (especially in the Cecina valley, but also in Valdera and Valdelsa): on the contrary, Volterra also received and adapted to local traditions that kind of monumental grave, typical of this part of the Etruscan region in the Orientalizing period. The building technique used in the Colombaie tumulus reveals relations in particular with the coastal towns (Populonia and Vetulonia) and shows the existence of a complex cultural network that involves also the internal districts, such as the Chianti area and the territory of Florence.
Note sui tumuli orientalizzanti di Volterra e del suo territorio
Rosselli L.
2021-01-01
Abstract
The latest excavation of a late-Orientalizing tomb, located in the area of Colombaie on the southern side of Volterra and partially known since the early twentieth century, has allowed to identify a circular base built with blocks of stone and filled with earth and a pile of small-sized stones. This construction can be interpreted as a mound with a diameter of more than seven meters, placed to protect a hypogeic quadrangular chamber covered with a false dome. The discovery enables to revise the role played by Volterra in the dynamics of diffusion of tumuli in northern Etruria in the late sev enth and early sixth century BC. This place indeed seemed excluded from the adoption of such funerary monuments, widely attested in its territory (especially in the Cecina valley, but also in Valdera and Valdelsa): on the contrary, Volterra also received and adapted to local traditions that kind of monumental grave, typical of this part of the Etruscan region in the Orientalizing period. The building technique used in the Colombaie tumulus reveals relations in particular with the coastal towns (Populonia and Vetulonia) and shows the existence of a complex cultural network that involves also the internal districts, such as the Chianti area and the territory of Florence.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
