Tour to Tuscania

Tuscania was one of the most important Etruscan cities ever, even if its Etruscan name is not known and it never acquired the status of Lucumonia. The legends tell us that Tuscania was founded by Ascanio, son of Aeneas, who probably lived in these parts, or Tusco, son of Ercole and Araxe the queen of the Shiites. In any case, the area of Tuscania is inhabited since the Villanovan period. Once it was considered only an agricultural city under the most important Tarquinia, today we are re evaluating it as also religious center. The excavations conducted after the earthquake of 1971 led to the discovery of a protohistoric village, or at least the age of the bronze age, under the current hill of San Pietro. The area of the hill of San Pietro is the highest (acropolis) located on the right side of the river Marta or along the strategic line that leads from Tarquinia to Lake Bolsena. Subsequently, with the construction of the Via Clodia, a direct connection with Rome was added to the original direct line, which, if possible, increased the importance of Tuscania. To demonstrate this, there are at least five Etruscan Roman necropolises around the acropolis within a radius of a couple of kilometers. In the necropolis of Tuscania you can see almost all types of Etruscan tombs. From the archaic mounds with circular drum of the Ara del Tufo necropolis of clear Ceretan influence, to the upper slit tombs (typology of tombs present only in Tuscania) of the necropolis of Ara del Tufo and of the tombs located in the Scalette area. Practically we start with the archaic tombs of the VII – VI century BC to get to the late Hellenistic tombs of the first century BC. This shows that for over 600 years in Tuscania there have been families “at least wealthy” that could afford beautiful and expensive tombs and beautiful sarcophagi both in nenfro and clay (in terracotta) of the II – I Sec. aC. In no other Etruscan city there have been so many sarcophagi as in Tuscania, which thanks to the exhibition held in London in 1837 by the brothers Carlo, Secondiano and Domenico Campanari, sons of Vincenzo, gave it the name of Etruscan sarcophagi.

In Etruscan times Tuscania is one of the most significant centers of southern Etruria. Until the middle of our century the interest in this city was rather marginal. For some decades now, however, some scholars have been devoting their attention to the different aspects that Southern Southern Etruria presents: consequently the survey on weight, which Tuscania had in this context, is becoming more and more accurate, thanks also to the considerable quantity and quality of finds that come to light from time to time.