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Excavation

  • Acropoli – Piano del Castello
  • Volterra
  • Volaterrae
  • Italy
  • Tuscany
  • Pisa
  • Volterra

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • Excavations were undertaken both inside enclosure IV and outside its eastern part. Inside the enclosure the continuation of the perimeter wall exposed to the south was uncovered, heavily damaged due to destructive episodes during the medieval period. Outside the enclosure, beneath a massive dump of almost sterile earth of post-medieval date, an occupation level dating to the 1st century B.C. came to light. The level presented in situ votive material and was partially damaged by a large robber trench datable to the 2nd-3rd century A.D. The line of the robber trench probably represents the outline of the structures belonging to the forepart of the monumental entrance to the enclosure area.

    On the eastern edge of the excavation area an irregular oblong pit emerged (2.60 × 0.80 m) filled with a substantial quantity of animal bones (intact crania and long bones), to date identified as male and female sheep, ox, pig and a dog’s femur. The presence of species such as sheep and dog, which have attributes associating them with the underworld, indicates in all probability the presence in the sacred area of a cult of Persephone, daughter of Demeter. At the centre of the pit was a quadrangular well, with walls of stone slabs, covered by a large fragment of antefix of a type pertinent to the roof of the nearby tempietto of Demeter. The removal of this fragment revealed an intact, partially glazed, amphoretta datable to the 1st century B.C. A preliminary interpretation suggests this may be an abandonment deposit relating to the temple building mentioned above, whose collapse was securely dated, in the previous campaigns, to the Sullan period. Lastly, below the layers and structures described, the excavation uncovered an occupation level which included a paved make up datable to the 2nd century B.C. and interpreted as part of an access pathway to enclosure IV.

    In the zone to the west of the enclosures an occupation level was brought to light which presented hearths within small holes in the ground. These contained ash, charcoal and skeletal remains of birds, and can be generically dated to the Augustan period. The finds again attest the long life of the sanctuary, as attested by numerous inscriptions in the Latin language and alphabet recovered on the excavation and to be published in the Rivista di epigrafia di Studi Etruschi.

  • Marisa Bonamici - Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa 

Director

Team

  • Fabrizio Burchianti - Università degli Studi di Pisa, Scuola di specializzazione in Archeologia
  • Francesca Grassini
  • Lisa Rosselli - Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa
  • Emanuele Taccola - Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa

Research Body

Funding Body

  • Comune di Volterra
  • Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra
  • Università degli Studi di Pisa

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