Fasti Online Home | Switch To Fasti Archaeological Conservation | Survey
logo

Excavation

  • Campo della Fiera
  • Campo della Fiera
  • Velzna
  • Italy
  • Umbria
  • Province of Terni
  • Orvieto

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)

  • The 2011 campaign saw the participation of students from several Italian universities together with students from Switzerland and America. The evidence uncovered provided further confirmation that the site can be identified as Fanum Voltumnae.

    Trench M was enlarged towards the south to link up with trench L, thus revealing a first stretch of the first temenos wall in this area of the sanctuary, on the same alignment as that uncovered in trench L. The wall in trench M was abutted by a beaten surface of crushed tufa which constituted the floor level. In the same trench, in the sector between the second temenos, the trachyte votive table and the monolithic tufa altar, two separate pits separated by a feature constructed with reused materials (bases for bronzes) were excavated. The pits had been filled in the Augustan period with materials covering a long chronological period, beginning at the end of the 6th century B.C. In trench U, adjacent to trench M, the threshold from the entrance in the second temenos wall was excavated and the final stretch of the opus reticulatum enclosure wall emerged. In the 1st century A.D. this wall had reduced the size of the sacred area which was again newly extended in the 2nd century A.D. Therefore, as the investigations stand, four phases for the enclosure can be distinguished: the first in the 4th century B.C., the second in the late Republican- proto Augustan period, the third ( opus reticulatum ) in the 1st century A.D. and the fourth dating to the 2nd century A.D. Further investigation of the tempietto inside the enclosure showed the existence of a phase predating its 4th century B.C. rebuilding.

    In trench N an Archaic temple building emerged, its width unfortunately compromised by a sewer pipe laid in 1995 (date stamps on pipes). The temple was orientated to the south-west, the short side being about 9 m long. The lowest course was preserved on which there remained clear traces of the second course and of the foundations of the south-west column. This is the third sacred building found at Campo della Fiera. The floor of the pronaos and cella (the latter only partially excavated and continuing in trench T) was obliterated by a layer containing an abundance of materials, in particular Attic black- and red-figure pottery (amphora, kraters, deinoi, kylikes), as well as Etruscan pottery and sherds with inscriptions of a cult nature.

    The osteological remains found in the “a cassone” tomb in the south-west corner of the temple were examined by Prof. F. Mallegni. The remains, buried in the 3rd century B.C., were those of a child of between 3 and 5 years of age, who had suffered from a growth-arresting illness. The cremated bones, found in a small coarse ware jar covered by a black glaze cup beside the “cassa”, belonged to an infant of 18 months/two years of age.

    In trench R the excavation examined the caldarium and tepidarium, confirming and defining the presence of late antique dwellings built over the ruined floors of the bath building.

  • Simonetta Stopponi - Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Sezione di Scienze Storiche dell'Antichtà 

Director

Team

  • Paolo Bruschetti - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Umbria
  • Simone Moretti Giani
  • Anna Riva
  • Nicola Bruni
  • Claudia Giontella - Università di Macerata, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali
  • Claudio Bizzarri - Parco Archeologico Ambientale dell’Orvietano
  • Marco Broncoli

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Macerata
  • Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Sezione di Scienze Storiche dell'Antichtà

Funding Body

  • Fondazione della Cassa di Risparmio di Orvieto

Images

  • No files have been added yet