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A Semi-Subterranean Etruscan Building in the Casale Pian Roseto (Veii) area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. B. Ward-Perkins ,
Leslie Murray Threipland  and
Mario Torelli
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Extract

In May 1965 the construction of a private race-track at Casale Pian Roseto, a property belonging to Sig. O. Baldi on the Via di S. Cornelia about 1·5 km. north of the ancient city of Veii, led to the discovery of a remarkable semi-subterranean building of the Etruscan period. The mechanical excavator had removed the south-east corner of this building exposing its massive filling of building blocks, tiles and broken pottery. The Superintendent of Antiquities, Doctor Mario Moretti, on being informed of the discovery by the local custodians, ordered the suspension of the work in the area concerned and entrusted me with this interesting problem. For this I wish to express once more my warmest thanks to Doctor Moretti. The material was recovered, under the direct supervision of the Assistente of the Superintendency, Sign. A. D'Amico, and myself, by the volunteer labour of the young members of the Gruppo Archeologico Romano, to whose enthusiasm and hard work I am deeply indebted. In addition the Director of the British School at Rome, Mr. J. B. Ward-Perkins put at my disposal the technical assistance of Mrs. L. Murray Threipland, helped by Miss Mary Ann Meagher and Miss Thora Fisker, who collaborated in the work of excavation and prepared the sections. To all these I wish to express my indebtedness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 38 , November 1970 , pp. 62 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1970

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References

1 As shown by the very large number of joins between fragments from the different layers.

2 Liv. vi, 5.

3 The only well-illustrated series of archaic cisterns is that of Rome; E.R. IV (Lund, 1966), pp. 360–75Google Scholar. For domestic cisterns at Veii, see Lanciani, R., N.Sc. 1889, p. 10Google Scholar.

4 Stefani, E., Mon. Ant. xl, 1944, pp. 171 f.Google Scholar

5 The point is very important for evaluating the continuity of life on the site of Veii. Piazza d'Armi appears to have been completely abandoned, while the greatest activity seems to be in the sanctuaries of Campetti, Portonaccio and Comunitá (misleadingly known as Piazza d'Armi). On this see Ward-Perkins, J. B., PBSR xxix, 1961, p. 52 f.Google ScholarSantangelo, M. in Rend. Acc. Linc. iii, 1948, p. 454 f.Google Scholar suggests a catastrophe at the end of the third century B.C., but this is to be explained historically in terms of the general regression in the outlying areas of Italy after the Hannibalic War (see Giuliano, A., Arte e Civiltá Romana nell'Italia Settentrionale, ii (Bologna, 1965), pp. 73 f.Google Scholar, especially p. 75 f.).

6 The small number of tombs of the fifth century B.C. is noted by Ward-Perkins, op. cit., p. 42 f.

7 See also the statistical tables compiled by L. Murray Threipland. (p. 66).

8 This is the ware referred to in PBSR xxxvi, 1968, p. 9Google Scholar, as ‘internal slip ware’.

9 Discussed by Prof. Torelli (p. 70).

10 A number of these vessels appears to have been deposited whole, but on a single pot sherds could vary considerably in their state of preservation (cf. Pl. XIV, a).

11 E.R. IV, p. 439Google Scholar; E.R. III, a number of examples in figs. 50, 51, p. 14 f.

12 E.R. IV, p. 436Google Scholar, fig. 118, 6–9.

13 E.R. IV, fig. 119, 2–4, 13, 14; E.R. I, fig. 837; E.R. III, fig. 37, 7.

14 On this type of kylix see Robinson, D. M., Excavations at Olynthus, xiii (Baltimore–London–Oxford) 1950, p. 327Google Scholar, pl. 210, and especially notes 647 and 648, from tombs of c. 460 B.C.

15 Johnson, F. J., Studies presented to D. M. Robinson, ii (Saint Louis, 1953), p. 96 f.Google Scholar, and especially p. 99.

16 See Aurigemma, S., Scavi di Spina i, (Roma, 1960), p. 182 f.Google Scholar and pl. 209 (tomb no. 559; for the skyphos with the owl, see 1), p. 183; ibid., p. 130 f. and pl. 151 (tomb no. 203; for the skyphos, see 1), p. 132. The examples are very numerous. In these and many other tombs at Spina there are parallels to the composition of the deposit at Veii—Attic wares from 450 B.C. to the end of the century and a little later, black-glazed wares with restrained overpainting and black-glazed bowls and plates of somewhat decadent type. This is the typical context of tombs of the first half of the fourth century B.C. (perhaps of the first decades of the century), contrasting with that of tombs of the second half of the century, such as Tomb no. 154 at Valle Trebbia (Negrioli, A. in N.Sc. 1924, p. 291 f. and 317 f.Google Scholar) with its Calenian and Campanian vases.

17 Cf. most recently, Moreno, P. in Arch. Class. xvi, 1964, p. 200 f.Google Scholar

18 E.g. Scavi di Ostia i (Roma, 1953)Google Scholar, pl. xxiv. The shape also appears in the so-called Gnathian wares, cf. Forti, L., La Ceramica di Gnathia (Napoli, 1965)Google Scholar, pl. XXVIIa.

19 Zuffa, M. in Studi Romagnoli xiii, 1962, p. 85 ff.Google Scholar; these are the earliest vases of the poculum type found in the north and they provide a valuable chronological point, since the Latin colony was founded in 264 B.C.

20 A plate of the same type as the one decorated with elephants from Capena has been found by J. ehasse (announced in his interesting lecture on the excavations of Aleria given in Rome in 1968) in association with Apulian pottery of the second half of the fourth century B.C.; this shows that there is no foundation for the antiquarian tradition which places the Capena plate later than Pyrrhus's invasion of Italy.

21 Especially with that of the Saint Valentin group and the oldest examples of West Slope Ware.

22 Manchester Memoirs 88, 1938–1939, p. 201 f.Google Scholar; see also JHS lxxi, 1951, p. 222 f.Google Scholar

23 I am indebted to Mr. E. Evans, National Museum of Wales, for this and other details of the pottery clays.

24 It would appear to have little in common with Professor Gjerstad's ‘Archaic Linear B’, E.R. IV, fig. 119, 2–4, 13, 14 though the ware is similar. His ‘Coarse Painted’ is close to the Casale Pian Roseto painted examples of coarse creamware.

25 A number of rims and necks of the same general type were excavated at Veii in the Etruscan Rampart and in the fill of the cuniculi underlying it, but no wavy handles were found, PBSR 1963, fig. 16.

26 A similar example attached to a heavy globular body is in the store rooms of the Villa Giulia, provenance unknown.

27 I am most grateful to Dr. J. P. Morel for his advice on these bowls.

28 Similar examples were found at Veii in the Rampart, Etruscan, PBSR 1963Google Scholar, fig. 17, 4, 5.

29 A number of similar jugs, several with a painted band on the upper surface of the flat rim were found at Veii in the Etruscan Rampart and in the cuniculi underlying it, PBSR 1963, fig. 17, 1–3.

30 Mon. Ant. iv, col. 269, fig. 128 and Tav. VII, 22; Dohan, , Italic Tomb Groups Narce 2F.Google Scholar, pl. XXXIV, 4.

31 E.g. CVA Italy iiiGoogle Scholar, Capua, Tav. 1, 1.

32 E.g. The Athenian Agora, vol. v, Pottery of the Roman period, pl. 10, J. 44, 45, etc.

33 The top of a similar jar was found in a well at Acqua Rossa.

34 For nos. 2, 3 cf. two examples in a late sixth-fifth century tomb, NNOO. 16 at Quattro Fontanili Veii, N.Sc. 1963Google Scholar, fig. 127 i, i.

35 Cf. Bull. Comm. lxxix, fig. 11, 117–121 showing similar rim profiles of sixth-century bowls from S. Omobono.

36 G. Colonna has discussed these bowls in Bull. Comm., lxxix, p. 24 f.Google Scholar, figs. 13–15, 17, 18 giving a range in Rome from the late seventh century–500 B.C. A rather similar lug-based bowl was found at Acqua Rossa; also PBSR 1963, p. 52Google Scholar, fig. 12, 2.

37 PBSR 1963, p. 68Google Scholar, fig. 24, 2 and on surface sites in the Ager Veientanus.

38 Prof. Torelli has noted similar stands from the recent excavations at the Temple of Porta Caere, Veii.

39 PBSR 1963, p. 54 f.Google Scholar, fig. 14 gives a full description of examples known up to that date. Since then several more have been noted and illustrated, e.g. N.Sc. 1963, fig. 79, 1–5 from San Giuliano.

40 PBSR 1968, p. 9 f.Google Scholar notes these as dating evidence when found on surface sites in the Ager Veientanus.

41 Cf. Gierow, P. G., Iron Age Culture of Latium iGoogle Scholar, fig. 85.

42 This reflects a much earlier impasto tradition (Gierow, loc. cit.); but cf. N.Sc. 1954, fig. 354, where an example similar to no. 8 was found in association with twin-flanged basins, and PBSR 1963, fig. 18, 2 from the make-up of the Etruscan Rampart at Veii.

43 Palm, J., ‘Veiian tomb groups’, Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Rom, xvi, 1952, pp. 50–86Google Scholar.

44 Cf. E.R. IV, p. 423 f.Google Scholar, fig. 86; the bag-like shape of the ‘Simplified Red Impasto’ jars in the Archaic City has no similarity here.

45 Déchelette, J., Manuel d'Archéologie Celtique. Age du Fer, p. 907 f.Google Scholar, fig. 625, 1–3.

46 Zannoni, A., Archaiche Abitazioni di Bologna, p. 35Google Scholar, pl. XIV, figs. 24–5.

47 PBSR 1963, p. 64Google Scholar, pl. VII.

48 Ibid., p. 71, pls. XII; XIII.

49 Comparable bronze mountings, E.R. III, fig. 149, 38, 39.

50 A similar quern and rubber from Satricum (‘abitazioni dell'Acropoli’) with cooking stands, in the Villa Giulia; also E.R. III, Fig. 241, 5.

51 St. Etr. 1969, p. 324Google Scholar, no. 2 (CPR B7). Certain elements in the text are consistent with a Latin context, supposing that it is to be read sinistrorsum and that the sign M has the value of m. This would give Stama—, the first S being upside down, as frequently in archaic Latin inscriptions.