Bucchero is a type of Etruscan pottery which is black, both on the surface and in the core. There are many different shades of grey to black which are still considered to be bucchero, but in all cases the core of the pottery must be ‘reduced.’ The process was discovered by the Etruscans, and gave rise to one of the most characteristic products of their culture.

Bucchero varies enormously from period to period, from place to place. In this paper the period to be covered is approximately 650–600 B.C., during which the forms of bucchero sottile were established and developed in southern Etruria. The origins of these forms will also be sought in earlier periods, chiefly from the late eighth century onwards. The bucchero pesante of the sixth century, and later types continuing in the fifth, will not be considered here.

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.

The early history and development of the Roman road-system in Italy under the Republic has been the subject of much recent study, notably in a book by Dr. T. Pekáry of Berne and in a series of papers by Professor G. Radke of Berlin, who now promises an article on viae in a forthcoming supplement-volume to Paully-Wissowa. The aim of the present paper is to ask how far the theories put forward by these scholars can be accepted, and how much the existing evidence can and cannot tell us. Professor Radke's views are considered first—the basic criteria for his arguments in section I and the results he obtains for the individual roads in section II. Dr. Pekáry's arguments about the chronology of the early road programmes are examined in section III, and his theory about the financial responsibility for the building and repair of roads in section IV. The final section contains some positive, if tentative, suggestions about the development in scale and expense of the roads in the second century B.C., about the political importance of road-building under the Republic, and about the introduction and purpose of milestone inscriptions.

In addition to the series of stucco reliefs recently acquired on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, to three stuccoed panels from the Hartwig collection, and to a few miscellaneous pieces, the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities possesses nine large and eight smaller fragments of stucco-relief work about whose acquisition almost nothing is recorded. Till recently, they were not entered in the Department's Register, and had no accession numbers: the only distinguishing marks were blue diamond-shaped tabs stuck to five of them, and the numbers 63 and 99 scratched on the backs of two. Blue diamonds occur on several ancient objects which formed part of the collection of Sir William Hamilton, so it is possible that the stuccoes once belonged to the same illustrious antiquary. Indeed, a British Museum catalogue of 1817 definitely ascribes one of them to the Hamilton collection, and also reveals, in conjunction with a manuscript of 1824, that the remaining pieces were kept in the so-called ‘Hamilton Room’, most of whose contents had formerly been owned by Sir William.

In a recent important article on the mosaics of the basilica of St. Demetrius at Thessaloniki, R. S. Cormack proposes a list of churches in the city with mosaics ‘for which a late fifth century date must be considered.’ The list comprises the Acheiropoietos basilica, the first phase of the basilica of St. Demetrius, and Hosios David. The purpose of this article is to show that the mosaics of the second phase of the Rotunda (now known as the church of St. George) should be included in Cormack's list.

The first thing to note about the Rotunda mosaics is that there has been less than unanimity concerning the date of their construction. Volbach, Lazarev and Cormack, amongst others, follow Dyggve and Torp in dating the mosaics to c. 400 or slightly earlier; Diehl and Dalton dated them to the fifth century, Weigand to the sixth and Holtzinger to the seventh or eighth century, all on largely stylistic grounds. What are obviously needed are some objective dating criteria, and these are to be found, not so much in the mosaics themselves, but rather in the building fabric and the furniture of the converted Rotunda. The conversion of the Rotunda, incidentally, consisted of the blocking of an opaion in the cupola and the addition of an ambulatory, a monumental entrance to the south, an apse to the east (Plate XXIII) and various subsidiary buildings to east and west. The mosaics were placed in the cupola and in the niches which connected the main body of the Rotunda with the ambulatory.

The remains of medieval Satriano occupy the acropolis of the Lucanian town, a hilltop site 16 km. south-west of Potenza (Pl. XXVII, a). Like the Lucanian settlement, the medieval site owed its existence to the commanding position of the acropolis, which not only dominates the surrounding countryside, but also overlooks an important route between Campania and Apulia. The valleys of the Tanagro and the Platano (which together join the Sele near Contursi) and of the Basento form a corridor through the mountains from west to east, linking Salerno, Potenza and Taranto, with an alternative route from Potenza to Gravina and Bari (Fig. 1). In addition, the Melandro valley, which joins the Platano west of Vietri, passes to the south of the foot of Satriano acropolis and gives access to Brienza, Grumento and the mountain settlements of north Calabria. Finally, leaving the Salerno-Taranto route at Potenza, an easy track led northwards to Lagopesole, Melfi and the Foggia plain. While Potenza was the pivot of this network of routes, Satriano was also well placed to benefit from contact with the wealthy regions of Campania and Apulia. In an area which produced little or no iron and possessed no deposits of copper or lead, such contact was of considerable importance.

The decade between 1250 and 1260 is for a variety of reasons, mainly political and financial, a bleak period in Roman art. The tomb of cardinal Fieschi and some other Cosmatesque work survives in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura, the former in a gravely damaged state. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss a monument of greater significance for Roman mediaeval art than either of these. The monument is precisely dated and significant portions of it survive. Ignorance of its original aspect has denied it all but the most summary attention in even the most specialized monographs.

Before the reconstructions of the eighteenth century, two tabernacles stood in the apse of S. Maria Maggiore. Both were probably dismantled during Ferdinando Fuga's remodelling of the nave of the basilica. Only that to the right of the apse, generally termed the Tabernacolo delle Reliquie is our concern here. A certain amount is known about its history. It was erected in 1256 by Giovanni Giacomo Capocci and his wife Vinia, and this fact was recorded in an inscription. Capocci and his wife were represented on a small mosaic panel on the side of the tabernacle. After the dismantling of the tabernacle this panel was subsequently removed to the small church of S. Michele at Vico in Lazio, where it still remains in a chapel to the left of the choir (Pl. XXXIV). The four porphyry columns which supported the tabernacle were transferred to the Cappella del SS. Crocifisso in S. Maria Maggiore.