L’enceinte protohistorique de Lattes

Abstract

Abstract. Although the antique town of Lattara limits are not yet known in its largest extension, it has been possible after the recent excavations to delimit almost entirely the Protohistoric precinct around the early centre of the city. A first multiple facing rampart is built around the end of the 6th century B. C., at the time when Etruscan people lived at Lattes: this work is built with a monumental corner tower, striddling the curtain, and a gate facing the lagoon, reinforced by a quadrangular bastion. Another gate must have already been installed on the north wall. The presence of water was detected everywhere during the excavations (lagoon and river branches), at the bottom of the rampart. After the violent destruction of the Etruscan buildings, circa 475 B. C., the south curtain was given a repair, apparently localized. A few years later, circa 450 B. C., the rampart is entirely rebuilt. Constituted of a single wall at the base of the previous one, this work will stay in use until the 2nd century B. C. On the south wall, it will successively be reinforced with an earth bank and a first front wall (mid 4th c.), then with a series of square external turrets (early 3rd c.), at last with a second front wall over the earlier wall (end of the 2nd c.). From the 1st century B. C. onwards and during the Principate, the Protohistoric fortification is being partly dismantled, partly reused in a platform system, while some sections are being preserved to support extra muros utility buildings; at that point, the monument has lost altogether its defensive function and its symbolic signification.