Regulatory Planning and Individual Site Development in Etruscan Necropoles

Abstract

THE NECROPOLES of Tarquinia and Cerveteri occupied an area considerably larger than that of the habitation sites on which they depended, while even smaller, inland sites, such as Bieda and Norchia, gradually were surrounded by large numbers of tombs. The Etruscans, to whom the design and execution of individual sepulchers was so important, obviously could not have neglected the organization of these vast burial areas, and patterns can be detected in individual site planning and overall necropolis supervision. In addition, there is often a tension between individual enterprise and collective planning systems in tomb construction. Unfortunately, the only sources for a study of both developments are the necropoles themselves, which, with the exception of those at Cerveteri and Castel d'Asso, have been the object of plundering rather than thorough, disciplined excavation and remain largely covered with earth and vegetation.1 Some important necropoles, such as those of Cortona and Fiesole, are known from only a few tombs. Local inscriptional material is only occasionally helpful, while Roman sources are of marginal assistance. Although the Crocifisso del Tufo necropolis at Orvieto is important, the rock-cut necropoles of Southern Etruria have preserved the largest amount of available evidence, so that this study, like previous work, is based largely on material from that region. Rosi wrote a brief, general account concerning organization of the rock-cut necropoles in Central Etruria, and individual site reports and regional topographical studies frequently contain relevant information concerning other areas.2 The amount of archaeological material is vast, but it will be useful at least to outline the general planning principles which seem to have governed the Etruscan necropoles. Larger sites surrounding substantial population centers will be considered, since these alone included enough tombs to have required imaginative regulation or were occupied long enough to allow planning to take effect. The small, isolated tomb fagades scattered throughout the Viterbese will be excluded, along with the solitary barrel-vaulted tombs of the region around Chiusi. Such tombs and necropoles, dependent on small settlements, isolated farms, or possibly the country estates of aristocratic families, presumably reflected developments in the larger urban centers, if they benefited from any formal concern whatsoever. Many of the principles to be discussed evolved during the fifth and fourth centuries, or later, as the traditional burial areas around these centers became crowded.