Veii. A Deposit of Votive Pottery

Abstract

In October 1963 a deposit of pottery was exposed on the low ground below the Veii escarpment, south of the Cremera (Fig. 1), adjacent to the line of the Ponte San Silvestro (Formello) Etruscan road as it wound up to the gate (Carta d'Italia, 1:25,000, Istituto Geografico Militare, Sheet Formello, Grid Reference 845565).The deposit superficially appeared to consist almost entirely of sherds of poorly made bucchero and of coarseware cooking pots. In order to verify this and to establish a type series, members of the British School, at the request of the Superintendancy of Antiquities, Southern Etruria, carried out a brief exploration of the site under the direction of Mrs. Anne Kahane and the writer.The excavation showed (Fig. 2) that the sherds lay closely packed in dark soil, together with occasional tufa lumps, in a shallow pit dug into soft brown earth against a low vertical rock-face. Both this face and another low vertical edge above it give the general appearance of quarry faces and evidence of other quarrying can be seen in the tufa at the river's edge.