Vetulonia

Vetulonia, formerly called Vetulonium (Etruscan: Vatluna), was an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, the site of which is probably occupied by the modern village of Vetulonia, which up to 1887 bore the name of Colonnata and Colonna di Buriano: the site is currently a frazione of the comune of Castiglione della Pescaia, with some 400 inhabitants.

For the gastropod unassigned in the Seguenzioidea superfamily, see Vetulonia (gastropod).
Vetulonia
Frazione
View of Vetulonia
Vetulonia
Location of Vetulonia in Italy
Coordinates: 42°51′34″N 10°58′16″E
Country Italy
Region Tuscany
ProvinceGrosseto (GR)
ComuneCastiglione della Pescaia
Elevation
335 m (1,099 ft)
Population
 (2011)
 • Total254
Demonym(s)Vetuloniesi
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
58043
Dialing code(+39) 0564

It lies 300m above sea level, about ten miles directly northwest of Grosseto, on the northeast side of the hills which project from the flat Maremma and form the promontory of Castiglione.

History and main sights
Cyclopean wall of the Mura dell'Arce.

Vetulonia has Etruscan origins. It was, by 600 BC, part of the Etruscan League of twelve cities.[1] Dionysius of Halicarnassus[2] places the city within the Latin alliance against Rome in the seventh century BC. According to Silius Italicus (Punica VIII.485ff), the Romans adopted their magisterial insignia, the Lictors' rods and fasces and the curule seat, from Vetulonia; in 1898, a tomb in the necropolis was discovered with a bundle of iron rods with a double-headed axe in the centre, and soon afterwards, a grave stela inscribed for Avele Feluske was discovered, on which the fasces were pictured. Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy also mention the town. The rich votive furnishing from the two extensive necropoleis attest to the importance of Vetulonia's elite.

The Mura dell'Arce (cyclopean walls) date probably from the 6th-5th century BC, and aerial photography has revealed further stretches, which show the political and commercial importance of Vetulonia, which was famous for its goldsmiths. Under the Roman Empire, however, it shrank to a secondary center, with the northward spread of malaria. Little is known also about medieval Vetulonia: first fought over by the abbots of San Bartolomeo di Sestinga and the Lambardi family of Buriano, it was acquired by the commune of Massa Marittima in 1323. Nine years later it was handed over to Siena.

The site of the ancient city was not identified before 1881.[3] The Etruscan city situated on the hill of Colonna di Buriano, where there are remains of city walls of massive limestone, in almost horizontal courses, was accompanied by two necropoleis partly excavated by Isidoro Falchi in 1885-86;[4] the town was renamed Vetulonia by royal decree in 1887.

The objects discovered in its extensive seventh-century necropolis, where over 1,000 tombs have been excavated, are now in the museums of Grosseto and Florence. The most important tombs, in this "richest and most interesting tomb group of northern Etruria",[5] were covered by tumuli, which still form a prominent feature in the landscape.[3]

The site halfway up the hill to the modern town is easily walked in about ten minutes and is open June to September from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, and seven days a week in July and August. There is no car park but there is a lay-by a few yards away.[6]

An archaeological museum, the Museo Isidoro Falchi, was opened in 2000.[7]

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See also

References
  1. Mystery of the Etruscans
  2. Dionysius, iii.52.
  3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Vetulonium". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 15.
  4. Falchi, in Notizie degli scavi December 1887.
  5. Larissa Bonfante Warren, reviewing Giovannangelo Camporeale, La Tomba del Duce, Vetulonia vol. I (Istituto di studi etruschi ed italici) Florence: Olschki 1967, in American Journal of Archaeology 73.4 October 1969:484.
  6. Notice on gate
  7. Museo Isidoro Falchi

Further reading
  • Bell, Sinclair and Alexandra A. Carpino, eds. 2016. A Companion to the Etruscans. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Haynes, Sybille. 2000. Etruscan civilization: A cultural history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
  • Pallottino, Massimo. 1978. The Etruscans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Sprenger, Maia, and Gilda Bartoloni. 1983. The Etruscans: Their history, art and architecture. Translated by Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
  • Turfa, Jean MacIntosh, ed. 2013. The Etruscan World. Routledge Worlds. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Library resources about
Vetulonia
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