BMCR 2009.07.70: van der Graaff on La citta\ murata in Etruria: Atti del XXV Convegno di studi etruschi ed italici, Chianciano Terme, Sarteano, Chiusi, 30 marzo - 3 aprile 2005: in memoria di Massimo Pallottino. Atti di convegni / Istituto nazionale di studi etruschi ed italici; 25

La citta\ murata in Etruria: Atti del XXV Convegno
di studi etruschi ed italici, Chianciano Terme, Sarteano, Chiusi, 30
marzo - 3 aprile 2005: in memoria di Massimo Pallottino. Atti di
convegni / Istituto nazionale di studi etruschi ed italici; 25.
Pisa/Roma:  Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2008.  Pp. 538.  ISBN
9788862270267.  EUR 960.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Ivo van der Graaff, University of Texas at Austin
([email protected])
Word count:  3223 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-07-70.html
To comment on this review, see
http://www.bmcreview.org/2009/07/20090770.html
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This book is a publication of the papers and posters presented in 2005
at the Studi Etruschi conference dedicated to the memory of Massimo
Pallottino. The proceedings focus upon the most evident but least
studied of Etruscan remains: city walls. Greek and Roman studies supply
a wealth of publications upon the subject, but the imposing Etruscan
remains have never drawn systematic scholarly attention. In the early
1990's a renewed interest in Etruscan urbanism led to a plethora of
research on city walls. This landmark publication aims to present
Etruscan city walls in the context of new results. The participation of
authors such as Mario Torelli, Armando Cherici, Giovanni Camporeale and
Mauro Cristofani signals the scale and importance of the publication.
Over thirty-two articles and the texts of four posters approach city
walls through anthropological perspectives and site-specific excavation
reports. The table of contents follows the order of conference
presentation, but for purposes of this review, I have grouped the
articles according to subject. I first consider the broad approaches,
continue with articles focused on small regional sites, and finish by
highlighting contributions concerning large Etruscan settlements. I
attempt to examine every entry, but given the limits of the review, I
refrain from analyzing every contribution in depth. Authors and titles
are listed at the end of the review.

After a brief introductory address elucidating the aims of the
conference, Camporeale opens the proceedings with an assessment of the
meaning of city walls within literary and figurative traditions. He
presents a selection of sources that trace the historical and
archaeological problems related to our understanding of Etruscan city
walls. Although he purposely avoids the archeological evidence due to
issues of space, Camporeale presents a well-rounded and incisive
overview.

Armando Cherici continues with what may be the most important
contribution of the publication. In ancient texts authors often refer
to walls of bronze, wood, earth, and stones. Cherici postulates that
bronze is a metaphor for Hoplite formations, wood for ships, earth for
the simple embankments fortifying a network of strongholds, and stones
for solid city walls. He goes on to frame these terms within
historical, sociopolitical, and military developments. By analyzing the
Greek evidence, Cherici concludes that analysis of defensive networks
leads to an understanding of the social motivations and tensions that
produced them. Despite the paucity of such evidence for Etruria, he
successfully applies the model to the Roman destruction and relocation
of Volsinii with interesting results.

Marjatta Nielsen continues with a brief contribution on the depiction
of city gates and sieges on funerary urns. A series of examples
depicting foreign scenes such as the sack of Troy and the Seven Against
Thebes portray the outer fac,ade of the Volterran Porta all'Arco to
represent the urban side of city gates in the Aegean. Nielsen suggests
that the motif of the arch and the passage between life and death
correlates directly with the communal identity that city walls
established. The images of the local gate therefore acted as a marker
of place and identity also in death.

For her part, Hilary Becker successfully correlates the terms urbs,
oppidum, castellum, and vicus, to the emerging archaeological evidence.
Ancient sources use the terms to describe the settlement hierarchy
throughout the Etruscan territory, but modern scholarship has remained
skeptical of such a direct correlation. Becker suggests that scholars
should adopt the ancient terms in future publications to elucidate
better the settlement differentiations operating in Etruria.

Lidio Gasperini follows with a brief contribution describing a few of
the Scaean gates in southern Etruria. The author eventually hopes to
identify the gate type as a commonly used form in Etruria, but admits
that the article is only a preliminary assessment and is far from
presenting a complete picture.

Dominique Briquel addresses the religious aspects of Etruscan
foundation rituals and urban layouts. In simple terms, the primigenius
sulcus defines the extent of divine protection as well as the city
limits, but the associated ritual also expels otherwise uncontrollable
forces of nature. Briquel downplays the religious role of city walls
within this context, arguing instead that the structures merely
protected rather than occupied the established pomerial boundary. The
author indicates that the general Hippodamic layout of cities such as
Marzabotto seems to play a far greater religious role than walls in
Etruscan urban concepts.  For instance, the axial street alignments of
some cities mirror the Etruscan cosmological religious organization.
Furthermore, theumbilicus urbis placed at town centers echoes the
religious relationship between gods and humans by positioning
settlements between the dei caelestes above and the dei inferi below.
As a result cities functioned both as earthly and cosmic centers in the
Etruscan worldview.

Paul Fontaine contributes a broad analysis of our knowledge on Etruscan
fortifications and highlights regional defense patterns. The article
elucidates some of the major problems in the field, such as dating and
the correct identification of walls as either defensive or terracing
structures. He also looks at how local materials, settlement placement,
and military practices influenced enceinte designs. Within this last
category he examines the literary evidence in an effort to ascertain to
what extent direct attacks actually posed a threat to urban centers.
Fontaine admits the precariousness of our knowledge, yet he advances
some interesting suggestions upon the dynamics influencing enceinte
design with the advent of complex siege machines and their use in
Italy.

Mario Torelli makes an important contribution to the chronological
development of Etruscan defenses. In particular he assesses the
architectural responses to social and military developments occurring
during the Roman conquest of Etruria between the fourth and second
centuries BCE.  Torelli begins with the late Bronze Age, exploring the
complexities of enceinte design and the introduction of siege warfare
on the Italian peninsula. The author discusses the remains in important
cities such as Vulci, Perugia, Cortona, and others in order to
contextualize their appearance within the military developments. The
article also discusses the effect of walls upon visitors as markers of
civic identity. The cases of Falerii Novi and Perugia form examples
validating the thesis that walls developed from purely defensive
elements into integral parts of the urban image.

Three articles examine the enceinte designs and defensive networks on a
regional scale. Stephan Steingraeber looks at enceinte design in
southeastern Etruria, limiting his choice to seven sites. Despite the
small sample size and related dating problems, he concludes that local
factors such as topography and the availability of material decisively
influence fortification design.

Adriano Maggiani provides a valuable contribution to our understanding
of territorial defensive networks. Despite his sweeping title, he
admits that limited resources must reduce the analysis to the
territories of Pisa, Populonia and Fiesole. His article provides a
vital insight into the relatively unknown territorial mechanisms and
settlement patterns of the region during the fourth century BCE.  In
particular Maggiani recognizes a pattern where rectangular fortresses
replaced earlier archaic boundary sanctuaries throughout the landscape.

Luigi Malnati and Giuseppe Sassatelli contribute to this group by
assessing regional settlement patterns in the Po valley. They begin by
establishing that regional occupation rests primarily upon urban
conglomerates. Malnati then presents Bologna, Spina and some minor
regional centres, while Sassatelli writes primarily about Bagnolo S.
Vito, Marzabotto and to a lesser extent Spina and Ravenna. The
Hippodamic alignment of Marzabotto in particular suggests astronomical
and cosmic calculations governing urban layouts. Overall, the article
offers a deeper understanding of the role walls played within urban
development and settlement identities of the region.

A group of articles concentrates on site specific archaeological
reports, including quite a number of smaller sites receiving first
publication. Three contributions focus on the Albegna valley. Maurizio
Michelucci discusses the results of excavations aimed at dating and
assessing the construction technique of the walls of Doganella, while
the contribution by Giulio Ciampoltrini and Mario Cosci discusses the
wider settlement pattern and the role of the via dei Tumuli in the
valley. Finally Paola Rendini and Marco Firmati publish the oppidum of
Ghiaccio Forte on the eastern side of the valley for the first time.
Interestingly, the development of the oppidum seems to behave according
to the pattern Maggiani identifies further north.

Similar events appear to govern the Hellenistic fortress of Poggio
Civitella. Luigi Donati and Luca Cappuccini describe three successive
phases of abandonment and reoccupation, from a cult area in the late
Bronze Age to a settlement in the sixth century BCE, and as a fortress
in its final phase. Strikingly, the stronghold presents three distinct
contemporary enceintes placed in succession up the slope. The authors
describe the construction technique of each wall and present some of
the most significant excavation finds from the site, including much of
the uncovered cult material.

In two separate articles, Friedhelm Prayon and Jean Gran-Aymerich
describe the walls of Castellina del Marangone. This small site at the
fringes of Caeran territory builds two concentric enceintes in the
period of Roman expansion. The first author discerns the presence of
spoliated material in the outer wall and proposes their origin from a
temple that dominated the hilltop in the fifth century CE.
Gran-Aymerich presents the stratigraphy associated with a secondary
upper enceinte uncovered during recent excavations.

Two contributions concern the territory around present-day Siena.
Silvia Vilucchi and Ada Salvi present preliminary research on the
oppidum at Piazza di Siena, while Silvia Goggioli and Guido Bandinelli
describe the defensive castellieri settlements in the territory of
Etruscan Siena. These two articles help to further assess the
previously little known Etruscan defensive network in this territory.

Maria Chiara Bettini presents a similar preliminary study on the
strategic site of Pietramarina. Lying upon an important territorial
road network connecting Volterra and Fiesole in the Valdarno the site
seems akin in size and role to neighboring Artimino. The article
presents preliminary but interesting results on the development of the
site and further campaigns will certainly help shed more light on the
settlement pattern of this particular region.

The other site--specific articles discuss results of some of the
better--known Etruscan centers. Francesca Boitani, in collaboration
with Sara Neri and Folco Biagi, present the results of emergency
excavations near the northwest gate of Veii. An earlier wall running
parallel to the outer archaic defenses is possibly the most significant
discovery of the campaign. The stratigraphic evidence dates the
construction of the wall sometime between the eighth and seventh
centuries BCE, suggesting that the development of Veii mirrors the
urbanization processes occurring in neighboring Latium at the time.

Using new mapping studies and small excavations, Giorgo Baratti, Maria
Cataldi and Lucia Mordeglia revisit Tarquinia in an effort to end the
controversy concerning the date and route of the enceinte. The results
suggest a wider route and place the first construction to the early
sixth century BCE, setting the conventional date back almost a century.
The results remain preliminary, since later restorations of the
structure complicate the interpretation.

Anna Maria Moretti Sgubini reports on the progress of conservation
efforts at Vulci. The excavation of the fossa in front of the agger
near the west gate suggests defensive works protecting the city by the
second half of the eighth century BCE. More importantly, Sgubini
reports on the discovery of a secondary double fornix gate beyond the
primary line of defense at the ponte rotto crossing the Fiora River.
Although we need to await further elaboration of the results, the
evidence suggests a previously undocumented complex double line of
defenses on this side of the settlement.

The well known walls at Todi are next on the list. Paolo Bruschetti
summarizes the restoration work and projects their role in the social
and infrastructural developments of the city between the fifth and
first centuries BCE. More importantly, he contests the pure defensive
nature of the walls, pointing out their primary function as terracing
elements constructed to accommodate the expansion of the urban area
over the centuries.

Mario Cygielman and Gabriela Poggesi revisit the famous walls of
Roselle as part of the general restoration effort carried out in recent
years. The article mostly summarizes the history of research, but also
includes some new insights gained during the project. In particular,
the hypothesis postulating that the first Orientalizing settlement
occupied only the north hill gains further momentum. Pasquino Pallecchi
adds an appendix explaining the eclectic nature of the stone types used
in the circuit. His geomorphological analysis allows a direct
correlation between the types used and the quarries identified next to
the walls.

Volterra and Populonia also feature on the list of larger Etruscan
sites in the book. Antonella Romualdi and Rosalba Settesoldi discuss
the state and research development of the lower enceinte at Populonia,
while Anna Maria Esposito and Roberto Sabelli follow with a similar
examination of the restoration works on the third circuit of Volterra.
This report includes a previously unpublished drawing of the remains of
the Porta Solis and an in--depth description of the works in Localita\
Sant'Andrea. Marisa Bonamici concentrates further on the Archaic
circuit at Volterra, publishing the first photographs of the wall
segment under the Centro Studi of the Cassa di Risparmio. Bonamici
re-proposes the structure, otherwise buried in a small publication, to
a wider audience and repositions the segment in the current urban
matrix using new survey data. She also casts doubt on its function,
arguing that the structure possibly operated as a terracing rather than
defensive structure. This premise allows Bonamici to propose a new
wider circuit for the Archaic enceinte, but she admits that only
further data canconfirm this hypothesis fully.

Concerning the southern fringes of the Etruscan influence, Valeria
Sampaolo proposes a tentative plan on the walls of Capua. Excavations
reveal a few scant remains of the structure and establish a previously
unknown organic civic plan dating to the sixth century BCE. In the
north, Piera Melli presents a similar preliminary report upon a fifth
century BCE wall section uncovered in Genoa. The small section allows a
glimpse of the construction technique but any further circuit
reconstruction remains difficult. The author postulates construction of
the walls in response to Syracusan sea raids. The associated
stratigraphy attests a short use of the wall, which already seems to be
abandoned at the time of the Celtic incursions in the Po Valley.

Finally, Jacopo Ortalli discusses the defenses of Felsina. Recent
discoveries show that the city formed in the eighth century BCE as a
planned foundation resulting from syncretic processes of smaller
hamlets. Excavations point to a complex tripartite palisade with
towers, galleries, walkways, frontal water filled ditch and a rear
agger forming the primary defensive line of the city. The differences
in construction technique compared to the enceintes further south
relates to the available materials and the general absence of stone in
the Po region.

Overall, the articles present highly sophisticated scholarly
contributions. Each article provides a wealth of images, including
specialized plans, profile drawings and illustrations of associated
finds. Photographs follow the text in separate plates, while plans and
maps are distributed throughout the text. Each entry is a self
contained unit with a bibliography allowing easy consultation of
sources and figures. At 960 euro, the cost of the book is a significant
drawback. At such an exorbitant cost one would expect a sturdy binding
and the inclusion of some color photographs. Unfortunately all the
images are black and white and the cover of my copy has already
completely detached from the main body after just a few consultations.
The scholarship, however, is of the highest standards and presents
immensely valuable contributions to our understanding of Etruscan walls
and urbanism. In particular, the emphasis on smaller regional
strongholds allows a new understanding of Etruscan defensive systems,
while the earlier dates reported for the enceintes in larger cities
such as Veii and Tarquinia demands a future re-evaluation of Etruscan
urbanism. Finally, the more general contributions allow the new
placement of the structures within Etruscan social perspectives. For
all of these reasons, this volume is indispensable to our understanding
of Etruscan urbanism; any serious classics library should incorporate
it into their collection.

Table of Contents:

Sommario: Elenco degli iscritti e dei partecipanti.
G. Camporeale, Il XXV Convegno di studi etruschi ed italici
G. Camporeale, La citta\ murata d'Etruria nella tradizione letteraria e
figurativa
A. Cherici, Mura di bronzo, di legno, di terra, di pietra. Aspetti
politici, economici e militari del rapporto tra comunita\ urbane e
territorio nella Grecia e nell'Italia antica
M. Nielsen, Mura e porte urbiche nell'immaginario del cittadino
H. Becker, Urbs, oppidum, castellum, vicus. Settlement differentiation
and landscape nomenclature in Etruria.
L. Gasperini, Porte scee in Etruria meridionale
M. Michelucci, La cinta muraria e la distruzione dell'abitato etrusco
di Doganella
G. Ciampoltrini, M. Cosci, La via dei tumuli della bassa valle
dell'Albegna e le porte di Doganella
D. Briquel, La citta\ murata: aspetti religiosi
F. Boitani, Nuove indagini sulle mura di Veio nei pressi di porta
Nord-Ovest; Appendice di S. Neri e F. Biagi, Elenco dei materiali
G. Baratti, M. Cataldi, L. Mordeglia, La cinta fortificata di Tarquinia
alla luce della nuova documentazione
A. M. Moretti Sgubini, Le mura di Vulci: un aggiornamento sullo stato
della ricerca
P. Bruschetti, Le mura di Todi: tradizione umbra e cultura etrusca.
P. Fontaine, Mura, arte fortificatoria e citta\ in Etruria. Riflessioni
sui dati archeologici
L. Donati, L. Cappuccini, Poggio Civitella: la fortezza ellenistica e
le testimonianze cultuali nel sito
M. Cygielman, G. Poggesi, Cinta muraria di Roselle. Alcune
considerazioni alla luce dei recenti lavori di restauro. Appendice di
P. Pallecchi, Aspetti geomorfologici.
M. Torelli, Urbs ipsa moenia sunt (Isid. XV 2, 1). Ideologia e
poliorcetica nelle fortificazioni etrusche di IV-II sec. a.C.
F. Prayon, La cinta muraria di Castellina del Marangone nel suo
contesto storico e urbanistico
J. Gran-Aymerich, Les deux remparts de la Castellina del Marangone, au
sud de Civitavecchia le mur de pente et le mur du sommet
S. Steingraeber, Testimonianze di mura urbane e di fortificazioni
nell'Etruria rupestre (Etruria meridionale interna)
A. Romualdi, R. Settesoldi, Le fortificazioni di Populonia.
Considerazioni per la cinta muraria della citta\ bassa
A. M. Esposito, R. Sabelli, Volterra: mura etrusche. Un progetto di
restauro
M. Bonamici, Contributo alla cinta muraria arcaica di Volterra
A. Maggiani, Oppida e castella. La difesa del territorio
P. Rendini, M. Firmati, Ghiaccio Forte: un oppidum nella valle
dell'Albegna
S. Vilucchi, A. Salvi, L'oppidum etrusco di Piazza di Siena a Petroio
di Trequanda (SI)
S. Goccioli, G. Bandinelli, I castellieri della Montagnola Senese.
Monte Acuto di Torri
M. C. Bettini, L'insediamento etrusco di Pietramarina (Carmignano, PO).
Un avamposto nel medio Valdarno.
L. Malnati, G. Sassatelli, La citta\ e i suoi limiti in Etruria padana
V. Sampaolo, La perimetrazione di Capua e l'abitato arcaico. Nota
preliminare
P. Melli, Le mura di Genova preromana. Scavi 2001-2004
J. Ortalli, La prima Felsina e la sua cinta.

Poster texts:
A. Averini, O. Cerasuolo, Siti fortificati di IV secolo nell'Italia
centrale appenninica. Contributo allo studio tipologico
L. Cenciaioli, L'oppidum di Monte Murlo ad Umbertide (PG). Appendice di
F. Fico e S. Ranucci, Schede dei materiali
O. Cerasuolo, L. Pulcinelli, Fortezze di confine tardo-etrusche nel
territorio tra Caere e Tarquinia. Note di topografia e architettura
O. Cerasuolo, L. Pulcinelli, F. Rubat Borel, Rofalco (Farnese, VT). Una
fortezza vulcente tra la meta\ del IV e i primi decenni del III secolo
a.C.