Vetulonia
Vetulonia | ||
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Dialing code (+39) 0564 | |
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.
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
Vetulonia has
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.
The objects discovered in its extensive seventh-century
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]
See also
References
- ^ Mystery of the Etruscans
- ^ Dionysius, iii.52.
- ^ a b public domain: Ashby, Thomas (1911). "Vetulonium". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 15. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Falchi, in Notizie degli scavi December 1887.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Notice on gate
- ^ 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.
External links
- MysteriousEtruscans.com: Vetluna (Roman Vetulonia)
- LacusCurtius website: Vetulonia
- (Assiciazione pro Loc di Vetulonia)Vetulonia on-line
- Dr. Maria Grazia Celuzza, "Vetulonia" (in Italian)
- Harris, W., R. Talbert, T. Elliott, S. Gillies (30 September 2020). "Places: 403291 (Vatl/Vetulonia)". Pleiades. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
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