The territory between Veii and Rome in the Archaic period: Rural structures as territorial markers of cultural frontiers

Abstract

The recent archaeological discoveries made in the north-western quadrant of Rome, within the ambit of so‑called ‘emergency archaeology’, make it possible to put knowledge into practice in a subject area which stimulates intense academic debate: the territory between Veii and Rome, in the period between the Archaism and the final conquest of the Etruscan city. The data available until now that have been employed in the reconstruction of settlement dynamics come almost exclusively from funerary contexts. The archaeological evidences–pertaining to residential structures–are rare and sporadic, although gradually increasing. The case illustrated here of the excavation in the Lucchina area (Via Trionfale, Ottavia) represents a rare opportunity to examine a ‘border’ culture in depth through information provided by investigations–still under way–into a complex of Etruscan-Veian dwellings: houses with a tripartite layout of which there remain the bases in tufa blocks and collapsed tiles. In the necropolis, on the other hand, a tomb is being investigated of the Veian type a vestibolo or a tramite, with access steps and three loculi (two for cremations and one for inhumation) which have yielded a rich funerary equipment. A Veian community, then, providing evidence of the phenomenon of ‘internal colonisation’ of the suburb of the city so close to the border with Rome.