- chapter 14: The Faliscans and the Etruscans –
Figure 14.22 View of Corchiano (from the east).The dynamics that have led this center to accommodate an increasing number of persons
from outside are to be found in the elements of the formation of the site, which only
becomes a city in the late sixth century bc, when Falerii, now fully organized as a
hegemonic center of the Ager Faliscus, implements a policy of territorial control in ways
that could be called “colonization.” The result of a well-planned settlement is evident on
an urbanistic level: the necropolis of Vallone shows right at the end of the sixth century
bc a rational organization of space that is unparalleled in the rest of the territory and
recalls analogous processes implemented in Etruria and in particular at Cerveteri and
Orvieto. Direct infl uences from the area of Volsinii are also recognized in the use of
basalt stones placed as markers on the tombs and in the evidence of the noble Faliscan
cognomen hescuna linked to the Hescanas family (Colonna 1990, note 52, Fig. 4).
There has been much debate over time, precisely determined by the extent of this
phenomenon, on the origin and the historical moment at which we place the arrival of
Etruscan people at Corchiano. There are two main hypotheses: the fi rst identifi es the
starting area in the territory of Chiusi (especially Peruzzi 1990, p. 289), attributing
the transfer of individuals and groups to the diaspora that followed the destruction of
Volsinii in 264 bc (Cristofani 1988, p. 21); the other believes it possible that an Etruscan
colonization was instigated by Norchia and fully implemented by the fourth century bc,
at the urging of Tarquinia, as an anti-Roman gesture (Colonna 1990, p. 118–123).
Whatever the reasons behind the phenomenon, the presence of Etruscans is in any
event signifi cant enough to interfere with the management of public affairs, as revealed
by the monumental inscription “larθ velarnies” (CIE 8379) carved on the walls of the
so-called rock-cut roadway of Cannara or San Egidio and probably attributable to the
constructor of the road, which is one of the main routes that led into the town, connecting
it with the territory to the south-west (see Moscati 1985, p. 93, fi g. 62, section 2, Figs.
74–78). There is consistently a remarkable capacity for integration into local families,
well marked by epitaphs furnished by the burial grounds closely related to the urban
class, and through these it is possible to follow the full sequence of writing and the local
language appropriate to Etruscan-speakers.