- Maria Anna De Lucia Brolli and Jacopo Tabolli –
In the countryside surrounding the town we fi nd a different situation: distant from
the truly urban area are found tombs with rock-cut façades, some isolated, some arranged
in pairs within the smaller nuclei of the necropolis, which recall the type of architectural
models borrowed from Etruscan Norchia (Fig. 14.23). These impressive tombs, scattered
over a wide range, indicate a complex occupation of the countryside by families of
Etruscan origin – according to the hypothesis of Giovanni Colonna, probably coming
from the territory of Tarquinia – more bound to their ethnic and cultural roots, and
different from the Etruscans who were already integrated into urban communities. It is
possible that once again we can recognize, in this territorial process of taking root, the
long arm of Falerii that in the context of complex political-military alliances intertwined
with Tarquinia around the mid-fourth century bc, with anti-Roman purpose, may have
ceded large swathes of territory to the Etruscan alliance.
In conclusion, the picture painted highlights the complexity and long duration of the
mutual relations between Faliscans and Etruscans. And although the small region of the
Ager Faliscus clearly manifests deep infl uences from the wider and more structured world
of the Etruscans, the Faliscans nevertheless retained their independence over time as well
as their specifi c cultural identity, conversing as equals with their powerful neighbor. This
inseparable relationship does not stop the advance of Romanization: it is signifi cant that
both territories would become part of the same Regio VII Augustea.
Figure 14.23 Types of tombs characteristic of Corchiano.BIBLIOGRAPHYAdembri, B. (1990) “La più antica produzione di ceramica falisca a fi gure rosse. Inquadramento
stilistico e cronologico” in La civiltà dei Falisci, Atti del XV Convegno di Studi Etruschi e
Italici (Civita Castellana, 28–31 maggio 1987), Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 233–244.
Albers, J. (2007) Der Tempel von Celle in Civita Castellana: Untersuchungen zur etruskischen Architektur,
zum Terrakottaschmuck und Sakralwesen am Beispiel eines faliskischen Heiligtums von 6. Bis 1. Jahrh.
V. Chr., Berlin: Tenea.
Ambrosini, L. (2005) “Circolazione della ceramica attica nell’agro falisco e volsiniese: un confronto,”
in Orvieto, l’Etruria meridionale interna e l’agro falisco. Atti del XII Convegno Internazionale di