- chapter 27: The gods and the places –
Figure 27.5 Mount Soracte. Photo: Ingrid Edlund-Berry.different functions, whether to protect travelers and trade or to provide a ritual passage
from the community of the living to the burial ground outside the city. Within the burial
ground, rituals could be performed around the tomb, but also at funerary shrines for the
cult of a deity (Cannicella sanctuary at Orvieto).^18
To the extent that the ties between a city and an extra-urban sanctuary can be defi ned,
the territory of any given Etruscan city also contained rural sanctuaries. While for practical
purposes, any sanctuary located outside the city (for example, along the roads), could be
considered “rural,” a rural sanctuary proper would be one where the cult practices pertain
to agriculture or animal husbandry (including transhumance).^19
Depending on the location and function of the extra-urban and rural sanctuaries, they
could serve to defi ne and secure the boundaries for any given city. As such, they would
guarantee safe travels along the roads, safe crossings of rivers and mountains, and perhaps
control trade from one region to another.
But, in addition to the need for establishing and maintaining boundaries, the Etruscan
cities also recognized that collaboration between groups of cities could require distinct
gathering places for political purposes but obviously under divine protection. Such
“political sanctuaries” included the Fanum Voltumnae, probably to be identifi ed with
the sanctuary at Campo della Fiera, just south of modern Orvieto. Since in principle
all sanctuaries could serve as centers for gatherings as part of the cult rituals, there are
no absolute criteria for how a sanctuary would rank as “political,” whether the location
or layout, and considering the overall assumption that in Etruria all aspects of human
activity must be under divine protection, it is possible that places such as Lucus Feroniae
or the monumental building at Poggio Civitate were used for assemblies of a political (as
well as religious) nature.^20
In spite of the fact that our knowledge of Etruscan sanctuaries is limited by the
preservation of material remains, it is noteworthy that no two sanctuaries are alike.
Whether due to preservation or original plan, the appearance of sanctuaries varied from
isolated votive deposits, altars, and modest small buildings of different functions, to a
network of sacred spaces within or outside a community (as documented at, for example,
Vulci, Arezzo, or Civita Castellana) or major complexes, usually extramural or extra-