CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

TARQUINIA, SACRED AREAS AND

SANCTUARIES ON THE CIVITA PLATEAU

AND ON THE COAST: “MONUMENTAL

COMPLEX,” ARA DELLA REGINA, GRAVISCA

Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni

T

he Civita plateau, where the Etruscan city of Tarquinia was situated, is hidden from
the seashore and the ancient ports by the hill that hosts the necropolis of Monterozzi,
where the medieval town of Corneto was erected in the eighth century ad. On the coast,
where the salt plants are still visible, halfway between the sea and the Etruscan settlement
of Gravisca, there was a sanctuary open to Etruscans and foreigners.

THE CIVITA PLATEAU

Two Etruscan sacred areas were built on the Civita plateau of Tarquinia both related to
local religious tradition, but differently conceived: the “monumental complex” with its
peculiar architecture is meant to preserve the natural features of an ancestral sacred space
whereas the huge Ara della Regina sanctuary could be seen from far away.^1

The “monumental complex”

Maria Bonghi Jovino has recently summarized the main chronological phases of the
“monumental complex” and the results of the excavations held since 1982, which can
be found in the three volumes of the Tarchna series and in other major contributions.^2
Thanks to her outstanding work, what is already well known is the antiquity of the sacred
area (since the Villanovan era) in a pre-civic dimension that has been very well described:
“Here we have a unique occasion to witness the very creation of cultic practices, and to
follow the development of religious and institutional activities, and their transformations
through cultural contacts, and deliberate choice between continuity and change.”^3
In the past ten years the excavations have brought to light confi rmations of the
previous interpretations and opened up new spaces of thought regarding the continuity
of religious and ceremonial practices of this peculiar religious landscape, where
supernatural manifestations took place and the local community gathered for sacred and
public purposes.^4 After the basic characteristics were settled in its fi rst crucial phases
of foundation, the “monumental complex” was permanently structured in the Archaic