The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

CHAPTER 3 4:

Figure 34.1 Division of the sky according to the Etrusca disciplina, diagram by M. Pallottino.

Added: A and a = position of the sun at dawn (Ital. Alba) on the summer and winter solstices;

T and t = position of the sun at sunset (Ital. Tramonto) on the same dates.

This means that the lateral sighting lines of an Etruscan temple cannot be indicated by
only a small sign for north on the plan. In Temple C and altar A of Marzabotto, oriented
N/S, whoever stood on the ground and ran his eye along the outer edge of the wall, could
identify the exact date of the two solstices, days when the sun rose and set exactly on the
projection of the wall to the left or right of the observer, but if Temple C (as is possible)
had its columns arranged as in the Tuscan temple described by Vitruvius, the observer
could see, behind the columns to his left and right, the sunrise and sunset of the winter
solstice. In the Temple of the Belvedere in Orvieto, and perhaps in the Temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus in Rome, the left-hand projection would seem to correspond to sunrise of the
summer solstice, and the right-hand projection corresponds to the sunset of the winter
solstice, the opposite for the temple of Punta della Vipera at Santa Marinella and the
temple beneath the Chiesa delle Stimmate of Velletri: the optical line of sight on the left
would correspond to the dawn of the winter solstice, that on the right would correspond to
sunset on the summer solstice, thus providing two precise dates for dividing the year. The
two temples of Pyrgi instead seem to have the facade oriented toward the winter solstice
sunset. In the funerary context, the long dromos of the Montagnola Tomb at Artimino
seems oriented toward the dawn of the winter solstice: it may be a coincidence, but this
particular dawn corresponds to the time when the days begin to lengthen, on which the
sun is “born again,” as still remembered today in the ritual of our Christmas. A t Cerveteri
the very long dromos of the oldest tomb in the Tumulus of the Colonel is instead oriented
towards the sunset of the summer solstice, i.e. the time when the sun begins to “die.”
The monumental stairway of the Tumulus of Sodo in Cortona would seem, rather, to be
facing the sunrise in the winter equinox: the slight declination from the east could be

The science of the Etruscans

PARS POSTIC A

N

S

PARS ANTICA

T A

t a

o E