- Maurizio Sannibale –
statue of a lion or sphinx about two meters in height, which would thus bring the image
of the tomb close to the fantasy reconstructions realized by Canina for the tumuli of the
Sorbo necropolis at Cerveteri and at Tarquinia, that appear attractively decorated with
statues (Fig. 6.25).
The Orientalizing also coincides with a systematic program of urban planning, which
the most recent archaeological research has gradually unveiled, providing variety to
our knowledge that would otherwise be dominated by funerary evidence. More careful
excavations have also revealed the presence of foundation rituals, accompanied by bloody
sacrifi ces, or the deposit of valuable and symbolic objects. They range from the biconical
vase at Veii carefully deposited near the fortifi cation walls of the late eighth century, to
the foundation ritual attested in relation to the earliest fortifi cations at Populonia in the
second half of the eighth century, the so-called hoard of Falda della Guardiola.
The case of Tarquinia is emblematic, in which urbanization revolves around the defi nition
of a sacred-institutional complex on Pian di Civita (see Chapter 29). Here, at a place of
worship already established in the tenth century bc in a natural cavity, there came into being
ritual actions and structures with a highly symbolic meaning associated with royalty, the
sphere of the sacred and foundation rites, which at the same time also powerfully evoke the
Near East.^42 In the second half of the eighth century, to which are dated some stone walls,
there took place the ritual burial of a man, perhaps a Euboean sailor, killed by a blow from
an axe. Prototypes from the eastern Aegean and, in particular the Syro-Palestinian corridor,
characterize the sacred building (Beta) fi tted with a bench-like altar for animal sacrifi ce,
built with the technique of pier-and-panel masonry; the foundation deposit would date it
around the fi rst quarter of the seventh century. The deposit consisted of a traditional axe
of proto-historic type (tenth-ninth century), an early Orientalizing shield, and a trumpet-
lituus, possibly manufactured in the Near East. These bronzes, termed “talking bronzes,”
which symbolize a role that is both political-military and priestly, recall the dawn of the city
of Tarquinia and the image of a wise priest-king who paralleled Numa in the early history
of Rome. Also in the fi rst quarter of the seventh century, on the acropolis of Populonia
(Poggio del Telegrapho) a house of rectilinear wooden structure composed of three rooms
Figure 6.25 “Main tombs at Tarquinia necropolis.” After L. Canina, L’antica
Etruria marittima, II, Roma 1849, pl. LXXXIX.