- c h a p t e r 7: Urbanization in Southern Etruria
Land over 100m
Iron Age burial areas
Iron Age surface finds
Iron Age buildings
Large 7th-century tumulus
Ara Regina temple
Ritual zone (recent excavations)
Fortification wall alignmentFigure 7.2 Tarquinia, topography and archaeological features
(with survey data from Mandolesi 1999).and thatching), w ith nearby cultivation plots, animal pens, track ways and open spaces,
allowing relatively unconstrained patterns o f movement and interaction. B y the early
eighth century, however, there is evidence, notably from Veii, for substantial stone and
earthen perimeter walls and ditches o f a probably defensive and communal nature.18
Burial rites and artifacts to some extent connote the gender, rank and perhaps age
and fam ily ties o f the deceased, while com m unity traditions are suggested by differences
between major sites and regions.19 A t Tarquinia, the main locus o f power may have been
in the M onterozzi-Arcatelle zone, where the tombs are sligh tly richer than elsewhere.20
A generally lim ited degree o f differentiation or com plexity in the E IA , which may
be essentially heterarchical and indicative o f a layered, rather than pyram idal, social
structure, becomes more marked and hierarchical in the eighth century, as suggested by
elaborate weaponry in some graves, which are probably male, and by array o f dress and
other items in rich, probably female, graves. Vertical ranking is not easy to infer until
the m id-late eighth century, and it is not until the seventh century that funerary rites
involved architecturally prominent forms o f long-lasting commemoration.
In sum, to call the large E IA sites “villages” downplays their size, articulation and
regional status. Alternatives, like “ township,” are sim ilarly burdened by variable modern
connotations. W hile certain features evoke the chiefdoms or early state modules o f
archaeological theory in the late twentieth century, these labels have also lost traction
1 km