- Robert Leighton –
residential zones in a distant arc, as at Veii, where they would be most conspicuous on
approaching or leaving the site. At Caere they dominate the Banditaccia cemetery. Others
are on important thoroughfares or in the surrounding territory, where they probably
affi rmed family claims to the lands on which they were built.
Tumuli must have had considerable impact on urban and rural landscapes. By 550
bc, they had taken over large areas of the cemeteries at Caere and Tarquinia, where they
imply a great investment in the creation of what must have resembled funerary theme
parks, enhanced by large stone sculptures of humans and exotic or mythical animals. Even
if primarily for individual or family aggrandizement, the mounds transformed their host
sites in a very public, almost theatrical way, fl anking roadways and creating labyrinthine
pathways. They imply that urbanization was driven by an aspiring competitive class,
comprising a growing number of families, and that the character and form of the early
Etruscan city were shaped by markedly rhetorical statements, which were part of a new
language of socio-political power, no doubt directed at rivals and lower orders. This does
not confl ict with the idea that they were also a locus of civic pride, reassurance and ritual
temporalities (from recurrent funerals and ceremonies honoring and communicating
with the dead), creating an aura of consecrated space around the emerging city.
The importance of ritual is also witnessed near the epicenter of Tarquinia (Civita),
where cult activities are documented in an area already occupied in the EIA and which
emerges in the eighth century, or even earlier, as a place of special signifi cance.^30
This is indicated by unusual inhumation burials, probably ritual executions, and
votive offerings. More substantial development in the early seventh century saw the
construction of a two-roomed building (beta), possibly a shrine or even a priestly
residence (regia?), including a pilaster masonry wall of Phoenician style, associated
with pit depositions of iconic bronze artifacts (an axe, shield and trumpet), animal
bones and pottery with feasting connotations.^31 The complex expanded during the
seventh century with the addition of quadrangular courtyards, covering a substantial
plot of ground. The emergence of elaborate buildings for ritual activities, not readily
identifi able hitherto, anticipates one of the defi ning features of Etruscan cities, in which
religious architecture fi gures prominently.^32
By the seventh century, the audience for such conspicuous projects must have extended
into the surrounding territory, which may have supplied part of the required labor or
payment for them, presumably in some form of transferable surplus, such as goods,
services, rents or tributes. Industrial activities were also intensifying, notably those
involving pyrotechnology and kilns, located at the margins of some sites, but not others.^33
This also raises the question of how urbanization affected human health.^34 Increasing
specialization is well exemplifi ed by the expanding range, quality and volume of craft
products in circulation, which include fi ne pottery, valuable metal and other items (glass
and ivory), probably made in nucleated workshops.^35 One may also infer intensifi cation
and specialization in agricultural or subsistence activities geared to exchange, including
a new emphasis on olives and viticulture. By this time, personal land ownership in the
form of heritable estates, was probably well entrenched.
While the importance of ritual is manifest in Etruscan city formation, defensive walls
and ditches, already noted at EIA Veii (above), are also attested by 750–700 bc at Vulci,
along with a palisade at the west gate. By the later seventh century there were mud brick
walls at Roselle, and rough stone walls around the acropolis of Castellina del Marangone
and elsewhere.^36 The use of quadrangular stone blocks (opus quadratum) seems to follow in