- Claudio Bizzarri –
The layout of the cube-shaped monuments, practically identical and laid out in
regular blocks, might refer to that of the houses and structures like the dwellings seen,
for example, in the ancient city of Marzabotto. In Orvieto the percentage of variability is
very low, due in part to the lay of the land at the base of the cliff and the terraced structure
of the necropolis that develops on a slope, in a probably centrifugal arrangement. While
little evidence of the urban structure of the ancient city remains on the top of the plateau,
what is present can help us understand how the city of the living was organized and what
type of functional plan had been used as early as the sixth century bc. The author of this
paper^36 has drawn up a typology of the underground works connected to the water supply
for the Etruscan settlement. Consolidation works carried out in the past thirty years or
so^37 have provided further information regarding some of the cuniculi. Here we wish to
focus on a portion of a cuniculus studied in the course of work for an important segment
of the city’s alternative mobility system aimed at limiting traffi c in the historical center.
The cuniculus in question (Fig. 36.2) was intersected in the course of the excavation for the
escalators connecting the parking lot of the Foro Boario (erroneously known as ex-Campo
della Fiera) with Piazza Ranieri. The system of cuniculi consisting of a main branch
with smaller cuniculi branching off at right angles encountered in the upper portion of
the passageway was spared. The ogival cross section of the conduit is similar to other
works of a hydraulic nature dating to the Etruscan period. The scientifi c dig carried out
in the cuniculus fi ll brought to light archaeological material dating to the Hellenistic
period, although there was some that went back to the Archaic period, refl ecting the
development of the settlement on the cliff. This system falls under the classifi cation of
tunnels or cuniculi with orthogonal ramifi cations.
According to Adolfo Cozza^38 the tunnels in Orvieto were dug beneath the streets
of the city and today we can add that they received the overfl ow of rainwater from the
cisterns in the atria. One example of the tunnel/street system has been identifi ed near the
area of the Temple of Belvedere,^39 at the eastern end of the plateau, in correspondence
Figure 36.1 Crocefi sso del Tufo, plan of necropolis.