- chapter 36: Etruscan town planning and related structures –
with a portion of a paved street uncovered in the excavations for the foundations of
the barracks’ infi rmary in the fi rst half of the twentieth century. The escalator cuniculus
is however the fi rst subterranean conduit whose organization reveals that it was dug
scientifi cally.^40 The plan shows a regular course with side branches that intersect the
main tunnel, leaving, where necessary, a containment wall for the water. The height was
probably carefully calculated on the basis of that of the cisterns at its origins. There is
also an interesting cistern defi ned as belonging to the fi rst type^41 near the conduit. It is
perfectly preserved in the underground premises of a restaurant. The cistern with walls
in isodomic masonry and covered by projecting radial brackets was discovered around
the 1920s by the local historian Pericle Perali who drew it without, however, seeing it as
part of the larger system regarding the preservation of water and tunnels hypothesized in
this paper. Unfortunately the tunnel was not completely excavated but the detritus is still
there and further investigation will hopefully continue in the future. The dig, however,
did provide fi nds of unquestionable value such as fragmentary kylikes in bucchero, plates,
olle, lekythoi (Fig. 36.3).
Our current knowledge regarding the underground structures of Orvieto supplies a
basis for the identifi cation of a complex infrastructural organization. Created together
with the dwelling units, it consisted of cisterns located beneath the impluvium in the
atrium, which Vitruvius not by chance called Tuscan atrium,^42 where rainwater was
collected (Fig. 36.4). When the water in the cistern reached a certain level, the excess
was channeled into the cuniculi that emptied into the main trunk (Fig. 36.5). This in
turn disgorged the water outside the cliff. It is important to highlight the fact that in
this system the pairing of cisterns/cuniculi was exclusively used for the processing of clear
water, while the tunnels/paved streets added a less noble component, regimenting the
water from the street.
On the basis of these implications it is particularly interesting to analyze other proposals
for the urban plan of the Etruscan city of Velzna. In a book that deals with work carried
out in the sphere of the previously mentioned law, and which also included archaeological
assets, Anna Eugenia Feruglio touches on the importance of the wall in Via della Cava,
Figure 36.2 Plan and section of the Scala Mobile cuniculus. (Drawing by Simone Moretti Giani).