- Nancy A. Winter –
primarily on the northern fl ank ridge together with standing or striding fi gures wearing
helmets. Sphinxes appear to have decorated the four corners of the building, while other
animals were distributed on the east, west, and south fl anks; the smaller-size animals
probably decorated the south ridge, which may have been set at a lower level than the
ridges of the east and west fl anks. The interior of the courtyard carried a roof with a
lateral sima decorated with handmade feline-head waterspouts and moldmade female
heads covering the opening between individual sima blocks.^26 Antefi xes with Gorgoneia^27
were found in a row with revetment plaques with banquet scene along the line of the
collapsed northern wall, at a distance that suggests the north fl ank had two stories. A
large handmade Gorgoneion with nail holes probably served as protection for the end of a
ridge beam.^28 A fi nal curiosity of this roof is a series of feline heads^29 that appear to have
covered the spaces between blocks of raking simas.
Similar roofs, none quite so elaborate, existed at other sites in Etruria but are less well
preserved. In addition to the roof from Poggio Buco mentioned above, other roof elements
that form part of this same decorative system have been excavated at Vulci (antefi xes with
Gorgoneion and a probable columen plaque with Gorgoneion)^30 and Rusellae (antefi x with
feline head, revetment plaque with horses).^31
While the early fi gured friezes of Poggio Buco and Poggio Civitate (Murlo) seem to
depict convivial scenes, other sites follow Veii in a preference for terracotta roofs with
military scenes that include horse riders accompanying a departing warrior mounting his
chariot. Included in this group of roofs are a series of buildings at Acquarossa and nearby
Tuscania, the latter excavated in the cemeteries at Ara del Tufo and Guadocinto and
belonging to funerary structures, while the former appear to have a more civic nature; a
temple of Aplu/Apollo or Artumes/Artemis (Temple I) at Tarquinia; a possible funerary
structure at Il Sodo near Cortona; a probable temple from Vigna Marini-Vitalini at Caere
and an identical roof at nearby Pyrgi.^32 Characteristic of this decorative system, in addition
to the raking simas and revetment plaques with fi gured friezes depicting military scenes
Figure 49.1 Poggio Civitate (Murlo): reconstruction of a pediment with sphinx acroterion.
Drawing by Renate Sponer Za.