Researches at the Monte Abatone necropolis (Cerveteri)

Abstract

The Authors illustrate the ‘Monte Abatone Project’, focusing on the important necropolis South of the ancient city of Caere. The area in its archaeological and topographical features was not further studied since the geophysical campaigns (1957-1961) by the Lerici Foundation. The main focus is the large area around the Campana Tumulus, previously left unexplored in the large plan by the Lerici Foundation. Excavations in 2018-2021 on the South side of this area led, conversely, to discover a possible ‘family’ cluster of tombs, dating to at least between the early Orientalizing and the early/middle Archaic period: these tombs were of fossa, semi-constructed, single-chamber and C2 types. Also, further unknown sectors of the necropolis were found not far from this cluster, with a concentration of tombs of the early semi-constructed type (first half of VII cent. BCE), provided with small tumuli, ordered in two approximatively parallel rows and all oriented North-West. This suggests the existence of a planning by some form of ‘urban’ authority, at a time – beginning with the Early Orientalizing period − that marked a considerable acceleration in the economic growth of the city and its civil-political structure. The area West and North of the Campana Tumulus was also investigated, including surveying the edges of the plateau that led to the identification of tombs (VI-III cent. BCE) excavated in the past and partially backfilled, and terraces for funerary rites which are oriented, like the Tumulus, toward the city plateau. Extensive use of laser scanning and photogrammetry allowed to produce a model of the Monte Abatone plateau, a 3D model of both the Campana Tumulus, never surveyed since the first half of the nineteenth century, and other excavated tombs.