Cerveteri

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Cerveteri, known as Caere to the Romans, Cisra or Chaire to the native Etruscans and Agylla to the Greeks, is located in northern Lazio between the Mola and Manganello rivers on the western coast of Italy. It was first inhabited in the Villanovan period between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, as is evidenced from the characteristic urn burials found dating to that time period. The city first began trading in ore and metals, and later in its characteristic bucchero pottery after initiating trade with the Greeks and Phoenicians in the 7th century, which allowed Cerveteri to grow in power and importance. Cerveteri is most famous for its extensive necropoleis at Banditaccia, Sorbo and Abatone, which include several very well preserved tumuli such as the Regolini Galassi and Calabresi tombs. Construction of the necropoleis first began during the 7th century BCE, and they were in use until the 3rd Century BCE. The necropoleis were arranged along a city plan themselves with streets of tombs, either in the form of mounds or squares, marked out, eventually covering approximately 1000 acres – one of the largest necropolis sites found in the Mediterranean. The Etruscans built their tombs to resemble their own homes, providing valuable insight to their building methods and culture. The tombs contained carved furniture and paintings depicting everyday objects, sarcophagi with sculpted decoration (such as the Sarcophagus of the Spouses), and abundant grave goods. The proliferation of Greek pottery shows extensive trading with the Greeks, and Greek influence contributed to the long orientalizing period seen in Etruscan pottery from the site. The city was also associated with several ports, with Pyrgi, located several kilometers away on the coast, as the most important, . Pyrgi was famous in the ancient world for its twin temples, and in the modern world for the gold bilingual temple dedications discovered in 1957. The city remained autonomous until 253 BCE, when it joined the unsuccessful Tarquinian Rebellion against Rome, causing it to be stripped of much of its land and port access. By the 1st century BCE, it had been completely absorbed by the Roman Empire, where it continued as a Roman maritime colony. The site was lost after the fall of the Empire, but as early as 1561 people were searching for the lost city along the coast. The first excavations began in 1836, then continued in spurts until the 1950’s when systematic excavations by a number of universities around the world began. The Necropoli of Cerveteri was included as an UNSECO World Heritage Site in 2004.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerveteri
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caere
oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/classics/students/belan...
whc.unesco.org/en/list/1158
Gates, Charles. Ancient Cities. Routledge, London, 2003.
Scullard, H. H. The Etruscan Cities and Rome. Thames and Hudson, Great Briton, 1967.