Tarquinia : Scavi sistematici nell’abitato. La memoria e il presente nel pozzo sigillato del 'complesso monumentale'. 1

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL OUTLINES The chapter addresses how to reconstruct historical and cultural processes from fragmentary finds, setting out a methodology matured over more than forty years of excavations at Tarquinia. The ap- proach is distinctive in its focus on craft production and on the dynamic between maker and patron, and in its use of interpretive filters calibrated to the material record. A central element of the protocol is the notion of the capofila: guiding fragments endowed with significant formal attributes that allow the reconstruction of ceramic vessel forms without relying exclusively on whole comparanda from necropoleis. From this follow reflections on the distinction between “types” and “variants,” with particular attention to ceramica depurata (refined fine ware), which has helped move beyond rigid classificatory schemes toward a graded, scalar approach. A first step of the methodological development led to the so-called AIAC 2008 protocol, grounded in the integration of ceramic and contextual analyses. This made it possible to articulate a two-stage process: from the systematic study of fragments to the analysis of stratigraphic units and, ultimately, to the reconstruction of prototypes. The pathway foregrounds the tension between discrete typologies and the adoption of more flexible, “natural” categories better attuned to the complexity of ancient production. The chapter devotes substantial space to the problem of standardization, which cannot be reduced to mere productive rationalization; rather, it reflects the interplay of cultural, technical, and social choices. It distinguishes between craft production and local production, proposing distinct criteria for identifying material indicators and for assessing degrees of homogeneity, both horizontal and vertical. A dedicated section, “Producing for the gods,” brings the economic and the sacred into dialogue by examining the relationships among objects, cult spaces, and ritual practices. Here, objects emerge as communicative devices and as integral components of processes in which the gap between man- ufacture and ritual destination becomes crucial. Finally, the current protocol takes concrete form in the digital tool ArchMatrix, developed within the CRC “Progetto Tarquinia,” which enables the publication and analysis of the sealed-well (pozzo sigillato) deposit. This methodology supports not only the reconstruction of objects and assemblages, but also the interpretation of ritual actions, micro-depositional contexts, and community strategies of meaning-making. Taken together, the chapter outlines an innovative framework that integrates material, strati- graphic, and anthropological perspectives, offering a multi-level reading of the craft, ritual, and cul- tural practices of Etruscan communities. CHAPTER II: INSCRIPTIONS AND SIGLA: ACTIONS IN THE PRESENT AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY WITHIN THE CONTINUITY OF THE SACRED AT THE ‘MONUMENTAL COMPLEX’ The inscriptions recovered from the fill of the well are highly significant for understanding the prac- tices and habits of those who frequented the “monumental complex” at a crucial moment in its his- tory. The first part of the chapter analyzes the attributes of the thirty-two inscribed objects (Table 1) 262 G. Bagnasco Gianni bearing textual inscriptions  read, where useful, in dialogue with items carrying sigla presented elsewhere  and organizes the resulting evidence to contextualize the act of writing. The second part offers an interpretation of the texts, situating the corpus from the well within the historical and cul- tural development of the complex. PART I - ANALYSIS OF THE TEXTS. After a synoptic presentation of the inscriptions, the discussion begins with the physical supports (1), proceeds to the formal and technical features of the writing (2), and concludes with chronology and context (3). The classification of supports highlights both the range of materials and the cultural-ritual choices implied by using specific objects as writing media. Four principal categories are considered: impasto ware (widely attested and central to Etrus- can material culture), black-gloss ware (valuable for tighter dating and for its links to exchange and production networks), depurated ware (less common but formally instructive), and lamps, which combine everyday utility with symbolic value. Epigraphic analysis then addresses alphabets and letterforms, distinguishing inscriptions in Greek, Latin, and Etruscan, while acknowledging cases whose morphology precludes a firm attribution  signals of contact, interference, or graphic transfer among traditions. Further dimensions include layout, technique of execution, and ductus, which together illuminate the relevant epigraphic culture, communicative intent, and, at times, the individual hand. A synthesis of these data supports an inter- pretive reading of the corpus, followed by a chronological framing and contextualization of the wri- ting acts. Dating indicators  especially from black-gloss ware  suggest that the most expressive nuclei of “true writing acts,” tied to recurrent moments and settings, belong chiefly to the late third through the early second century BCE. Immediately apparent are the multilingual texture (Greek, Etruscan, Latin), the variety of alphabets, and the repetition of short texts across languages. The thirty-two objects are dominated by identical, repeated three-letter forms epi (to which the fragments ep[—] and ἐπ̣ plausibly relate). Seventeen items—nine Etruscan and eight Greek—cons- titute a set of “full texts” that enable the secure decoding of otherwise ambiguous forms. Among these, Ἐπικρατής (Greek) and Epicrate (Etruscan) each occurs once (on an impasto lid and on the sole inscribed lamp, respectively). Additional Etruscan readings pose no difficulty: four complete lemmas (atranes, Avle, aru, Lur), one fragment ([—]es), and several likely parts-for-the-whole (pu, twice; fle, thrice). By contrast, items with rightward ductus are linguistically more complex  above all Sarap[—], incised in Latin script on an imported black-gloss cup dated to the mid-second century BCE, as well as asc and ac, evidently initial segments of longer inscriptions. PART II - INTERPRETATION. The interpretive section first isolates the formulaic profile, overall archi- tecture, and shared traits of the inscriptions, distinguishing: (a) “full texts” that occur alongside rei- terated initial segments within the same context; (b) isolated, repeated partial texts; and (c) isolated full texts. A close reading focuses on the epikrates/epicrate group (epi, e), tracing Greek usage, for- mal variants (Ἐπικράτης / Ἐπικρατής), and the value of the term as divine epithet or epiclesis, down to its functioning as a free-standing onomastic attribute  sometimes generic, sometimes charged with particular semantic force. The reception of Ἐπικρατής/Epicrate within an Etruscan sacred mi- lieu is examined against a broader Etrurian practice in which autonomous epithets are far from mar- ginal; the analysis explores their role in sanctuaries and the accommodation of Greek theonyms. A theological lens then considers “name” and “identity” (including χi, and figures such as Ati, ma- ter/meter), drawing potential symbolic correspondences among mater/meter, eghemon/regina, and ati/χia; this culminates in reading Ἐπικρατής/Epicrate as a “lady above all,” historically and theo- logically anchored in the early decades of the second century BCE, with glances to the Roman regina and possible resonances with the Etruscan Uni. Subsequent sections read other terms and forms (Lur, fle, atranes, pu, aru, Avle) in the same key, then turn to the second textual cluster, with particular attention to Sarap[—] and its setting within Greek and Latin theonyms and theophoric names  touching on P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio and the origins of Serapio  and its reception in an Etruscan context. The chapter closes by broa- dening the lens to scripts, epigraphic cultures, and languages, and by asking, ultimately, who au- thored these inscriptions. Abstracts in english 263 CHAPTER III: FIGURED TERRACOTTA: ART-HISTORICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON ITS POSSIBLE MEANING IN CONTEXT The essay opens with a description of the terracotta’s attributes and comparanda (1), which delineates the technical, iconographic, and material traits of a work of exceptional importance for both execu- tional quality and iconographic complexity, situating it within a figurative koiné attributable to the Early Hellenistic period. Building on this descriptive and analytical foundation, the discussion broa- dens to the Tarquinian relief productions of the late-Classical and Early Hellenistic periods between coroplastic art and stone sculpture, highlighting connections among the city’s active artistic sectors and the interplay between local, Greek, and South Italian models. The study analyzes compositional solutions and plastic strategies  such as the handling of projection (aggetto) and the figure-ground relationship  already tested within the Tarquinian repertoire but here developed to striking expres- sive effect. These elements are then set in dialogue with southern Italian experiences in “Tarentine compa- randa: chronological issues and remarks” (3), allowing for a more precise assessment of chronology and the scope of influences, with special attention to soft-stone reliefs and to relationships with the ceramography and megalography of southern Italy. A return to projection and the ‘neutrality of the ground’ in art-historical criticism (Bernabò Brea and Pallottino) revisits the twentieth-century debate around two key concepts of formal criticism, updating their applicability to the reading of this work in relation to its technical and cultural context between Taranto and Tarquinia. On this basis, “The place of terracotta in the unfolding practice of Tarquinian coroplasts” (4) con- siders the medium’s function within the city’s productive and symbolic system, also in light of com- parisons with other, coeval coroplastic and architectural evidence. The question of display and visi- bility of reliefs at Tarquinia approaches the issue from the perspective of public viewing integrated with architecture, hypothesizing a specific monumental destination for the slab and probing the nar- rative and ritual implications of its exposure. Figurative programs across architecture, stone and ter- racotta relief, and painting during early Hellenism highlight the wider figurative context in which the work is set, interweaving languages and techniques during a phase of intense experimentation and artistic exchange. Drawing these threads together, the essay tackles “Where might the terracotta with its martial subject have been set within the architectural record known so far at Tarquinia?” (5) formulating architectural and functional hypotheses consistent with the scene’s martial and dynamic character. The trajectory closes with “Conjectures on the personage of the slab” (6), in which the terracotta’s mutilation and deposition within the well fill acquire symbolic and political resonance, inscribed in the construction of Tarquinia’s collective memory. CHAPTER IV: MICROHISTORY AND MACROHISTORY AT THE ‘MONUMENTAL COMPLEX’: THE WELL FILL AS A DIRECT SOURCE FOR THE HISTORY OF TARQUINIA IN THE AGE OF ROME’S EXPANSION The aim of this chapter is to show how the well deposit constitutes an archive of ritual gestures that can serve as an interface between microhistory and microhistory, between community identity and broader politico-religious transformations from the third to the second century BCE. To the continu- ity observed around the supreme and ancestral deity – centered on the “Lady” (Uni/Epikrate) and on chthonic and oracular practices (inscriptions fle/fler/flere, aru, pu, Lur) – which marks the span from the last decades of the third to the early second century BCE, there succeeds, in the mid-second century BCE, the emergence of two new theological spheres: Sarapis and Asclepius. This develop- ment effectively replicates the triad Isis–Sarapis–Asclepius, associated with healing, dream incuba- tion, iatromancy, and water-related rituals. The simultaneous use of Etruscan, Greek, and Latin re- flects Mediterranean networks of contact, reinterpreting the Etruscan tradition. Acts articulate a precise symbolic code shared by the Tarquinian community, aimed at transform- ing matter into memory and inscribing within the well the continuity of a long-lived cultic tradition. 264 G. Bagnasco Gianni Such cultic strategies reveal the delicate balance of identity that Tarquinia pursued in response to Rome’s expansion. The decision to translate its ancestral faith into a religious language shareable across the Mediterranean was a conscious act of cultural resilience: Tarquinia embraced the Hellen- istic koiné without renouncing Etruscan roots, concealing the heart of its cult beneath new, cosmo- politan forms. This “local” level maps onto the “global” events of those years, tightly linking the microhistory of the ‘monumental complex’ with the macrohistory of the Italian peninsula and the Mediterranean between the Hannibalic era and the early phase of Roman dominion. Key macrohistorical points can be summarized as follows: - after the Roman triumphs of 281–280 BCE, the city redefines its federated status with Rome; - it participates in the dynamics of the Second Punic War, a phase of pronounced instability; - it is subjected to the administration of the ager publicus and to territorial reorganization; - in 181 BCE it witnesses the foundation of the colony at Gravisca, a harbor that becomes a hub of commercial and cultural exchange tied to the Mediterranean and to Delos; - it enters Rome’s orbit through its own great families and their interaction with Roman houses  among them the Scipios  who play a mediating role in the city’s religious and political relations. The deposit from Tarquinia’s “monumental complex” represents a unique case study for Etruscan and Hellenistic archaeology. It shows how the microhistory of ritual gestures can illuminate the macrohistory of religious and political processes, offering a framework in which Etruscan tradition, Hellenistic syncretism, and the expectations and tensions bound up with Roman expansion inter- twine. Analysis of this deposit allows us to understand better not only Tarquinian religiosity but also the dynamics of acculturation and transformation that characterize the Mediterranean in the “long Hellenistic age”.