Presenza/assenza di mura: implicazioni storico-culturali. Il caso di Tarquinia

This contribution presents a preliminary report of the results of the research unit of the University of Milan, “Tarquinian Walls”, and an overview of the interdisciplinary undertaking of the “Tarquinia Project”. Such background research made it possible to figure out the relationship between the city and its territory as regards the choice of the Tarquinian ancient community to partially frame the limits of the Civita plateau with walls. In such a framework, the evidence of the impasto olla of the Bocchoris Tomb, dating to the very beginning of the 7th century BCE and decorated with a white‑on‑red tech‑ nique, could help in understanding the meaning of the pattern of the walls at Tarquinia during the orientalising period. The olla shows the most ancient representation known so far of seven alternating towers crowned with square battlements and soldiers with hoplite armour. The study of the whole set of objects, including the olla, its lid and the holmos that rises to a level under the viewer’s eye, inspires comparisons with the iconographies of the great cities of Ancient Greece and the Near East.