Tarquinii

Tarquinii was one of the foremost Etruscan cities. It stood on the high Civita plateau pointing towards the sea between two flat hills. One of these is the Monterozzi plateau, which is the site of the superb painted tombs of its outstanding necropolis (UNESCO site since 2004). Long lasting excavation undertaken on the Civita plateau and at the sanctuary of Gravisca make it possible to recover the features of architectural structures, local artefact production, and related behaviours, including contacts with the other Mediterranean populations. The more than ten centuries of activity discovered at the ‘monumental complex’ offer an extraordinary overview of the history of Tarquinii and of its cultural features. The four phases of the Ara della Regina sanctuary (from the beginning of the 6th century to the Roman period), together with evidence from the ‘monumental complex’, support the reconstruction of the organisation of space, within the circuit of the fortification according to the principle of a sacred topography conceived by the community of Tarquinii from its beginnings.