2,300-Year Old Etruscan Villa Found Near Grosseto in Tuscany

An Etruscan villa dating from the third century BC has been excavated near Grosseto in Tuscany at the site of the ancient Etruscan town of Vetulonia.

It is the most completely intact villa from the Etruscan-Roman era that has ever been discovered.

The materials at the site that will enable archaeologists to reconstruct the original house and will provide details of the daily lives of the Etruscans. Dr Simona Rafanelli, director at the Archaeological Museum of Vetulonia and leader of the dig, believes that the villa currently being excavated is likely to have belonged to an aristocratic or wealthy family.

While other Etruscan houses have been found, they have only yielded the foundations and little more information has been gleaned from them. Most information about the lives of the Etruscans comes from the richly decorated and painted tombs, such as the necropolies at Tarquinia and Cerveteri in Lazio. Some rock-carved tombs were sculpted to resemble people's homes and were filled with every-day objects. However, the discovery at Vetulonia will fill in many details for Etruscologists.

Re-Discovery of Vetulonia

The town of Vetulonia was named Vatl or Vatluna by the Etruscans and dates from at least the seventh century BC – it is mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The archaeological ruins of Vetulonia were discovered by Isidoro Falchi, an amateur archaeologist, at the end of the 19th century. He was able to deduce from coins found at the site that he was in fact standing in the ancient Etruscan town of Vatl. Dr Simona Rafanelli said: “It was thanks to the coins found at the site that Isidoro Falchi understood that the town was ancient Vetulonia.”

The town of Vetulonia is thought to have been about 30-40 hectare and may have had more than 15,000 inhabitants.

The Current Excavation

The current excavation is near a Roman road lined with houses and shops. The site was first excavated in the 1980s and a house was found at that time, but further exploration didn't go ahead due to lack of funding.

The current excavation began in summer 2009. In December last year two perimeter walls of a house were found near the road. Dr Rafanelli said: “We expect to find other houses, shops and temples at this site.”

The discovery of the inside of the house was made in May this year. The house is about 100 metres square and so far only the lower floor, which is about 1.7 metres below street level, has been explored. It is believed to be a cellar or warehouse area where food was stored and where work was carried out.

Inside an Etruscan House

The archaeologists working at the site believe there would have been a wooden floor above the cellar, which was destroyed by fire. This is suggested by a layer of burnt wood (thought to be from wooden beams). One hypothesis is that the house in ancient Vetulonia may have been burnt in around 80 BC by the dictator Sulla. Many Etruscan towns supported Sulla's enemy, Marius, during the civil war between the two. However, when Sulla gained control, he wrought revenge on the people that had backed his enemy.

Rafanelli said: “The exceptional thing is that we are able to completely recreate the house because all the materials are still here. Often the upper part of the building is gone. Here we see dry-stone walls, which is how the Etruscans built walls.”

This shows the bridging period between the Etruscans and the Romans who used mortar in their walls. Rafanelli believes the villa existed in a period of peace between the Etruscans and the Romans. Another indication of this is that there is evidence of both Roman and Etruscan units of weight measurement at the villa.

The upper part of the walls is also present at the site, as is evidence of the roof, which the archaeologists believe was made of woven canes reinforced with dried clay. Bricks made of sun-dried clay have been found whole – it is thought that they would have been cooked (and thus hardened and preserved) in the fire that destroyed the villa. Another small detail found was some pieces of clay with the shape of the cane roof still impressed into the clay. Nails have also been found, which are believed to have been used to hold the roof up and to keep tiles down.

The cellar of the house was full of amphorae – most of them complete (although in pieces – archaeologists will be able to piece them back together again completely). Many were large containers up to 1.7 metres high and could have contained wine, olive oil or grains such as wheat, barley or spelt. Ceramic plates and cups were also found, while one area of the cellar is paved with stone and this could have been an area for making oil, for processing food or for other domestic chores.

One of the most interesting finds in the house is a small terracotta altar, with bronze coins that may have been left as an offering to an Etruscan divinity for protection for the house. The altar is possibly the most personal and interesting object to have been found at the villa so far but Dr Rafanelli hopes that another stage of excavations will take place – funding permitting – in July this year. This will allow the team to excavate the living quarters of the villa.

The History of Vetulonia

When the Romans expanded and conquered Etruria during the Republican era, many Etruscan towns were sacked, but the citizens of Vetulonia reached an agreement with the Romans and a period of Etruscan-Roman cohabitation ensued – shown by the presence of both Roman and Etruscan coins at the site from that period.

According to Dr Rafanellli, Vetulonia was founded by the Etruscans on the edge of a lake connected to the Tyrrhenian sea. She said: “Vetulonia owed its destiny to the sea – although today the sea is about 17km away from the site, during the Etruscan era it came inland. The lake silted up during Roman times and became marshland. It was then infested with malarial mosquitoes, which led to the area being abandoned.”

The Roman poet Rutilius Namatianus, who lived in the fifth century AD and wrote his poem De Reditu Suo about his journey from Rome to Gaul, observed that at the beginning of the fifth century, Vetulonia no longer existed. In 410 AD the barbarian invasion would also have destroyed villages in the area.

From the year 1200 AD, Vetulonia disappeared from the historical record, but the medieval town of Colonna di Buriano later grew up on the site.

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Bija Knowles (follow me: e-mail or )

Last three pieces by this author:

300 Looted Antiquities Displayed in the Colosseum | Hoard of 52,500 Roman Coins Discovered Near Frome by Metal Detectorist | Roman Villa Discovered Near Tewkesbury

Bija Knowles is a freelance journalist based outside Rome, Italy. She graduated in Italian and English Literature from the University of Birmingham, UK, and her main areas of interest are art, travel and history in Italy.