Daily Updates
Week Three: 3 October
3 October. Ben O'Donnell Reporting:
We awoke this morning in Siena, and heaved our luggage down the two flights of stairs leading up to the Albergo La Perla. Giovanni drove us to Chiusi, a very modest Tuscan town that was once Clusium, a not-so-modest Roman urbs, and had also been an eminent member of Etruria's league of its twelve most important and prosperous cities. Our only stop in rainy Chiusi was the new Museo Etrusco, a relatively small but comprehensive collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman tomb artifacts. Kelsey performed her oral presentation on canopic urns, which are essentially glorified biconical urns with heads and hands (thought to be actual portraiture of the deceased). These were often done in both clay and bronze, and sometimes were accompanied by solia, thrones, and found in ziro, larger earthenware containers. Some had holes in their skulls and around their faces, which, it has been surmised, were for hair pieces. Following this visit and a brief interlude at the Etruscan Tomb of the Lions and Tomb of the Pellegrina, (the Tomb of the Monkey unfortunately, was closed to us and Kyle was heartbroken) we went to lunch at what was some kind of Italian truck stop, which sold everything from turkey soup to toys (to placate kids for those long rides across the Umbrian countryside?). A short time later, we rolled into Orvieto, the Etruscan town of Volsinii. Archaeologists are actively working at Orvieto to discover the site of Fanum Voltumnae, an enormous sacred complex that was the site of meetings between Etruscan kings, religious and diplomatic deliberations, sport and literary events, and markets. Livy cited this area as the most important religious site in all Etruria, but a dearth of definitive inscriptions has prevented today's archaeologists from even locating the area with certainty. We all trudged through the rain to see an artifact warehouse and hear a lecture from one such archaeologist, Claudio Bizzari, who is affiliated with the University of Arizona foreign study program. He allowed us to examine a number of restored kylixes, jugs, and bucchero work, as well as building materials and human remains. Claudio briefly described the trajectory of Orvieto's history through the vicissitudes of time and power: extraordinarily influential under the Etruscans, reduced to an inconsequential hamlet after the 265-3 BC Roman conquest, renascent with the rise of Constantine, and once again prosperous in the Dark Ages because of its hilltop defensive position. Claudio also talked about the practical obstacles of modern archaeology, like long hours in the sun, tombaroli, lack of funding, and inability to preserve and restore all the artifacts properly. Despite these, however, Orvieto continues to be a hotbed of archaeological activity, in part because of the scope and importance of its original religious complex. Some of us then broke off and explored Orvieto's imposing Gothic cathedral(early fourteenth century), notable for its facade's reliefs and mosaics and its relic, the Bolsena tablecloth stained with drops of holy blood. Others simply returned to our hotel, and others still, to their convent, which is the part of the hotel where females are sequestered away (it's not even accessible through the lobby) to prevent any of the sort of indiscrete liaisons that Classical Studies majors are infamous for.
Packing the bus in Siena
Hellenistic sarcophagus in Chiusi
The cliffs of Orvieto and a new walkway to the necropolis
Giampiero Bevagna lecturing in Orvieto
An inscription in the Crocefisso del Tufo necropolis in Orvieto, read from right to left
The Crocefisso del Tufo necropolis in Orvieto, area of the new excavations.
Crocefisso del Tufo; A plan of the necropolis. The archaic tombs exhibit evidence of grid planning
Crocefisso del Tufo necropolis; the stone marker may be a boundary stone. A small cippus marks the entry to the tomb.