Pyrgi, porto e grande santuario marittimo di Caere. Scavi nell'area dell'abitato e nel santuario (campagne 2017-2020)

Over the last decade, field research has mainly focussed on the Ceremonial Quarter at the intersection between the urban track of the Caere-Pyrgi road and a pebbled road leading to the oriental port-basin. This area includes public buildings adorned with decorated roofs, that possibly played an important political and economic function in relation to the harbour, even before the foundation of the Monumental Sanctuary. Between 2016-2020 the excavation area was enlarged to a total extension of 1600 square meters, following the GPR survey conducted in 2017 by the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale (Sapienza University of Rome) in collaboration with the company IDS GeoRadar s.r.l.. Geophysics indicated the presence of a dense urban grid to the North of the excavation area, which has been ground-truthed to bring to light the corner of a new building complex opposite the so called Edificio in opera quadrata. Excavation in the area of the latter building has revealed the presence of a porch and a courtyard. The courtyard is characterised by the presence of a large open-air circular cistern, that was filled in during the imperial period, as also happened in the case of the water-pit on the opposite side of the pebbled road. In the nearby urban lot, the peculiar furniture and the performance of ritual acts in room A suggest its function as a domestic shrine from the second half of the 5th century onwards. Noteworthy finds form this area include the metal offerings found both inside and outside a gray tuff container, which was located inside a previous precinct and associated with evidence for metallurgic activities. Moreover, the substantial raising of the floor level was marked by the ritual deposition of a red figure Attic cup at the eastern corner of the room, which was sealed by a pile of tuff blocks. As regards the building complex to the South of the pebbled road, fieldwork has increased our understanding of its layout and hydraulic features (drainage channels, pits) throughout its various phases and even further highlighted its ceremonial function. It is noteworthy that ritual acts seem to have been performed to sacralise specific building interventions, such as the exceptional offering of a stone anchor (comparable with cases from the Near-East and Phoenician Sicily) in relation with the central courtyard and the burial of an Etruscan amphora containing animal bones in the porch. A further significant feature in the area occupied by the porch, is the surfacing of mud bricks structures that presently outline a small precinct including a basement, which once again is comparable with examples from the Levant. The chance discovery a new ashlar masonry wall in 2018 led to the resumption of field activity in the Monumental Sanctuary, which focussed on the entrance area and the surroundings of Temple A. The new wall, which runs parallel at a distance of 20 meters from Temple A, is the kerb of a road that departs from the Caere-Pyrgi track, while at the same time providing a delimitation to the Sanctuary on its northern side, where the apparent lack of a témenos wall is thus far problematic. It must be added that the whole of the Monumental Sanctuary, as well as the Ceremonial Quarter, has undergone restoration activities (in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture of Sapienza University of Rome) and has undergone 3D (both laser scanning and drone flight) documentation.

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