| Description | Ongoing survey and excavations at the multicomponent site of San Giuliano, located about 50 km northwest of Rome, have uncovered a dynamic landscape of interlocking settlement and burial that span the advent of Etruscan civilization to the zenith of the High Middle Ages. We have documented over 500 Etruscan tombs, conducted salvage excavations of four previously-looted chamber tombs, and uncovered four transitional Villanovan-Etruscan trench tombs dating to around AD 700. An urban center developed atop the San Giuliano plateau in the 7th century BC and flourished in the 6th and 5th century, although the location of this settlement remains elusive. After Roman Conquest in the 3rd century, people chose to leave the site in favor of dispersed lowland habitation. In the Middle Ages - beginning sometime around the 9th or 10th century - the local population reoccupied and refortified the earlier Etruscan acropolis. Excavations atop the plateau have revealed a medieval castle complex, including a feasting hall, a defensive tower, and a crypt with dozens of burials likely associated with a private chapel. This lecture provides an overview of our research project and the light that our work has thrown on the nature and motivations of these settlement shifts. |
