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Campo Della Fiera at Orvieto and Fanum Voltumnae: Identical Places?

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Campo Della Fiera at Orvieto and Fanum Voltumnae: Identical Places? BABESCH 88 (2013), 99-108. doi: 10.2143/BAB.88.0.2987077 Campo della Fiera at Orvieto and Fanum Voltumnae: identical places? L. Bouke van der Meer Abstract The orientation of the temple as well as inscriptions from the sacred enclosure in Campo della Fiera near Orvieto (Volsinii veteres) strongly suggest that gods of the underworld were worshipped there. Apa (Father) is prob- ably a hypostasis of Tinia (Iupiter) as infernal god. The deities Tluschva belong to the pars hostilis of the Etruscan heaven (sky). Circumstantial evidence shows that Campo may be the place of Fanum Voltumnae, the Etruscan federal sanctuary, not of chthonian but of katachthonian gods. The Latinized name Voltumna is akin to Veltune, whose image is visible on a famous mirror from Tuscania, which was probably made in the Ager volsiniensis. Recent excavations led by Simonetta Stopponi underworld god Soranus Apollo/Ditis Pater (University of Perugia) in the suburban località Soranus (Latin Dis pater),5 and apa (Father).6 Campo della Fiera (Fair Grounds) to the west of The sixteen-part margin of the Bronze Liver of Orvieto (Volsinii veteres) have yielded inscriptions Piacenza which mirrors the Etruscan sixteen-part with names of gods.1 Do they suffice to identify heaven (sky), mentions tin in three successive the Campo as the suburban location of the Fanum regions in the north part. He shares each region Voltumnae, the political, federal sanctuary where with another deity.7 The inscriptions read tin ci - the annual concilia, the meetings of twelve or all len(s), tin θuf(lθa), and tinsθ neθ(uns), which means peoples of Etruria, took place between 434 and 389 ‘Neptunus in (the region) of Iupiter.’ According BC?2 And if so, what kind of gods were wor- to Plautus Iupiter lives in the north.8 Therefore shipped there? one would expect that the temple (dated to the 4th On the basis of literary, epigraphic and topo- century BC) in the sacred precinct of Campo della graphic evidence, Stopponi presumes that the Fiera would be oriented south like the urban Fanum was situated near Volsinii veteres and that Tinia temple in Marzabotto (in Etruscan called Campo was the place of the Fanum because of its Kainua (New)) and the acropolis temple at Tala - strategic position, its temples, the impressive 5th mone. By contrast, the temple in Campo is ori- century BC via sacra (with a maximum width of ented east, deviating only 5 degrees to the south, ca 7 m), the continuity of the cultic use of the as can be deduced from the axial position of the place from the archaic period to AD 380, the pres- contemporaneous main altar to the east of the ence of a church in the Middle Ages and a mar- temple (fig. 2).9 This may imply that the main god ket used until ca 1900 but she admits that the or gods of the temple lived in the opposite west- identification is still a hypothesis.3 Most scholars north-west region of heaven (sky), the pars hos- regard the Latin name Voltumna as an epithet or tilis, in other words in the underworld half.10 hypostasis of Tinia, the Etruscan Iupiter. Tin(ia)’s An inscription, dated to ca 400 BC, found to the dominant position is visible on the Bronze Liver east of the temple in the sacred enclosure of of Piacenza (ca 100 BC) where he occupies three Campo (fig. 3) in the lowest stratum next to a successive regions of the sixteen-part margin of small altar of tufo near the main altar, reads apas the visceral side (fig. 1). If the equation Voltumna (of apa: of Father).11 Stopponi quotes one parallel, = Tinia is correct, what kind of Tinia was Voltumna an Apa inscription found in the acropolis sanctu- in this place: a Tinia of heaven, earth or the under - ary at Volterra which consists of two parallel tem- world? That Tinia might be an underworld god ples. She follows M. Bonamici in her interpreta- can be deduced from an inscription found in the tion that apa would be Tinia (Iupiter).12 Another sanctuary of the so-called Belvedere temple at inscription from the Volterran sanctuary mentions Orvieto reading tinia calusna4 (tinia of calus (under - ati (Mother).13 Four goddesses have ati as epithet: world)). The other, older inscriptions mention sur(i) Turan (Greek Aphrodite),14 Caθa (Latin Solis filia, who is probably identical to the Faliscan/Latin daughter of the Sun,15 both in heaven and in the 99 Fig. 1. Bronze liver of Piacenza (drawing author). underworld; see below)16, Cel (the goddess Earth),17 contexts strongly suggest that apa in Campo may and maybe Espi, mother of Caθa.18 Ati at Volterra be interpreted as an Etruscan underworld god. is probably Caθa as she occurs as Cav(a)θa to - Another inscription from Campo also points to gether with Apa and Suri in the southern sanctu- katachthonian deities. It is written in scriptio con- ary of Pyrgi (see below). tinua on a statue base of trachyte, dated to ca 525- The inscriptions of the Belvedere temple at 500 BC (fig. 3) and found inside the quadrangu- Orvieto mentioned prove that apa, sur(i) and tinia lar structure in the sacred precinct to the east of calusna reside in the western half of heaven. The the temple:24 temple is oriented south-east. It implies that the domicile of its gods is in the north-west quadrant kanuta larecenas laute of heaven, the pars maxime dira.19 Interestingly, the niθa aranθia pinies puia turuce southern sanctuary at Pyrgi has several inscriptions tlusval marveθul faliaθ mentioning śuri and cav(a)θa, convincingly inter- ere preted by G. Colonna as an Etruscan Hades and Persephone, cav(a)θa being in this context ‘Daugh - tentatively translated by Stopponi:25 ter of the Sun of the Night/Underworld’.20 The same sanctuary yielded inscriptions with the name Kanuta Larecenas, freedwoman (?) (lauteniθa), apa, interpreted by Colonna as a hypostasis of Aranth Pinie’s wife (puia), gave (turuce) to the śuri, ‘black god’, who can be compared with the tlusva (a group of deities) of the seat (?) (mar- Greek Apollo Sourios and the Faliscan Soranus veθul) in the celestial place (?) (faliaθere).26 Apollo.21 Two other Apa inscriptions were found in temple Vigna Parrocchiale II at Cerveteri. They The translation of the last word is based on a date from ca 550 and ca 300 BC.22 This temple too Latinized Etruscan word faladum (< Etruscan is oriented along the north-west/south-east axis, *falat/θ(e)-) meaning heaven.27 In addition, Stop - therefore in all probability oriented south-east as poni suggests a connection between the nomen so far no temples are oriented north-west.23 These gentilicium Falius and the Etruscan cognomen Tinia 100 Fig. 2. Map of Campo della Fiera, after S. Stopponi, Campo della Fiera at Orvieto: new discoveries, in N.T. De Grummond and T. Edlund Berry (eds), The Archaeology of Sanctuaries and Ritual in Etruria (JRA, Suppl. 81, 2011, 23, fig. 17); courtesy JRA. (Iupiter) mentioned in a Latin inscription from lematic if -θera is a suffix. A funerary inscription Spello (Hispellum), dated to ca 90 BC.28 Faliaθere at Tarquinia mentions faluθras (probably: of/for is the locative of *faliaθera. The translation is prob- falu-θra). The suffix –t/θra may indicate a collec- 101 apas tlusval Fig. 3. Map of the sacred enclosure in Campo della Fiera, Orvieto (drawing author). tive like *huzrnatra (Latin iuventus).29 Another deities lived in the north-west quadrant of heaven. similar lexeme, falaθres, is probably a nomen genti - Interestingly, an inscription (ca 550-500 BC) reading licium in the nominative.30 If, however, the suffix apa was found in the monumental basin which was is an adjective ending on -ra, the translation may covered by the archaic temple proto-A.36 Maggi - be correct. *Faliaθer may be akin to the Italic divus ani’s first equation of the Tluschva with Nymphs pater Falacer (not Iupiter)31 since in Etruscan the θ is mainly based on the presence of a 3rd century BC and c/ may be exchangeable (cf. zilaθ and zila). stone capital showing the head of Acheloos. This In that case *faliaθere (< *faliaθer-re) means in the god was said to be the father of the Nymphs. Since area of the god Faliather. Nymphs are already known in Etruscan religion as The collective of gods called tlusva (plural of Lasa’s, assistants of Turan/Aphrodite, Maggiani *tlus) is also present on the margin of the Bronze prefers an equation with the Charites. His identi- Liver of Piacenza next to cel (Earth), its partly ad - fication is mainly based on a shard of an Attic red jacent inner region, and in the inner region next figure cup showing a girl holding a flower in her to mar between the processus papillaris and the right hand (inscribed Aglaia) and facing a hover- processus pyramidalis (fig. 1).32 Whatever the exact ing Eros (ca 490-480 BC). Aglaia was one of the position of the cardinal points on the Liver mar- Charites. These equations are problematic because gin is,33 all the tlusva live in the western, hostile the meaning of the lexeme tlus is unknown. Since part of heaven (fig. 4).34 A. Maggiani has tentative - other words ending on -va or -cva indicate nouns ly identified them as a collective of two or more in plural (e.g. cilθva (Latin arces), pulumva (stars; female, chthonian deities, Nymphs or more prob- nails), luθcva (stones)), tlusva may personify con- ably Charites.
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