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Review of Fidenae, by Lorenzo Quilici and Stefania Quilici Gigli Russell Scott Bryn Mawr College, Dscott@Brynmawr.Edu Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies and Scholarship 1991 Review of Fidenae, by Lorenzo Quilici and Stefania Quilici Gigli Russell Scott Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/classics_pubs Part of the Classics Commons Custom Citation Scott, Russell T. Review of Fidenae, by Lorenzo Quilici and Stefania Quilici Gigli. American Journal of Archaeology 95 (1991): 558-559. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/classics_pubs/32 For more information, please contact [email protected]. 558 BOOK REVIEWS [AJA 95 denga, and Ficana--given us direct evidence for the early the crisis of the fifth century B.C. Acquarossa'shistory was non-funerary architectureof central Italy. Friedhelm Pra- short (600-525 B.C.); about the size of Vulci, it counted yon's pioneering Friihetruskische Grab- und Hausarchitektur 4,000 to 7,000 inhabitantsor more, judging from the area (Heidelberg 1975) organized what was known then of early and the closenessof the houses. Brief appendices deal with Etruscanarchitecture, funerary and domestic.Updates have funerary architecturenear Tuscania, usefully compared to been necessarybecause of the lively state of Etruscanexca- the domesticarchitecture of 600 B.C., and with the conser- vations(by Prayonhimself, at the Second InternationalCon- vation and restorationof buildings both at San Giovenale gress of EtruscanStudies in Florence in 1985, publishedin and Acquarossaand of the Rocca dell'Albornoz,the 14th- the Atti, 1989). Progetto Etruschi, which began in 1985, the century palace at Viterbo where the exhibit took place and Year of the Etruscans,but which is still under way, focused where the museum will be housed. on this materialin several exhibits and their respectivecat- The study of Etruscannon-funerary architecture and of alogues. The year 1985 saw two exhibitsin Tuscanyon non- its terracotta decoration is leading scholars to reevaluate funerary architecture: Case e palazzi d'Etruria, and Santuari several assumptions.The abundant evidence from Acqua- d'Etruria.Then in 1986 the region of Lazio,in collaboration rossa, Murlo, Rome, Ficana,and other sites sheds new light with the Swedish Institute in Rome and the Soprintendenza on the relationbetween central Italian and Greek architec- Archeologica per l'Etruria Meridionale, organized "Case tural terracottas.In Greece,tile roofs existed in rudimentary etrusche nel Viterbese,"shown in the handsome Rocca Al- form, withoutdecorative elements, around 650 B.C. In Italy, bornoz of Viterbo. Carl Nylander and MassimoPallottino as Erik Nielsen points out in a recent article (OpRom16 introduce the volume and recall the impressive history of [1987] 119), the combinationof a sophisticated,developed Swedish excavations in Italy, among them San Giovenale system of roofing, which existed at Murloby 625-600 B.C., (1956-1965) and Acquarossa(1966-1975, 1978), featured and a developed system of acroterialdecoration points to a in exhibit and catalogue. Villanovantradition, reflected in early hut models; the idea A summaryof the topographyand a historyof excavations may well have come from Greece; but as so often, local and scholarship,including bibliographiesfor both sites, are traditiontransformed an imported concept into an original followed by accounts of their urban development and do- form. Terracottadecoration, adopted from Greece along mesticarchitecture. The third and longest chapterillustrates with the square plan of the houses (contrastingwith the the layout of the houses, their construction,and-the most characterisicoval plan of the early houses at San Giovenale), remarkableof the material from Acquarossa,handsomely could have come by way of a larger center, like Caere; but reproduced in the color plates-architectural terracottas. so far no evidence has appeared to confirm this hypothesis. Instructivedrawings show the roofs as reconstructedfrom Another problem,not yet solved, is the identificationof the the preserved pieces. Chapter 4 discusses the layout, con- functions of various buildings, whether from ground plans struction,and decorationof the public buildingsin the area (Prayonposits a three-partdivision for temples, houses, and monumentaleof Acquarossa,where some 2,000 fragmentsof tombs), construction, or furnishings (at Acquarossa there moldmadeterracottas were found. All of them were used in were apparently no fixed hearths, and pierced roof tiles the same period. The relief plaques represented Heracles were used to let in light, not to let out smoke from kitchens). and the Cretan Bull, Heracles and the Nemean Lion, a Labelingbuildings solely on the basis of their architectural banquet scene, and a dance with a man doing a handstand. members is also risky,as Nielsen notes about the large size Throughout, finds from Murlo and Sardis provide useful and elaboratedecoration of a building at Murlo that might comparisons.No complete series of antefixesor plaqueshas be a workshop. We are reminded of the controversyover survived:about one-third of the original plaquesmust have whether the ambitiouscomplex at Murlo was a palace or a been lost (400 kg of them survive,each plaque weighing ca. sanctuary.Further excavations will no doubt help solve these 7 kg). Chapters5 and 6 describethe manufacture,style, and and similarproblems. Meanwhile,the material from these of chronology this precious evidence, including the stylized sites and the excavators'interpretations are confirming the decorative cutout elements, which exhibit a certain lively originalityand importanceof Etruscanculture in the Med- humor in their free interpretationof Archaicmotifs. iterraneanin the seventh century B.C. Chapter 7 attempts to look at daily life in the context of LARISSA this domestic architecture.Although windows, doors, and BONFANTE stables can be identified, it is hard to recognize the specific CLASSICS DEPARTMENT functions served by buildings or rooms. Cooking must have NEW YORK UNIVERSITY been done outdoors,judging from ovens, barbecuepits, and 25 WAVERLY PLACE wells found there. Part of their diet can be reconstructed, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10003 althoughwood and bone are missing,along with textilesand jewelry. What is preserved is mostly terracotta. Loom weights,contemporary with seventh-centurymaterial, testify FIDENAE, by Lorenzo Quilici and Stefania Quilici to weaving. Inscriptions are few (four) and fragmentary. Gigli. (LatiumVetus 5.) Pp. 436, pls. 186. Consig- The final to reconstructthe chapter attempts historicalcon- lio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome 1986. text of the two settlements. Caere seems to have had the most influence among neighboring cities and areas. Noted The series of volumes dedicated to LatiumVetus had its at San Giovenale,which was inhabitedfrom the Bronze Age beginning in 1978 with the publicationby the same authors down to ca. 400 B.C., are the absenceof any large sanctuary of Antemnae.The geographical area encompassed by the or public space, the egalitariannature of houses and tombs, term is that lying to the north of Rome between the Tiber and the transformationof houses to agriculturaluse during and Aniene rivers,territory to all intents and purposes now 1991] BOOK REVIEWS 559 part of the quartieriof the modern city. The publicationof as one of the editors of the new edition of Storia di Roma, Crustumeriumby Lorenzo Quilici followed in 1980 and the Aldo Schiavone,has put it, is the effort to visualizethe society volume in progress on Ficulea will complete the research in operation in large and small detail over time ("interezza design. scenica");and it is very much in evidence in the conclusions The inspiration for the project, for which the Centro di sectionof thiswork. If there is a particularlack in the Quilicis' studio per l'archeologiaetrusco-italica of the ItalianNational picture, I think it is the absenceof environmentalsampling; Research Council is responsible, comes not so much from yet the impulseto focus on man in the larger physicalsetting the lost status of the old cities of Latium recorded by Pliny is clearly there, and their anthropologicalstudy of the ter- as it does from the double-edged effect of the growth of ritory of Fidenae over a remarkablespan of time deserves Rome in the most recent decades. On the negative side, the praise for its breadth of view, richness of detail, and, philo- constructionof buildingsand roads has gone on at a dizzying sophically,its essentialevenhandedness. and often unregulated pace; on the other hand there have The volume is dedicated to the memoryand enterpriseof also been spectaculararchaeological discoveries made under the pioneer researchers in the Roman Campagna: Pietro the impetus of this same activitythat have been of special Rosa,Thomas Ashby,and GiuseppeLugli, but there is noth- importancefor increasing our knowledge of ancient Rome ing of the laudator temporis acti in it. One cannot but be and Latium from the Bronze Age into the Archaic period. preoccupiedof course by what modern man is doing to his (A furtherindex of the richnessof the archaeologicalharvest world, including the Roman Campagna, today. For that has been the new annual series ArcheologiaLaziale, also matter it is also well to remember, as the authors do, that published by the CNR, for which Quilici Gigli
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