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Bolsena Project. Archaeological investigations in the Roman municipium Volsinii/Bolsena

Research manager:

Salvatore De Vincenzo

Start date: 2019

End date: Undefined

Brief description and research objectives:

Volsinii Veteres, the Etruscan Velzna located in Orvieto, in whose territory fell the famous federal sanctuary of the Fanum Voltumnae, was finally defeated by the Romans in 264 B.C. by Consul Fulvius Flaccus, who as a result of this victory celebrated the triumph and dedicated a temple on the Aventine Hill to Voltumna/Vertumnus deity of Volsinii. In this temple, according to Festus reports, paintings were placed celebrating Flaccus’ triumph. According to Zonara, Volsinii was completely destroyed by the Romans, who then moved the surviving citizens to the new foundation on Lake Bolsena. The new Volsinii was founded subsequent to the events of 264 B.C. on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. The chosen location, along the Via Cassia, was particularly strategic, greatly favoring its development. The city was civitas foederata and likely remained so until the Social War. In general, historical information about Volsinii is particularly scanty. Following the social war Volsinii became municipium ascribed to the Pomptina tribe. In the imperial age Volsinii’s role as an important road junction increased with the construction in 108 CE of the new section of the Via Traiana Nova, which connected Volsinii to Chiusi. The importance of the city in the imperial age is in any case connected with the confederal games of the XV Populi Etruriae and later with those of Tusci et Umbri, which were held here. Volsinii suffered the invasion of the Visigoths in 410 A.D., which was followed between 570 and 575 A.D. by the occupation of the Lombards, who caused its final decline.
The city with an area of 65 hectares was founded on the eastern shore of Lake Bolsena. The city’s monumental evidence was brought to light mainly during a series of excavations carried out by the École Française de Rome over a 40-year period (1946-1986). Beginning in the 1960s, excavations focused mainly on the Poggio Moscini plateau, where the Forum, the Basilica and an additional series of public buildings were brought to light, as well as the remains of two domus, specifically the Domus delle Pitture and the Domus del Ninfeo.
The new excavation project at Volsinii, carried out under a ministerial excavation concession (MIC), aims to define the exact diachronic development of the city’s urban organization by analyzing in its entirety all the buildings, both public and private, currently in the light. Specifically, the forum and the monuments connected to it will be analyzed in order to define the real organization of the forensic area and the buildings that were part of it.

Stratigraphic essays will also be carried out to define in the foundation the chronology of the various construction phases of the walls, concentrated mainly in the sector of the so-called Porta Capite. Another sector that will be the focus of this project is that of the amphitheater, with the aim of defining the real architectural structure of the monument, the chronology of its construction phases, and the connection with the road system inside the city and, of course, with the external road network, taking into account its arrangement near the city walls.

Type of Funding and Call:

The project is funded by the DTC LAZIO INNOVA under the REMEDIAVI project (26,703.66 Euros) and the Municipality of Bolsena (1000 Euros).