INTRODUCTION
The friable volcanic tuff characteristic of the landscape of central Tyrrhenian Italy became comprehensively engraved with roads cut into the hills during the seventh and sixth centuries bc, primarily as a response to the expanding needs of increasing vehicular traffic. Although well-known in Italian archaeology,Footnote 1 road-cuttings have never been evaluated fully as archaeological documents: it can be presumed that, as part of the developing urbanization in iron age central Italy, affected by the formation of proto-urban centres, the ruling élite of the centres aspired to establish territories and build infrastructure in order to utilize available resources and exert political control over them. In addition to the logistic benefits of road-cuttings, their monumental aspects in relation to their surroundings could provide a useful tool for creating a political landscape embedded with messages of the local élite concerning their ownership of the land and the resources. This supposed intangible structure encoded within the landscape arguably can be approached and identified via methods of landscape archaeology and phenomenology (for example: Tilley, Reference Tilley1994); thus, it is my contention that road-cuttings, when regarded as time- and resource-consuming monumental constructions in territorial landscapes of early urbanized societies, can provide new insights into the development and employment of material and social infrastructures in central Italy during the Orientalizing and Archaic periods.
The geographical area considered here consists primarily of southern Etruria — limited by the Fiora and Paglia rivers in the west and north —, in addition to Latium Vetus (Fig. 1). Road-cuttings are abundant on the tuff plateau of southern Etruria,Footnote 2 and several examples can also be found around proto-urbanFootnote 3 centres in Latium.Footnote 4 The majority of the road-cuttings discussed in this paper comes from Etruscan sites or the surrounding areas: a clear network of road-cuttings can be seen spreading out, for example, around the Etruscan centres at Tuscania (Quilici Gigli, Reference Quilici Gigli1970), Blera (Quilici Gigli, Reference Quilici Gigli1976) and Cerveteri (Enei, Reference Enei2001) (Figs 2–4). However, contemporaneous infrastructural development comparable to the progress witnessed in Etruscan territories is apparent also at Crustumerium in the Tiber valley, Lazio, for instance. Furthermore, the earliest road-cuttings suitable for wheeled traffic that the author is aware of date to the (late?) eighth century bc, and are found in southern Etruria and Latium alike.Footnote 5
Fig. 1. The tuff plateau of central Tyrrhenian Italy and locations mentioned in the text. (Map: author.)
Fig. 2. Road-cuttings (dashed lines) and burials (dark grey) around Tuscania. (Map: author.)
Fig. 3. Road-cuttings (dashed lines) and burials (dark grey) around Blera and Norchia. (Map: author.)
Fig. 4. Road-cuttings (dashed lines) and burials (dark grey) around Cerveteri. (Map: author.)
Although the cuttings discussed in this paper (listed in the Appendix) are only a portion of the total number of road-cuttings in central Italy,Footnote 6 they should be considered sufficient for the purposes of this study, as the existing published research dealing with road-cuttings is sporadic at best. On a further note, a scrutiny of the topographical maps of the region suggests that several archaeological sites may contain unpublished — and perhaps even unidentified and/or undiscoveredFootnote 7 — road-cuttings in their vicinity. While this paper draws mainly from the published data on cuttings, our understanding of the different aspects of early urbanization in central Italy definitely would benefit from a comprehensive reconstruction of the general utilization of road-cuttings.
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
As most of the road-cuttings have been utilized from antiquity to modern times, and often have had several different phases of use and modifications, creating a precise chronology for the cuttings is very challenging. Thus, each cutting should be considered as a unique archaeological and topographical document; however, as the primary aim of this paper is to posit the benefits of the post-processual approach in determining the utilization of road-cuttings in the construction and maintenance of socio-political structures, road-cuttings are inspected here as a general phenomenon related to early urbanization. For the same reason, I have not attempted to examine the relation of road-cuttings to the road system in general here, as that topic merits a paper in its own right.
Regarding the topic of road-cuttings as instruments of urbanization in central Tyrrhenian Italy, the issue of Tarquinia and Vulci should be addressed. The archaeological and written record of antiquity places these two Etruscan centres among the greatest and most influential in southern Etruria. Nevertheless, there is next to no evidence of road-cuttings at Tarquinia or Vulci, for which reason these centres are omitted from this study. Both centres clearly exhibit all the signs of affluence, commercial connections and urbanization, not to mention the display of status and wealth in the burials,Footnote 8 so, why no road-cuttings?
Concerning Tarquinia, a very pragmatic reason for the absence of cuttings may be found in its geomorphological situation: the Tyrrhenian coastal area lies outside the vast tuff plateau of central Italy (Ward-Perkins, Reference Ward-Perkins1962b: 390; Perkins, Reference Perkins1999: 4, fig. 1.1.1), the presence of which appears to have favoured the construction of road-cuttings and rock-cut tombs (Oleson, Reference Oleson1976: 209; Reference Oleson1978: 285–6).Footnote 9 Furthermore, as the traffic in the coastal region did not face similar obstacles as in the ravine-scarred inland, there simply may not have been a need for monumental logistic facilities such as road-cuttings. The same reasons concerning the need for road-cuttings are applicable to Vulci as well (Moretti Sgubini, Reference Moretti Sgubini1993: 10). In addition to the already cited factors, low-lying coastal areas in general may have been conceived spatially more easily than the volcanic districts due to their more extensive unhindered visibility, thus favouring, in terms of stratigraphy, positive monumental reminders of territoryFootnote 10 such as the Doganaccia tumuli at Tarquinia (Cataldi and Mandolesi, Reference Cataldi, Mandolesi and Della Fina2010), which stand out from the landscape, instead of negative features such as road-cuttings. The lack of road-cuttings in this region thus can be seen to demonstrate how local geology and topography factor in to as well as predetermine the methods of manifesting territorial identity, control and/or power.
In inland southern Etruria the difficult terrain and excessive level variations basically presented two choices: either climb to higher ground to escape vegetation and gain better visibility — a difficult feat for wheeled traffic —, or travel via the extant roads that ran through cuttings specifically quarried to mitigate the challenges of the terrain. The cuttings did not materialize out of nowhere: they were artificial facilities constructed by societies with the capability and resources to improve the infrastructures of their territory.Footnote 11
SOCIO-POLITICAL BACKGROUND
Current research agrees in general that the earliest proto-urban centres in central Tyrrhenian Italy came into being during the ninth century bc,Footnote 12 although the process of state formation in southern Etruria took a slightly different course to that in Latium,Footnote 13 with the exception of Rome.Footnote 14 In Etruria, the preceding proto-villanovan population that lived in comparatively small (c. 2–6 ha) settlements, numbering over 70 known sites (di Gennaro, Reference di Gennaro, Camassa, De Guio and Veronese2000: 105–6, fig. 5), formed nucleated proto-urban centres that developed into great (average size clearly over 100 ha) Etruscan city-states such as Veii, Caere, Tarquinia and Vulci.Footnote 15 This development appears to suggest (low-level?) centralized leadership already in the preceding final bronze age settlements,Footnote 16 as it seems doubtful that a coordinated nucleation process on this scale could have taken place within more ‘democratic’ societies (Guidi, Reference Guidi1998: 146–7; Reference Guidi2008; cf. Peroni, Reference Peroni1989; Reference Peroni1996). The respective leading groups or families presumably evolved into a dominant class in the newly-founded centres (for example: Guidi, Reference Guidi2008: 184, 187); their élite status in southern Etruria is manifested in the archaeological record, for instance as tumulus burials (Cataldi and Mandolesi, Reference Cataldi, Mandolesi and Della Fina2010; Bietti Sestieri, Reference Bietti Sestieri2012: 293, fig. 27) and in exquisite bronze artefacts (for example: Maggiani, Reference Maggiani, Gaultier and Briquel1997: 439–43, figs 2, 6–7; Haynes, Reference Haynes2000: 12–13) dating no later than the eighth century bc (Barker and Rasmussen, Reference Barker and Rasmussen1998: 77–9).Footnote 17 The families of the ruling élite clearly achieved aristocratic status during that time (Cifani, Reference Cifani, Attema, Burgers, van Joolen, van Leusen and Mater2002a: 220; Bartoloni, Reference Bartoloni2003; Bartoloni, Reference Bartoloni and Bartoloni2012: 103–4):Footnote 18 the increased importance of family names (as well as literacy as a signifier of status) can be witnessed in the inscriptions found in the seventh-century élite burials.Footnote 19 The archaeological record shows the emergence of secondary centres in southern Etruria during the eighth and seventh centuries bc, presumably controlled by an aristocracy (for example: Cifani, Reference Cifani2002b: 247–8; Reference Cifani2003: 182).
In Latium, the proto-urban centres were born through gradual local developmentFootnote 20 rather than through rapid nucleation of small settlements on previously uninhabited locations, with the above-mentioned exception of Rome. This resulted in generally smaller centres and territories in comparison to the centres in southern Etruria.Footnote 21 The development of social stratification in Latium also appears to have begun before the rise of the proto-urban centres: for example, the early iron age burials in the Osteria dell'Osa necropolis have been interpreted as evidence of early political/military and religious leadership (Bietti Sestieri, Reference Bietti Sestieri2012: 278–9).Footnote 22 Rich burials and luxury items (Bartoloni, Reference Bartoloni and Della Fina2010: 160–1; Attema et al., Reference Attema, Nijboer, van Oortmerssen, Seubers, Willemsen, Attema, di Gennaro and Jarva2013) demonstrate the rise of an aristocracy in the seventh century bc in Latium as well (Cornell, Reference Cornell1995: 84–5; Cifani, Reference Cifani2002b: 247–8; Bartoloni, Reference Bartoloni2003; Fulminante, Reference Fulminante2003), but if we consider the putative models of centre formation and territorial organization in Latium as representative of the underlying societal structures, the élite status and centre hierarchy may have been less accentuated in Latium than in Etruria (for example: Cifani, Reference Cifani, Attema, Burgers, van Joolen, van Leusen and Mater2002a: 220–1; Reference Cifani2003: 191–3). The moderating effect of the rising ‘middle class’ of craftsmen and traders on the socio-political power of the aristocracy (Cifani, Reference Cifani2003: 186)Footnote 23 in the sixth and fifth centuries bc appears to be most evident in the great Etruscan centres and Rome,Footnote 24 but is visible also in the marked decrease of luxury burials in the course of the sixth century (Cornell, Reference Cornell1995: 105–8 (with references); Bartoloni, Nizzo and Taloni, Reference Bartoloni, Nizzo, Taloni, Bonaudo, Cerchiai and Pellegrino2009).
Admittedly, the above descriptions concerning the Iron Age are somewhat generalized, but they do give a broad (and brief) view of the relevant socio-political developments: it should be remembered that at that time the local cultures were clearly differentiated in Etruria and Latium (for example: Cornell, Reference Cornell1995: 32–6). To summarize the situation during the seventh and sixth centuries bc in general terms, central Tyrrhenian Italy consisted of medium- to large-sized territorial city-states at an advanced stage of urban development controlled by an aristocratic élite. Political control of territory was essential not only for effective exploitation of the resources the territory held (water, wood, ore, stone, labour and so on), but also for the efficient maintenance of the agricultural economy and connections to other centres, and for the presumed imposition of tolls. To this end, monumental tumuli and infrastructure features in the form of road networks and road-cuttings can be considered to denote the aristocracy's control over the land (Zifferero, Reference Zifferero, Herring, Whitehouse and Wilkins1991); the increasing significance of terrestrial communications is evident also in the recent results of social network analysis concerning Latium Vetus conducted by Francesca Fulminante (Reference Fulminante2012). Furthermore, it is possible that the distribution of road-cuttings (that is, apparently favouring southern Etruria instead of Latium) also stems from the respective socio-political situations: in comparison to southern Etruria, which had a small number of grand early urban centres with large territories in the eighth/seventh century bc, Latium exhibited mostly smaller centres with corresponding territories, meaning that competition over resources and land was probably more vigorous in Latium than in southern Etruria. In this sense, the Etruscans could invest more in improving territorial infrastructures instead of raising defences,Footnote 25 whereas there is evidence of early fortifications at most centres in Latium (for example: Fischer-Hansen and Algreen-Ussing, Reference Fischer-Hansen and Algreen-Ussing2013: 51–8 (with references)).
LOGISTIC BENEFITS
The most obvious function of road-cuttings was to facilitate sufficient mobility in a difficult terrain riddled with valleys, gorges and ravines by providing ramps and passages with gentle slopes (for example: Barker and Rasmussen, Reference Barker and Rasmussen1998: 172). As in the sixth century bc the Mediterranean region experienced a notable population increase (Cifani, Reference Cifani2002b), which catalysed architectural development (di Gennaro, Reference di Gennaro, Arietti and Pasqualini2007; Colantoni, Reference Colantoni, Thomas and Meyers2012: 21, 24–5, 32–3), mobilityFootnote 26 as well as commercial connections (Cifani, Reference Cifani2003: 185, 190), subsequently leading to the widespread adoption of wheeled vehicles,Footnote 27 ramps with suitable grades for wheeled vehicles laden with heavy loads of goodsFootnote 28 or construction materialsFootnote 29 became a necessity at settlements, founded typically on hilltops for defensive purposes, as well as in the surrounding territories.Footnote 30 The roads were cut into the tuff presumably using quarrying methods and tools, and, on several occasions, refurbished when necessary.Footnote 31 Marks left by pickaxes often are still visible on the walls of road-cuttings. Considering the notable depths commonly witnessed in road-cuttings (from 5 m to over 20 m), special attention apparently was given also to the gradient of the road, which in the case of Roman roads is commonly c. 7–10% and seldom more than 15%; some roads with earlier origins exhibit grades around 12–19%, which presumably was acceptable for regular traffic during the Archaic period in central Italy.Footnote 32 The gentler slope of the Roman roads suggests that the grade was later adopted to handle the more demanding traffic of Republican, and subsequently Imperial, Rome.Footnote 33
TRAFFIC CONTROL
As stated above, in order to achieve a suitable grade for wheeled traffic, a road often had to be quarried deep into the hillside. In many cases the walls of a road cutting are several metres high, creating a narrow corridor that restricts mobility, particularly for carts and wagons. Considering that most of the wheeled vehicles had gauges around 1.3–1.4 m (Tuppi, Reference Tuppi2010; Crouwel, Reference Crouwel2012: 2)Footnote 34 and that c. 63% of the 110 road-cuttings discussed in this paper are less than 3 m wide, thus hampering simultaneous two-way vehicular traffic,Footnote 35 this feature enabled the secondary function of controlling the traffic, especially at cities and centres. The influx of traffic thus could be regulated efficiently where necessary by directing it via road-cuttings: constructions interpretable as deliberate bottleneck arrangements can be found at the Castelluzza cutting at Bomarzo (Scardozzi, Reference Scardozzi2007: 21), the southern entrance of the Etruscan settlement of Norchia (Colonna di Paolo and Colonna, Reference Colonna di Paolo and Colonna1978: 62–3, pl. LXIX), in the Etruscan necropolis of Pian della Conserva at Tolfa (Naso, Reference Naso, Maffei and Nastasi1990: 90; Marconi Cosentino, Gallavotti Cavallero and Aiello, Reference Marconi Cosentino, Gallavotti Cavallero and Aiello1995: fig. 62) (Fig. 5), and at the pre-Roman settlement of Crustumerium in the Tiber valley (Tuppi et al., forthcoming) (Figs 6–7). It is also possible that, in addition to the benefit of a graded slope, the narrow corridor created by cutting the road into bedrock actually helped carts carrying heavy cargo to stay on the track: to give a Greek example, Robert Forbes (Reference Forbes1965: 141–2) wrote about holes along the sides of the Attican quarry roads that may have held poles that prevented wagons with marble loads from veering off the road. Furthermore, based on the observation concerning the implications of the space available for the traffic, we can postulate also that the routes that have the widest road-cuttings were probably the main roads in antiquity, and presumably were constructed to support unhindered heavy two-way traffic: for instance, as one of the widest road-cuttings at Tuscania (5–7 m wide) is located in the Scalette pass just northeast-east of the centre (Quilici Gigli, Reference Quilici Gigli1970: 74–5, 78), we can assume that one of the main roads leading to the centre followed this route. Another presumably main route approaches Tuscania from the southeast through the Vallata del Marta cutting (4.0–5.6 m wide), and passes a cluster of tombs (Quilici Gigli, Reference Quilici Gigli1970: 34–43, figs 17–36); although this large cutting was part of the Roman Via Clodia in antiquity, the dating of the sepulchral area as from the seventh to the second centuries bc (Rendeli, Reference Rendeli1993: 432, no. 2) suggests an earlier origin.
Fig. 5. A road-cutting narrowing towards the summit at the Pian della Conserva necropolis, Tolfa. (Photo: author.)
Fig. 6. Estimated sections of the southern trincea viaria road-cutting at Crustumerium based on excavation data gathered in 2004–8. (See also Fig. 7 for a general plan of the settlement area.) (Illustration: author.)
Fig. 7. The settlement area of Crustumerium (light grey), trincea viaria road-cuttings (dark grey) and the currently known extent of the moat (dashed line). (Map: author.)
In addition, it appears that road-cuttings leading to necropoleis or sepulchral areas generally exhibit narrower widths than roads that simply pass burial grounds; in some cases, such as the via Cava dell'Annunziata at Pitigliano (only 1.3 m wide at the narrowest point), the cutting leading to the necropolis is actually so narrow that it may have prevented commonplace vehicular traffic.Footnote 36 As some cuttings — the Annunziata cutting at Pitigliano in particular — are monumental in every other sense than in width, as regards wheeled vehicles the narrow gauge should be interpreted as a deliberate feature.Footnote 37
MONITORING AND DEFENCE
Road-cuttings leading to settlements and centres also enabled the monitoring of traffic from an elevated position and provided excellent defensive qualities by confining the incoming traffic to a narrow space that could be blocked easily. Defending from an elevated position using javelins, stones or other projectile weaponsFootnote 38 against an enemy confined in a narrow corridor below was an obvious advantage, and added to the defence potential of the road-cuttings. The necessity of defence was probably one of the reasons for constructing the trincea viaria road cutting at Crustumerium; the moat dug in the seventh century bc to protect the southeast sector of the settlement circuit (Barbaro, Barbina and Borzetti, Reference Barbaro, Barbina, Borzetti, Attema, di Gennaro and Jarva2013: 25–7) also demonstrates the need to defend the centre from an outside threat (Fig. 7).Footnote 39
Considering the apparent importance of land-routes in Latium from the eighth century bc onwards (di Gennaro, Reference di Gennaro, Camassa, De Guio and Veronese2000; Fulminante, Reference Fulminante2012), the ability to detain traffic within a road-cutting could have proved advantageous also, considering the possible practice of exacting tolls from the people wishing to pass through or enter the centres (for example: Cifani, Reference Cifani2002b: 248; Fulminante, Reference Fulminante2012: 11–2):Footnote 40 the incoming traffic could be monitored, directed and possible fares collected in an orderly fashion.
TERRITORY AND MONUMENTALITY
The definition of territory presupposes communication between individuals. Boundaries have to be defined, agreed on and maintained, but the area encompassed within the boundaries has to communicate control as well. Whereas boundaries might be defined by natural topographical features such as rivers and valleys (Sack, Reference Sack1986: 34; Edlund-Berry, Reference Edlund-Berry, de Grummond and Simon2006: 116–17, 120) in addition to artificial markers (Haynes, Reference Haynes2000: 71; Cerchiai, Reference Cerchiai and Bartoloni2012: 140–1), the landscape itself had to be modified artificially in order to declare clearly presence and control:Footnote 41 this could be achieved most effectively through monumentality.
The two essential attributes that define monumentality are scale and permanence (Holtorf, Reference Holtorf1997: 45);Footnote 42 a monument needs to stand out and instil awe, and be able to withstand the test of time so that the message it conveys is not forgotten or buried. The road-cuttings in central Italy, still visible and admired today, fulfil these requirements with ease (Appendix). However, monumentality is not a feature achieved without effort: the construction of monumental road-cuttings required tools for the job, engineering skill, a suitable labour force and effective organization, to say the least (Tuppi et al., forthcoming).Footnote 43 The amount of work, effort and resources invested into such projects admittedly could be justified by the logistical and infrastructural benefits as well as the defensive aspects that were increasingly necessary for the growing centres and accumulation of wealth, but the monumental scale of the cuttings also enabled a subjective function: the cutting itself was an impressive sight that expressed a statement of resources and power (Trigger, Reference Trigger and Bradley1990: 121–2, 124–8; Meyers, Reference Meyers, Thomas and Meyers2012: 13–14; cf. Kolb, Reference Kolb, Blake and Knapp2005: 173–4), in the same manner that massive Orientalizing tumuli moundsFootnote 44 acted as reminders of élite status and landownership in the seventh century bc.Footnote 45 Considering that Crustumerium, like many other pre-Roman centres in central ItalyFootnote 46 appears to have had multiple road-cuttings leading to the settlement area,Footnote 47 it undoubtedly projected an image of a bustling and prosperous centre. Furthermore, if the place to which the cuttings led (whether a stately settlement or a solemn necropolis) was obstructed from view upon entering the road cutting, the moment when the whole scene unfolded as the traveller emerged from the cutting was without a doubt all the more impressive — an experience that is still possible in vie cave around Pitigliano and Sovana (Feo, Reference Feo2011: 81).
Road-cuttings also appear to have functioned in tandem with necropoleis not later than from the seventh century bc onwards in utilizing their monumentality at Etruscan centres: at Tuscania, the best road in terms of logistics directed the people heading to the centre through road-cuttings and past the necropoleis of Pian di Mola and Colle San Pietro before entering the settlement (Rendeli, Reference Rendeli1993: 247–53, figs 96, 98). The same pattern is repeated at most of the centres discussed in this paper: Capena, Cerveteri, Sovana, Castel d'Asso, Corchiano, Blera, Civitella Cesi, Ischia di Castro, Tolfa, Monterano and Veii in southern Etruria, and Crustumerium in Latium, to mention a few.Footnote 48 Considering that road-cuttings often are found in close proximity to burials (Appendix),Footnote 49 these routes were evidently capitalized on for reasons other than the pragmatic; they led the travellers past constructions that projected powerful symbolic statements, such as road-cuttings (‘we have the resources and power to construct these’), necropoleis and tumuli (‘we have been here long and thus own the land’), which arguably evoked awe and respect. Furthermore, at Falerii Veteres, a road-cutting is associated with the sanctuary area of Vignale, dated no later than the fifth century bc (Carlucci et al., Reference Carlucci, De Lucia Brolli, Keay, Millett, Strutt, Clogg, Moscati and Opitz2007: 44–5, 98–104);Footnote 50 as with necropoleis, cuttings definitely also enhanced the monumentality of temples and sacred areas. The emergence of road-cuttings roughly at the same time as rich tumulus burials in the late eighth/early seventh century bc suggests that the growing centres in central Italy, which had developed from bronze age segmentary communities (for example: Barker, Reference Barker, Blake and Knapp2005: 59) into territorial proto-state societies (for example: di Gennaro, Reference di Gennaro1986),Footnote 51 endeavoured to ‘politicize’ their regions (for example: Whitehouse, Reference Whitehouse and Christie1995: 85): the cuttings, along with burial mounds, could feature in this scheme as building-blocks in constructing a socio-political landscape of power.
INSCRIBED ROAD-CUTTINGS
Several road-cuttings have inscriptions on their walls, spanning from no later than the Archaic period to medieval times,Footnote 52 a fact that attests to the function of monumentality as a medium throughout the ages.
The inscribed cuttings discussed here are found either at burial grounds or along routes between settlements; the most common inscriptions are names, but markings and symbols occur as well. Names carved on road-cuttings linked to burials, such as the Etruscan name Verthna on the Cavone cutting at Sovana (Rix, Reference Rix1991: 128, AV 0.14–6; D'Erme and Pellegrini, Reference D'Erme, Pellegrini and Pellegrini2005),Footnote 53Cleiina on the Grotta Porcina cutting at Blera (Quilici Gigli, Reference Quilici Gigli1976: 234; Quilici, Reference Quilici1989: 468; Rix, Reference Rix1991: 80, AT 0.12; Naso, Reference Naso1996: 156–9), or inscriptions on Pian Cerese (Enei, Reference Enei2001: 140–2, fig. 170), Monte Abbadoncino (Enei, Reference Enei2001: 126) and the Via degli Inferi cuttings at Cerveteri (Rix, Reference Rix1991: 41–2, Cr 5.1, 5.5), and Tenuta Terrano cutting at Civita Castellana (Frederiksen and Ward-Perkins, Reference Frederiksen and Ward-Perkins1957: 143), may have identified the deceased buried in the vicinity: regarding the scarcity of public Etruscan writings recognized by current research (Benelli, Reference Benelli and Bartoloni2012: 439), these inscriptions should be interpreted as attestations of the private (and ceremonial) nature of these cuttings. Markings, such as the inscribed V's found northeast of Tolfa, could have stood for an abbreviation of VLTRA in the sense of ‘outside’, demarcating a border of a designated area or region (Gasperini, Reference Gasperini1989: 49; Scardozzi, Reference Scardozzi2007: 27, n. 57).Footnote 54
Names, amongst other inscriptions, can be seen also on the walls of the Cava di Castro cutting southeast of the Etruscan settlement of Castro (De Ruyt, Reference De Ruyt1977; De Ruyt, Reference De Ruyt1978: 38–9; Rix, Reference Rix1991: 122–3, Vc 0.21–6, 0.42, 0.46), the Cava Buia cutting at Norchia (Giuliani, Reference Giuliani1966: 8–12),Footnote 55 the Cannara cutting at Corchiano (Moscati, Reference Moscati, Boitani, Cristofani, Moscati and Nardi1985: 93; Quilici, Reference Quilici, Maetzke, Paoletti and Perna1990: 208–9, 217–19; Rix, Reference Rix1991: 21, Fa 0.7–8), the Fantibassi cutting west of Falerii Veteres (Di Stefano Manzella, Reference Di Stefano Manzella1996: 223–4),Footnote 56 the Castelluzza cutting at Bomarzo (Scardozzi, Reference Scardozzi2007), the Le Pozza cutting at Blera (Santella, Reference Santella, Capoferro, D'Amelio and Renzetti2013) and the Cavetta cutting at Monte Sant'Angelo in the Ager Veientanus (Munzi, Reference Munzi2001). The inscriptions may have offered information concerning the route or the cutting; for example, the earliest case to my knowledge is an inscription presumably stating the name of the patron of the Le Pozza road-cutting at Blera, which can be dated to the end of the sixth century bc based on epigraphic evidence (Santella, Reference Santella, Capoferro, D'Amelio and Renzetti2013: 62), suggesting that the practice of ‘signing’ public construction projects dates back to Archaic infrastructural development in southern Etruria. The Etruscan inscription on the Cavetta cutting is dated slightly later: according to Massimiliano Munzi (Reference Munzi2001), the inscription pertains to the fifth century bc. The rest of the known inscribed cuttings date mostly to the second century bc or later, but still apparently serve the same purpose: Cairoli Fulvio Giuliani, for example, interpreted the Latin inscription dated to the second century bc found on the wall of Cava Buia at Norchia as a dedication of the refurbishing of the road (Giuliani, Reference Giuliani1966: 8–12). A similar message appears to be conveyed by the inscription written in Latin on the Fantibassi cutting: according to an interpretation proposed by Ivan Di Stefano Manzella (Reference Di Stefano Manzella1996: 223–4), the inscription, which also possibly dates from the second century bc, reveals that the cutting was widened and probably notes the official responsible for the operation. Giuseppe Scardozzi (Reference Scardozzi2007: 22–7) has come to the same conclusion concerning the interpretation of the Etruscan and Latin inscriptions on the Castelluzza cutting, which probably date between the end of the second century and first half of the first century bc.
Other inscriptions in the Fantibassi cutting (Gamurrini et al., Reference Gamurrini, Cozza, Pasqui and Mengarelli1972: 246–8) seem to pre-date the Latin text, and are probably Faliscan markings and names related to the original construction of the cutting, or simply random graffiti (Di Stefano Manzella, Reference Di Stefano Manzella1996: 224); even if the message conveyed by the inscription did not offer any useful information, as in the cases of graffiti, the inscription itself, identifiable for instance as of Faliscan origin, could indicate a demarcation of territory (Potter, Reference Potter1979: 54–5; cf. Benelli, Reference Benelli and Bartoloni2012: 439). In the case of the Castelluzza cutting, the apparently contemporary Etruscan and Latin inscriptions at the very least attest to the use of both languages at Bomarzo in the late Republican period (Scardozzi, Reference Scardozzi2007: 27).
Although the epigraphic evidence concerning the utilization of road-cuttings as a public medium in the Archaic period is scarce, this may be due to later refurbishments, as seen in the examples presented above; indeed, our earliest case, the sixth-century bc inscription mi larϑ ninu turạcẹ on the Le Pozza cutting, was on a public road and thus visible to all travellers. The names inscribed along public road-cuttings presumably relate to the construction and/or modification of the respective cuttings, and, particularly in the latter case, the known examples often date later than the sixth century bc. Based on the Latin inscriptions mentioned above, it appears that infrastructural renovations took place in southern Etruria in the second century bc,Footnote 57 during which time the modifications and parties responsible were noted on the walls of the existing cuttings, presumably following the earlier Archaic practice.
CONCLUSIONS
Road-cuttings in seventh- and sixth-century bc central Tyrrhenian Italy functioned as useful tools in improving the logistics of the urban centres. In an effort to establish and maintain territories, and to declare status and wealth, the Etruscan élite began to utilize burial mounds on a larger scale as monuments that dominated the surrounding landscape along the main routes. However, the utilization of monumentality in creating a politicized territorial landscape could be approached also via road-cuttings: cuttings several metres deep that facilitated mobility undoubtedly instilled awe in the people travelling through them, but also exerted concrete control on the traffic simply through their regulated width — both attributes were useful especially at the entrances to the settlements and centres. In many cases the entrances to the growing necropoleis were also fashioned as road-cuttings, presumably in order to emphasize the importance of the area in a religious as well as psychological sense. In some cases the cutting is too narrow to allow unhindered vehicular traffic, which supports the hypothesis that these cuttings had functions other than purely practical: considering that quarrying a road into tuff was an arduous task that required time, organization and labour, it should be assumed that every road-cutting was constructed for a well-conceived purpose.
Road-cuttings occasionally carry ancient inscriptions on their walls. The most common inscriptions are names, but other markings and symbols also occur. The inscribed names on road-cuttings leading to tombs and necropoleis possibly refer to the deceased buried in the vicinity; names and markings on cuttings not linked to burials are commonly associated with the construction or modification of the cuttings. In addition to the intended message, the inscriptions may have conveyed other information to the traveller: the names of the ruling élite or jurisdiction of the territory, or even some aspects of its ethnic identities as revealed by the language of the inscription.
Road-cuttings thus can be viewed as physical components of the social infrastructure, markers in the political landscape and occasionally even as a medium of written information. They play a notable part in the early urbanization of southern Etruria and of Latium as well: monumental tumuli burials benefited only the élite, but road-cuttings, while sending the same message of power, wealth and monumentality, also functioned as practical facilities that improved the material infrastructure, directed and controlled traffic as well as defined the territory.
