Gli ipogei della necropoli etrusca di Casale Galeotti (Tuscania): tipologie architettoniche e trasformazioni

This paper concerns the study of the Etruscan necropolis of Casale Galeotti, which lies about 1 km SE of Tuscania, along the eastern side of the Marta river valley. The necropolis is little known but it is very large, including about 100 rockcut chamber tombs manly of the Orientalising and Archaic periods. Two ancient roads cut into the tufa bench crossed the area; the northern one was an important route that connected Tuscania and the inner territory of Caere, retraced by via Clodia in the Roman period. In the first phase, the necropolis had tombs with one burial chamber characterized by a fissure in the ceiling, originally covered by slabs, and in some cases with a square vestibule in front. From the recent Orientalizing period, most of the tombs had one or two coaxial chambers with structural details of houses carved in the tufa, such as the columen and beams in the roofs or benches in the shape of klinai. Some exceptional tombs had a central atrium and three chambers shaping a cross or an atrium with two or three inner chambers opened in the back wall. The last tomb, dated to the first half of 6th cent. BC, was excavated down a tumulus partially cut in the bedrock; near this monument also a funerary sacellum decorated with architectonic terracottas was discovered. During centuries, after the abandonment of the necropolis, some hypogea were destroyed by quarrying, while other ones were reused as stables, houses and deposits; in some cases they were also transformed in breeding farms for pigeons with many ruck-cut niches.