Bisenzio. Multi-disciplinary research on a major Etruscan centre from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic Period.

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The proposed research project is an exciting opportunity to advance substantially our knowledge of one of the major centres of early Etruscan urbanisation. Etruscan Bisenzio is centred on Monte Bisenzo, a volcanic hill on the western bank of Lake Bolsena (Lazio, Italy). Despite the paucity of systematic modern research the wealth of finds (especially the extraordinary grave furnishings from the Olmo Bello cemetery), together with the large size of the settlement, ensure that Bisenzio is today regarded as one of the major Villanovan and early Etruscan centres of southern Etruria. The settlement is apparently similar in size to Orvieto (Volsinii), and played an important and independent role alongside the great proto-urban centres of southern Etruria (Vulci, Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Veio and Orvieto). Bisenzio flourished for about half a millennium (ca. 1000-500 BC) and is apparently the only major Etruscan centre which developed from a settlement nucleus of the Final Bronze Age. The present state of research at Bisenzio is poor. Only a small minority of grave contexts has been published. Study of the settlement is restricted to a small excavation on the summit of Monte Bisenzo in 1978/79, and campaigns of fieldwalking conducted by the German archaeologists Klaus Raddatz and Jürgen Driehaus between 1972 and 1982. The rudimentary state of research at Bisenzio is frustrating considering the great potential of the site, being one of the few major early Etruscan centres largely undamaged by later building activity. Almost the whole area of the settlement and cemeteries is suitable for archaeological fieldwork, being characterised by arable farmland with isolated farmhouses. In the project, existing evidence will be documented, analysed and published for the first time: the most important cemetery (Olmo Bello), and the only systematic settlement excavation (Monte Bisenzo). Building on the earlier work by Raddatz and Driehaus, we will undertake systematic, state-of-the-art survey of the settlement and part of the cemetery in order to gain information on the spatial organization of the residential and cemetery areas. Alongside intensive fieldwalking, large-scale geophysical prospection will be carried out. In 2013, Ground Penetrating Radar was tested at two locations, in the residential and funerary parts of the site, with spectacularly successful results. All the evidence obtained by the survey work will be geo-referenced and stored in a Geographical Information System, which has already been constructed (GeoExplorer). Taking advantage of the great potential of Bisenzio, the diachronic study will trace its transformation from a small defensive hilltop settlement to a vast proto-urban centre. The different elements of the Project, the hilltop settlement on Monte Bisenzo, the Olmo Bello cemetery, fieldwalking and geophysical prospection, are interlinked and absolutely necessary to achieve this goal.