The 2024 Field Season at Caere, Vigna Marini Vitalini: A New Etruscan Temple and Its Surroundings

The field known as the Vigna Marini Vitalini holds a special place in the archaeology of the city of Caere, beginning in the late 19th century, when a massive number of architectural terracottas were discovered there and eventually found their way to European and North American museums. In the summer of 2024, the Queen's University team opened a new trench in the area where the 19th-century excavations had taken place. The foundations of a temple came to light, along with a building with at least three rooms parallel to its southwest side. Based on the finds from the associated layers and a deposit of architectural terracottas, the temple can be dated to the early fifth century BCE. When the monumental structure was built, however, the area already had a long prior history. The Etruscan builders dug the foundation trenches into a beaten earth pavement that extends over a large area, suggesting that this had previously been an open space. The floor covers a filled quarry and traces of even earlier wooden structures. This new evidence shows that the history of this area was by no means a linear and planned development, and that there were multiple changes of destination and transformations of the urban landscape.