Discussions of monumentality in the ancient world loom large in current scholarship.Footnote 1 In fact, anyone going to Rome, from the time of the Gauls to the present, is struck by the sheer size of the buildings. But there is more to ‘monumentality’ than just size, as T. and M. offer in this volume. In 2009 T. and M. were co-organisers of a session at the AIA Annual Meeting on Etruscan and Roman monumentality in honour of I. Edlund-Berry. The results of this session, which included topics as varied as huts in Latium to stone entablatures in Rome, are collected in the present volume. The editors have done much to arrange a framework that presents a great deal of significant and stimulating information.
M. appropriately starts with a detailed analysis of the meaning of monumentality in Etruria and early Rome (‘The Experience of Monumentality in Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture’). M. asks thought-provoking questions about how monumentality was and is defined. She cites some of the most noteworthy examples of ‘monumentality’ in sixth century b.c.e. Etruria, such as the Archaic building complex at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) and the monumental area in Zone F at Acquarossa. These examples can be compared to others in Etruria, such as the sixth century b.c.e. monumental building near the Montetosto Tumulus at ancient Caere (similar in size to Murlo's Archaic complex). With future excavations of the urban areas in Etruria, we may just see that large-scale buildings were not that uncommon. M. moves on to Rome dicussing not only archaeological remains like the Forum Iulium as exempla, but also Roman literary references to monumentum. The chapter is a stimulating and valuable contribution to the study of monumentality in the ancient world – Etruscan and Roman scholars will find useful material in her analysis.
‘Straw to Stone, Huts to Houses: Transitions in Building Practices and Society in Protohistoric Latium’ by E. Colantoni offers an examination of the transitional period from village (huts) to urban centre (houses) in Latium. Colantoni brings to the discussion ethnographic data with respect to settlement patterns and architectural developments and challenges the notion that foreign influences were responsible for the transition from huts to houses in early Latium. She also questions whether a single hut was enough for an entire family. Useful charts and illustrations make this chapter especially beneficial. Students of early urban development in Italy will find her study to be both innovative and instructive.
Etruscan funerary monuments are treated by A. Tuck, ‘The Performance of Death: Monumentality, Burial Practices, and Community Identity in Central Italy's Urbanizing Period’. This chapter touches on an extremely vast topic in Etruscan studies, namely funerary ritual and urbanisation, most recently examined by C. Riva (The Urbanisation of Etruria [2010]) and C. Iaia (Simbolismo funerario e ideologia alle origini di una civiltà urbana [1999]) as well as by A. Berardinetti, A. De Santis and L. Drago (‘Burials as Evidence for Proto-Urban Development in Southern Etruria: the Case of Veii’, Acta Hyperborea 7 [1997], 317–42). Tuck examines Tarquinia, Caere and Chiusi and looks at their site-specific expressions of funerary practice and community identity.
The ‘Etruscan Round’, as it was coined by Lucy Shoe Meritt, is the topic of Nancy Winter's chapter, ‘Monumentality of the Etruscan Round Moulding in Sixth-Century bce Central Italy’. It is fitting that this tribute to I. Edlund-Berry showcases round mouldings in terracotta, as Edlund-Berry's own work has highlighted these elements in Etruscan stone architecture of the fifth century b.c.e. Winter discusses in great detail all aspects of the painted round moulding of this period, on temples from Caere, Pyrgi, Tarquinia and Vetulonia as well as Satricum.
P. Gregory Warden, ‘Monumental Embodiment: Somatic Symbolism and the Tuscan Temple’, presents a fascinating approach to looking at monumentality with respect to temples and the body. If the so-called canopic urns from Chiusi allow us an immediate entry into understanding the concept of Etruscan funerary vessels as ‘body’, then Warden takes this idea to a ‘monumental’ level when he applies it to the Tuscan temple. Yet, Warden is not focused on size, as much as concepts and size, ‘A work can be monumental in its style as well as in its materiality, and I would argue that a work might be monumental in its subject’ (p. 97). This chapter is a must read for scholars interested in ritual, body, symbolism and sacred structures in Etruria and beyond.
One of the most stimulating chapters, ‘The Capitoline Temple and the Effects of Monumentality on Roman Temple Design’ by J.N. Hopkins, sheds light on the recent archaeological evidence of one of Rome's oldest and most renowned temples, the Capitoline Triad (also known as the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus). Some scholars may be disappointed that Hopkins does not refer to this temple as Etruscan, yet he makes a careful and brief statement that it certainly could be Etruscan. When placed in context as a monument of the Etruscan kings during the time of Etruscan building programmes in Rome, in addition to Pliny the Elder's description of the famed Etruscan artist Vulca as having decorated the temple (HN 35.157), it is difficult not to see this monument in an Etruscan light. But Hopkins is concerned not with who built the temple as much as its impact on Roman architecture after it was built, as he states, ‘Yet to restrict the building to the architectural history of one people limits the appreciation of its influence’ (p. 118). Hopkins gives a comprehensive account of the temple's features with instructive comparanda. This chapter is vital reading for scholars and students of Etruscan and Roman architecture.
With the final chapter, ‘On the Introduction of Stone Entablatures in Republican Temples in Rome’ by P. Davies, the book has chronologically travelled from Etruria to Republican Rome. Davies discusses innovation in Roman temple design with respect to the change from wooden entablatures (from Etruscan temple design) to stone entablatures, which she argues not only enhanced durability, but also visually communicated symbolic power. Davies expands the theme of monumentality by going beyond sheer size as a marker, as argued in other chapters, and by underscoring the socio-political aspects of visual rhetoric in early Roman monuments.
The book ends with a succinct overview of the chapters by the honorand, I. Edlund-Berry (‘Afterword Reflections’). Her summary weaves the individual chapters into a cohesive fabric allowing us better to recognise and appreciate the complexities of monumentality in ancient Etruria and Rome. It is fitting that the subject of monumentality is the theme for Edlund-Berry's tribute, as her own life's work, dedicated to various physical and cultural aspects of monuments, has greatly enhanced the field of Etruscan and Roman archaeology.
