In this, the latest output of the British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project, twenty contributors present a re-evaluation of the substantially unpublished South Etruria survey data relating to Veii and its immediate surrounds, gathered from the 1950s onwards. The title of John Ward-Perkins's 1961 article on Veii (in PBSR 29) is reanimated for the volume, and the new results from old data are contextualized within the corpus of archaeological research relevant to the Etruscan city.
Christopher Smith opens with a historical introduction (ch. 1). He assesses the relevant literary sources and emphasizes links and parities in the developments of Veii and its immediate neighbour, Rome. As highlighted elsewhere in the volume, Veii shared some cultural traits with the cities of Latium, such as burial practices in the Archaic and Classical periods. Veii's fall to Rome in 396 b.c. was a pivotal moment in the early history of Roman expansionism. Thus Veii's settlement history is as important for our understanding of Roman history as it is for Etruscology. New light is shed on the character of Roman occupation of the now ‘non-city’ from the fourth century b.c. down to the founding of the modest Augustan municipium in the heart of the former urban centre, through to the seventh century a.d. when the archaeology ceases.
As Robert Witcher and Michael Craven explain in a section on ‘reconstructing the survey methodology’ (ch. 2), Ward-Perkins's original notebooks are now lost which presents acute problems for understanding the collection strategy employed. They warn that the new data are not recommended for quantitative analysis. The quality of the material collected is particularly high due to the timeliness of the South Etruria Survey. It began at a moment when mechanical deep ploughing became widespread in Campagna, which disturbed deposits and brought material to the surface for the first time. The authors have assessed what has changed since the 1950s, and their evaluation has a broader relevance, since similar processes must have occurred in many areas of Italy, and indeed beyond its borders.
Ward-Perkins was careful to ensure the survival of the survey's geospatial information, and the find-spots of all the material are known or could be reconstructed, allowing insight into the changing settlement nuclei of the Veian plateau over time. In ch. 3, which represents an introduction to the remainder of the volume, the editors describe the methodology used for the restudy and its presentation. The finds could be assigned to 114 areas of 100 by 100 m, dotted about the plateau. Each area and the material belonging to it is described and interpreted individually in ch. 4 in the familiar carta archeologica format. This chapter is in Italian, as is the following ch. 5 which presents the material.
More than half of the book comprises the presentation and discussion of the material (ch. 5) from twelve contributors. The ceramic is presented chronologically with subsections on wares and forms, illustrated with monochrome photos and drawings. Discussions are included on dating and function, on the identification of local production, and of sanctuary sites. One of the major new conclusions to be drawn from the new material is the discovery of a ceramic production centre in the southern area of the plateau, known as Comunità, from the middle Orientalizing period onwards. Veii is interpreted by the authors to have been a major distributor of Etrusco-Corinthian, Italo-geometric and painted cream ware pottery. From the mid-fourth to mid-third centuries b.c., under Roman rule, Veii was again producing fine-wares and kitchen-wares. Insight into the character and distribution of domestic architecture during the late Republic and Empire is provided by a discussion on the location and type of cut stones used for opus sectile.
Contextualizing the new results within recent scholarship is undertaken in ch. 6. Andrea Schiapelli provides a useful overview of the major changes in settlement patterns occurring in Etruria between the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, when smaller sites disappear and larger sites develop; the beginning of the process of proto-urbanization. Land use comparisons of Veii and other South Etrurian city-states are also presented. Greater quantities of ceramic of the late Orientalizing period have been recovered from the urban area of Veii than from any other period. This intensification of occupation is reflected within the city's territory where a large number of new rural sites were created. Infrastructural development, monumentalization and changes in burial practice mark the Archaic period.
While Christopher Smith maintains that regarding ‘Rome's destruction of Veii, the sources were accurate’ (6), other contributors present evidence that complicates this view. After 396 b.c. many of the sanctuaries seem to have survived (351), and no signs of violent destruction have been found (356). During the late fifth and the first half of the fourth centuries b.c., the quantity of archaeological material being deposited at Veii drops away, but this can be said of many sites in Italy as a whole. Roman occupation from the second half of the fourth century b.c. is not in doubt, however, manifested in a ceramic industry deemed largely to relate to cult sites along the main intramural streets. Urban decline ensues with a minor but short-lived revival accompanying the foundation of the municipium, an event which appears to have had a much more positive and longer lasting impact on the occupation intensity of the Ager Veientanus than on the urban centre (fig. 2.7). The plans, tables and referencing systems employed are user-friendly. A few errors were noticed, with the most obvious being the incorrect header assigned to ch. 3.
