THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMAL SANCTUARIES AND TEMPLES: VEII

A hallowed place was the only requirement for an Etruscan sanctuary. During the archaic period shrines acquired precinct walls, and usually one or more altars; cult buildings and subsequently temples were not strictly necessary, and only came later.

At Veii-Piazza d’Armi and Satricum, a normal Iron Age hut was replaced with a rectilinear temple, analogous to the evolution of such Greek sanctuaries as Apollo Daphnephoros at Eretria. On the citadel of Veil at Piazza d’Armi, a sixth­century temple with ornamental tiled roof and friezes of warriors or militias showed that the gods had a vested interest in urban citizenry (Bartoloni et al. 2005) (some scholars have expressed doubts about calling it a temple because no votive deposits have been associated with it). The design of these temples has been compared to domestic architecture, but they are never Breithauser, structures entered from a “long side”, as are the archaic Etruscan houses. Veii also maintained extramural sanctuaries that developed from state or aristocratic cults into popular shrines associated with healing and purification.

Ruling families supported the Portonaccio sanctuary of Veii, barely outside the city walls, with elaborate waterworks, a pool and a temple of Tuscan design. The terracotta roofing system and its statues are well known, depicting Apollo, Hercle and other Greek Olympians (Santuari 99-109). Accessible to those entering the city (perhaps soldiers to be cleansed after shedding blood?), it attracted many male worshippers, including Aulus Vibenna (ET Ve 3.11; F. Boitani in Buranelli 1987: 234-5 nos. 93-4; Santuari 105, 107 no. 5.1.F.4; Gran-Aymerich 1997: 126-7 fig. 6c). Votives name Menrva, Turan and possibly Aritimi/Artumes. Votives were deposited continuously from the seventh century, before there was a temple; even after the destruction of the city in 396 BCE, many Latin colonists left offerings in the ruins.