Tra Caere e Pyrgi. Nuove ricerche in località Montetosto

he site of Montetosto is located 4 km to the west of Caere, along the monumental road that connected the Etruscan city to its main port at Pyrgi. Until 1962 the site was known only for the visible tumulus – presently the largest known in Etruria – excavated by Raniero Mengarelli between 1924 and 1929. A short season of geophysical survey was conducted in March 2018 in close collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l’area metropolitana di Roma, la provincia di Viterbo e l’Etruria Meridionale. An area of 1.07 ha was surveyed between the Montetosto tumulus and the eastern edge of the previously excavated building. The magnetometry survey highlighted the presence of a substantial series of additional walls and features in the eastern sector of the complex in an area not fully explored in the excavations of the 1960s. In the northern part of the survey area the magnetometry precisely mapped the perimeter of the west side of the tumulus which is now buried, confirming a diameter of 65 m. On the exposed eastern side of the monument several red tuff slabs which formed part of the base of the monument were visible. The route of the Caere–Pyrgi road between the tumulus and the sacred building was suggested by the topographical surveys carried out in the 1960s. The fieldwork indicated the general trajectory of the road, but it was clear that in the vicinity of Montetosto it had already undergone substantial destruction. The magnetometry has highlighted the presence of two parallel anomalies to the north-east of the sanctuary which may be associated with the Caere-Pyrgi, finding also an interesting parallelism in the situation highlighted thanks to the new topographical research carried out by C.B. De Vita on the Montetosto area.