Processi di strutturazione e gestione della categoria del sacro in una città preromana: Falerii

There are several sacred contexts at Falerii. However, they have been investigated in different ways and at different times, none of which were carried out in a systematic manner. On the one hand, this has given us the opportunity to have at our disposal a material record that is in some ways enviable from a quantitative point of view, however, on the other hand it precludes more detailed analyses in relation to many other aspects of the sites. The approach of the present workshop has led us to review all of the available data, attempting to focus our attention on three aspects of the economic investment in particular: the design phase, the monumentaliza‐ tion of the structures in the sacred public areas, and finally their management over time. For Falerii, these aspects can essentially be investigated through three sets of material data: the few struc‐ tures found at the time of the discovery of the sacred areas; the tools relating to the craftsmen, especially those used the creation of the decorative apparatuses of the sacred buildings (but also those used by the city for their management); and the decorative elements themselves. This essay presents an initial overview of these aspects, framing them within the broader interdisciplinary research currently underway on the productive aspects of the ancient city, which combine archaeology, modern history, archival research and archaeometry. The project is based on a systematic analysis of the natural resources available in the area and their relationship with the finished products. The two appendices deal with these issues in particular. The first considers the clay quarry sites in the first suburbium, which were also used for production purposes in the 18th and 19th centuries, while the second presents an initial set of archaeometric analyses (X‐ray diffraction on dust) on samples of so‐called second phase architectural terracotta from the Scasato area, which is then compared with local clay from the area of Mattonara.