Tra indagini d'archivio e nuovi dati. La (ri)scoperta della necropoli del fondo Lupacchini ad Otricoli (TR)

In 1898, the antiquarians Gaetano Roffi and Eliseo Borghi discovered 10 chamber tombs with their associated burial goods in the area known as Fondo Lupacchini, near Otricoli (TR), now on the southern border of Umbria. The results of this excavation, generally attributed to the pre-Roman phase of the settlement, remained largely unknown. Recent new studies in the area have made it possible to trace some of the original documents and materials, thanks in particular to research carried out at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Archivio Centrale di Roma, the Archivio di Stato di Roma, the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Spoleto. The aim of this paper is to give an initial overview of Otricoli in the Orientalising and Archaic periods and to try to place the new data in the context of the historical dynamics of the Tiber valley in the pre-Roman period.