Serena Sabatini (Gothenburg) Vulci and the ‘Understanding Urban Identities’ project.
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Abstract
Numerous studies have contributed to creating a significant dataset concerning the complex process of urbanization that took place in southern Etruria from the end of the Bronze Age until the Roman period. Of particular importance in this field of research is the role that has been played since the last century by the Swedish School of Classical Archaeology.

The Understanding Urban Identities (UUI) project wishes on the one hand, to revitalize this tradition of scientific research with new data; on the other hand it aims at expanding our knowledge of the vibrant historical development of central western Italy by focusing on the site of Vulci (Viterbo province) from the Bronze Age until Late Antiquity.

Between 2019 and 2021, three campaigns of non-invasive geophysical investigations were conducted at Vulci in the urban area (2019-2020) and outside the West Gate (2021). Differently from the data recorded on the plateau, where traces of intense occupation are clear, the data collected outside the West Gate document few indications of archaeological evidence.

In 2022, we carried out our first campaign of archaeological excavations. We chose to work on the very margin of the urban plateau in an area that topographically dominate the lower so-called Ponte Rotto plain, where the town’s fluvial port was probably once placed.

The presentation will concern issues of early urbanization in southern Etruria with focus on the impressive historical development of the site at Vulci, and the preliminary results of the ongoing fieldwork of the UUI project.