BRACIERI CERETANI DECORATI A CILINDRETTO NUOVI DATI DA PYRGI

Abstract

The excavations of the Sapienza University of Rome in the “Ceremonial Quarter” of Pyrgi, an area
outside the sacred complex and located north of it, offer the opportunity to investigate the Archaic
phase of a sector who played an important role even before the monumentalization of the maritime
sanctuary of Caere at the end of the 6th century BC.
The archaeological investigations have allowed to significantly expand the knowledge of the pottery
productions in the period before the building of the Temple B (about 510 BC) by the “tyrant” Thefarie
Velianas.
In particular, the discovery of intact or partially intact caeretan cylinder-stamped braziers has allowed
to increase the corpus of these specimens not only at the level of numerical evaluation, but
also in terms of the attestation of new decorative subjects not otherwise documented. It should not be
underestimated, however, that this numerical increase concerns specimens found in a public/ceremonial
context, which are added to those already known from the area of the sanctuary. This evidence
further supports the hypothesis of the ritual and votive use of the cylinder-stamped braziers, as testified
by the increasingly findings in the Caere plateau, both in sacred and inhabited areas.