Wolfgang Helbig a Vulci e Musignano

Abstract

Wolfgang Helbig contributed valuable reports to the Bulletin of the Institute in relation to significant discoveries which were
made during the excavations commissioned by Prince Alessandro Torlonia in the eastern necropoleis of Vulci. The German
archaeologist derived his data from information received from Francesco Marcelliani, who was tasked with overseeing the
excavations from 1879 to 1884, and from accounts gathered during his inspections of Vulci and Musignano. Of particular
note are his descriptions of the appearance of certain tombs, and sculptural elements which bestowed upon the architecture
of the tombs their monumental quality, whilst with regard to the grave goods, Helbig was able to see many artefacts
preserved in Musignano, still undergoing restoration or in the process of being transferred to the Roman collection of the
Torlonia. Helbig recounts that Marcelliani’s research focused on various sites in the eastern necropoleis, which had previously
been explored by Lucien Bonaparte: in particular, he concentrated on the Cuccumella and its vicinity, the Ponte Rotto,
on two different points of the Mandrione di Cavalupo and the Polledrara. In this piece, retracing the main steps pursued
by these studies, the contexts described by Helbig and from Marcelliani’s excavation reports. Among the most important
monuments, special attention must undoubtedly be given to the discovery, at Mandrione di Cavalupo, of a ‘large tomb’ of
the late 4th to early 3rd centuries BC, featuring a complex architectural and sculptural façade, to which certain elements
in nenfro, remembered by R. Mengarelli in Musignano. Among the cited examples are antefixes with a female head within
a halo and a winged Scylla head of late classical (Apulo-Tarantine) derivation, which likely decorated the façade above the door. The tomb must have belonged to [Ra]mtha Papni, as indicated by a block inscribed with the name of the owner.

Keywords: Vulci; Helbig; Musignano; Torlonia; Etruscan tombs.