Tuscana
A city in the valley of the river Marta, half way between Tarquinia and the Lake of Bolsena. Villanovian ceramic fragments found on the hill of San Pietro, the acropolis of the later city, provide evidence of habitation at the site from the Late Bronze Age. From the 7th to the 5th c. B.C. the city appears to have flourished, owing to its position on the commercial routes between Tarquinia and the Lake of Bolsena and Orvieto, and between Caere and Vulci. The necropoleis in the valleys of the Marta and the Maschiolo date from this period. Some of the chamber tombs have real doors that open directly on the rocky mountainside. There are several rock-cut tombs with architectural facades, various tumuli, and the so-called tomba a Dado, consisting of a dado completely excavated from the surrounding rock.
The city also flourished during the Hellenistic period from which numerous sculpted sarcophagi survive. These come mainly from the late necropolis of the Madonna dell' Olivo, a km S of the city, into which opens the so-called Grotta della Regina, a large hypogeum consisting of a central chamber from which tunnels not yet completely explored lead underground. In the 3d c. B.C. the Via Clodia, of which large sections are preserved near the city, was opened, built in part over an existing road.
By Imperial times Tuscana was in decline. The only remains of monumental structures are the terracing on the hill of San Pietro, the structures under the church of Santa Maria Maggione, and the bathing establishment on the city's outskirts.
BIBLIOGRAPHYS. Campanani, Tuscania e i suoi monumenti (1856); S. Quilici Gigli, Tuscana (1970).
S. QUILICI GIGLI