BOUNDARY MARKING (LIMITAZIONE)

   The Etruscans, in common with the later Romans, applied a series of boundaries to public and private space. In the later period, this was intensely ritualized, and some cities such as Marzabotto, Spina, and Musarna, and one or two cemeteries such as the Crocefisso del Tufo cemetery at Orvieto, present clear evidence of a regularized version of this organization. Boundary stones (dating from the sixth century BC onward) were marked with the word tular, suggesting that this was the Etruscan word for boundary. Other forms of boundaries were marked by fortifications around cities, pieced by gates sometimes associated themselves with ritual. Cemeteries around cities may have served a similar role.

   See also RELIGION.