CIVITA DI GROTTE DI CASTRO

   A medium-sized (20 hectares) Archaic settlement located on a tuff outcrop near the medieval settlement of Grotte di Castro to the north of Bolsena Lake, on the boundary between the territories of Orvieto and Vulci. The site is best known from terracing and drainage works (cunicoli) and principally from its cemeteries, which surround the settlement (Vigna la Piazza, Le Sane, Madonna di Torano, Casale Torano, Valle Muglie, Campolungo, Maccarino, Vallerate-Civita, Centocamere, Caviciana, Cepposecco, Pianezze, Montearso, and Pian dell’Aia). The monumental tombs and grave goods appear to date principally to the seventh, sixth, and fourth centuries BC. The end of occupation at the site in the third century BC is attributable to the Roman conquest and the resettlement of population at the urban site of Bolsena some 12 kilometers to the southeast.