Cretoncini: excavation of a sector of the Early Iron Age settlement of Tarquinii

Abstract

The Cretoncini plateau, covering approximately 30 hectares, is located in the northern sector of the Civita at Tarquinii. An archaeological survey made it possible to discover in this area a burial ground of the Final Bronze Age 3, followed, at the beginning of the Early Iron Age, by the establishment of a sector of the vast proto-urban settlement of Tarquinii. The residential area of Cretoncini remained intensely occupied until the first decades of the eighth century BC, and was then abandoned in favor of a concentration on the rest of the Civita plateau. In the years 1990 and 1991, thanks to Mariolina Cataldi, a stratigraphic excavation was carried out, which made it possible to identify a pit filled with layers containing a large quantity of burnt daub hut walls and of domestic pottery. This paper deals in particular with the pottery found in the deepest layers, datable to the Veii 1C-Tarquinii 1B2 sub-phase of the Early Iron Age.