6 museomag   01 ‘ 2018 
INTO THE HEART 
OF A SACRED PLACE 
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS OF CAMPO DELLA FIERA DI ORVIETO 
Gorgoneion, terracotta, 4th century BC, Orvieto, National Archaeological Museum. 
Located below the town of Orvieto, the archaeologi- 
cal excavations of the site known as Campo della Fiera 
began in the year 2000 and revealed a sacred place of 
great importance. They brought to light the shrine of 
Fanum Voltumnae, the chief sanctuary of the Etruscans. 
The Roman historian Titus Livius mentions that it is the 
place where the representatives of the largest Etruscan 
cities met in order to honour the gods and take joint 
decisions regarding the governance of their confede- 
ration. 
The sanctuary was dedicated to the Etruscan god 
Veltune, who was known to the Romans as Voltumna or 
Vertumnus. His worship was later transferred to Rome 
after the conquest of Orvieto in 264 BC. The site bears 
the marks of an intense period of reconstruction da- 
ting back to the first Imperial era when Campo della 
Fiera was part of the restoration policies led by Empe- 
ror Augustus. The main archaeological structures were 
developed around an impressive ten meters wide Via 
Sacra, where celebrations and religious processions 
took place. 
North of the Via Sacra lies a sacred enclosure in which 
a shrine from the first half of the sixth century BC has 
been identified that lost its initial functions at the be- 
ginning of the fourth century BC. At the same time, 
Temple A was erected nearby. Temple A was the only 
place of worship still in use during Roman times. At 
this location were discovered an altar, a monumental 
donarium (place in a temple where votive offerings 
are kept) as well as deposits containing countless 
votive objects among which a magnificent small bronze 
head deity, dated 490-480 BC. 
Among the found objects, stands out the base 
of a bronze statue with a long inscription. It tells 
the story of a woman, Kanuta, who married a lo- 
cal nobleman. It was consecrated to the deity 
Tluschva at the “celestial place”, the name under 
which the sanctuary was known to the Etruscans. 
South of the Via Sacra, stood another edifice known 
today as Temple C. Built at the end of the sixth cen- 
tury BC, it was destroyed during confrontations 
between the Romans and the inhabitants of Volsinii 
© 
Archivio 
dello 
Scavo 
Campo 
della Fiera