Portonaccio sanctuary
The Portonaccio Sanctuary is located near the ancient city of Veii exploiting Dende Etruscan temple . It is located southwest of Veji in the province of Rome ( Latium ) and was named after the town of Portonaccio, outside the present-day urban agglomeration of Rome in the district of Isola Farnese ( Municipio XX ).
History
The sanctuary was excavated by Massimo Pallottino in the 1940s, but publications did not appear until decades later by his students. During the excavation work, inscriptions came to light that testified that the sanctuary was dedicated to the goddess Menrva ( Minerva ). It is also regarded as the sanctuary of the god Apollo , since a statue of Apollo ( Apollo of Veji ) was discovered in its area in 1916 . This statue once adorned the temple ridge and is now kept in the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia . One side of the roof of the Temple of Apollo has been restored and now towers over the remains of the wall on a steel frame. The Menrva sanctuary is nearby and is sheltered by a roof. Otherwise, only the foundation walls of the former sanctuary remain.
The complex can be structurally as well as cult-wise up to the first two decades of the 7th century BC. To be traced back. However, it did not reach its final form until the middle of the 5th century BC. Chr.
description
The Portonaccio sanctuary is one of the oldest and most valued sanctuaries in all of Etruria . It is located opposite the Fosso della Mola on a small tuff plateau , not far southwest of the former Veji. The sanctuary is surrounded by an enclosure wall and is located in a clearing at the foot of a hill over which the city wall of Veji ran. As in the past, when it housed a sacred grove, the area is still surrounded by forest today. The sanctuary was once traversed along its entire length by a road leading from Veji via the Vejis salt mines to the Tyrrhenian Sea, the route of which was later replaced by a Roman road and which is still partially preserved.
In the post-classical period in the 2nd century BC To extract building material, cavities were driven forward, which unfortunately resulted in the collapse of the central part of the complex above. In order to implement the facility, which has been restored today, the individual components therefore had to be lifted block by block out of the cavities.
The Portonaccio Sanctuary is undoubtedly one of the most important sites of Etruscan artifacts , including pottery and other objects with Etruscan characters , terracotta sculptures and other decorative elements.
The sanctuary is divided into two sections:
The sanctuary of the Menrva
The oldest core of the sanctuary was located in the far east of the tuff plateau and was dedicated to the cult of the goddess Menrva. She was worshiped both under her prophetic aspect ( oracle ) and as a protector of the youth and their integration into the community. In honor of the goddess, votive inscriptions aimed at other deities (such as Rath = Apollon, Aritimi = Diana, Turan = Venus) were made between 540 and 530 BC. A small temple with a single cella was built on the site of the oldest wall structure. It stood on a rather massive masonry substructure, which had to level out a ledge protruding from the tuff plateau. The temple also contained a square altar with bothros (sacrificial trough), a portico as access and stairs leading down to the street.
Numerous and very valuable finds in the sanctuary of Menrva are, besides ivory and bronze, ceramic votive offerings. Noteworthy are ceramics whose dedicatory inscriptions by important personalities (such as Lars Tolumnius or Aulus Vibenna ) - attracted by the fame of the Menrva oracle - suggest a long journey from distant cities (such as Vulci , Castro or Orvieto ) . An excellent gift of brightly painted ceramics from the year 500 BC is outstanding. BC, representing the apotheosis of Hercle ( Heracles ) in the presence of his patron goddess Menrva.
The Temple of Apollo
In the western part of the Portonaccio sanctuary, around 510 BC The three-cell temple of Apollo was built in the 3rd century BC, the first temple in Etruria to be built in accordance with the Tuscan order . The reconstruction attempt by Giovanni Colonna and Germano Foglia in 1993 looks like this: the podium temple with a relatively low podium had a square footprint of 18 meters on each side. In the front part there was therefore a 7.30 meter deep pronaos between the ante that led to the front and two columns flanking it . Two further columns divided this pronaos into three entrances to the actual naos . The 9.10 meter deep rear area was then divided into three adjacent cells. Older reconstruction proposals, on the other hand, were based on a prostasis two column positions deep, that is, a column position set in front of the whole width, behind which there was possibly only a single cella flanked by two rows of columns ( alae , "wings") .
The restoration work on the temple was carried out on the basis of the assumed original dimensions and allowed a good insight into the structure and construction as well as the placement of the original decorations. The temple was adorned with exceptional decor made of brightly painted terracotta, including a group of statues as an acroterion with Apollo and Hercules.
On the west side of the Temple of Apollo, there was a large water basin (with a side length of 20 meters) and behind it a large open space with a sacred grove, which was closed off in the east by a large platform. The water basin was fed by a spring through underground channels, so-called cuniculi , which are still recognizable today . Built using block technology and then plastered with water-impermeable clay, it may have played an outstanding role in cult activities.
The cult acts, paired with purification ceremonies, were aimed primarily at Apollon / Rath under his prophetic oracle aspect, inspired by the Delphic model. Associated with Apollon was the deified hero Hercules and possibly also Jupiter / Tina.
Archaeological finds
The archaeological finds date from the end of the 6th century BC. Chr. These include, cladding panels, decorations from terracotta , the chamber walls decorative frescoes of terracotta, plastic with Gorgons - and maenads heads configured Antefix ( Antefixes ) at the eaves and above all groups of statues in terracotta ( terracotta sculptures ), including the famous Apollo of Veii .
The first acrotere of the gable roof and the front tiles can be assigned to a single workshop, probably that of the famous artist Vulca - known from the tradition of Pliny , according to which he participated in the decoration of the Capitoline Temple in Rome. The first temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commissioned by the Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus and built in 509 BC. Was inaugurated.
The front tiles have a purely decorative function, the themes of the ornaments, on the other hand, were specifically chosen in order to honor the god Apollo through important scenes from mythology . Among them the fight of Apollo against Heracles for the Kerynite doe with the golden horns or Leto carrying her child Apollo in her arms (Apollo only four days later sent his arrows against the monster Python to drive it from Delphi ). Other terracotta groups with, for example, Hermes heads have not yet been formally identified.
Decay
During the 5th century BC Structural changes affected the further fate of the sanctuary. So the Sacellum was torn down because it probably no longer met the requirements of the cultic acts. The terracotta groups of figures were buried behind the north and west walls until they were rediscovered in 1916 by Giulio Quirino Giglioli after the excavation work began in 1914 .
Nevertheless, the cult of Minerva flourished again towards the end of the 5th century and even had the conquest of Veji by Rome in 396 BC. Survived. This is attested by a series of excellent votive offerings, which consist of classical to late classical boy statues, including the famous head of “Malavolta”. The votive offerings underline the importance of the goddess in manhood rituals, which obviously played a major role in this important phase of life among the Vejis aristocratic families.
literature
- Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli , Antonio Giuliano: Etruschi e Italici prima del dominio di Roma . Edizioni Rizzoli, Milan 1979, p. 161-163 .
- Giovanni Colonna: Il santuario di Portonaccio a Veio . G. Bretschneider, Rome 2002, ISBN 88-7689-209-5 .
- Massimo Pallottino : Etruscologia . U. Hoepli, Milan 1977, p. 291-292 .
- Massimo Pallottino: Civiltà artistica etrusco-italica . Sansoni, Florence 1985.
- Laura Cotta Ramosino: Plinio il Vecchio e la tradizione storica di Roma nella Naturalis historia . Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria 2004, ISBN 88-7694-695-0 .
Web links
- Il santuario di Portonaccio on the website of the Soprintendenza Archeologia del Lazio e dell'Etruria meridionale
Individual evidence
- ↑ Boitani, Francesca: "Apollo de Veio" . Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 2004.
Coordinates: 42 ° 1 ′ 16 ″ N , 12 ° 23 ′ 27 ″ E