VULCI

Etruscan Velch important town of the ancient Etruscans, the ruins of which are about 10 miles from the sea between the villages of Canino and Montalto di Castro, in Viterbo province, Italy. The site, excavated in 1956, has extensive cemeteries and a large network of streets and walls. Vulci grew out of a number of Villanovan villages and flourished chiefly in the 6th-4th century BC, largely as a result of trade, the extraction of minerals from nearby Monte Amiata, and the manufacture of bronze jugs and tripods, etc. Vulci was the centre of a large city-state, but after the 6th century it had to relinquish parts of this territory to the Romans. The frescoes of one of its tombs, called the "Franois Tomb" after its discoverer, are unique in that they show early scenes from Etruscan history. These paintings, which date from the 4th-3rd century, were detached and taken to the Museo Torlonia in Rome. From other tombs came remarkable stone sculptures and imported Greek vases. Much of the pottery from Vulci is in the Louvre, Paris, in Munich, and in the British Museum. Among the objects are painted ostrich eggs and Assyrian and Phoenician artifacts. There are a few Roman remains on the city site and a fine Roman bridge resting upon Etruscan columns.