![]() ![]() ![]() Livy mentions Fanum, and stresses its importance no less than five times.īut he failed to mention where Fanum was situated, and after the fall of Rome, all memory of its exact location was lost. "I am confident that for the first time we have positively identified one of the most important lost sites of the ancient world," she told the BBC.įanum was already famous in antiquity as a religious shrine and a meeting place where the 12 members of the Etruscan League, a confederation of central Italian cities, used to gather every spring to elect their leader.Īrchaeologists work around the altar at Fanum It lies at the foot of a huge outcrop of rock, upon which is perched the mediaeval city of Orvieto.Ī walled sanctuary area, 5m-wide (16ft) Etruscan roads, an altar, and the foundations of many Roman buildings that have laid buried for two millennia have been discovered.Īnd as the dig closed for the 2007 season, with tarpaulins being pulled over ruins to protect them from the winter weather, Professor Simonetta Stopponi of Macerata University was upbeat about the site's significance. The head of a satyr was discovered during the digĪfter seven hot summers of digging, an Italian archaeological team believe they have discovered one of the most important sites of the ancient world.įanum Voltumnae, a shrine, marketplace and Etruscan political centre, was situated in the upper part of the Tiber river valley. ![]()
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