Guy Bradley
ARCHAIC SANCTUARIES IN UMBRIA
The typical Umbrian sanctuary of the archaic period (which I use here to mean the sixth, fifth and fourth centuries BC) was situated on the peak of one of the large mountains that rear over every Umbrian valley and basin1. The rituals that took place there involved what is probably the most distinctive product of Umbrian culture, bronze figurines, vast numbers of which have found their way into the museums and private collections of Italy and indeed of the rest of western and eastern Europe2. Whilst concentrated on the area of the sixth Augustan region of Umbria, these types of bronzes have been found in neighbouring areas of central Italy as well. In fact cult sites in « Sabine territory » to the south, such as Ancarano di Norcia, and in « Etruscan territory » to the north west, such as Pasticcetto di Magione on the shores of Lake Trasimene, often show such similarities that it is pointless not to include them in our discussion3.
In this article I will discuss the following issues :
I) the source material at our disposal and its problems
II) the evidence for cult activity (sanctuary structures and votives)
III) the relationship of sanctuaries to the pattern of settlement in Umbria
IV) the significance of the creation of cult places of this type for the organisation of society
V) the development of cult sites after the Roman conquest.
1 I use sanctuary as the equivalent of « cult site » in this article, with no specific structural implications.
I would like to thank Michael Crawford, Emmanuele Curti, Christopher Smith, Jennifer Stewart and Fay Glinister for reading and commenting on this article, and the School of History and Archaeology, University of Wales Cardiff for a research grant aiding publication.
2 Recent catalogues documenting the Gens antiquissima Italiae exhibition of Umbrian antiquities have included material held by the museums of Budapest and Cracow, for instance ; Umbrian material in private hands in Switzerland features, in J. Chamay et al., L'Art des Peuples Italiques 3000 à 300 avant J.-C. Exhibition catalogue (Geneva-Naples, 1993).
3 Especially as they often provide precious data from their excavations, and we know so little about the ethnic boundaries of Umbria in this period (which may not have been particularly sharp). This article concentrates on the part of Umbria west of the Appennine watershed. All the sites mentioned are marked on maps 1 and 2.
Cahiers Glotz,Vlll, 1997, p. 111-129
