The North Vulsinian Survey: digital mapping, systematic territorial research, and the problem of protohistoric occupation and land use in Southern Etruria

Lorenzo Fiorillo

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2025, 36.2, 293-310; doi: 10.19282/ac.36.2.2025.22

Abstract

A recent systematic survey project, carried out between 2017 and 2019 in the North Vulsinian area (territories of Grotte di Castro and San Lorenzo Nuovo), has partially filled the previous lack of data in the northern sector of the Lake Bolsena. The investigation, based on an intensive and systematic approach, covered about 7 km² (11% of the total area), revealing numerous new archaeological sites dating from Prehistory to Late Antiquity. This paper focuses on new settlement evidence attributable mainly to the Early and Middle Bronze Age. It clearly emerges that in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of protohistoric settlement patterns – particularly for the earliest phases of the Bronze Age – intensive and systematic territorial surveys are required, as they are the only means capable of detecting the most fragile and now largely eroded traces of small settlements. A similar observation also arises from the Tuscania Survey Project, while the comparison with other past survey projects highlights less attention to the issue.

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