La necropoli come luogo della memoria di una città etrusca: il case study di Norchia

Within the project that aims to investigate the role of ‘cultural memory’ in the construction of collec￾tive identities (gentilitial, community, ‘tribal’, ethnic, ecc.) in Central and Southern Italy of the I millennium BCE, the Hellenistic necropolis of Norchia in the Viterbo area will be examined as case study. Cube rock tombs are attributable to a type of tomb that developed in southern Etruria in the first half of the 6th century BC as a reflection of city planning in modular units. The regulated use of the necropolis reflects the ‘aver￾age’ social character of the users. This type of tomb seems to have originated in Cerveteri and then spread, through the ancient road that crossed the Viterbo area, up to Orvieto. The Hellenistic cube rock tombs of Norchia will be examined through their typology and their specific memory spaces. The study will be divided into two lines (the memory in the funerary cult; the memory of the deceased in the sarcophagi) to then merge into a single virtual reconstruction of the ancient landscape. The memory of the ‘living’ ethnic groups is documented in their most significant places of worship: platforms, facades, under-façade rooms, underground burial chambers