Archaeologists from the German universities of Freiburg and Mainz have unearthed an Etruscan temple in central Italy.

The building is monumental, since it measures 45 meters by 35. It would be the largest sacred building ever identified belonging to the Etruscan civilization, reports Geo.

Two temples in the same city

Scientists have dug into the ruins of the ancient city of Vulci, on the Tyrrhenian coast in the Lazio region.

Vulci was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan federation.

In pre-Roman times it was one of the most important urban centers in present-day Italy.

Tombs, a large residential complex and a temple, the Tempio Grande, had already been unearthed.


Monumentaler etruskischer Tempel entdeckt: Ein interdisziplinäres Team um die Freiburger Archäologin Dr. Mariachiara Franceschini und den Mainzer Archäologen Paul P. Pasieka hat in der antiken Stadt Vulci in der italianischen Region Latium… https://t.co/ZD8wKvOy3n #archäologie pic.twitter .com/sbUqm8O0Az

— Archaeology Online (@ArchaeologyOn) November 13, 2022

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This new temple is located west of the Tempio Grande, a sacred building which was excavated in the 1950s, the team of researchers said in its press release.

“The new temple is about the same size and sits on a similar alignment to the neighboring Tempio Grande,” explained Mariachiara Franceschini, an archaeologist from the University of Friborg who co-leads the team.

Its construction is dated, like the Tempio Grande, towards the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 5th century BC.

valuable information

The researcher evokes “an exceptional discovery”.

Why ?

Because "this duplication of monumental buildings in an Etruscan city is rare", underlines the archaeologist.

The various discoveries carried out since 2020 within the Vulci Cityscape project have enabled advances in the knowledge of the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilization which reached its peak between the 7th and 6th centuries BC before the Romans take possession of the country.



"The intact layer of the temple offers us information on more than a thousand years of development of one of the most important Etruscan cities", explains the archaeologist.

Researchers could learn more about the region and the worship practices of the Etruscans.

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