Volterra’s Roman Amphitheatre: An Exclusive Look

Unfortunately, our Social History of Art in Italy was only for the first half of the semester because our wonderful professor Wladek Fuchs was only in Volterra for that time. But as a final outing, and due to some amazing connections, we were able to visit an active archaeological dig site.

This dig site is special because it is uncovering a Roman Amphitheatre that was never finished and not known about until 2016. The size of it is roughly 80m by 60m which is quite small for an amphitheatre, however it is thought that the original construction called for it to be larger. The exterior walls that have been uncovered of the amphitheatre have regular openings that imply the original builders wanted to create an upper level. Actually, believe it or not the upper level not being built is what caused the amphitheatre to be buried and forgotten for so long. Since there was no bearing wall protecting the structure from the the elements, rainfall led to flooding and over time dirt infill of the area. This area is essentially an ancient construction site and it even has piles of blocks that were prepared and ready to be used if construction had continued. It is extra cool because some of the layers seen can even be noted as Etruscan.

One of the amazing parts of this visit was the fact that we got to walk inside the structure and touch the walls, it almost made us feel as though we were transported back in time. The amphitheatre is located in a valley, so there was very elaborate water drainage designed for the structure with a ditch around the entire thing, and a 1.2 meter wide channel used. This channel is covered in flat, smooth stones and was created as the entrance. On the topic of entrance, a sort of funny fact about this location is that it is just inside Porta Diana, which is the northern gate to Volterra. This fact is funny because the reason behind building here was so that is a riot broke out after an event had finished, the people could easily and immediately be pushed out of the city to prevent further violence.

Now, us students loved to see the architecture on this site and observe how the archaeologists are uncovering it, but I think our favourite part was Didone! Didone is a little dog who runs everything of course. Being very friendly, we got to pet Didone and even better, got led around the dig site by the adorable dog. As we were having fun and exploring this area as a group, we unlocked a fun word for the day and that word was ‘nifty’. So, each time we were told a fact about the site we would decide that it was very nifty and have a little discussion about it.

In truth all of us learned so much this day and had fun while doing it, which is exactly what learning about architecture should be! So, by the end of this excursion I think we all felt inspired, a little bit overheated, and ready to see more of what the world has hiding out there.

Until next time!

– Scarlett Ambedian