Etruscan architecture underwent various changes between the later Iron Age and the Archaic period (c. 800-500 BC), as seen in the evidence from several sites. These changes affected the design and style of domestic architecture as well as the use of raw materials and construction techniques. However, based on a supposed linear progression from inferior to superior building materials, explanations and interpretations often portray an architectural transition in Etruria from ‘prehistoric’ to ‘historic’ building types. This perspective has encouraged a rather deterministic, overly simplified and inequitable view of the causes of change in which the replacement of traditional materials with new ones is thought to have been the main factor. This thesis aims to reconsider the nature of architectural changes in this period by focussing on the building materials and techniques used in the construction of domestic structures. Through a process of identification and interpretation using comparative analysis and an approach based on the chaîne opératoire perspective, changes in building materials and techniques are examined, with special reference to four key sites: San Giovenale, Acquarossa, Poggio Civitate (Murlo) and Lago dell’Accesa. It is argued that changes occurred in neither a synchronous nor a linear way, but separately and at irregular intervals. In this thesis, they are interpreted as resulting mainly from multigenerational habitual changes, reflecting the relationship between human behaviour and the built and natural environments, rather than choices between old and new materials. Moreover, despite some innovations, certain traditional building techniques and their associated materials continued into the Archaic period, indicating that Etruscan domestic architecture did not undergo a complete transformation, as sometimes asserted or implied in other works. This study of building techniques and materials, while not rejecting the widely held view of a significant Etruscan architectural transition, argues for a more nuanced reading of the evidence and greater recognition of the nature of behavioural change during the period in question.

This thesis examines the changing form and function of non-funerary cult buildings in early Latial and Etruscan settlements in order to better describe and understand the advent of monumental temples in the archaeological record. It draws on a significant quantity of material excavated in the past forty years and developments in relevant theoretical frameworks to reconstruct the changing appearance of cult buildings from huts to shrines and temples (Chapters 2 to 4), and to place monumental examples within wider religious, topographical, and functional contexts (Chapters 5 to 7). This broader perspective allows a more accurate assessment of the extent to which monumental temples represent continuity and discontinuity with earlier religious architecture, and furthermore clarifies the respective roles of Latium and Etruria in the transformation of cult buildings into distinctive, prominent parts of the built environment. Although it is possible to find many different accounts of religious monumentalisation in existing scholarship, this thesis holds that traditional narratives no longer accurately reflect the archaeological evidence. It sets out a sequence of developments in which early religious architecture was a dynamic, rather than conservative, phenomenon. It demonstrates that temples were not the inevitable product of a natural progression from open-air votive deposition to monumentality, or simply an imported concept, but rather a deliberate response to the opportunities offered by an increasingly mobile Mediterranean population. It also contends that Latium played a more important role in formulating the characteristic components and functions of central Italic temples than previously thought. This thesis consequently offers a new account of early religious architecture in western central Italy as well as an alternative interpretation of its monumentalisation.

Between 1961 and 1963 a large terraced Etruscan building on the southside of the Acropolis at the archaeological site of San Giovenale in Italy was excavated. The building, named House K, remained largely unpublished and unstudied throughout the years, leaving our picture of the ancient settlement at San Giovenale incomplete. This thesis aims to get a better understanding of the Etruscan architecture, settlement, culture, and society at San Giovenale, by doing an architectural analysis of the building of House K, using unpublished field journals, drawings, and photographs. By comparing the architecture of House K and any structural elements immediately connected with the building, to other structures at San Giovenale, as well as other Etruscan sites, this thesis set out to learn: what kind of structure House K is; what function it had; what its relative dating is; what role it played in the settlement at San Giovenale; and what it can tell us regarding the society and culture at San Giovenale. Using environment-behaviour relations and building archaeology, the study first examined the structural elements of House K, before comparing House K to other structures at San Giovenale built 700–400 BCE. Thereafter, the study looked at parallels outside of San Giovenale, looking at the sites of Acquarossa, Luni sul Mignone, Poggio Civitate, Cerveteri, Pyrgi, Montetosto, Vulci, and Narce. Finally, a discussion was had regarding the character and function of House K, whether it was public, private, sacred, or profane. In the course of the study, an architectural chronology of San Giovenale was established, which dated the construction date of House K to between c. 565 BCE and the late 6th century BCE. The interpretation of the function of House K that seems most probable is that it was a monumental building complex of administrative, political and/or religious significance, which probably also acted as a residence for the ruling elite at San Giovenale – in other words: a palazzo. House K being a palazzo would mean that there was a centralised authority at San Giovenale, suggesting that there was some sort of ruler or leader at the top of the social hierarchy, splitting the social division at San Giovenale further than it was previously believed to have been.