At the heart of the Etruscan city of Caere exists the Hypogaeum of Clepsina, an underground ritual chamber which scholars theorize to be a mundus, a liminal space linking the earthly realm with the underworld. It was a place where chthonic rituals were conducted in honour of the infernal gods and the ghosts of the ancestors, and its creation was tied to notions of civic foundation. The hypogaeum was constructed or renovated around 273 BC, at the time when the city of Caere was officially converted into a Roman praefectura. As one of the earliest projects undertaken in the newly established Roman Caere, the hypogaeum likely had a symbolic significance, reinforcing the establishment and stabilization of the territory under Roman control. Consequently, gaining a deeper understanding of the mundus of Caere, especially in terms of the cult worship and rituals that occurred within it, contributes to our knowledge of the role that religion played in Roman expansion in Italy during the Republican period. One of the most remarkable features of the hypogaeum is its painted niche, which is adorned with frescoes of two large palm trees. This thesis will explore the symbolic meaning of the palm trees, since these frescoes provide important clues as to the deity originally worshiped within the ritual chamber. The connection between the palm tree motif and Apollo will be investigated, as the god’s cult was imbued with strong solar, oracular, and chthonic associations in Etruria and Central Italy. He was syncretized with the Italic deity, Soranus, otherwise known as Śuri, a deity who received cult veneration at the important sanctuary of Caere’s port settlement, Pyrgi. Apollo Soranus, or Śuri, was a chthonic deity equated with the ruler of the underworld, and thus was a god altogether fitting to preside over the mundus of Caere. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The Hypogaeum of Clepsina is an underground ritual chamber in Caere, which scholars theorize to be a mundus, a liminal space where chthonic rituals were enacted in honour of the infernal gods. The mundus was tied to notions of civic foundation, which suggests that the hypogaeum’s construction (or renovation) around the year 273 BC, the time when the city of Caere was officially converted into a Roman praefectura, was a statement of Rome’s re-establishment of Caere. Thus, gaining a deeper understanding of the hypogaeum, especially the cults worshiped within it, contributes to our knowledge of the role that religion played in Roman expansion during the Republican period. The palm tree frescoes decorating the niche of the hypogaeum provide important clues as to the identity of the deity worshiped in the mundus. They are a reference to the god, Apollo Soranus, or Śuri, who was a chthonic deity fitting to preside over the mundus of Caere.

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.

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