Dynamics of interactions in the pre-roman central Italy: the example of the votive deposit of Colle Arsiccio di Magione (Perugia)

The existence of a votive deposit implies the voluntary displacement of ritual objects. This is the last act of a larger and more complex process that reflects cultural and socio-economic conditions of the people who attended the sacred place. We will try here to follow this approach through the presentation of a case study, yet unpublished: the votive deposit of Colle Arsiccio di Magione (Perugia), located in central Italy, near the Lake Trasimeno. The excavation was carried out in the 1930s, without stratigraphic methodology . It concerned a travertine-paved basin, filled with several categories of materials (terra cotta statues, bronzes, aes rude, coins, pottery), covering a period from the end of the 6th century BC. until the beginning of the 4th century AD. The current research is starting providing some elements allowing a better understanding of the religious aspects of worship, the sanctuary's life, the identification of the deity or gods to whom it was dedicated. The large amount of the gifts, which range above all among above terracotta and bronze statues of pre-roman age (warriors, kouroi, korai, offering people, kourotrophoi, anathomical votives, swaddling babies, animals,...), provides information about a very articulated and dynamic net of people, objects, and ideas. In fact, the differences in the quality level of the productions and in the models of inspiration reflects different specializations of the craftsmen and also the provenances of the ex-votos: only a little part of them seems to be of a local production. The provenance of the objects implies short, medium, and long distance scale. This is the reason why the study of the content of the votive deposit restores a very articulated picture of devotees who circulated around the sanctuary of Colle Arsiccio and it gives a perspective of the complex systems of contacts in the central Italy during Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic ages.