Storie dalla carta”. Archivi e ricerca archeologica: il caso di Narce

The archaeological research on Narce, one of the most important centres of the Ager Faliscus, represents an exemplary case study of the need for integration of archaeological and archival data. Our knowledge of the site is mainly based on the excavations of the necropolis carried out between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, which were characterised, amidst scandals, trials and suspicions about the consistency of the grave goods, by the acquisition by the State only of a small part of the recovered artefacts, while the remainder was sold to numerous foreign Museums or dispersed on the antique market. Studies on Narce, which have been systematically resumed since the 1980s, are based on a complex a!empt to re-read the entire documentation produced during the excavations, with the aim of recomposing the available evidence and to outline the cultural characteristics of this important centre. 8is paper aims to analyse the centrality of the archival documents within the reconstruction of the archaeological data focusing on the eastern burial grounds of the Faliscan town which knowledge, thanks to the systematic perusal of numerous archives, has now profoundly improved. 8e analysis of the documents has made it possible to recontextualise a nucleus of grave goods kept in the warehouses of the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia and the Museo Archeologico dell’Agro Falisco in Civita Castellana, whose correct a!ribution had been lost, as well as to recover a second tombs group through the examination of the photographic documentation.