Pyrgi

Pyrgi is an ancient Etruscan sanctuary and port site on the Tyrrhenian coast of Lazio, associated with the city of Caere (modern Cerveteri). The site is best known for the discovery of the Pyrgi Tablets.

Visitors see the remains of temple foundations and the traces of an ancient harbour complex that served as Caere’s port. The site is archaeologically important for evidence of Etruscan religious practice and Mediterranean contacts.

Pyrgi functioned in the Archaic and Classical periods as the seaport and sanctuary for the Etruscan city of Caere. Excavations in the mid-20th century uncovered the gold Pyrgi Tablets - bilingual Phoenician and Etruscan inscriptions dated to about the late 6th or early 5th century BCE - which illuminate cross-cultural links in the western Mediterranean.

The archaeological remains sit on the Lazio coast near modern Santa Severa and Cerveteri, northwest of Rome and within the coastal plain of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

• Pyrgi Tablets: The bilingual gold inscriptions discovered in 1964 are primary evidence for contacts between the Etruscans and Phoenician-Punic world around 500 BCE.
• Location context: The archaeological area lies near the modern coastline and is associated with the ancient city of Caere, now Cerveteri.

What to See #

• Sanctuary area: The sanctuary area contains remains of Etruscan temple foundations and votive deposits dating to the 6th century BCE.
• Harbour and port area: Remains of the ancient harbour and associated structures lie close to the coast and mark Pyrgi's role as the sea port for the nearby city of Caere (Cerveteri).
• Pyrgi Tablets findspot: The Pyrgi Tablets are the site's most famous discovery - three gold sheets with Phoenician and Etruscan inscriptions found in 1964 and dated to around 500 BCE.