Cerveteri: Underwater Excavations Resume at Lake Mezzano, New Etruscan

Cerveteri: underwater excavations resume at Lake Mezzano

Archaeological diving operations have restarted at Lake Mezzano, an important site for studying the Etruscans and the protohistoric period. The new campaign was presented during the conference "Water and the Etruscans", held at the new Casa di Comunità, focusing on the relationship between ancient communities and lacustrine environments.

• Location: Lake Mezzano, part of the Lake Bolsena area, with implications for the Cerveteri territory.
• Organizers: promoted by the Municipality of Grotte di Castro in collaboration with the Institute of Cultural Heritage Sciences (CNR) and announced by the Soprintendenza.
• Participants: national scholars, academics and representatives from the Cerveteri and Tarquinia Archaeological Park.
• Goals: investigate protohistoric remains in the lakebed, reconstruct settlement and economic dynamics tied to water, and enhance site protection and accessibility.

The conference provided a forum to share early findings and coordinate research strategies. The resumed excavations, following an official restart in 2025, may yield new data to better understand submerged settlements and water-related practices in the Etruscan and protohistoric periods.

Significance: underwater discoveries can reveal contexts and organic materials seldom preserved on land; collaboration between institutions and archaeological parks supports conservation and sustainable public access.

Further updates on the field campaigns and discoveries will be released in the coming months as researchers integrate stratigraphic and material evidence with terrestrial findings in the Cerveteri area.