A Martian Rover Mapped Miles of Lost Etruscan Tunnels Beneath Veii—And What It Found Is Turning Heads
- The Magellano rover, inspired by NASA Mars rovers, mapped over 23 km of subterranean tunnels beneath Veii, uncovering ritual and hydraulic networks previously inaccessible.
- Veii featured sophisticated water systems, sacred pools, and ritual shafts, showing a city designed for resilience and ceremonial integration, challenging its reputation as merely a fallen Roman adversary.
- Combining autonomous robotics, geophysics, and digital reconstruction, researchers created the first complete model of an Etruscan underground system, offering new insights into Etruscan culture and urban sophistication.
In the hills north of Rome, an unlikely explorer has changed the way archaeologists understand one of the Roman Republic’s earliest rivals. Instead of wheels rolling across Martian dust, they crept through narrow shafts beneath the ancient Etruscan city of Veio, uncovering a vast, buried network of ritual and hydraulic architecture.
For decades, Veio was remembered mostly as a fallen adversary—defeated by Rome in a brutal siege in 396 BC. But a new initiative, powered by robotics derived from space exploration, is revealing that Veio wasn’t simply an enemy—it was a city of remarkable complexity and foresight.
Led by the Museo Nazion
A Martian Rover Mapped Miles of Lost Etruscan Tunnels Beneath Veii—And What It Found Is Turning Heads
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