Due to its advantageous topographical position, that is, between the sea, the lake of Bolsena and the inner regions, it was directed towards different commercial outlets, thus making Tuscania one of the major cities of the lucumons of Tarquinia. The urban centre was situated on the hill of saint Peter dominating Marta; many small villages surrounded it thus bringing about other necropoli. Its history unravels towards the end of the VIII century B.C. up to the Roman Empire, with a growing wealth at first in the VI century and the again in the IV-III cent. B.C. due to the exploitation of the commercial possibilities still available by using the Via Clodia, thus strengthening agriculture and becoming the centre of artisan shops for the production of terracotta and nenfro sarcophaguses. Archeological remains of the Etruscan period on the hill of saint Peter are rare: except for an entangled series of underground passages, wells and reservoirs and only the remains of a solid wall made of ashlar tuff.
Numerous and rich in monuments are the rocky necropoli with tombs, sometimes with more than one chamber, that were sculptured and decorated in the VI century B.C., family hypogeums brimming with sarcophaguses (Vipinana, 27, Stattane, 50, Atna, Curuna) in the IV-III centuries B.C. The main ones are those in Peschiera with a large grave and the Dado tomb (VI cent. B.C.) that is designed like a house on the outside with a double sloping roof and moulded cornices, like the one at Pian di Mola (where another one similar was found with a pillared porch and decorated statues), at Scalette, Sasso Pizzuto, S. Lazzaro, S. Giusto, Ara del Tufo, Carcarelle and the Madonna dell’Olivo. The latter necropolis has a series of archaic tombs (VI cent. B.C.), the hypogeums of the Curuna family that donated numerous sarcophaguses (22), a rich bronze collection and the famous Regina tomb. It is a complex hypogeum due to its many underground passages, that are on more than one level, and go in different directions. They have never been explored in detail and so their original function is ignored.
In the Renaissance convent of S. Maria del Riposo there is a rich museum.