Etruscan city just north of Rome, of south Etruria, destroyed by Rome in 396 BC. After some intermittent Bronze Age occupation, it was settled in the Villanovan period (9th century BC), occupying a large plateau. The 7th century BC saw early Etruscan chamber tombs, including some painted examples. It was enclosed by a wall and rampart in the 5th century BC and had a temple containing large terra-cotta statues of deities. Veii was the greatest center for the fabrication of terra-cotta sculptures in Etruria in the 6th century BC. Evidence suggests an irregular street-plan, with cisterns and cuniculi indicating the Etruscan hydraulic engineering. The town is surrounded by a number of Villanovan and Etruscan cemeteries. One of the chambered tombs, the Grotta Campana, contains the oldest known Etruscan frescoes. The ashes of the dead were stored in burial urns surmounted by archaic terra-cotta portrait heads. Nearby are the remains of the Temple of Apollo, home of the terra-cotta statue of the Apollo of Veii and also a temple shrine dedicated to the neighboring Cremera River. Veii's destruction in 396 BC was not total however and the Romans later reconstructed the city. Under Augustus it was made a municipium and up to the 3rd century AD it continued as a religious center.