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The Shrine of Vulcan (), or Vulcanal, or Volcanal, was an 8th-century BC sacred precinct on the future site of the Roman Forum in Rome, modern Italy.Coarelli, Filippo (1983), Il Foro Romano, 1: Periodo arcaico, pp 164 ff. Dedicated to Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, it was traditionally considered to commemorate the spot where the legendary figures Romulus and Tatius concluded the peace treaty between the tribes known as the Latins — on the Palatine Hill — and the Sabines — on the Quirinal Hill and Esquiline Hill.Grant, Michael (1970), The Roman Forum, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Photos by Werner Forman, pg 214. This famous merger of the hill-villages was said to be the foundation of the Roman state.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, II, 50, 54.
Giacomo Boni, who excavated extensively in this area in 1899–1905, established a site about 40 meters to the southwest of the Lapis Niger as the Vulcanal. This is just behind the Umbilicus UrbiHülsen, Op. cit. and the (future) Rostra ( Rostra Augusti).Richardson, Jr., L. (1992), A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pg 432. Boni uncovered a small shrine here that had been cut directly out of the natural tufa and had tufa blocks defining a precinct area (identified from literary sources as the Area VolcaniHülsen, Op. cit.). This excavated site is about 13 by 9 feet, but the original Vulcanal is thought to have been somewhat larger. Boni's identification of this spot as the Vulcanal stood virtually unchallenged for over 80 years.
In 1983, however, Filippo Coarelli associated the Vulcanal with the site (also uncovered by Boni decades before) that by Imperial times had become known as the Lapis Niger.Coarelli, Op. cit. This archaic (8th century BC) sacred site may have been more or less contemporary with the Vulcanal. An altar (known as "Altar G-H" to archeologists) had also been found here and Coarelli suggested that the Vulcanal may not only have been associated with it but may have been identical with this shrine. (According to him, the altar identified by Boni as the Vulcanal was actually the Ara Saturni, or Altar of Saturn). Coarelli's hypothesis has received a mixed reception. While a number of authorities believe he is correct,Wiseman praised Coarelli’s “accomplishment” in establishing the new location. Wiseman, Timothy Peter (1985), Review of Foro Romano: Periodo Arcaico; The Historical Topography of the Imperial Fora, by Filippo Coarelli; James C. Anderson. The Journal of Roman Studies 75., pg 230.Versnel believed that “Coarelli convincingly demonstrates” the new location. Versnel, H.S. (1994), Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion, Volume II: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual; Leiden: E.J. Brill, pg 172. other experts continue to insist that Boni's site is the correct one. For example, Richardson's authoritative A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, published almost 10 years after Coarelli's work, has this to say:
The Vulcanal was distinctly higher than the forum...and Comitium...The kings and magistrates transacted public business there...public assemblies were regularly held there.... It was also big enough to include a bronze aedicula.... All this taken together indicates that originally the Vulcanal covered the lower slope of the Capitoline along the stair that extended the line of the Sacra Via up the hill, an area later covered by the Temple of Concordia.Richardson, Op. cit.
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