Capranica lies in the historic area of Tuscia, which is the ancient name for Southern Etruria, the land of the Etruscans and the heartland of the greatest civilisation in pre-Roman and early Roman Italy (9th-3rd century BC). The Etruscans left an abundance of archaeological remains, mostly necropoles, all around Capranica: in Sutri, Barbarano Romano, Blera, Tarquinia, Viterbo etc. An unusual site is that of two tombs, each with two chambers, in a partially levelled tumulus in the fields of Valle Cappellana, on the road between Cura and Blera, 15 km to the north of Capranica; one of them has a carved beam-ceiling, grooved columns with carved Etruscan doric capitals and square bases, and three decorated deposition beds.