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Excavation

  • Cetamura del Chianti
  • Gaiole in Chianti
  • Civitamura
  • Italy
  • Tuscany
  • Province of Siena
  • Gaiole in Chianti

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • All investigations were confined to Zone II. Work continued in the sanctuary (Building L), near the large rock altar found in 2005. Below the sacrificial deposit discovered in 2006 (now known as Votive Feature 1A), were found two more deposits, Votive Feature 1B and Votive Feature 1C. In addition three other votive areas were identified (VF 2, 3 and 4).

    The overall plan of the sanctuary now appears as a large trapezoid with sides ca. 20 meters long, and with a broad courtyard in the wide end of the trapezoid, oriented toward the southeast. The main altar is located near the center of the sanctuary and VF 1, 2 and 4 are all located on the southeast inside the courtyard. VF 2 is essentially an in-ground hearth altar made up of numerous medium sized stones. New excavations of foundation walls allowed the identification of 3 (possibly 4) new rooms or chapels of the sanctuary on the north side of Building L. Two of these are elongated rectangular rooms side by side. Room 3 has a gap in the foundations suggesting the presence of a doorway, and just outside the doorway appeared VF 3, with an assortment of votive objects.

    All dating indicators confirm activity in the second half of the second century BCE. Iron nails (now more than 30 in total, along with at least one bronze nail cap) remain the offering of choice, and they have now been found in association with all deposits except 1C as well as outside the focal offering areas. A new example of an inscription type found before at Cetamura was discovered in Building L, a ceramic fragment inscribed with a monogram with the letters A, L and P. (There are now 11 total known from Cetamura). The letter order is uncertain, but one possibility is LAP, which might be the name of the god Lapse, known at only one other Etruscan site, Pyrgi. Fragmentary miniature cups have now been found in 4 of the votive contexts. Another popular form is the small, handleless jar or beaker. In each ceremony the vase was ritually broken, portions were burnt, and part or all of the vessel was buried or left on the sacred surface.

    On the exterior west flank of the sanctuary, where extensive dumping from the kiln areas was carried out when the sanctuary was remodeled into its present second-century form, were found large, rugged ceramic fragments of storage jars (dolio), as well as Etruscan fired bricks and imported amphoras.

    In the artisans’ quarter were completed two deep trenches exploring the workers’ area in front of the kiln, Structure K. Bedrock was identified at a depth of 4.58 meters below datum. The “workers’ yard” yielded an enormous amount of evidence for their practices, including heaps of broken pottery gathered around the site and brought there to be ground up and recycled as brick and tile.

  • Nancy Thomson de Grummond - Florida State University, Tallahassee, Dept. of Classics 

Director

  • Nancy T. de Grummond - Florida State University, Tallahassee, Dept. of Classics

Team

  • Ornella Fonzo
  • Nòra Marosi - Studio Art Centers International, Florence
  • Rosalba Settesoldi
  • Francesco Cini - ICHNOS
  • Mauro Buonincontri - ICHNOS
  • J. Theodore Peña - University of California, Berkeley

Research Body

  • Florida State University, Tallahassee, Dept. of Classics
  • New York University
  • Studio Art Centers International
  • Syracuse University
  • University of North Carolina-Asheville

Funding Body

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