Poggio Civitella is a wooded rise at 661 m. a.s.l. situated at the centre of the Montalcino range, of which it forms the peak. The first surveys undertaken in 1950-51 on the hill-top investigated what were then considered to be the remains of a prehistoric fortified settlement. From 1993 onwards excavations have been undertaken by the University of Florence, revealing the “prehistoric settlement” to be a Hellenistic fortress. Earlier occupation phases were also reconstructed: following a long and discontinuous use of the summit for cult purposes, the beginning of which is dated by the pottery to the late Bronze Age, permanent occupation beginning in the first half of the 6th century B.C. A modest dwelling, found during the last campaign (2005), on the edge of the wide summit plateau dates to the latter period. The remains of walls emerging in the surrounding area suggest it was probably not the only dwelling present.

Towards the middle of the 6th century B.C. this first settlement was replaced by an actual village, characterized by a series of constructions of the same dimensions, aligned on purpose-built terraces on the least steep sides of the hill. These characteristics show this to be a planned settlement in which it is possible to recognize a colonial set up promoted by Chiusi. With this intervention the city intended to mark its presence in a harsh territory that had remained largely unpopulated, where it may have been interested in the exploitation of the mineral deposits of Casal di Pari which must have constituted one of the village’s economic resources.

Following the same fate as nearby Murlo, the village was abandoned a few decades later, towards the end of the 6th century or beginning of the 5th century B.C. Occupation of the hill once again became sporadic and mainly cult related, as attested by the remains of a sacellum and other structures on its highest parts. Two centuries after the abandonment of the village, the hill was again the site of a permanent settlement thanks to the construction of a fortress. This structure occupied most of the hill, incorporating the area with the earlier cult structures which were dismantled. The end of the fortress marked the definitive abandonment of the hill, which from then on was to be covered with a typically Mediterranean forest of holm-oak, Turkey oak, oak, chestnut and a dense undergrowth of broom, heather and holly. The site retained the toponym Poggio Civitella in memory of the presence of an ancient settlement.