The rural settlement of Podere Cannicci is situated on a small plateau overlooking the river Ombrone in the territory of Civitella Paganico. The area is characterised by the presence of a series of small springs that must have influenced the construction of a late Etruscan sanctuary of which the remains of a votive hoard survive. The latter is made up of a group of terracotta uteruses and small statuettes today housed in the Museum of Archaeology and Religious Art (Grosseto).

The site was identified during the laying of a gas pipeline and partially investigated in the late 1980s by the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany. In 2004, work to lay electricity cables exposed part of a mid Republican necropolis situated on the hill south-east of the main settlement. Lastly, a cistern of probable Republican date was identified slightly south-west of the main excavations.

In 2017, excavations began as part of the IMPERO Project (Interconnected Mobility of People and Economies along the River Ombrone), which aim to gain an understanding of the various transformations the settlement underwent from the late Etruscan period until its abandonment during the course of post-war events following the Civil War between Marius and Sulla. The possibility that there may be surviving traces of an imperial settlement (late 1st century B.C. – 3rd century A.D.) in the area is to be considered slight at present, as the only evidence consists of a few terracotta fragments datable to that period. Thus far, the settlement’s destruction and abandonment phase is dated to the 80s B.C. by a hoard of silver denarii found in the layers of collapse during the Superintendency’s excavations. (University of Buffalo – SUNY)