Poggio Civitate (Murlo)
Poggio Civitate in Murlo, Tuscany, is home to one of the best-preserved Etruscan communities of the eighth through the sixth centuries BCE. In this book, Anthony Tuck, the director of excavations, provides a broad synthesis of decades of data from the site.
The results of many years of excavation at Poggio Civitate tell a story of growth, urbanization, ancient industrialization, and dissolution. The site preserves traces of aristocratic domestic buildings, including some of the most evocative and enigmatic architectural sculpture in the region, along with remnants of non-elite domestic spaces, enabling illuminating comparisons across social strata. The settlement also features evidence of large-scale production systems, including tools and other objects that reflect the daily experiences of laborers. Finally, the site contains the story of its own destruction. Tuck finds in the data clear indications that Poggio Civitate was methodically dismantled, and he posits hypotheses concerning the circumstances around this violent social and political act.
This is a beautifully written and carefully organized exposition of a very complicated ancient site. It offers an excellent overview of the many questions that Poggio Civitate has raised with each season’s progress, and many sensitive, considered, and well-argued answers to those questions. It is a precious tribute to the efforts of the many dedicated participants who, from its inception, have worked at the site or published and presented material found there. I congratulate the author and all those who helped bring this volume to fruition and look forward to more years of discovery at Poggio Civitate.
Poggio Civitate has been the subject of many years of excavation; therefore, it has produced a huge body of material culture that has been the focus of interpretative analysis over time. This volume provides a crucial and pertinent update to long-held views, by incorporating new insights from recent excavation seasons and offering a holistic survey of the site’s significance in light of these observations.
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction
- The Site and Its Surroundings
- Ancient and Medieval History
- Poggio Civitate before Excavation Began in 1966
- 2. The Earliest Community of Poggio Civitate (Late Eighth Century BCE to the First Quarter/Middle of the Seventh Century BCE)
- Early Phase Orientalizing Complex Building 4 (EPOC4)
- Early Phase Orientalizing Complex Building 5 (EPOC5)
- 3. The Lords of Piano del Tesoro: The “Orientalizing Period Complex” (ca. 675/650 BCE to the End of the Seventh or Beginning of the Sixth Century BCE)
- The Orientalizing Complex
- Evidence for the Date of the Orientalizing Complex
- The Decorative Program of the Orientalizing Complex
- Daily Life of the Social Elite of Poggio Civitate
- OC3/Tripartite and Connections to the Larger Etruscan World
- Manufacturing at Poggio Civitate
- Personalities of Poggio Civitate’s Workforce
- The Economy of Poggio Civitate
- Sigla and the Communitarian Environment of Poggio Civitate
- Non-Elite Domestic Spaces at Poggio Civitate
- Subordinate Communities beyond Poggio Civitate
- Conviviality, Banqueting, and the Mistress of Animals
- Responses to Death at Poggio Civitate
- Before the Fire
- 4. Monumental Aspirations: Poggio Civitate’s Archaic Phase (ca. 600 BCE to Approximately 525 BCE)
- The Decorative System of Poggio Civitate’s Archaic Phase Building
- Interpreting the Archaic Phase Decorative Program
- The Function(s) of Poggio Civitate’s Archaic Phase Building
- The Destruction and Abandonment of Poggio Civitate
- The Political Situation of the Late Sixth Century BCE
- 5. Poggio Civitate: An Overview
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
