A Brief History of Poggio Civitate

The 2026 field season marks the 60th year of archaeological exploration at Poggio Civitate (Italian for “Hill of the Civilization”) located in central inland Tuscany. Excavation began in 1966 under the direction of Dr. Kyle M. Phillips, Jr. of Bryn Mawr College. Work continued under the direction of his student, Dr. Erik Nielsen, and is currently led by Dr. Anthony Tuck of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The excavations have brought to light a large volume of material from distinct phases of Etruscan occupation. A brief summary of this work is provided below. For further material and articles related to the site, please see the excavation database website - HERE.

Early Phase - First Half of the Seventh Century BCE

The monumental center of Poggio Civitate is located on the apex of the hill, in an area known as the Piano del Tesoro, or “Plateau of Treasure.”  While Poggio Civitate's Piano del Tesoro preserves traces of Iron Age occupation that may extend back into the ninth and eighth centuries BCE, the site emerges as the elite center of a larger, dispersed community at approximately 700 BCE.  At this time, a monumental elite home, called Early Phase Orientalizing Complex Building 4 (EPOC4), was constructed on the western edge of the Piano del Tesoro.  This rectilinear structure was approximately ten-times larger than contemporary curvilinear huts, indicating that those who lived in this structure were wealthier and more powerful than other members of their community.  Unlike contemporary huts, which not only were small, but also built out of ephemeral materials, with thatched roofs, EPOC4 was constructed using more durable materials; specifically, this building was covered with a terracotta tiled roof, the earliest known example of such a structure in peninsular Italy.  Finds from within the structure consist of fineware ceramic assemblages, further speaking to the status of its occupants.

Traces of an additional structure dating to the first half of the seventh century BCE (Early Phase Orientalizing Complex Building 5, or EPOC5) have been found further to the east, along the southern edge of the Piano del Tesoro.  Foundations of this building consist of flat stone pads that likely served as bases for a series of posts or columns that supported the roof of this unwalled, pavilion-style structure.  Evidence associated with industrial activities and craft production have been recovered from the vicinity of this building as well, suggesting it may have functioned as an early workshop, producing materials that were utilized and consumed by the elites living to the west, in EPOC4.

Around 650 BCE, both EPOC4 and EPOC5 were abandoned and maybe even demolished, with occupants recycling building materials like roofing tiles and rafter beams to construct the three monumental structures of the subsequent Intermediate Phase.

Intermediate/Orientalizing Phase – Second Half of the 7th Century BCE

When the two structures of the Early Phase were abandoned, occupants of Poggio Civitate monumentalized the Piano del Tesoro further, marking it as the elite center of a larger community.  The first building of this Orientalizing Complex (OC1), a Residence, was uncovered in 1970.  Ceramic evidence suggests that OC1 may have been constructed some time in the second quarter of the seventh century BCE; the exact date of construction is debated, and other scholars push the date of construction to the third quarter of the seventh century BCE. This residence likely replaced EPOC4 as the home of Poggio Civitate’s ruling family.  This building was elaborately decorated with a sculptural program in terracotta and appears to have served as the residence of a family of regional social prominence. Recovered from the floor of OC1 were cooking equipment, a banquet service of imported Greek and locally produced fine wares, bone, antler and ivory inlays that once decorated furniture, and numerous objects of personal ornament and everyday use. Based on the dating of the Greek pottery recovered from the building, this structure likely was destroyed around the end of the seventh century BCE. 

In the early 1980s along the southeast flank of Piano del Tesoro, excavations revealed the presence of another building contemporary with OC1, Orientalizing Complex 2 (OC2), that clearly served as the site's primary area of industrial work during the seventh century BCE. This building was constructed just to the south of the earlier industrial structure, EPOC5.  Curiously, this building was also elegantly decorated with terracotta sculpture and was substantially larger than the OC1. OC2 was an open-air pavilion, without any walls,  and housed numerous types of manufacturing activities, including bronze casting, bone and antler carving, terracotta manufacture, ceramics production, food processing and textile manufacture. This building currently is the earliest known example of such a multifunctional workshop in Central Italy. Despite the number of products this site produced, virtually nothing manufactured at Poggio Civitate has been found at other sites in the region. Excavators now believe that OC2 was intended primarily to support the community of Poggio Civitate itself and perhaps the surrounding hinterland, with virtually all products being locally consumed rather than exported to other sites.

From 1996 through 1999, excavation immediately to the south of the Residence revealed the presence of a third building of this complex - a large tripartite structure now referred to as OC3. Although much of the building was destroyed in the subsequent building of the later phase of the site, enough of the floor plan was preserved to allow excavators to reconstruct a building with a large central cella flanked by two chambers precisely half the width of the central room. Both the building's tripartite form and examples of fineware vessels inscribed with dedicatory inscriptions found resting on the floor of the central cella suggest this building may have been an early example of a temple, making it one of the earliest examples of monumental religious architecture in Italy known to date.

All three of the buildings of the Orientalizing Complex were destroyed in an accidental fire that appears to have occurred around 600 BCE. On the day the buildings burned down, workers in OC2 were manufacturing roofing tiles and had placed several on the floor to dry in the shade of the roof. In the panic of the unexpected fire, workers fled and stepped on the drying clay and their footprints were fired into the floor.

Archaic Phase – Sixth Century BC

In the aftermath of the conflagration that destroyed the seventh century complex, the survivors appear to have combed through the destruction to salvage anything of value. Then, the debris was scraped to level and flatten the plateau in preparation for the construction of a massive four-winged building enclosing Piano del Tesoro. Each wing was sixty meters in length and a western defensive work extended that façade an additional thirty meters. Like the buildings of the earlier complex, this structure also was elaborately decorated with terracotta sculpture that sat along the ridge of the roof. In addition, frieze plaques were nailed to exposed wooden beams, a sculpted lateral sima system ornamented the courtyard while gorgon antefixes decorated the building's perimeter.

This remarkable building, far larger than any known in the Mediterranean for its time period, has been the subject of considerable debate. Speculation as to its function has led to such theories as a political meeting hall, a religious sanctuary, a palazzo and even an Etruscan version of an agora. Currently, the excavators believe that the building combined the functions of the disparate structures of the earlier phase into a single edifice, dating to the early sixth century BCE.

Perhaps the most enigmatic feature of the building involves its final destruction. Based on the latest pottery from the site, some time shortly after the middle of the sixth century BCE, the building was dismantled. The statuary was removed from the roof and smashed, the fragments separated and then buried in pits around the perimeter of the building. The walls were knocked over and the site was never reoccupied.

Vescovado and the Later Phases

Evidence of occupation around Poggio Civitate has long suggested subsidiary communities were located on surrounding hilltops, such as those of Vescovado di Murlo, Lupompesi, Murlo, Castelnuovo Tancredi and Montepescini. Chamber tombs dating from the fourth to third centuries were found in Vescovado di Murlo in 1960 and a ceramic kiln Hellenistic in date was discovered during road construction in 1970. In 2006, excavators were given permission to further explore the area around the Hellenistic kiln. This work revealed traces of domestic architecture contemporary with the kiln, as well as sporadic evidence of occupation contemporary with the Archaic phase of occupation of Poggio Civitate.

This evidence suggests that  ancient occupation of the region not only continued after the final destruction of Poggio Civitate, but also that the monumental buildings of the site did not stand in isolation. Rather, they can be considered a nucleus of a broader community, with the elites of Poggio Civitate at the center of a dispersed population clustered around the hill.

Work in 2026

The 2026 field season will continue our exploration of the eastern edge of the plateau locally known as Piano del Tesoro – the Plateau of the Treasure. Excavations in this area in 2024 and 2025 revealed traces of a large structure dating to the sixth century, Aarchaic occupational phase.  Based on preliminary excavations, this structure appears to be a well-constructed house, perhaps occupied by a well-to-do family working in service of the aristocratic family that lived in the contemporary Archaic Building  This same area also preserves evidence of Poggio Civitate’s destruction in the second half of the sixth century BCE.  Deposits associated with the destruction of the site will be a major focus of excavations in 2026.