Poggio Montano, the rediscovery of a site in inner Etruria between archives, museum storage and new interpretations

The Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome invited Alessandra Piergrossi, Senior Researcher at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ISPC), to deliver a lecture entitled “Poggio Montano: the rediscovery of a site in inner Etruria between archives, museum storage, and a new interpretation.” During the meeting, the research carried out on the necropolis of Poggio Montano was presented, providing an important opportunity for discussion with Swedish colleagues and students. The necropolis of Poggio Montano represents one of the case studies examined within WP 2 – Assessment of Spoke 8 of the PNRR CHANGES Project. Excavated at the beginning of the twentieth century, the publication of the context documents what still constitutes an isolated testimony in southern inland Etruria of a prosperous community between the advanced phase of the Early Iron Age and the Orientalizing period. Particular attention was devoted to the geography of the area, the analysis of territorial resources, and its potential as a crossroads of commercial routes connecting the Po Valley and the Campanian hinterland. The research also addressed the challenges involved in reinterpreting a context excavated in the early twentieth century and reconstructing—through archival documentation—the location of the site, as well as the composition of the funerary assemblages. The funerary landscape and the spatial organization of the necropolis were reconstructed across its chronological development in order to identify clusters and mechanisms for the selection of roles and status; the use of rituals according to gender and age groups; funerary customs; the communicative code represented by the materials selected for the grave goods; and the accumulation of particular items—such as Greek-inspired pottery and imported goods—and their implications for commercial exchanges and cultural relations with neighboring regions.