Humanities

4 Il Codice Diplomatico racconta la storia di Arezzo e del suo contado dall'anno 650 fino alla fine della sua Repubblica, quando nel 1385 divenne assoggettata al controllo della crescente città di Firenze. Questi tre volumi consistono di tutti i documenti raccolti dai tre maggiori archivi: quello del Capitolo di Arezzo, che si unisce a quelli del monastero delle Sante Fiora e Lucilla nel 1817; l'archivio Camaldolense, ora parte del Codice Diplomatico Fiorentino che forniva molta della storia ecclesiastica: infine l'Archivio di Stato di Firenze, chiave per la sfera secolare. Ubaldo Pasqui (a cura di), Documenti per la storia della città di Arezzo nel medio evo.

Preliminary report on the last medieval settlement of Ansedonia, inside the Roman city walls of Cosa. This chapter covers all of the medieval settlements excavated starting from the 11th century onwards. The two highest points of the hilltop, the Eastern Heights with a 12th century tower and two water cistern and a long building and the Arx with a church with a small cemetery and structures reusing the main temple of the Arx.
A second church was  found in back of the forum on the way to the EH with a larger cemetery - placed over a Roman platform. Follows a brief summery of the local history with a list of surviving documents and compared with the evidence provided by the archaeology.

Contested monasteries in Lombard Tuscany: the case of San Pietro d’Asso, Montalcino (Siena). The excavation of San Pietro d’Asso (July 2010) discovered an eighth- to fourteenth century settlement with a monastery and an incomplete hilltop castle. This site is located about 15 km from the church of San Pietro di Pava at San Giovanni d’Asso, an ongoing excavation of the University of Siena. San Pietro ad Asso is a project that sheds additional light on the regional survey of ecclesiastical life in this remote area along the via Cassia and the nearby abbey of Sant’Antimo. Lying in a territory disputed by the bishops of Arezzo and Siena, the monastery of San Pietro d’Asso rose up to the point of supporting an attendant castle which was never completed indicating the decline of the site soon after. The Abbey of Sant’Antimo perhaps has rendered the small devotional or pilgrimage churches of the Asso Valley redundant. An analysis of documents and related survey work in the region, excavati...

This report summarizes the first archaeological campaign (May-June 2018) at the medieval settlement of Castellaraccio of Monteverdi. The scope is to first identify the life span and activities of the castle and to understand the relationship of the hilltop with its immediate surroundings. The research will further determine the socioeconomic role that the castle played in this strategic area, positioned over farming land, a bridge and a major road that led inland from the coast to Siena. The presence and collaboration of a nearby ongoing excavation of earlier Etruscan and Roman settlements are the ideal conditions to address how the activities changed and transformed through time, adding another perspective to the current debates. This first season aimed to clear the castle from the collapse to expose its plan and date the life span of its occupation. Further clearing was also extended to the exterior of the castle to document the different wall techniques of the fortification. Only one area was opened over the most monumental part of the castle. The lack of medieval glazed pottery, except for a few fragments of undatable kitchenware, could indicate a pre-majolica settlement. While it is still premature to assess any date of occupation of the hilltop, it seems safe to establish that Castellaraccio belongs to the first incastel-lamento generation. The use of non-invasive techniques in the next campaign will help read the territory around the castle, along the Ombrone river and possibly to the nearby Cannicci valley. The medieval settlement of Castellaraccio lies about 30 km from Grosseto near the road that leads to Si-ena. It has never been studied. However, the countryside below the hilltop has been surveyed and excavated by the Soprintendenza in the late 1990s, providing a fascinating preview of the archaeological potential of the site. Here, in the valley, different production activities took place during the Etruscan, Roman and Medieval periods benefitting from a large-scale hydraulic system that controlled the waters. The fortuitous convergence of the imposing Ombrone river with its tributaries, the Lanzo and Gretano rivers, and major roads running through the area are among the many reasons that have continued to attract settlements and confirm the crucial position of the later castle. Altogether, this geographical position provides ideal conditions for production, settlement , and trade (fig.1). The inception of a joint project The first campaign in 2018 included a general survey of the hilltop and a small test trench on one of the two highest points of the ruins. The land belongs to the large estate of Monteverdi which overlooks the Om-brone River (fig. 2) and the valley where the sister project at Podere Cannicci saw its first campaign in 2017 fig.1

Between May and June 2018, the second archaeological season at Podere Cannicci in the municipality of Civitella Paganico (GR) took place. The site is located in a gentle valley, a few hundred meters away from the course of the Ombrone River in its middle valley (fig. 1). The geological setting favoured the creation of a settlement as an abundance of natural springs facilitated the water supply and, most likely, the establishment of a sacred place or sanctuary from the late Etruscan period1. Evidence for this templum is seen in the recovery of a significant number of ex-votos, studied by Fabiana Fabbri and modeled in the shape of uteri. These are accompanied by fragments of loom weights, a bronze bovine, and terracotta statuettes, one of which possibly depicts Minerva2. Podere Cannicci was already known in the archaeological literature as, in 1989-1990, the Soprintendenza undertook a rescue excavation during the laying out of a gas pipeline3. On that occasion, a Republican settlement...