The Hellenistic Necropolis and Vicus at Podere Cannicci: Negotiating Etruscan and Roman Identities (20 min)

Presenters

Alessandro Sebastiani, University at Buffalo; Edoardo Vanni, Universit? per gli Stranieri di Siena; and Marta De Pari, La Sapienza University, Rome

Abstract

This paper presents the recent discoveries at the Hellenistic necropolis of Podere Cannicci (Civitella Paganico-Grosseto, IT) and at the vicus established to serve a late Etruscan sanctuary. The sites lie on a liminal territory, influenced by the cities of Chiusi, Rusellae, Volterra, and Vetulonia, a few kilometers away from the flow of the Ombrone River. The investigated area was occupied between the late fifth and the early first century B.C.E. before being abandoned following a violent fire, most likely related to the events of the Social Wars. During the last archaeological seasons between 2020 and 2023, three intact burials were revealed, while research brought back to light the remains of a village housing a rural Etruscan community. This paper compares the material culture between the settlement and the necropolis; by doing this, it aims to establish a preliminary interpretation of cultural and social agencies in the landscape of the middle valley of the Ombrone River during the Hellenistic period (third to first centuries B.C.E.). This comparative analysis seems to indicate the will of the local Etruscan communities to negotiate their identities with the spreading Roman cultural and political sphere of influence, which started to appear in this territory at the beginning of the third century B.C.E.

Finally, the results of this paper also inform on the different political spheres of influence of the four different Etruscan cities at Podere Cannicci, attempting to delineate a new interpretation for the administrative boundaries of this liminal part of Etruria.