Alessandro Sebastiani

After nearly a decade, I returned to Cetamura del Chianti, an archaeological site of immense significance, where research is overseen by Nancy De Grummond of Florida State University.

Alongside the students from the Monteverdi field school, we delved into the site’s importance, examining the material remnants of an Etruscan sanctuary and a community of devotees and artisans who shaped the hill from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. Our exploration included workshops dedicated to ceramics and metallurgy, the place of worship, and its material culture, which closely mirrors that found at Podere Cannicci. This immersive journey through time extended into the Middle Ages, when a castle was constructed to safeguard a crucial route for Chianti.

The “Wells of Wonders,” as termed by Nancy, provided a unique window into the daily life of this community. Excavations reaching depths of up to 34 meters revealed stratified contexts of artifacts and paleorests, highlighting historical identities centered around the sacred and wine production.

The visit culminated in the newly inaugurated museum, where the extensive research, ongoing since 1973, is comprehensively displayed. Nancy guided us through fifty years of passionate investigation and historical reconstruction. Cetamura stands as a site suspended in time and space, embodying intellectual rigor and dedication to the philological reconstruction of cultural identities, relevant both to the past and the present. It represents a significant legacy for future generations of archaeologists and serves as an invaluable educational resource from which we can all learn.