Monthly Archives: October 2014

On Saturday morning 4-Oct Jessie & John were treated to a tour of Museo Archeologico Del Territorio in Piombino by the Earthwatch project director, Dr Carolina Megale.  Since all the other volunteers had seen it previously, it was just Jessie & I.

The museum was very comprehensive, roomy and well laid out.  It covered from the earliest known inhabitants of the area, maybe 1000 bce.  Carolina knew the museum well and gave a stimulating narrative as we moved from hall to hall.

Signs (in Italian & English) & maps on the walls showed the geographical evolution of the area, from around 500,000 BCE.  The associated archeological objects were displayed in large rooms within glass cases.  One sign explained “The period between the late 8th and the early 6th century B.C. is usually called ‘Orientalizing’ due to the huge quantities of luxury good imported from Greece and the Near East (Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, Syria, Cyprus, Urartu). … objects that emphasize the prestige and power of the Etruscan rulers, the alphabet, the craftsmen and new technologies… are acquired.”

Along with the Etruscan, Greek & Roman artifacts, two particularly interesting objects were on display.  First was an “early first century” mosaic from the Roman Acropolis Le Logge at Populonia depicting a shipwreck in an underwater setting with fish & crabs.  (This also had an interesting backstory, including being damaged in a traffic accident and a its recovery in 1995 after being illegally exported.) The second object, L’anfora di Baratti  was a large silver amphora (vase) which was found by accident stuck to an anchor off the near-by coast.

On the afternoon of Saturday 4-Oct Jessie & John joined the rest of the Earthwatch volunteers on a tour of Parco Archeologico near Populonia guided by our project director, Dr Carolina Megale.  The park, know formally as “Parco Archeologico di Baratti e Populonia”,  is close to the beach which rings the Baratti Bay.

This park covers a vast necropolis of tombs dating from the 7th to 3rd centuries BCE. It was rediscovered in the early 1900’s as the iron slag that had covered it was removed for reprocessing.

Dr Carolina Megale as tour guide at Parco Archeoligco in Populonia Italy

The first and largest  tomb in the San Cerbone necropolis is called “Tomba dei Carri”.  This oval ‘Tumulus type’ dome is listed at 30 metres in diameter, and looked maybe 7m high.  [Guidebook: from “Orientalizing Period  (7th century BC)”.]  It had about a 5′ wall around its base with a narrow access doorway about 3′ high that was locked behind a heavy vault door.  And Dr Carolina Megale had the key to the vault.

With the door pulled open & Carolina’s encouragement we crouched our way into the Tomba dei Carri and found a large squarish room in the center with a high conical roof (partially reconstructed).  I think that Carolina had turned on the interior lights.  There were some low partitions which might have been funeral beds.  In a side room of this tomb, when it was first uncovered, was found an intact chariot, now on display in a distant museum.  We didn’t see anything laying around but didn’t linger long inside those chambers.

Carolina led us around the entire section of the necropolis down to the smaller road-side Sarcophagus tombs of the 6th BCE.

Then we headed up the hills to the Via delle Cave and the Cava delle Grotte.  These are tombs built into the sandstone hills and in the quarry.  It was a steep climb to these unique burial chambers.  High on the sloping hillside were dozens of narrow slots cut through solid rock leading to a small burial chamber.  On the other side of that hill were two levels of chambers cut into a quarry wall, like a townhome.

With a thorough dose of burial practices of these early Etruscans, we ate well that Saturday night back in Populonia Stazione.