Etruscan pottery from the Albegna Valley/Ager Cosanus Survey

Abstract

This study presents some of the results of 18 years of research in the Albegna Valley/Ager Cosanus area, Tuscany, Italy. Thousands of artefacts have been collected and hundreds of sites recorded during this period by systematic field survey. This study concentrates upon a part of the finds made during field walking: the ceramics dating to the Etruscan period (8th-3rd century BC). The collection largely consists of finewares, coarsewares and amphorae. Together with the study of the ceramics from the Etruscan city at Doganella, and the excavated Etruscan farm at Podere Tartuchino, both also in the Albegna Valley, the present study forms the most extensive detailed study of Etruscan ceramics from settlements identified by systematic survey that has been made to date. Collections from individual sites have been published in the past but the Albegna Valley/Ager Cosanus is the first part of Etruria, investigated at a regional scale, where the Etruscan ceramics have been fully studied and published.