Internet Archaeology 4. Perkins. 4.0

4.0 Introduction to the Assemblage

This study presents some of the results of 18 years of research in the Albegna Valley/Ager Cosanus region of Tuscany, Italy. Thousands of artefacts have been collected and hundreds of sites recorded during this period. This study concentrates upon the ceramics dating to the Etruscan period (8th-3rd century BC). The publication of the ceramics from the survey of the city at Doganella (Perkins and Walker 1990), the excavation of the farm at Podere Tartuchino (Attolini and Perkins 1992) and the present study of evidence collected by systematic regional survey now form one of the most extensive detailed studies of Etruscan ceramics from settlements that has been made. Collections from individual sites have been published in the past but the Albegna Valley/Ager Cosanus is the first part of Etruria where the Etruscan ceramics from regional investigation have been fully studied and published.

The first part of the study is an account of the fieldwork and the sampling strategy which was used in the collection of the ceramics presented here. This is followed by a summary of the assemblage. The detailed catalogue of the survey finds follows and is extended by a catalogue of a tomb group recovered during the survey. The last part is an interpretation of some of the economic issues raised by the assemblage.