Italy - La Castellina

French-german team on the etruscan "CASTELLINA"

Archaeological excavations have been led from 1995 at La Castellina, near Civitavecchia, not far north from Rome. Archaeologists and students from more than ten european agencies or universities are directed by Jean Gran-Aymerich, researcher at the CNRS in Paris, and Friedhelm Prayon, professor at the University of Tübingen. The Soprintendenza of South Etruria and the town of Civitavecchia are also associated.

La Castellina hill sits next to the sea shore, four thousand meters south of the Civitavecchia harbour, between Tarquinia and Cerveteri, the most important etruscan cities, in a central position for commercial exchanges, whether italic or mediterranean.

It’s purpose is to give answers to three main questions regarding these place of Castellina : the protohistoric origins and process of proto-urbanization, the regional and sea exchanges, the date and circumstances of the abandon of the citie with the empire of Rome.

The site presents a particularly interesting stratigraphical continuity from the middle-later Bronze age to the hellenistic period (XIV^th to III^th century BC), and striking architectural features, concerning the orientalising, archaic and hellenistic stages (VII^th to III^th century BC).