Ritual and Industry in the Late Etruscan Period: The Well at Cetamura del Chianti

Abstract

Excavations recently completed in a well at Cetamura del Chianti have brought to light new and abundant evidence attesting to activities at the site over the span of the 3rd century B.C.E. to first century C.E. Focused on in this article are the artifactual and organic remains extracted out of the Late Etruscan strata of this well. The artifacts range from ceramic tokens, weights, and miniature‑sized vessels, to tools and utensils of iron, stone, and worked wood, to finely crafted bronze vessels and bronze implements. Many of these represent items from daily life repurposed as ritual offerings, lowered down or cast into the well. This discussion relates these finds to the overall theme of the site’s economy, centered on industry and religion. Analysis of the finds has yielded information on the enterprises of the artisans active at the site and the rituals they may have practiced and on outside trade links of Cetamura with sites elsewhere in Etruria during the Late Etruscan period of the 3rd to early first century B.C.E.