Frontiera e integrazione: problematiche di un sito tardo villanoviano dell’Etruria meridionale interna

The necropolis of Poggio Montano offers some the most significant archaeological evidence for internal southern Etruria during the transition between late Villanovan and Early Orientalizing period, when the coastal cities showed a growing interest in the hinterland. It is situated along an axis of communication between north and south that, through the Sacco and Liri and Tiber valleys, reaches the mining district of Northern Etruria, Bologna and the Po Valley. Not surprisingly, the funerary system adopted and the material culture of Poggio Montano, essentially linked to those of the contemporary Tarquinii, shows features in common with all the major conterminous towns: Bisenzio, Vulci, but also further Veii and the Ager faliscus up to Capua. Evidently the territorial limits in the Tarquinii hinterland did not respond to a cultural boundary and did not stop ideological and social factors to spread and cancel those borders, especially in a frontier site such as Poggio Montano. The outpost of Poggio Montano responds primarily to needs of strategic and commercial nature, as evidenced by the massive presence of material inspired by ancient Greek pottery and metal vessels, until the next century when the coastal itineraries controlled by the major centres were intensified.