MISANO
(Marzabotto) Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
In the Reno valley 49.6 km S of Bologna the remains
of an Etruscan city, first noted in the 16th c. It seems
probable that the city was founded during the Etruscan
expansion in N Italy after the middle of the 6th c. B.C.,
together with Felsina and Spina. The city was occupied
by the Boii in the 4th c. B.C., and in the course of that
century practically ceased to exist, probably because of
poverty. During Roman times there are only sporadic
traces of an agricultural settlement, and the important
center of the valley moved farther N, to the vicus of
Saso Marconi. The date of the landslide that destroyed
the S part of the inhabited area is not known.
Two urban phases have been recognized. The first
dates from the end of the 6th c. and consists of simple
dwellings and many traces of metal working. To the end
of that phase, ca. 500 B.C., may be attributed the small
sanctuary of the springs in the N sector. This is the oldest
architectural building known in N Italy. Later, during the
early decades of the 5th c., the city assumed a regular
form with orthogonal streets. Four of these are 15 m
wide and perfectly oriented according to the cardinal
points. The system of streets is founded on the wide N-S
road, intersected by three other streets and parallel to
numerous minor streets S m wide. Cippi have been found
at the intersections of the major avenues, one of which
bears an indication of the astronomical orientation. They
were set up when the major axes of the city were laid
out and later covered by road ballast. All of the streets
are flanked by one or two drainage canals. The whole
urban network consists of city blocks nearly uniform in
size and elongated N-S. Probably not all of the area
divided up by the orthogonal system was actually occupied by buildings. Workshops of smiths and smelters and
kilns for the manufacture of ceramics lined the principal
N-S avenue of the city, and have also been found elsewhere. The houses, some of which included a workshop
facing the street, had a central courtyard with a well.
The springs on the hillside behind the city, intercepted
and channeled, appear to have been used by the ceramicists.
The hillside to the NW, called Misanello, was occupied by sacred buildings. Among them are remains of three temples. The podium of one has a double cornice in opera quadrata. The orientation of the temples is the
same as that of the streets and front due S. The upper
part of the temples, like that of the houses, was constructed in wood and crude bricks. The roof was of fired tiles, many of which were decorated with painted geometric and vegetal motifs on the visible parts.
The city wall has not been found, but the remains of
two gates have been recognized, to the E and N, which
correspond with the most extensive necropoleis of the
4th-5th c. These consist mainly of ditch tombs covered
by stone slabs and surmounted by simple markers of
pebbles, sepulchral pillars, or columns. In the period of
Gaulish occupation a third necropolis was established on
the S slopes of the arc of hills, not far from an aqueduct
of the Etruscan period.
Study of the territory proves that the Etruscan city was
located at the intersection of important longitudinal and
latitudinal lines of communication in the valley. It also
appears that the worked metal was indigenous to the area.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brizio, “Relazione sugli scavi eseguiti a
Marzabotto presso Bologna,”
MonAnt 1 (1890) 249-426
MPI; P. E. Arias, “Contributo allo studio della casa
etrusca a Marzabotto,”
Atti e Memorie Deputazione di
storia patria prov. Romagna (1953) 98; G. A. Mansuelli, “La città étrusca di Misano,”
Arte antica e moderna 17 (1962) 14; id., “La cité étrusque de Marzabotto,”
CRAI (1962) 62-84; id., “Una città etrusca nell'Appennino settentrionale,”
Situla (1965) 154-70; id., “La
casa etrusca di Marzabotto,”
RömMitt. 70 (1963) 44-62;
Guida alla città etrusca e al Museo di Marzabotto
(1971)
MPI.
G. A. MANSUELLI
