ORBETELLO
Grosseto, Italy.
The town faces
the massif of the Argentario, at the end of a narrow
tongue of land that stretches between two lagoon-like
bodies of water. Strabo (
5.225), after Cosa, mentions
Porto Ercole and the characteristics of the lagoon.
Many notable changes have taken place in the lagoon
of Orbetello since ancient times. In fact, during the
Etruscan age the lagoon must have been separated from
the sea by a single sandbar called the Feniglia, where
the road linking Cosa and Porto Ercole passed; while the
other sandbar, called the Giannella, had probably only
begun to emerge from the sea.
The finds demonstrate that the area must have been
inhabited from the late Villanovan to Hellenistic times.
Material from Roman times was discovered during work
near the Pertuso channel.
A large necropolis has been found on the tongue of
land that connects the city to the mainland. Material
found there and now on display in the Antiquarium of
Orbetello includes vases of impasto, Italo-geometric pottery, bucchero, Etruscan black-figure vases, Attic ceramics and bronzes (fibulae, buckles, mirrors, and vases), some of which were found at the necropolis of Chiarone
S of Orbetello. Imposing stretches of wall in large polygonal blocks and dating to the end of the 4th c. B.C. indicate that Orbetello was a prominent Etruscan city.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Maetzke,
NSc (1958) 34ff; P. Bocci
in
EAA 5 (1963) 708-9; T. G. Schmiedt,
Tenth Congress
of lnternational Society of Photogrammetry (1964) 19;
id.,
Atlante di Aereofotogrammetria degli insediamenti
(1970) tav. CXXX.
P. BOCCI PACINI
