SESTO FIORENTINO
Tuscany, Italy.
At the
sesta mansio from Florentia on the Via Cassia, in the
plain at the foot of the Appennines, on the right side of
the Arno. This was a favorable position, near the commercial roads that joined Etruria with its spreading population in the Padana valley. Some Orientalizing tombs have been discovered recently: In addition to the Tomba
della Mula, the Tomba della Montagnola at Quinto Fiorentino, and the tombs of Montefortini and of the
Boschetti at Comeana are now known. Except for the
Boschetti tumulus, which is more modest, consisting of
one chamber whose raised part is only partially preserved,
the tombs are monumental in appearance. At the Tomba
della Montagnola the access corridor has been found, a
vestibule with small rooms on either side. The Montefortini tomb has a rectangular chamber, the Tomba della
Mula has a circular chamber; the Tomba della Montagnola also has a circular chamber with a central pilaster. The roofing system, corbel slabs held in place by their own weight, has a double slope at Montefortini. This
corbelling system is used in the burial chambers and in
the dromos of the Montagnola tomb. The same technique
forms pseudo-cupolas in the tombs of the Mula and of
the Montagnola. The connection with the funerary monuments of N Etruria is evident.
The objects accompanying the burials from the last
quarter of the 7th c. B.C. are particularly significant for
their richness and variety, some imported and some of
local manufacture; and for the presence of Etruscan inscriptions.
The remains of a Villanovian burial place near Quinto
Fiorentino, in the locality called Palestreto, indicate
habitation prior to the Orientalizing period; and at Poggio del Giro there is a small habitation site of the Hellenistic period. These discoveries show that the area was inhabited from archaic to the Roman times. Fragments
of architecture and sarcophagi from Roman times come
from Sesto Fiorentino; at Quinto Fiorentino there are
remnants of a building from the same period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fiorelli,
NSc (1883) 76; F. Magi,
Carta
Archeologica F. 106; G. Caputo,
EAA 6 (1964); id.,
La tomba della Montagnola (1969); F. Nicosia in
Atti
del Convegno di Studi sulla città etrusca e italica pre-romana (1970) 241ff.
P. BOCCI PACINI
