Ghiaccio Forte
An Etruscan site in the first stages of exploration. On a hill overlooking the Albegna river, it is ca. 14 km SE of Scansano. A complete circuit of city wall almost 1 km long defines a town—as yet unidentified—which was ca. 3.4 ha in extent and 8-shaped. Only the substructure of the city wall (ca. 4 m thick) remains, through which at least three city gates penetrated at strategic and convenient points. The inhabited area reveals a regular urban plan with paved streets, drainage system, and houses composed of multiple rooms and open courts.
Together with the pottery finds, bronze pins, vessel handles, etc., there has come to light an impressive votive deposit chiefly comprised of bronze and terracotta sculpture. Although the deity or deities to whom the ex-votos were offered has not yet been determined, there doubtlessly existed an important cult at Ghiaccio Forte. The terracotta sculpture represents human and animal figures and anatomical models. The bronze sculpture is limited to bronze statuettes of nude and semi-nude youths (several with a falx or pruning-knife, and one with its original stone base), draped women, bulls, and a boar.
Although the widespread sigus of destruction can be placed to the Hellenistic period (late 4th and early 3d c. B.C.) and correlated with the Roman conquest of Vulci (280 B.C.), there is evidence of earlier occupation—reused architectural blocks, a female terracotta head of Classical appearance, and an unquestionably archaic bronze statuette of a kouros.
BIBLIOGRAPHYM. Del Chiaro and A. Talocchini, “A University of California, Santa Barbara Excavation in Tuscany,” AJA 77 (1973), 327-31; 78 (1974).
M. A. DEL CHIARO