Poggio Civitate in Murlo, Tuscany, is home to one of the best-preserved Etruscan communities of the eighth through the sixth centuries BCE. In this book, Anthony Tuck, the director of excavations, provides a broad synthesis of decades of data from the site.

The results of many years of excavation at Poggio Civitate tell a story of growth, urbanization, ancient industrialization, and dissolution. The site preserves traces of aristocratic domestic buildings, including some of the most evocative and enigmatic architectural sculpture in the region, along with remnants of non-elite domestic spaces, enabling illuminating comparisons across social strata. The settlement also features evidence of large-scale production systems, including tools and other objects that reflect the daily experiences of laborers. Finally, the site contains the story of its own destruction. Tuck finds in the data clear indications that Poggio Civitate was methodically dismantled, and he posits hypotheses concerning the circumstances around this violent social and political act.

This is a beautifully written and carefully organized exposition of a very complicated ancient site. It offers an excellent overview of the many questions that Poggio Civitate has raised with each season’s progress, and many sensitive, considered, and well-argued answers to those questions. It is a precious tribute to the efforts of the many dedicated participants who, from its inception, have worked at the site or published and presented material found there. I congratulate the author and all those who helped bring this volume to fruition and look forward to more years of discovery at Poggio Civitate. (Etruscan and Italic Studies)

Anthony Tuck, professor of classical archaeology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is director of excavations at Poggio Civitate. His books include Burials from Poggio Aguzzo: The Necropolis of Poggio Civitate (Murlo) and First Words: The Archaeology of Language at Poggio Civitate (Murlo).