The Etruscan character of the city of Pisa has been questioned for a long time. However, thanks to a thriving period of archaeological investigations undertaken in the mid-1980s, it was possible to definitively confirm the ancient Etruscan origin of the settlement.
One of the main excavations was carried out between 1985 and 1988 a few steps away from the Leaning Tower (saggio D), where a complex and uninterrupted stratigraphy dating from the middle of the 6th century BC and the end of the 5th century AD was brought to light. The anthropic installations and wall structures unearthed share the same alignments and the same orientation, within an apparently orthogonal urban network designed at least from the end of the 5th century BC and knowingly respected until the end of the Roman imperial age.
Uno sguardo su Pisa ellenistica da piazza del Duomo, dedicated to the Hellenistic period documented in the excavation of saggio D, presents a substantial catalogue of the ceramic repertoire therein recovered, most of which are still not attested in the city. Due to the results of this work, it is now possible to redefine the role of Pisa in this period as one of the major trade centres of northern coastal Etruria.

Dr. Emanuele Taccola completed his entire studies at the University of Pisa, where he obtained two Master's Degrees with Honors in Ancient Letters and Archaeology (2003, 2006) and the PhD with Honors in Sciences of Antiquity and Archaeology (2019). He continues his long-running association with the University of Pisa, now working as a Teaching Assistant of Etruscology and Italic Archaeology, and an Adjunct Professor of Methodology of Survey and Representation in Archaeology.