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In the early 6th century BCE, Poggio Civitate produced what is known as the “monumental complex” which lies just south of the modern city of Siena. The complexes have given insight to the daily life of the community during this time. The “monumental complex” consists of a set of large, interrelated buildings. It is unknown what the building was used for. There have been several disputes but the first excavator of Poggio Civitate believed the monumental building was used as a meeting-hall for political and religious events. Others argued that it could have been used as the residence of the ruler, a palazzo, or an Etruscan version of angora.

The construction was a large four-winged building with courtyards in the middle of the structure. The roof and the walls of the structure were elaborately decorated with 30,000 feet of terracotta sculpture. The sculptures were life sized figures of both humans and animals, male and female. The walls also displayed large-scale friezes which were nailed to wooden beams around the structure. The friezes depicted various scenes such as banquet scenes, ceremonies and business being conducted, processions, horse races, warriors marching behind leaders, and a scene of humans carrying a symbol of office called a lituus. The courtyard was lined with a sculpted lateral sima system which runs along horizontal edges with interwoven spouts to let out rain water. Tile gorgon antefixes are displayed on the perimeter of the building for decoration.

The feature of this building that brought the most attention to it was the destruction of it. The pottery of the site led archaeologists to believe that it was destroyed in the middle of the sixth century BCE. The building was completely dismantled. The roof and sanctuary were removed and smashed, and other pieces of the complex were separated and buried around the site. After everything was knocked down, the site was never reoccupied.

Reference List
The Archaeological Institute of America Is Dedicated to the Greater ..., www.archaeological.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Code-of-Ethics.pdf. Accessed 13 May 2023.

Donoghue, Nora K. “Following the Thread: Elite Iconography on Weaving Objects at Poggio Civitate (Murlo).” MDPI, 7 Jan. 2022, www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/11/1/15.

The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project, www.poggiocivitate.com/#:~:text=While%20Poggio%20Civitate%27s%20Piano%20del,of%20inter%2Drelated%20monumental%20buildings. Accessed 12 May 2023.

“Poggio Civitate.” Wikipedia, 12 May 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poggio_Civitate.