Peccioli | Archeological Museum

The Museum houses the numerous finds from the Etruscan archaeological site of Ortaglia, a few kilometres from Peccioli. It is developed within a system of tunnels still recently used as a cellar, but which in ancient times contained underground tombs.

The Etruscan collection is flanked by material from the Roman excavations of the Santa Mustiola site in Ghizzano. The commercial and strategic importance of the place on the communication route to Volterra has allowed the succession of various settlements: the Roman cistern (1st century AD), the Longobard ceramics, the medieval small church dedicated to the saint.

In the church, a female burial site with a valuable bronze trousseau, now restored, was found. The highlight of the collection is an Attic red-figure kylix (a ceramic cup used for drinking wine), attributable to the Greek painter Makron, who worked in Athens around 480 BC. Of particular interest are the funerary objects from the Etruscan tomb at Legoli, a large loutérion (basin for ablutions), as well as cult objects linked to Dèmetra, the Greek goddess of harvests and crops.

The Museum is part of the Peccioli Museum Complex, together with the Museum of Sacred Art and the Museum of Palazzo Pretorio.