The Pietramarina site is located on the top of the southern offshoot of Montalbano, at 585 meters above sea level, in one of the most fascinating places in Montalbano.
The elevated and strategic position, on the western border of the territory of Artimino, allowed to control a vast territory and constituted a reference for those who used the paths of the plains or came from the Apennine passes.
Reconstruction of Pietramarina
Reconstruction of Pietramarina
Facing Artimino, Fiesole and Volterra, it made it possible to put these large centers in communication with each other through a visual triangulation, as well as the territory behind the middle-Valdarno with the Livorno coast, visible today in optimal atmospheric conditions. We must also assume that Pietramarina was inserted within a wider range of communications system, which had to cross the Apennines.
Probably due to this strategic position, the site - a fortified sanctuary area - was occupied for a long period of time, which at the present time is documented at least from the 7th to the 1st century BC.
Systematic research in the area was initiated by the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of Tuscany in the years 1991-1996; from 1999 to 2015 they were taken over by the Municipality of Carmignano, under the concession scheme.
The top of the hill is enclosed by a wall that has an approximately calculable linear development of about 360 meters, now visible for a stretch on the west and south sides. It is about 2.90 meters wide, has an external and an internal facing in polygonal work with a small device and, in various points of the stretch under investigation, it is preserved for about 2 meters in height. Its construction is located in a post-archaic horizon.