Populonia (LI). Trasformazioni urbanistiche, vita quotidiana e fine della città (II-metà I sec. a.C.). Ricerche archeologiche nell’area dell’acropoli, 2023-24

Starting in 2023, thanks to a three-year excavation permit, new archaeological excavations are being carried out on the acropolis of Populonia (Parco Archeologico di Baratti e Populonia - Livorno, Italy). These investigations focus on the sector at the foot of the large building complex known as the “Logge”, a probable sanctuary built on the highest terrace of the slope on which the ancient city develops. Three excavation areas are investigated: 1) the road running at the foot of the buttressing wall, from which a context related to the construction site of the Logge is emerging; 2) the large paved road, perpendicular to the previous one and corresponding to Populonia's major thoroughfare; and 3) some rooms of a large aristocratic domus. All these contexts relate to the last two centuries of urban life at Populonia (2nd-1st centuries B.C.), a city that started to decline with the siege of Sulla, or shortly thereafter, and was abandoned by the Augustan period except for the temples. Excavations are clarifying that, across this chronological span, Populonia underwent major urban transformations, contemporary with the period of the Social War and the civil wars. At the same time, important daily-life contexts are coming to light underneath the collapsed structures of the domus, the destruction of which was caused by a fire that most likely occurred during a siege of the city in the second quarter of the first century BCE