Home to the grave goods of the Umbrian–Etruscan Necropolis of the San Lorenzo Valley
In the heart of Tenaglie, the Tenaglie Archaeological Antiquarium – AMAT is more than a museum: it is a gateway to Montecchio’s ancient landscape.
Here, finds become voices that speak of borders, exchanges and memory; they lead you through olive groves and ravines to the San Lorenzo Valley, where the sandy bedrock (matile) guarded for centuries the lives and deaths of a frontier community. The collections come mainly from the local necropoleis and narrate the shared fabric of Etruscans and Umbrians between the 7th and 4th centuries BCE, while in the background one can glimpse the probable ancient settlement at Copio, a natural node between ridges and waterways.
The building—once the village school with an olive press on the lower floors—is today a key place to understand the archaeological landscape of Montecchio and the Amerini: a visit that turns into a story, weaving objects, contexts and territorial maps.
Straddling the municipalities of Montecchio and Baschi, the necropolis stretches for almost 2 km along the San Lorenzo and Raiano streams, with another nucleus at Podere di Copio II (Citernino).
The rock-cut chamber tombs are carved into matile (friable sandstone), often preceded by open-air corridors. The first phase dates to the late 7th c. BCE and the site reaches full development in the 6th c. BCE; it was initially marked by Faliscan–Capenate and Sabine influences, then by the cultural radiation of nearby Orvieto (Velzna) along trade routes on the Tiber. In the 4th c. BCE usage declines and grave goods become poorer. The site was identified in the mid-19th century (reported by Domenico Golini), later forgotten; from the 1970s the Superintendency resumed surveys and systematic excavations. The necropolis was probably connected to an ancient settlement at Copio.
A narrative of a unique landscape of olive-clad hills and woodlands crossed by nature trails leading to promontories and ruins from the Hellenistic and Imperial Roman periods; a land rich in food & wine traditions.
Identified by Domenico Golini in the 19th century, it documents Italic communities between the 7th and 4th c. BCE: rock-cut tombs that reveal daily life and funerary rites of Etruscan and Umbrian groups, with strong architectural development.
Dating to the 6th–5th c. BCE, it contained the remains of five children with a domestic-oriented assemblage (kitchen tools, food containers). Orientation, materials and workmanship indicate high status within a context influenced by Etruscan and Umbrian traditions.
6th–4th c. BCE, belonging to an elite Etruscan family. A square chamber with three rock-hewn couches, in dialogue with the culture of Velzna (Orvieto). A male assemblage with bucchero (kantharoi, oinochoai), iron fibulae, spears and knives—markers of prestige and of exchanges between Etruscan and Umbrian worlds.
“Cities of the dead” mirror those of the living: hypogea and tumuli for the elites; rituals with banquets and offerings (eggs, pomegranates) as symbols of rebirth. Strong Etruscan religious roots with Greek influences in the imagery of the afterlife.
2017 investigations in the necropolis: a two-chamber, rock-cut structure with rich materials (bucchero, metals) and long funerary use. It confirms Montecchio as a hub between Etruria and the Adriatic for trade and culture.
After visiting AMAT—and a few photos from the terrace overlooking Carnano and Montecchio—it’s time to step into the village to discover its lanes and the imposing Palazzo at the centre of this unique micro-world.
Umbro-Etruscan frontier land, land of contested castles, land of a landscape shaped by silent hamlets and rolling hills of olive, oak and chestnut trees.
Fondo Europeo Agricolo per lo Sviluppo Rurale: L’Europa investe nelle zone rurali
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
