Necropoli di Dometaia

Etruscan necropolis about 4 km from Colle di Val d’Elsa with chamber tombs from the Archaic and Hellenistic periods, partly restored and open to visitors.

Opening hours unknown

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About the museum

The Etruscan necropolis of Dometaia lies about four kilometres south-east of Colle di Val d’Elsa, near a small group of farmhouses. The first finds were recorded in the 19th century, but much of the material recovered at the time was lost, and only part of it later ended up in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Siena.

In 1972 the Gruppo Archeologico Colligiano was authorised to clear some tombs that were already known: between 1972 and 1978, sixteen chamber tombs were identified and cleared, which yielded few finds. In 1994 Tomb no. 17 was discovered by chance, and fragments from it made it possible to reassemble some vases and a gold earring with a feline protome. Study of the tombs has shown that the necropolis, extending from Buliciano to Poggio ai Colli, is larger and older than previously thought.

The largest underground chambers, with a complex plan, a central vestibule and rooms with benches, reproduce the Archaic house and were used as aristocratic family tombs from the 6th century BC onwards; the simpler tombs belonged to lower social classes and date between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. In 1998 the Comune, the Soprintendenza and the Gruppo Archeologico Colligiano launched a project for an easily accessible archaeological park, restoring and opening up the first four tombs. The finds from the first sixteen tombs are displayed in the Museo Archeologico “Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli” in Colle di Val d’Elsa.