A small site on the eastern edge of modern Viareggio, San Rocchino occupies what was once the shore of a vast coastal lagoon, of which only Lake Massaciuccoli remains. Excavated between the 1960s and early 1970s, it reveals a story of intermittent use from the Final Bronze Age through the Villanovan period, followed by two more sustained phases of occupation.
The first, from the late 8th to mid 5th century BCE, saw the settlement built up on terraced fill. To the Archaic period, in the second half of the 6th century, belong the remains of four wooden huts and associated port infrastructure. The second phase, from the late 4th to the 3rd or 2nd century BCE, ended in destruction by fire.
San Rocchino’s significance lies in its far-flung commercial contacts. Ceramics from South Etruria, Nuraghic Sardinia, Phoenicia, Attica, and the East Greek world, along with Aegean transport amphorae, speak to a lively trade network. Locally made impasto and bucchero, bearing Etruscan graffiti, confirm a primarily Etruscan presence at this lagoon-edge outpost.
Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.
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