Gala in Gaiole: For a museum of the origins of Chianti

Conversation with Professor Nancy de Grummond

By Cameron Pfister

As the wind strengthens, blowing down brown and red leaves from hilltop trees, Florida State University students work diligently to weed and sweep the mossy stone walls of Cetamura. Cetamura, located in the green rolling hills of Chianti, has the ancient remnants of Etruscan, Roman, and medieval settlers.

The students, mostly undergraduates, are under the guidance of archaeologist and FSU Professor Nancy de Grummond, who has been excavating the Tuscany site with the university since the early 1980s.

When asked which artifact stood out the most, personally, de Grummond decided on the bronze head of a feline that was attached to an Etruscan bucket, due to its visual appeal and state of high preservation.

“The head looks like a lion,” says the archaeologist, “but since it is spotted, it is hard for us to tell exactly what type of cat it is supposed to be.”

Among all the thrills Cetamura has offered throughout the years, the most exhilarating find for the director was a votive, or offering, pit with the offerings still within it. De Grummond explained that the 2006 discovery completely altered her view on the ancient village.

Professor Nancy de Grummond (center) with her students in Gaiole in Chianti.

“This let us know that a large sanctuary stood here,” de Grummond says. “We had been working the site for years and had no idea until we found that.”

Despite the treasures Cetamura has revealed, the site is not without its negative aspects.

“The worst experience,” de Grummond says, “would have to be having really bad weather. We have been very lucky as to not have had any terrible accidents. Only poor conditions that have caused us to waste time and equipment that could have been spent digging.”

De Grummond took the helm of the excavation in 1983, and though it was intended to be only a temporary position, the rewarding and intriguing nature of the work saw her retain the position for more than three decades.

I was only supposed to be here for three years,”

she says, “but the work was so satisfying that I stayed.”

The wooded, hilltop site has produced a plethora of objects that allow scholars and Florida State excavators alike a clearer glimpse into the daily reality of Italy in antiquity. These range from golden statuettes, which the Etruscans may have utilized as idols, to ceramic pitchers that retained the water for the citizens of the Roman Empire.

Eventually, a permanent gallery displaying the artifacts uncovered by de Grummond and her students will be unveiled in the small town of Gaiole, near Cetamura. The meaning of the Gaiole museum to de Grummond cannot be overstated. After almost four decades of hard excavation, the director of the Cetamura dig is overjoyed to finally have the artifacts she and Florida State alumni have discovered on permanent display.

“The museum means a great deal to me,” de Grummond says. “It will be like the completing of a cycle. Countless hours of hard work will be shown to the public.”

On December 7, 2018, students of the Florida State Florence Program, including those with firsthand experience at Cetamura del Chianti, accompanied de Grummond to a celebratory dinner to commemorate almost 40 years of dedication on the part of Florida State University and its staff.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2018 issue of ItaliaNoles, a student-run publication based at FSU’s Florence campus, and has been edited for style.

The museum in the town of Gaiole, Italy, that will house artifacts uncovered by Professor Nancy de Grummond and her students.