Trebbio (Sansepolcro, AR). An Italic settlement in the borderland between northern Etruria and Umbria

Archaeological excavations conducted by the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Siena in Trebbio di Sansepolcro (Sansepolcro, province of Arezzo) contributed significantly to the knowledge of a large Italic settlement of the 8th-6th century BC located on left bank of the Tiber River. It is a nucleated or proto-urban settlement, in all probability artificially fortified, which is located on the flat land close to the river. The study of his topographical features and the rich data of its material culture, including many ceramics and metal objects, offer a new image of a 'frontier' settlement with specific cultural traits, closer to the Middle Adriatic contexts than to the Etruscan ones. On the base of this evidence, and through comparisons with other sites in the vicinity, the authors argue that the upper course of the Tiber River between the Late Iron Age and the Orientalizing Age/Early Archaism played the role of a fluid geographical border between different socio-political and ethnic entities, indicated in later classical sources as Etruscans and Umbrians.