An eye trained to look at architectural forms has no difficulty in identifying the typical budding style of the Chianti. It all began in the Middle Ages and continued to develop in the following centuries. Yet these lands were inhabited by the Etruscans and life was also intense and stable in the long period of Roman civilization. However, very little has survived from that long span of time and maybe a great deal has still to be discovered.
Let us stop at Cetamura, probably together with Castellina, the most extensive center of Etruscan Chianti civilization. It is an important site which also includes the nearby localities of Sestaccia and Campi. The gate of Cetamura is still standing. It seems to be the setting for a play that wll never take place, a stone gate surrounded by the country- side. A stone gate is all that remains of the medieval settlement and the castle. This is Cetannura today. However, recent excavations in which archaeologists from Florida University also took part, made it possible for us to write the history of the settlement, one of the oldest of ll the Etruscan Chianti. In this settlement which survived unto Roman times, a small quarter for craftsmen was brought to light, dating back to the 3rd-2nd century B.C. where there was a small furnace for baking bricks and tees. This implied that clay was used as a building material in the Chianti long before the advent of Christ. Archaeological research is still active throughout this region which goes to prove that we are only at the beginning of this Important return to the past. However, a lack of visible documentation stimulates the imagination. This isolated but magnificent entrance to the countryside is sufficient for us to dedicate our attention to a people that no longer exists and to their daily life.
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See Also:

Suddenly, A Roman Bridge, Florentine Castles, Echoes of the Benedictines

or go back to The Origins of Chianti: The Journey Begins