- chapter 13: Etruria and Corsica –
island of Elba (Zecchini 2001). In Corsica, in particular, the practice of inhumation with
collective ritual is virtually exclusive until the height of the Archaic period and remains
clearly predominant in the following centuries (Milanini 1996, 2006; David 2001;
Milletti 2012a), with the sole exception, for historical reasons to which we will return
later, of the area of Aleria. The Tuscan Archipelago therefore fi gures as one of the crucial
hubs of the traffi c between northern Etruria and the major islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea,
and its early entry into the orbit of Populonia must have secured for this area the role of
privileged intermediary, along with Vetulonia, in relations with Corsica and Sardinia, for
the entire First Iron Age (Bartoloni 1991, Fedeli, Galiberti, Romualdi 1993; Bartoloni
2004; Acconcia, Milletti 2009; Acconcia, Milletti 2011; Bartoloni forthcoming).
CORSICA BETWEEN THE SEVENTH AND THE
FIRST HALF OF THE SIXTH CENTURY BC:
A PERIOD DIFFICULT TO READSerious gaps in the documentation prevent a reliable reading of the development of
Corsican civilization in the centuries immediately preceding the arrival of Phocaean
colonists in Aleria. What little information we have, however, allows us to hypothesize
modalities of occupation of the land similar to those of previous centuries and to see
clear evidence of continuity in relations with the mainland and especially with Etruria.
Some collective tombs on the east coast of the island, such as those of Cagnano, Luri in
Cap Corse (Chantre 1901; Romagnoli 1912), “La Teppa” of Lucciana, Vallecalle near
present-day Bastia (Magdeleine, Milleliri, Ottaviani 2003), or dell’Ordinacciu, Solaro
(Lanfranchi, Weiss 1975), just north of the river Solenzara, in fact, have produced, along
with a mass of material dating from the mid-sixth century bc to at least the mid-third
century bc, a fair number of the oldest imported bronzes, among which we note some
fi bulae (Jehasse 1987; Lechenault 2012) and other ornaments, which demonstrate that
dialogue with Tyrrhenian Etruria never stopped and that, at the same time, there was a
certain openness to contacts with central-European areas (Lechenault 2011). However,
in large parts of the interior of the island, such as the Alta Rocca region in the southern
portion of Corsica, we can detect the extreme scarcity of imported materials, and the
apparent persistence of forms of settlement and land-use similar to those of previous
centuries, which agree well with the local material culture, especially in the pottery,
which is still tied to that of the Iron Age, with an apparently limited circulation of
metals, and an especially fl ourishing lithic industry.
THE FOUNDATION OF ALERIA AND RELATIONS WITH
ETRURIA FROM THE ARCHAIC PERIOD TO
THE ROMAN CONQUEST (259 BC)The situation changed substantially after the middle decades of the sixth century bc,
when, according to literary sources (Jehasse 2003), colonists from Phocaea, founded in
565 bc following an oracular response, the city of Aleria/Alalia (Herodotus 1.165) on the
east coast of Corsica (Κύρνος), perhaps on an existing native settlement (Jehasse, Jehasse
1973; Gran-Aymerich, Jehasse 2006). The city’s name is of uncertain etymology, if derived
from the war cry αλαλή (Gras 1997, 2000), a hypothesis that now seems to fi nd greater
consensus, άλς from the Greek word “salt” (Jehasse 1962) or from a local word (Jehasse,