- Matteo Milletti –
linked to Rome by treaties of privileged partnership as early as the late fourth century bc
(Miletti, Pitzalis forthcoming), is still an important pole of attraction up to the fi rst half
of the third century bc and Aleria represents one of the main “gateways” of access to it. If,
for example, it is likely through Populonia that black-gloss pottery arrives in Corsica from
the atelier des petites estampilles Group (Romualdi 1992), we assume the reverse path for at
least a substantial part of the Punic and Iberian pottery that occurs in signifi cant analogy
in the necropoleis of both Casabianda and Populonia. To the end of the fourth century
bc are dated the oldest fi nds on the peninsula of peignée-type ceramics, a production run
of vases, with a unique morphology mainly restricted to jugs and jars, identifi ed by the
treatment of the raw surfaces with an instrument like a comb, as well as by the use of
asbestos as a degreaser in the production of the island (Jehasse 1973; Rizzitelli et al.
2003; Paolini-Saez 2012; Acconcia, Milletti 2011). Its distribution on the peninsula is
interesting, in the present state of our knowledge, the Tyrrhenian district of Populonia,
where a signifi cant concentration of imitations is attested (Pallecchi 2001), and all the
way to Pisa. On the contrary, as regards Corsican bronze production, we note the limited
movement in Etruria of the types of objects more peculiar to the island’s production, such
as the so-called plume pendants (Fig. 13.5), with a few examples of fi bulae of Corsican type
(Fig. 13.6), similar in style to the Certosa type (Fig. 13.7) and confi rmed in Corsica from
at least the second quarter of the fi fth until the end of the third century bc (Acconcia,
Milletti 2011 with references). The gradual decay of Aleria during the second half of the
third century bc, indicated by the low standard of material deposited in the tombs, is
perhaps connected with the events related to the Roman conquest (259 bc) and the crisis
of its main intermediary in Etruria, Populonia, that, starting from the second half of
the third century bc, is experiencing a period of recession, from which, however, it will
recover by the end of the century (Romualdi 1996).
Figure 13.5 Cagnano, pendant of “plume” type (Museo Archeologico, Florence).