Exhibition dates: June 24-September 18, 2022

Cetamura once again took the spotlight for an exhibition in Italy.  The innovative exhibition, Romans in Chianti/I Romani nel Chianti, on view in Gaiole in Chianti from June 24 until September 18, 2022, features some of the most important discoveries in the Chianti region that reveal the presence of Romans in the area. 

Along with antiquities from Castellina in Chianti and San Marcellino in Monti, finds from Cetamura were put on display to show several aspects of Romanization: the gradual integration of Etruscans and Romans in the third and second centuries BCE, and the particular striking moment when a Roman veteran took possession of land at Cetamura and buried his pay (ca. 28-27 BCE) from fighting the campaign of Octavian (Augustus), against Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

The overall coordinator of the exhibition is archaeologist Marco Firmati, who has been named by the Comune of Gaiole as director of the new museum to be housed in the former Cantine of the Ricasoli winery in the heart of the town of Gaiole.  The inauguration of the building as the Museo alle Origini del Chianti (Museum at the Origins of Chianti) is scheduled for June of 2023, to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of the first excavations by Florida State University at Cetamura in 1973.  

The show opened under the aegis of the Comune of Gaiole in Chianti (Mayor Michele Pescini and Vice Mayor Emanuele Giunti), working in collaboration with the Florida State University Study Center in Florence (Director Frank Nero) and the overarching entity of the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti, e Paesaggio per le Province di Siena, Grosseto e Arezzo.  

With permission from the Superintendant Gabriele Nanneti, the antiquities were set in a display designed by Gabriella Carpentiero, newly appointed as inspector for the site of Cetamura. She incorporated graphic designs made in 2018 by Henry Olstein, an advanced student in Florence at the time at Studio Arts College International (SACI) in Florence. 

Nora Marosi, professor for archaeology and conservation at FSU, supervised the cleaning and display of ancient objects relevant for the theme of Romans in Chianti.  Nancy de Grummond of FSU is overseer of the Cetamura components with Jessica Rassau and A.J. Flores as assistants for curation.  The archaeological cooperative of Ichnos, from Montelupo Fiorentino (president, Francesco Cini) provided crucial support in transport of antiquities and creating display elements of the show. The day after the opening, expert researcher Lora Holland Goldthwaite gave a lecture on the context of the Romans and the coins found at Cetamura, with a presentation in the museum auditorium on “A Roman Veteran at Cetamura del Chianti.” 

The Treasure of Chianti, a small pot once filled with 194 silver coins (denarii and quinarii) , displayed in 2021 in Siena at the Museo di  Santa Maria della Scala, now has entered into the new museum at Gaiole, along with the electronic kiosk that allows for exploration of beautiful 3-D photographs of thirty of the most interesting and important coins in the collection, made by Jacopo Mazzoni and Nora Marosi in collaboration with Lora Holland Goldthwaite, University of North Carolina at Asheville.