The Fibula of Montieri. Archeological studies at the church of San Niccolo and the discovery of a medieval jewel

The fibula under examination in the present article was found during recent archeological excavations in the area of Canonica, near Montieri (Grosseto), carried out by the Medieval Archeology staff of Siena University. The parish church, dedicated to San Niccolo, was linked to the bishop of Volterra in the same way as the nearby castle of Montieri. The religious complex consisted of a church with six apses situated within an enclosure that incorporated an open space overlooked by two long buildings and a smaller construction. The church was built in the first half of the XIth century. In the layer of earth where the building's foundations were laid, a small circular hole was made where the fibula was deposited. The uniqueness of the archeological discovery is given by the fact of finding the fibula where it had originally been laid. The chronology of the church's construction, established by indicators drawn from archeological stratigraphy, provides further confirmation of the dating attributed to the fibula. Indeed, considering the context of the jewel's discovery and its characteristics in terms of form and style, the piece can be dated to the first half of the XIth century. It would be reasonable to suppose that the Fibula of Montieri, which has similarities with brooches coming from Italy and northern Europe, was the creation of a goldsmith active in an Italian centre in the service of patrons of very high social rank. The owner could have been either a man or a woman, a layman or a man of the church. In addition to the analysis of a purely historical and artistic nature, the present paper also explains the production methods and archeometric analyses carried out on the piece.