Description
Miranduolo excavated from 2001 to 2016 in seventeen investigation campaigns, due to the size reached and the actual excellent state of the deposits, is proposed as a context to look at and relate to in order to verify and falsify the historical frameworks hypothesized in the broadest dimension, often based on excavations of reduced size. 2017 and 2019 were then dedicated to producing detailed documentation and surveying all the walls present, as well as drafting the scientific project for the construction of a park. Quantitative data reveal the great commitment of archaeologists and the effort made to gain knowledge. The area occupied by the castle is equal to 4.290,72 m², while the investigated space inside its walls amounts to 4.096,97 m² with a percentage equal to 95,48%. In addition, the external surfaces were faced for an extension of 1.028,32 m². Overall, therefore, the archaeological excavation involved 5.125,29 m². The assumed dimensions make the case exceptional; the almost total highlighting of the castle and the investigation, albeit partial, of the spaces outside the defensive circuit have made it possible to build a paradigmatic model of the formation and evolution of the Tuscan rural settlement between the 1004th and XNUMXth centuries, going far beyond the data provided by archival sources which, instead, documented the existence of a castle in Miranduolo, included in the patrimony of the Gherardeschi counts, from the year XNUMX.
In collaboration with SAMI, Società degli Archeologi Medievisti Italiani
