«Ubi dicitur Millano». Archeologia e storia di un sito d’altura nella valle dell’Egola (San Miniato, PI)

This paper presents the results of the first archaeological excavation of the site of Migliana, located South-West of the town of San Miniato (Pisa). The illustration of the stratigraphic sequence and the finds is shown with the analysis of the written sources and the discussion of the data from the field survey in the Egola valley. The site called “Millano” is mentioned for the first time in the first half of the 10th century, when it was recalled as a curticella domnicata linked to the nearby center of the curtis of Corazzano, owned by the bishop of Lucca. In the same area the Castle of Scopetulo, owned by the Gherardeschi family, who also had other castles in the same valley, was mentioned starting in the early 11th century. During the archaeological excavation we uncovered part of a village with houses in earth and brick and with silos for the storage of agricultural products, built in the late 12th century and already partially abandoned in the late 13th century. Although we were not able to identify the site with one of the settlements known from written sources, the village is particularly interesting as it seems to reflect the fate of a territory whose fortune depended heavily on its central place, the castle of San Miniato: the settlement grew economically and demographically when San Miniato became the seat of imperial power and entered a phase of crisis when the attempt of Frederick II to assert his hegemony over central Italy failed, well before the great black plague of the 14th century.