The town of Marzabotto was a new foundation in the northern area taken over by the Etruscans in the late 6th century BC. It was laid out following traditional ritual rules, to which it conformed more thoroughly than most Etruscan towns, which had generally grown up from earlier settlements.
On its north-west lay the Arx, or acropolis, the sacred area from which the ritual observations and calculations would have been made in order to plan the city's layout. Here were built altars and temples.
Further shrines and cemeteries lay on the north and east. The town was divided into residential blocks containing seven or eight brick-built houses with tiled roofs, grouped around a courtyard.
Industrial workshops were located in several parts of the town, manufacturing pottery, tiles, bricks, iron tools and bronze statuettes.
An elaborate water system served the town, channels providing a number of houses with water from a central cistern and drains carrying away waste: such excellent hydraulic engineering was typical of the Etruscans, who also built Rome's Cloaca Maxima ('Great Drain').
The town was sacked by the Gauls in the 4th century BC and never rebuilt: hence it preserves intact the layout of an Etruscan town, unlike many which continued in occupation and were modified down the centuries.
