A port city on the Adriatic founded in the late sixth century BC. The six-hectare settlement probably consisted of wooden structures set between embankments and canals on a regular plan. The cemeteries (mainly fossa tombs) were set on sand dunes to the north and east of the city. These contained much Attic pottery, Etruscan bronzework, and ivory and gold jewelry. The city is recorded to have founded a treasury at Delphi, giving some indication of its importance as a trading settlement. Its Etruscan identity is given credence by the presence of Etruscan inscriptions in both the settlement and cemetery, including tular or boundary inscriptions that may suggest that Spina was on the Etruscan frontier.
Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans. Simon K. F. Stoddart.