Danish Studies in Classical Archaeology ACTA HYPERBOREA 16 Approaches to Ancient Etruria Mette Moltesen & Annette Rathje (eds.) © Collegium Hyperboreum and Museum Tusculanum Press, 2022 Managing editor: Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen Layout and typesetting: Erling Lynder Image editing: Janus Bahs Jacquet and Erling Lynder Cover: Thora Fisker and Janus Bahs Jacquet Revision of English texts: Nicola Gray Set with Garamond Printed in Denmark by Tarm Bogtryk a|s ISBN 978 87 635 4697 3 DOI https://doi.org/10.55069/llw75521 Danish Studies in Classical Archaeology. Acta Hyperborea 16 ISSN 0904 2067 Collegium Hyperboreum Niels Bargfeldt, Kristine Bøggild Johannsen, Mette Moltesen, Jane Hjarl Petersen, Birte Poulsen, Annette Rathje, Eva Rystedt & Knut Ødegård c/o The Saxo Institute, Section of Classical Archaeology, University of Copenhagen Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK – 2300 Copenhagen S Cover illustration: Tomba dell’Orco II, Tarquinia (360–330 BC). The back wall: The three-headed Geryoneus, Persephone and Hades. Facsimile 1897, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek H.I.N. 126 (adapted photo). Photo: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. This book has been published with financial support from The Carlsberg Foundation Published and distributed by Museum Tusculanum Press Rådhusvej 19 DK – 2920 Charlottenlund www.mtp.dk Danish Studies in Classical Archaeology ACTA HYPERBOREA 16 Approaches to Ancient Etruria Edited by Mette Moltesen & Annette Rathje Museum Tusculanum Press 2022 CONTENTS Mette Moltesen, Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen & Annette Rathje: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Lars Karlsson: San Giovenale: A Terramare Foundation . . . . . . . . 19 Ingrid Edlund-Berry: With a Sense of Place and Time: The Use of Mouldings in Etrusco-Italic and Republican Roman Architecture . . 33 Annette Rathje: Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Liv Carøe & Sofie Ahlén: The Life and Death of Thesathei: A Reinterpretation of the Tragliatella Oinochoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Nora Margherita Petersen: The Underworld in the Late Orientalizing Period: A Unique Representation on a Bronze Plate from Tomb XI at Colle del Forno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 J. Rasmus Brandt: Masks in Etruscan Tombs: A Ritual Reading . . 155 Ingela Wiman: Taming the Wilderness: Etruscan Images of Nature 191 Cecilie Brøns: To the Sound of Music: Approaching the Ancient Sonic Experience of Etruscan Art and Iconography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Matilde Marzullo: Collegare mondi: un particolare impiego dello spazio tombale in prospettiva escatologica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Laura Nazim: Leichenspiele auf dem Magistratensarkophag aus der Tomba dei Sarcofagi in Cerveteri? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Helle Salskov Roberts: Archaic Etruscan Dedications to a Rarely Mentioned Divinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Marjatta Nielsen: Binding Etruria together through Marriage Alliances: La donna è mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Sofie Heiberg Plovdrup: Facing Problems of Etruscan Portraiture: Approach, Theory and Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 Bjarne Purup: Forged and Reproduced Etruscan Mirrors: A Study of four Etruscan Mirrors in Thorvaldsen’s Collection . . . . . 373 Kristine Bøggild Johannsen: Bertel Thorvaldsen and the Study of Ancient Etruria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 IMAGES, IMAGERY AND PERCEPTION IN EARLY ETRUSCAN SOCIETIES Annette Rathje Images were invented before writing; images facilitate memory as they can be stored whereas spoken words cannot, and one of the reasons for writing was the growing need for storage.1 Among mammals, humankind is the only image-maker. Thus, images constitute an anthropological phenomenon, present many thousands of years before writing. In his article about homo pictor, Hans Jonas states that “the artifacts of animals have a direct physical use in the promotion of vital ends, such as nutrition, reproduction and hibernation”.2 Think of the paradise birds: the males compete to build the nests, and the females choose the finest nest and not the finest male. We have learnt that in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), but we could, rather, also say: in the beginning was the image. An object or an image can function as a materialized metaphor with no need of words, and we have nonverbal narratives. Images may depict and objects may refer to visual narratives.3 What is an image? Together with the semiotic philosopher Charles S. Peirce, I suggest an image to be a figurative representamen: an image is a figurative representation, which in some respect or capacity means something to someone.4 Representation is defined as a substitution for reality, and as an imitation of reality.5 Thus, images are iconographic documents. By studying the human use of objects in various contexts, we might be able to reach imaginary contexts, whether ritualized or not. Images are powerful. In the preface to her study on Etruscan religion, Nancy de Grummond eloquently stated that we must forego studying Etruscan myth as a reflexion of Greek mythology: “There is a tendency to turn away from and ignore the representations that cannot be explained easily”, and she urges us to “start with the images themselves.”6 I took up that challenge when treating a group of vessels in which an image has been integrated with the function of the object: out-turned human figures in the round used for 81 Annette R athje handles or handle-tops, underlining “eye contact” when pouring. Referring to the power of their bodies, I have suggested their use for specific rites in connection with the rites de passage from being a living person to being dead in the otherworld.7 When dealing with the culture of images in Antiquity, the Greek-Roman culture is often emphasized at the expense of others.8 However, images are relevant to all cultures, although they are not always what they seem to be. Modern humans are used to seeing all sorts of visual representations; pictures surround us in an extreme complexity, with or without any context. It could be argued that we are overfed with images and therefore are not receptive to them any more – or at least to a lesser extent. This article is not meant to be a theoretical contribution on imagery, or to follow an ongoing transdisciplinary debate.9 I take it from the “bottom up” by discussing material culture empirically, dealing with images on objects, objects as images and simulacra from funerary, that is sacred, contexts. In Peircian terms, I focus on a certain kind of representation in some specific “respect or capacity”. When studying ancient societies, we must bear in mind that their images contained a contextual meaning when they were produced, as well as a meaning in the minds of the viewers. Images are constructions and they were meant to express and arouse emotions. To understand images, you must comprehend the mentality of the period in question so as to be able to decode consciously-chosen metaphors and messages. We must trace the imaginary and its reality, the image producing processes, internal and external, mental and factual, as they are embedded in a historical-cultural course. As archaeologists, we must highlight the archaeological potential of many forms of visual representation, and analyze the use of images and their meanings in past societies in order to come closer to the reality of the imaginary. Premises This contribution is a work in progress,10 an attempt to realize how much we can squeeze from the evidence of images from a specific cultural context – that of the early Etruscans. Most of what we have come to know about the Etruscans has been obtained through painstaking archaeological studies. These people tell us very little about themselves. We have no literature, no historical record and no philosophy from their hand; all we have is the selective evidence from other peoples, in casu the Greeks and the Romans. 82 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies When dealing with these statements we always have to ask which specific Etruscans, in time and space, are intended, described and analyzed? And by whom? And why? Nevertheless, we do not classify the Etruscans as being illiterate. When is a society literate? The Etruscan societies could be defined as both illiterate and literate, depending on time and context, and there is much evidence that has been lost.11 The meaning of images is intelligible only with great difficulty when explanatory texts are missing, as is the case with the early Etruscan society, and a specific visual representation can have several meanings. Henry David Thoreau allegedly put it thus: “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”12 The brain creates what you see of the reality (the seen reality); the experience of sight is a complicated process in which the brain combines information from the eyes with experiences stored in networks between billions of nerve cells. Images on objects The first examples of figurative images from the early Etruscans are found on Villanovan bronze and ceramic objects. Bronze scabbards and razors show representations of deer hunting with schematical figures. The different hands of artisans can be recognized, although the animals cannot always be easily defined (Figs. 1–2).13 A bronze sword with its scabbard was found in a warrior’s tomb at Tarquinia. It was engraved with a series of panels in a geometric decoration (Figs. 1a– 2a).14 We see a man pointing a spear at a short-legged animal. Hugh Hencken suggests it represents a wild boar; I would suggest, rather, a fox. Then follows a panel with a dear and a hound. The next panel shows two more deer, while the last panel contains an ornament formed as a very naturalistic leaf. I prefer to see a boar in the bristly furred animal on another scabbard that is being pierced from the front by a man and attacked in its behind by a dog (Figs. 1b–2b).15 The same kind of animal is seen on the lid of an urn from Pontecagnano near Salerno,16 unless the animal is a hybrid. Another scabbard, also from Pontecagnano (Figs. 1d–2d), shows three panels representing animals of the forest, a stag with two hounds, followed by two pairs of deer.17 If the hunter is absent, is this representation an abbreviation for a hunting scene? Quite another scene is represented on yet another scabbard from Pontecagnano (Figs. 1c–2c): a man holds his spear in his right hand in a horizontal position, with the spearhead pointing away from the stag at his side.18 His left arm is bent and ends 83 Annette R athje a) b) c) d) e) f) Fig. 1 and 2 Hunting and forest scenes on scabbards and razors. (Drawings by Thora Fisker, adapted from Bianco Peroni 1970; 1979 and Gastaldi 1998). a Bianco Peroni 1970, 85 no.209; b Bianco Peroni 1970, 88–89 no.228; c Gastaldi 1998, 43 fig.29; d Bianco Peroni 1970, 84 no.206; e Bianco Peroni 1979, 70 no.363; f Bianco Peroni 1979, 127 no.746 84 at the mouth of the animal. Behind the stag, a dog is seen with an upturned tail. It looks as if the man is caressing the stag, thus reminding us of the representation on the painting in the pediment of the back wall in the Tomb of the Painted Lions at Cerveteri (Fig. 3).19 Here, a man is seen between two standing lions, with his arms around their necks – not like the well- Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies a) b) c) d) e) f) known Near Eastern scheme of the “master of the animals”,20 but caressing them, rather, as equals. On a bronze razor from Bologna, we discern a man (?)21 (without his head and with a strange bough-like right arm) who is armed with a bow and who seems to have lassoed a stag (Figs. 1f–2f). On the other side of this object is represented an axe with a bent shaft. Images of axes like this have been found on razors from Bologna, Terni, Fermo, Tarquinia and Veii, while hunting scenes are mostly known from Tarquinia and Bologna.22 An 85 Annette R athje Fig. 3 Tomba dei Leoni Dipinti, Cerveteri. Watercolour by M. Baroso (1910–1913). (After Steingräber 1985, pl. 187). example from Vetulonia (Figs. 1e–2e) shows (from the right) a man aiming at a stag with his bow; in front of the stag a hind is looking back while another hind and a young deer are heading forwards.23 These razors, as functional objects, are seen as belonging to the rites de passage from puberty to adulthood.24 The hunter is met again on the impasto helmet/urn lid from Pontecagnano, in which the man is seen with legs wide apart between a stag and a boar (?) and raising his spear.25 Representations of deer are also found connected to women, as stags appear on bronze belts found in high status female tombs at Veii, such as Tomb I 17, Quattro Fontanili.26 Thus, the meaning of these animals can be connected to aristocratic life, although we have no evidence of huntresses. In the case of the swords, we might understand that the rare examples with this kind of decoration evoke the warrior as a hunter. To my knowledge, there are no representations of fights on Etruscan scabbards, and evidently no hunt is shown where the hunter uses a sword. On the scabbards, he always uses a lance; on the razors, he is equipped with a bow and a lasso, the animals are woodland creatures, and one may ask if the leaf seen on the scabbard (Figs. 1a–2a) represents an abbreviation for a tree or trees or forest. Bows have not been found in the graves. Yet, battle scenes are found on jewellery, as seen on the gold fibula from Vulci in Munich.27 86 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies What kind of narrative are we dealing with? Probably the idea of a “Beyond”. The beings described can be human, hybrids, and/or divine, and they can be seen to be travelling to the “Other Side”. An eventual narrative is represented through the help of symbols and abbreviations.28 The hunt can refer to an “aristocratic” life style: hunting has always been a good exercise for warriors. However, the difficulty of identifying the beings shown could point to transition, and the idea of eternal hunts in the beyond cannot be excluded. Objects as images Let us look at the context of the Tarquinian tomb that contained the scabbard (Figs. 1a–2a). Two strikingly rich cremation burials, Poggio dell’Impiccato I (cist) and II (pit), are part of a small group distinguished from other tombs at the site by their position on the hill (they were probably family), and by the type of burials as the urns have been laid down and thus the urn/body is represented as if being inhumated, intended as a kind of pseudo-inhumation.29 Filippo Delpino has dedicated a thorough study to this phenomenon, reconstructing the placing of the different objects in the tombs from the notes of the excavator.30 The urn/body of the deceased (Fig. 4) was dressed with clothes traced with fibulae and ornaments made of gold sheet; probably the sword was placed around the belly of the urn, as the bronze rings and hooks seem to have belonged to a belt. The handle of the sword was at the right side of the urn. A necklace was around the neck of the urn, which was covered with a lavishly decorated crested bronze helmet. To the right of the body was a fine handled bronze cup, to the left a large shell of Charonia nofifera, used for making sounds, and a ritual vessel, a bronze pyxis with a chain for suspension.31 On the other side of the sword was the lance-head and tip of bronze, and at the feet impasto vessels for a commensality or “banquet”, and a double ritual vessel. The ceramics found were not distinguished from those from other tombs.32 An intertwined relationship between conception and representation is seen. The urn represents the deceased, the helmet the head of the warrior and perhaps the shell was meant to be used for blowing war signals. The ritual vessels and “banquet” equipment, together with the weapons, represent the eminent role and rank of the deceased. This is the mise en scène of an eminent warrior. The Poggio dell’Impiccato Tomb II (Fig. 5) gives us a different image. 87 Annette R athje The urn was dressed, as witnessed by the ornaments of gold sheet, and it was then placed between two highly decorated hemispherical bowls, of which the topmost one seems to represent a cap helmet. The decoration on the front represents eyes, nose and a mouth, thus forming a mask. Delpino Fig. 4 Poggio dell’Impicato I, Tarquinii. (After Delpino 2008, fig.5). 88 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies argues that the two bowls had been made expressly for the tomb, as they belong together. At the urn’s right is the lance-head and tip, at the left two impasto drinking cups. All the other objects, among which was a razor, were found inside the urn. The metaphor of the deceased has no need of Fig. 5 Poggio dell’impicato II, Tarquinii. (After Delpino 2008, fig.7). 89 Annette R athje symbols of role and rank, there is no need of sword, neither of “banquet”equipment, the urn=body has taken the space. The self-representation shows an aristocrat who had not won but probably inherited his power. Delpino connected these tombs with extraordinary inhumations placed inside the habitations, recalling the unifying values and persons of these societies.33 I would add that these urns are personal identifiers, as well as indication of membership of a group. I will now turn to the last part of the Iron Age, a period that bears witness to a veritable revolution in the actual spectrum of images. The contexts treated are still funerary and belonged to the highest echelons. Many of these tombs however, do not render, or did not render even when excavated, the total mise en scène. In the early Iron Age, few animals were represented, apart from the very rare hunting scenes mentioned above. The repertoire included birds, fish and horses, while a “new wave” of the late Iron Age, the so-called Orientalizing period (750–575 BCE) brings representations of fantastic and real animals, among which exotic felines are very common. The Etruscans made a clear distinction between the sizes and the fur of the various species. Probably fur, as well as live animals, were imported, together with exotic objects of precious metals, bronze, ivory, shells and textiles, which all characterize – or, rather, have become icons of – the circulation of goods in the Mediterranean in this period. In an attempt to contextualize the images,34 I have argued that the painted representations of felines in the tombs of this period represent escorts to the other world.35 Big cats are definitely the most popular motif. Out of eleven painted tombs, three also have representations of human figures, although they are rather schematic. The fact that objects can be understood as images makes it possible to expand the concept to the space of the tomb as such. The Tomb of the Painted Lions at Cerveteri (Fig. 3) shows parts of lions painted on the walls of the two lateral chambers as well as those of the “sala a pilastri”.36 In the right side-chamber, lions are seen moving towards the rear wall – that is, towards an image in the pediment that, at first sight, shows the familiar master of the beasts. However, here the man with legs wide apart and the standing or walking animals of the same size seem to be his equals, as it looks as if he is caressing them; no violence is shown, as in the well-known representations from the Near East. This representation could be interpret90 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies ed as a metaphor for triumph over death. Does the man belong to another sphere? Is he buried in the tomb? The Tomb of the Painted Animals, also at Cerveteri, represents a hunter with a bow, while the lions are preying upon a deer and a ram.37 Both this tomb and the Campana Tomb in Veii38 are painted in two panels, the paintings thus appearing like a tapestry.39 I shall leave aside the paintings in the Tomb of the Painted Animals as they, too, are blurred. As for the Campana Tomb (Fig. 6), I have chosen to believe that the drawing is genuine, as the single motives are known from elsewhere,40 being well aware that Delpino has argued that the colours were manipulated after the excavation.41 In the Campana Tomb the paintings covered the back wall of the first chamber, on either side of the opening to the inner chamber. This is the only tomb to have phytomorphic filling ornaments. These plant motifs clearly refer to the Near Eastern Tree of Life; in this case, however, they have been fragmented, filling the space between the humans and the animals, real or not. To the left, a small man is riding towards the opening; behind him a seated feline is looking back. Below this a lion is walking towards the opening, with its tongue hanging out. Beneath, a seated dog is turning its head against the lion; behind the dog, a small feline is seated with an upraised paw. To the right, another small man is riding towards the opening; a large person leads, carrying an axe over his left shoulder, a lictor, and behind him walks another large man who appears to be holding the horse. Behind the horseman, a hunting leopard is seen on the horse, and on the ground a dog is moving forward and turning its head back. On the lower panel, a winged sphinx is moving towards the opening; below, a smaller deer; and behind the sphinx is a sitting feline with forelegs raised looking out of the picture. All others are seen in profile. Felines and sphinx frame the two riders in a heraldic scheme, and the principle figures are all moving towards the opening or axis of the back chamber. Stephan Steingräber has rightly characterized this picture as an abstract and metaphoric figuration, “un linguaggio fantastico”.42 I see this image as the owner of the tomb, followed by a lictor on his way to “the other side”; the hunting leopard and the dogs refer to hunting, as we have seen in the examples from the early Iron Age mentioned above.43 The cult of the dead and the belief in another world is continued from the earlier Iron age. Feline escorts, which are powerful but never aggres91 Annette R athje Fig. 6 Tomba Campana, Veii. Copy made in 1897, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Copenhagen, Inv. No. 1604. (Museum photo). sive, might be compared to the figures of Vanth and Charu in later times.44 Surely they represent the liminal space between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It is a great pity that we do not have the grave goods from these tombs as this would have helped us to reconstruct the burials in their entirety. An image of the “in-between” comes from Tolle at Chianciano Terme in the territory of Chiusi, on an impasto situla from a chamber tomb of the 7th century BC.45 This vessel is decorated with reliefs on its sides 92 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies and on the lid (Fig. 7). The sides are covered with two rows of winged creatures with lion’s bodies; in the lower row, indefinable beings are seen, while the beings of the upper row have moulded, out-turned griffin heads. Moulded griffin heads are placed at the tails, so that these heads form a “wreath” around the vessel. Between the two rows, a figure resembling a human being with a very short tail climbs upwards on all fours, and he, like the creatures in the upper row, has an out-turned griffin head. On the lid, zoomorphic beings (griffins and centaurs?) are sitting, alternating 93 Annette R athje Fig. 7 Impasto situlashaped vase from Tolle, tomba 704, Museo Civico Archeologico Chianciano Terme. (Photo courtesy of G. Paolucci). with seated human beings with griffin heads – all have out-turned heads. They form a ring around a moulded water bird. Giulio Paolucci has interpreted this image as the figuration of a rite de passage, a transition from human existence to being in the other world. By being transformed into a hybrid animal, one is able to overcome this final transition.46 The waterfowl shows the way, an interpretation that is, to my mind, not improbable.47 It is interesting to compare this vessel with the moulded decoration on a cinerary urn from Montescudaio, in the territory of Volterra 48 (Fig. 8). On this impasto vessel, a bearded man is sitting on the handle looking outwards. His arms are outspread while his hands are placed on his knees. He wears a hat (indistinguishable, since the vessel is broken). On the lid, a man, 94 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies Fig. 8 Cinerary urn from Montescudaio, territory of Volterra, Museo Archeologico Nazionale Firenze, Inv. No. 82930. Su concessione del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze (Direzione regionale Musei della Toscana). seemingly the same person, is seated at a well-supplied table. He raises his right arm in a gesture, as if for a toast or a fill-up. A smaller woman stands at his side on a footstool, raising a fan with her right hand and holding up her left arm, too; since it is broken at the shoulder, we are missing her gesture/movement. Is she holding a jug, being about to serve, or has she just served him? At her left is a large, footed, mixing vessel for wine. Another large vessel seems to have broken off.49 These figures in the round represent one of the first banquet scenes in Etruria. We understand the man as the deceased, buried in the urn, so he has already passed the transitional, liminal zone and is now seated at the eternal meal on the other side. These two vessels, analyzed above, are rare examples of moulded renderings of the passage to the otherworld. 95 Annette R athje Another group shall also be included here. Etruscan tombs are interpreted as the dwellings of the dead with doors, windows, furniture like thrones, stools and beds; this is especially well known from Cerveteri and its territory. The tombs in the territory of Chiusi have left some special images of the dead, the so-called canopic urns, anthropomorphic cinerary urns, that bring to mind the burials from Tarquinia discussed at the beginning. For years, canopic urns of impasto were known mostly out of context and were valued as extraordinary museum pieces.50 New evidence from regular excavations of intact tombs has given us a valuable insight into a new corpus of these urns produced between 680/670– 580/570, firstly in single burials (mostly a ziro), and from 630/620 BC in family chamber tombs.51 The evolution of this kind of urn has been connected to figurative experiments in the area of Vulci.52 From the same Chiusine area, we have bronze urns with wooden heads covered with masks of gold foil and inlaid eyes of bone and amber, and evidently dressed and placed in the tombs seated at a banquet, as in the scene of the Montescudaio urn mentioned above. A fine example is from the undisturbed tomb Tumulo dei Morelli from Chianciano Terme, from about 600 BC.53 Characteristic for both types, the impasto and the bronze and poly-material urns, is the anthropomorphic rendering, and the fact that the urns were dressed. The heads of the canopic urns may be simply hemispheric;54 they may wear masks,55 have inlaid eyes,56 and faces rendered more or less naturally, either with or without hair, like the two urns from the tomb of Macchiapiana at Sarteano (Fig. 9). The female urn is placed on a throne of stone; she is wearing earrings and her baldness suggests that she wore a wig. Both urns from this tomb had moveable forearms placed in the band-handles on the shoulder of the vessel. The hands are held closed downwards as if holding perhaps a shaft in front of the body. In the museum the figure has been restored with an axe, showing the power of this woman.57 Many urns have arms; the urn from the a ziro burial Tomb 729 from Tolle (Fig. 10) has a hemispherical lid. However, the relief-like arms from the shoulder of the vessel, with fingers indicated, leave no doubt as to the human nature of it.58 The position of the hands varies from urn to urn. For the most part they are placed forward, on the “stomach”. One may notice the upturned, oversized thumbs on the urn from Tolle, Tomb 401 (Fig. 11), which surely had a meaning.59 Giulio Paolucci convincingly argues that these anthropomorphic urns are indicators of social prestige.60 The urns are representations of the dead; 96 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies Fig. 9 Tomba Macchiapiana in the Museo Archeologico di Sarteano. (Museum photo). Fig. 10 Cinerary urn from Tolle, Tomba 729. (Photo courtesy of G. Paolucci). 97 Annette R athje Fig. 11 Burial from Tolle, Tomba 401, in the Museo Civico Archeologico Chianciano Terme. (Museum photo via Flickr). they give the final image of persons forever young (at least the more naturalistic ones), placed in the tomb with food (as eggs and the bones of fowl were present) and with banquet equipment and weapons. The whole setup of the tomb is an image, an installation, which would be remembered by the surviving relatives at the funeral, and would, not to forget, make a great impression on the supernatural beings from the otherworld. A new detailed contextual understanding should be possible when the results of the ongoing analysis of the grave goods are published.61 Simulacra The last group to be mentioned is that of the anthropomorphic simulacra – images of the dead, assembled of various parts made of different materials such as wood, textile, ivory, bone and metal. Recently, such a natural-sized figure was found in the Osteria Necropolis at Vulci, Tomb 1 (the so-called 98 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies Fig. 12 Assemblage from Tomba del Carro, Vulci in Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. (© Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. Photo Mauro Benedetti). Tomb of the Silver Hands).62 It represents a woman lavishly dressed and covered by a veil, ornamented with miniature buttons of gilded bronze and, furthermore, ornamented with necklaces of different forms and materials. Such figures have mainly been found in the area of Vulci, a site with many new spectacular finds.63 At Vulci, the tombs with simulacra lie close to each other in the necropolis, indicating a deliberate choice of burial space and the self-representation of a specific elite group. Similar representations have also been found at Marsiliana d’Albegna. They are never found in sanctuaries, as we know them from Greece.64 A fine example is the Tomb of the Chariot, on display in the Villa Giulia Museum, Rome (Fig. 12).65 The single chamber tomb contained the burial of an eminent man. Two simulacra were found, one standing in a bronze chariot, a symbol of status in the 7th century BC, the other standing behind. The chariot was of reduced size, thus being merely symbolic.66 The figures had spheric heads, with no 99 Annette R athje indication of a face and probably wore wigs. Bust and hands are all made of embossed bronze, and they were dressed. The bones from a cremation were found in a bronze cauldron, representing a type of a heroic burial well known from Greece. However, in this tomb, three or four persons were buried together,67 with some lavish banqueting equipment of bronze and ceramic, including remnants of food: meat, fruits and nuts. Anna Maria Sgubini Moretti sees the two figures as a parabates and a charioteer. However, I am not convinced by this interpretation. When seen together with the evidence from the Chiusine area, we may understand these figures as embodying the deceased, although they are not ash containers – and are found in inhumation burials as well. They are representations of distinguished people of both sexes from the stratum of landowners, in control of production and commerce, as can be seen from the objects buried with them that refer to the banquet, implying the eating of meat as indicated by spits, an axe and a knife. The message is ambiguous: the Etruscan tomb is both a house/home and a liminal space. A tomb is more than a burial place: it is also a place of cult practices and a ritual site. The banqueting seemingly takes place in the tomb, connected to funerary rituals, yet it also refers to meals in the world of the living as well as to the otherworld and the eternal banquets. However, we must look at the entire situation, collecting the fragments of an image, a mise en scène, an installation that would have once contained much more organic material which has now perished. We can only imagine the procession of people bringing the deceased and the grave goods to the tomb for the construction of the installation there.68 The last image of the personified dead in these urns, and the simulacra immortalized in the tomb at the same time, were travellers to the otherworld; they were becoming ancestors. They are not to be classified as temporary pictures.69 These figures have been understood as deified, when placed on thrones like the man in the Tumulo dei Morelli at Chianciano Terme. A few have been identified with gods, like the more naturalistic, half-bronze statue that was part of a poly-material statue from the Isis Tomb from Vulci, now in the British Museum.70 This contribution has considered different categories of evidence for belief in the afterlife of some early Etruscans by studying images meant for funerary purposes and contributing to an ideological understanding. 100 Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies Images, in my wider definition, were used for ritual practice and religious ideologies; they conveyed ideas and discourses, through the use of powerful symbols. The tombs analyzed have shown patterns of symbolic communication71 in Etruria, which is defined as a vast territory with different cultural areas that must be distinguished from each other. The tendency to valuate texts written by others, and in later periods, more than the images themselves, has distorted our understanding of these pre-Roman peoples. I hope to have shown a roadmap by this case study, although I am well aware that I have more questions than answers and that there are no single explanations when exploring ambiguous images, messages and identity-construction. Notes Earlier versions of this contribution have been given as papers at the Accordia Research Institute, London, at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, and at the University of Copenhagen. 1 Whitehouse 2020, 184–185. 2 Jonas 1962, 203. 3 Wagner Durand 2019, 1, 5. 4 Peirce 1897, CP 2.228. 5 Ginzburg 1998, 82. 6 de Grummond 2006, xxii. 7 Rathje 2013a, 118. 8 Hölscher 2018; Homo Pictor 2020. 9 See e.g. Renfrew and Morley 2007. 10 This contribution is not an art-historical paper, neither is it a contribution to the ongoing debate about cultural hybridity; nor is it a discussion about the value of Etruscan visual expression when compared to, for instance, Greek visual culture. 11 Etruscan Literacy 2020. 12 Journal 5 August 1851. Oxford essential quotations. 13 For a list of animals represented in the Iron Age, see Drago Troccoli 2013a, 16: bovine, birds, horses, dogs, sheep, deer, turtles, reptiles and monkeys; and Drago Troccoli 2013b, 139 reference 31. 14 Hencken 1968, 115– 123, for the scabbard 117–118, and fig. 106; Iaia 1999, pp. 54–55; Iaia compares to a scabbard from Tomb Arcatelle 37, Tarquinia, fig. 14, p. 56. I deliberately leave out the non-figurative decoration. 15 Bianco Peroni 1970, 88–89 no. 228 without context. 16 Drago Troccoli 2013b, 142, fig. 17. 17 Pontecagnano 494, Bianco Peroni 1970, 84 no. 206. 18 Pontecagnano T. 5121, Gastaldi 1998, 43 fig. 29. 19 Steingräber 1985, 261, no. 6; Naso 1990, 479–481. 20 Rathje 2013b, 157. 21 Drago Troccoli 2013b, 136 argues that this kind of representation may represent a being from the other world. 22 Bianco Peroni 1979, no. 746. 23 Bianco Peroni 1979, no. 363; Iaia 2013, 80, fig. 5c. 24 Iaia 1999, 117; Iaia 2013, 80–81. 25 Cf. reference 7. 26 Drago Troccoli 2013a, 19 and fig. 17; she does not identify the bristly animal: ..lascia aperta… l’interpretazione della “bestia” dal corpo triangolare irsuto con fauci spalancate e zanne.” 27 München Antikensamlung 2331; Pacciarelli 2002, 315– 322; Sannibale 2008, 349. 28 Drago Troccoli 2013b, 137–139. 29 Delpino 2005, 344 tomba a cassa di nenfro (I) fossa con pareti vestite di tufo (II) are very rare ”strutture particolari” the oblong form imitating inhumation tombs. Pseudo inhumations are also found at the necropolis of Villa Bruschi-Falgari Tombs 21,44, 58, cf. Barbaro et al. 2012; Vulci Tomb LXXXIII 101 Annette R athje 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 (Necropoli di Cuccumella ), Casi-Petiti 2014, 25. Delpino 2005, 345 ref. 22. Delpino 2005, 346. Delpino 2005, Table III, shows items that could not be placed in the reconstruction; a razor, however, was found inside the urn. Delpino 2008, 606, 608: “con il ricorso ad un uso sempre più marcatamente ideologico e propagandistico dei rituali funerari: funzionale a questi fini potrebbe essere stata la messa in scena, per così dire, di pseudo-inumazioni, con il richiamo a valori, miti e persone (“sacro”, “sacrificio”, “fondatori”) sentiti dalla comunità come unificanti.” Following Watanabe 2015. Rathje 2013b, an overview of the tombs are listed on fig. 2: Veii (2), Cerveteri (5) Tarquinia (1), Chiusi (1), Sant’ Andrea/ Magliano (1), San Giuliano (1). Fig 3 shows direction movements of the felines in ten tombs. Rizzo 1989, 117–119; Naso 1990. Rizzo 1989, 113–116; the drawings are too bad to be used in this context, so I defer from any description; Naso 1990, 478. Rizzo 1989, 109–111; Naso 1990. See Delpino 2012 about the actual excavation; the most credible colours are those on the facsimilie of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Moltesen & Weber-Lehmann 1991, 138 no. 122; see also Capoferro & Renzetti 2017, 314–317 nrs. 160–166. Rathje 2013, 159. Delpino 2012, 102. Steingräber 2006, 59. Naso 1990, 464–465: corteo funebre verso l’aldilà, and calling the man before the horse “demone”. Later, in the archaic period, the style of tomb paintings changed: the big felines did not disappear, but they changed place from the walls to the pediments. Their magic was still there and they were necessary in easing the passage for the dead. Paolucci 2013; Etruschi 2019, 291, nr. 219. Paolucci 2013, 37–38. Drago Troccoli 2013b, 157 about transfiguration; Carapellucci & Drago Troccoli 2015, 97–98 about the water birds. Nicosia 1969, 369–401; Maggiani & Palolucci 2005, 4. Nicosia 1969, 389. Paolucci 2015, 1–20; this volume is an update of R. D. Gempeler, Die Etruskische Canopen. Herstellung, Typologie, Entwicklungsgeschichte, Einsideln 1974, cf. Appendices 381–390. 102 51 Paolucci 2015. About family tombs, cf. Paolucci 2015, 379; a fine example of a family tomb is Tolle T. 116: Paolucci 2015, 61–68, including the burials of a father, mother and son. The tombs are splendidly presented in the museums of Chianciano Terme and Sarteano. 52 Paolucci 2010, 109; Carosi and Regoli 2019, 76, fig. 5. 53 Paolucci and Rastrelli 2006, 17–22: on the wooden head and the gold foil; cf. also Paolucci 2015, 364 about golden masks from Tolle and elsewhere at Chiusi and Vulci; Maggiani 2020, 188–189. 54 In T. 585, the urn is an olla covered by a bowl placed bottom down with moulded eyes, nose and ears, and incised hair; Paolucci 2015, 220–222. 55 Paolucci 2019, 288 nr. 216 =Paolucci 2015, T. 462 p. 173–176, tav. CXXVI c, fig. 154, cfr. Tav. CCLXXXVII; Tomb 401, 135–138. 56 Paolucci 2019, 292, nr. 220= Paolucci 2015, T. 203, 83–84; T. 513, 192–194. 57 Paolucci 2015, 365. 58 Paolucci 2015, Type I (675–650), fig. 271, tav. CCXLVIII. 59 In his typology of urns, Paolucci analyzes heads and masks: 358–366, and movable arms: 355–357. As for the enlarged upturned thumbs, they are seen in T. 401, T. 582, fig. 189 and T. 659 fig. 219, cf. T. 503, fig 165: here, the left hand is held in front of the body with the thumb up, as we find it in T. 62 fig. 39. For the significance of hands see Rathje 2017, 173. 60 Paolucci 2015, 378. 61 We are looking forward to reading the results of the work of Mattia Bischeri, PhD fellow at La Sapienza, University of Rome. 62 Russo 2014; Carosi 2016. 63 Vulci: Tomba del Carro di Bronzo, Tomba C from Mandrione di Cavalupo, Tomba della Sfinge, Tomba dell’ Iside; Marsiliana d’Albegna: Circolo della Fibula (T. 41), Circolo degli Avori (T.67); Morandi 2013 gives a thorough analysis without the Tomb of the Silver Hands; Carosi and Regoli 2019. 64 Russo 2014, 29. 65 Sgubini Moretti 2000. 66 Emiliozzi 2014, 33, also mentioning fragmentary finds of chariots not recognized earlier, like those from Tomba degli Animali Dipinti and Tomba dei Leoni Dipinti at Cerveteri. 67 Sadly, we are missing a proper publication. 68 A new trend is sensory archaeology, Skeates and Day 2020. Images, Imagery and Perception in Early Etruscan Societies 69 Rüpke 2006, 270. 70 Maggiani & Paolucci 2006, 17 ref. 17; Morandi 2013, 25–26; for the figure in the Isis tomb, see Bubenheimer-Erhart 2012, 114–116. 71 Nebelsick 2016. 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Her primary area of research lies in the field of Etruscology, especially Etruscan religion and beliefs concerning the afterlife as represented on wall paintings from chamber tombs, primarily from Tarquinia. She was involved in creating the exhibition ‘Etruskerne, Rejsen til Dødsriget’ (The Etruscans, the journey to the hereafter), which opened at Antikmuseet, University of Aarhus, in 2014. Ahlén has been a lecturer in Roman archaeology and Etruscology at the University of Copenhagen, and since 2016 has been teaching Greek and Roman culture and literature at high school level. J. Rasmus Brandt is Professor Emeritus in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oslo. He graduated with a DPhil from Oxford University in 1975 and was assistant director (1975–1983) and director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome (1996–2002). He has directed two research projects financed by the Norwegian Research Council: Theatrum Roma: The Christianization of the Imperial capital (1997–2001) and Thanatos: Dead bodies – Live data, A study of funerary material from the Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine town Hierapolis in Phrygia, Turkey (2010–2015). He has a wide experience of excavations in Norway, Cyprus, Italy and Turkey. His interest in Etruscology is of a recent date. Cecilie Brøns is curator, senior researcher at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, where she is the head of an interdisciplinary research project on the polychromy of ancient art and architecture, entitled ‘Sensing the Ancient World: The invisible dimensions of ancient art’, financed by the Carlsberg Foundation. She received her PhD in Classical Archaeology in 2015 from The National Museum of Denmark and The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR) at the University of Copenhagen. Her research concentrates on ancient polychromy and textiles, particularly in relation to ancient sculpture, as well as on the importance and effect of the senses for the perception and understanding of ancient Mediterranean art. 423 Contributors Liv Carøe obtained her MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen. She is currently employed as a lecturer in Greek and Roman archaeology and Etruscology at the University of Copenhagen. Her research interests lie in the study of Roman sculpture in private villas and studies of collecting, as well as various aspects of Etruscan culture. She has participated in field projects in Greece (The Ancient Sikyon Project) and in Turkey, at Neoklaudiopolis, with the project ‘Where East meets West’, and also in Italian excavations at Francavilla, Tarquinia and Veii. INGRID EDLUND-BERRY is Professor Emerita in the Department of Classics, the University of Texas at Austin. She received her fil. lic. degree at the University of Lund and PhD at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, and has taught at the University of Georgia, University of Minnesota, the Intercollegiate Center in Rome, and the University of Texas, Austin. Her excavation experience includes Poggio Civitate (Murlo), S. Angelo Vecchio (Metaponto), and Morgantina in Sicily. Kristine Bøggild Johannsen is a curator of the collection of antiquities at the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen. She obtained her MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen in 2006. Her primary area of research is the reception of Antiquity in the late 18th and early 19th century. Other interests include Roman architectural terracottas and portraiture from Antiquity to the present day. She is currently co-directing (with Dr. Jane Fejfer, University of Copenhagen) the interdisciplinary research and dissemination project ‘Powerful Presences: The Sculptural Portrait between Presence and Absence, Individual and Group’. As part of this project, she recently curated the acclaimed exhibition ‘Face to Face: Thorvaldsen and Portraiture’ (March– December 2020) at the Thorvaldsens Museum. She has participated in several field projects, primarily in Italy but also in Cyprus and Germany. Lars Karlsson is Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. He has a BA and a PhD from the University of Gothenburg and an MA from the University of Virginia. He has published material related to the American excavations at Morgantina in Sicily, and has directed excavations at Etruscan San Giovenale and at the Carian sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos in Labraunda, Turkey. 424 Contributors During his years as a Research Assistant at the Swedish Institute in Rome (1993–1999), he completed the publication of Arne Furumark’s important excavations of Area F East at Etruscan San Giovenale, 2006. Matilde Marzullo is a graduate in classics and archaeology, and obtained a PhD in Etruscology with a project dedicated to the analysis of painted tombs. She is currently assistant researcher for the Etruscology and Italic Antiquities course at the University of Milan. Her scientific contributions concern iconography, and in particular the relationship between painting and architecture, the three-dimensional drawing and restitution of archaeological structures and the methods of non-destructive archaeological investigations. Since 2009 she has participated in the ‘Project Tarquinia’, directed by G. Bagnasco Gianni. She is responsible for the excavation of the complesso monumentale at Tarquinia, where she is in charge of specific areas of research. She is the author of publications related to these aspects and has published a corpus of the Tarquinian funerary paintings, as well as an Archaeological Map of the Civita di Tarquinia. Laura Nazim graduated in Classical Archaeology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. She has taken part in several archaeological excavations, and was a research assistant in the university museum in the department of ancient art. Currently, Laura Nazim is writing her PhD about the Etruscan stone sarcophagi of the Hellenistic period. Her research focuses on Etruscan art and culture with a specialization in grave contexts, burials and sarcophagi. Marjatta Nielsen has studied archaeology, art history, anthropology and Roman literature at the University of Helsinki, and has been a member of research teams studying the last centuries of Etruscan civilization (RomeHelsinki, 1967–1971; Lund, 2001–2003). She has participated in excavations in Italy and in exhibition projects and publications at Volterra (1985 and 2007) and Helsinki (2003). She has also been co-editor of Acta Hyperborea, and has given lectures on the Etruscans in European countries and worldwide. Her research comprises late Etruscan funerary sculpture, social issues such as family relations, women, couples and children, as well as research history and the reception of Antiquity. She is a foreign member of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici. 425 Contributors Nora Petersen received her MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen. Her primary area of research is Etruria during the Orientalizing period. Her main focuses within this period are graves and funerary rites, elite customs, banquets and food. Besides Etruscology, Nora Petersen has conducted research into the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age periods, particularly the burials from the sites of Caesar’s Forum and Latium Vetus. Recently, she has branched into podcasting, using her passion for archaeology to teach the next generation about Antiquity. Sofie Heiberg Plovdrup holds a BA in Prehistoric Archaeology as well as a BA and MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen. She is currently a PhD student with the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. The topic of her PhD dissertation is changing identity and portrait strategy as reflected in cinerary urns from Volterra during the last centuries of the Etruscan civilization. Her main research area lies in the field of Etruscology, with a focus on portraiture, theories engaging with phenomenology, materiality, and the connection between elite status people across cultures and boundaries. She has participated in fieldwork in Italy and Denmark. Bjarne B. Purup obtained his MA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Copenhagen. He is currently working as a field archaeologist at the Museum Southeast Denmark. His research revolves around mummy portraits, numismatic studies and the collection of antiquities created by the Danish neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. He has previously worked on a full registration of Thorvaldsen’s coin collection for a digital publication. Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen has been with the National Museum since 1981. From 1989–2013 curator and from 1995 keeper at the department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities. She is now Emerita Head of Collections and Research of the department of Ancient Cultures of Denmark and the Mediterranean. During 1981–1982 she was engaged in the exhibition The World of the Etruscans – Life and Death staged in the National Museum as a joint project of Thorvaldsens Museum, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and the National Museum. Her work has mainly been centred on material in the 426 Contributors department, i.e., idols from the Early Cycladic Bronze Age, Greek pottery, Greek and Etruscan jewellery, and Baltic amber found in Italy. Another area of interest is the history of museums, especially the history of the department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities. Annette Rathje is Associate Professor Emerita of Classical Archaeology at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. A foreign member of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, she has taught Etruscan archaeology among other subjects. Her main subject is encounter archaeology and much of her work treats the interaction, networks and connectivity of the Mediterranean Area in the 8th–6th centuries BC. She has been involved in fieldwork in Etruria and Latium Vetus, and is engaged in publishing the pre-Republican habitation layers above the Sepulcretum in the Forum Romanum. Her current research includes early Etruscan imagery and visual narrative seen from an archaeological point of view. Helle Salskov Roberts was a curator at the National Museum of Denmark in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities 1959–1970. She is a Lecturer Emerita at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. Her interests have concentrated on Etruscology, especially bronzes of the archaic period. She has enjoyed long periods of study at the Danish Academy in Rome and has travelled intensively in Italy, visiting a vast range of provincial museums. In 2021 she published Catalogue of the Sardinian, Etruscan and Italic bronze statuettes in The Danish National Museum, Gösta Enbom Monographs vol. 7. Copenhagen-Aarhus 2021. Ingela M. B. Wiman completed her PhD in 1990 in the field of Etruscology, employing an interdisciplinary approach combining metal analytical data and iconographical information. She has been engaged in environmental history studies at the department of Environmental and Energy Systems Studies at Lund University, Sweden. She is now Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Historical Studies at Gothenburg University. She has published several papers on the ecological aspects of ancient civilizations, including cultural perceptions of the relationship with nature, chiefly dealing with the Etruscan cultural sphere. 427