The Monteleone Chariot

The Monteleone chariot is an Etruscan chariot  dated to c. 530 BC. It was originally uncovered at Monteleone di Spoleto and is currently part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Though about 300 ancient chariots are known to still exist, only six are reasonably complete, and the Monteleone chariot is the best-preserved and most complete  of all known surviving examples. Carlos Picón, curator of the museum's Greek and Roman department, has called it "the grandest piece of sixth-century Etruscan bronze anywhere in the world."

The Monteleone chariot was part of a burial, containing the remains of two human corpses, along with two drinking cups. Measuring 131 cm in height and designed to be drawn by two horses, the chariot itself is constructed of wood covered with hammered bronze plates and carved ivory decoration. The bronze plates are decorated with Homeric iconography; the main panel depicts Achilles being handed his armor by his mother, Thetis. The chariot's frame and plating is additionally adorned with animals and mythological creatures, rendered in detail. The chariot's decorations would also have included inlaid amber and other exotic materials, but only the bronze and ivory decorations have survived. The chariot's wheels have nine spokes (rather than the classical Greek four, the Egyptian six, or the Assyrian and Persian eight; excavated chariots from Celtic burials have up to twelve spokes).

Contemporary curators at the Museum had long suspected that the chariot's original 1903 reconstruction was not historically accurate. In 1989, under the direction of Italian archaeologist Adriana Emiliozzi, the Metropolitan Museum began a five-year reexamination and restoration of the chariot. During the restoration, it was discovered that the chariot had in fact been originally assembled incorrectly; additionally, evidence was uncovered indicating that the chariot, previously thought to have seen little actual use, had in fact been involved in a serious accident at some point during its life. The newly restored chariot's reinstallation was scheduled as part of the major renovations of the Metropolitan Museum's Greek and Roman galleries, opening to the public on April 20, 2007.

It was found in 1902 in Monteleone di Spoleto near Spoleto in the province of Perugia of Umbria, by a farmer named Isidoro Vannozzi who inadvertently unearthed it while digging a wine cellar. According to some accounts, Vannozzi hid the chariot in his barn, concerned that the authorities might confiscate it, and later sold it to two Frenchmen in exchange for two cows. Another account, related by Vannozzi's son Giuseppe, holds that the chariot was immediately sold as scrap metal, and the proceeds from the sale used to buy roof tiles. Changing hands several times after its initial sale, the chariot was eventually purchased in Paris by J. P. Morgan, who sent it to the Metropolitan Museum in 1903, where its first restoration took place.

Because the museum's acquisition of the chariot in 1903 predates by six years Italy's first laws restricting export of items that carry "cultural and artistic values," the chariot's sale was legal at the time of purchase, though debated by the contemporary press. In January 2005, the comune of Monteleone began a campaign aimed at recuperating the chariot from the Met; their efforts, however, did not receive the backing of the Italian government. The Metropolitan Museum has responded that the chariot was "purchased in good faith".A full-size copy was made in the mid-20th century, which is on display in Monteleone.

Fortified Settlement of Ghiaccioforte - 3 - Votive Offering

The discovery of votive offerings on the western hill of Ghiaccioforte testifies to the existence of a place of worship. In fact, it was an ancient custom to leave votive offerings near a sanctuary, which steadily accumulated.

The objects retrieved in the cache of votive offerings of Ghiaccioforte, preserved in the museum of Scansano, are mostly reproductions of parts of human anatomies, placed there to ask the divinity for the healing of an illness, or as thanks for a past healing.

The presence of two bronze statuettes, representing youths grasping a billhook, offers some indication of the kind of worship practiced in this place: it was probably connected to the agricultural activities of the area, as the iconography of the two statuettes would lead us to believe; they probably represent Selvans, typical Etruscan rural gods.

Fortified Settlement of Ghiaccioforte - 2 (Scansano - Gr)

The settlement was built up within the city walls: some spaces were brought to light that made up part of the only living complex, where rooms were distributed around an open-air courtyard.

At the present time, all that is visible is the skirting foundations of the walls formed by a plinth of calcareous rock, while the raised portion, none of which has been preserved, was probably made of unbaked clay.

The floor was made of simple beaten earth or pebbles, whereas the roof was made of bricks and tiles as proven by the fragments of bricks recovered.

Based on the objects found inside, the various functions of some rooms can be identified.

In particular, the finding of an oven, derived from half of a dolium, cut vertically and placed on the ground, and the presence of a cooker, inserted into a niche dug into the inner wall, leads us to believe that the room, from whence these objects came, was used as a kitchen.

The corner of the bath can be identified by the furnishings composed of a terracotta basin and a bathtub derived from a block of decorated stone, both of which are preserved in the museum of Scansano.

In order to construct the tub, a copy of which can still be seen on site, an altar coming from the area of worship was probably reused; the area of worship presumably rose here in antiquity before the settlement of the Roman era.

One space, which was isolated to date with respect to the others, contained large doliums used for preserving foodstuffs: thus, its function was most likely that of a pantry.

The settlement restored many finds in ceramic: crockery and glassware for use at table and containers for preserving food. In addition, the presence of tongs, perhaps from a forger, and finished products, like weapons, indicate local metallurgical manufacturing.

Fortified Settlement of Ghiaccioforte (Scansano - Gr)

Established in the 4th century B.C., the fortified settlement of Ghiaccioforte rose in the valley of Albegna, in the territory controlled by the ancient Etruscan city of Vulci.

The place chosen probably hosted a sanctuary, in antiquity, and previous settlers were housed in the homes scattered on the surrounding hills.

Its position was strategically placed for controlling and defending the Vulci territory in an era in which the pressure from Rome was becoming increasingly forceful in a general climate of political instability.

The end of the settlement of Ghiaccioforte was ultimately marked by the Roman conquest of the Etruscan city of Vulci and its surroundings in 280 B.C.

Once having settled there, the conquerors proceeded to reorganise the territory: new cities were built, such as Cosa (Ansedonia), but pre-existing sites, such as Saturnia and the settlement of Ghiaccioforte were also destroyed; the latter was never reconstructed. After the destruction, the location was intermittently inhabited, while the settling of new Roman farms changed the landscape of the surrounding hills.

Having been deserted and no longer occupied by a stable settlement, the environs reverted to pastureland over time. The name given to it today probably alludes to the destroyed fortified centre and the use the location had thereafter: ghiaccio from "addiaccio" (pen – shelter for the herd at night) and forte (fort) to indicate the remains of the Etruscan walls that never completely disappeared from view.

Tomb of the Winged Demons in Sovana

The Tomb of the Winged Demons of Sovana, discovery in the 2005, is the one of the most significant example of the tombs in the necropoli of Felceto in sovana. The tomb looks like a cubic block carved into the tufa, whose face is carved on the face of a building to a kiosk, characterized by a deep central room. Within this niche is represented a dead man lying in bed with a friendly libation in his right hand, which keeps intact the special polychrome finish. The sculpture preserves the covering of stucco and colors, red for exposed parts,  whitefor  tunic and mantle.

At the sides of the central niche originally stood two statues of winged female demons, of which only that on the left, with the torch, is quite well preserved. On the pediment, in high relief, stands a majestic, winged sea demons. In symmetrical positions, in front of the facade, were two sculptures in the round were placed on high podiums, only that on the left, depicting a lion, is fairly well conserved.

Necropolis of the Banditaccia, (Cerveteri).

The most famous attraction of Cerveteri is the Necropoli della Banditaccia, which has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site together with the necropoleis in Tarquinia. It covers an area of 400 ha, of which 10 ha can be visited, encompassing a total of 1,000 tombs often housed in characteristic mounds. It is the largest ancient necropolis in the Mediterranean area. The name Banditaccia comes from the leasing (bando) of areas of land to the Cerveteri population by the local landowners.

The tombs date from the 9th century BC (Villanovan culture) to the late Etruscan age (3rd century BC). The most ancient ones are in the shape of a pit, in which the ashes of the dead were housed; also simple potholes are present.

From the Etruscan period are two types of tombs: the mounds and the so-called "dice", the latter being simple square tombs built in long rows along "roads". The visitable area contains two such "roads", the Via dei Monti Ceriti and the Via dei Monti della Tolfa (6th century BC).

The mounds are circular structures, and the interiors, carved from the living rock, house a reconstruction of the house of the dead, including a corridor (dromos), a central hall and several rooms. Modern knowledge of Etruscan daily life is largely dependent on the numerous decorative details and finds from such tombs. The most famous of these mounds is the so-called Tomba dei Rilievi (Tomb of the Reliefs, 3rd century BC), identified from an inscription as belonging to one Matunas and provided with an exceptional series of frescoes, bas-reliefs and sculptures portraying a large series of contemporary life tools.

The most recent tombs date from the 3rd century BC. Some of them are marked by external cippi, which are cylindrical for men, and in the shape of a small house for women.

A large number of finds excavated at Cerveteri are in the National Etruscan Museum , with others in the Vatican Museums and many other museums around the world. Others, mainly pottery, are in the Archaeological Museum at Cerveteri itself.

The Sancturary of Portonaccio (Veii)

The site.

The site is a polytheistic temple complex erected in a cutting on the side of the hill on which the city wall of Veii towered over it then. One of the richest sources of Etruscan artifacts: pottery and other objects inscribed in Etruscan and terra cotta statuary and other decorative elements, it contained two main structures, one a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Menerva(Etruscan spelling) and the other a temple that had statues of Turms, Hercle, Aplu (the Apollo of Veii) and Letun on the roof, which has come to be regarded as a temple of Apollo. Next to the temple of Apollo was a rectangular pool. A well provided water. The site has been left wooded, as it was in ancient times, when surrounded by a sacred grove.

The site was excavated in modern times by Massimo Pallottino in the 1940s and published decades later by the first and second generation of his students. The roof of the temple of Apollo has been restored on one side. It hangs over the site on a geometrical framework of steel rods. The sanctuary of Menerva is under roof nearby. Otherwise, only the foundation walls of the complex survive. In ancient times, it was surrounded by its own wall.

The sanctuary to Minerva.

The Portonaccio Sanctuary of Minerva was the first Tuscan–type, temple erected in Etruria (about 510 BC). The reconstruction proposed for it in 1993 by Giovanni Colonna together with Germano Foglia, presents a square 60 feet (18 m) construction on a low podium (about 18 metres, considering the 29 cm foundation) and divided into a pronapse with two columns making up the facade between entrances, 24 feet (7.3 m) deep and a group in the back made up of three 30 feet (9.1 m) deep adjacent cells. The 21-foot (6.4 m) columns were made of stuccoed tuff as were the walls, which inside the pronapse were decorated with various paintings on clay panels. The roof was in wood covered with polychrome terracotta. The terracotta was placed through a refined system of syllabic abbreviations and they were integrated with bronze inserts and a generous profusion of plastic inserts, mostly modelled by hand, among which a splendid series of grand antefixes (joint coverings) with the heads of Gorgons, maenads and satyrs.

The temple of Apulu.

This sanctuary, among the most ancient and venerated on all of Etruria, was outside of the city and a road leading from the city of Veio to the Tyrrhenian coast and the famous Veio saline mines ran through it. Its most ancient nucleus tied to the cult of the goddess Minerva and a small temple, a square altar, a portico and stairs from the road were built in about 530-530 BC in her honour. The three cell temple with the polychrome terracotta decorations was erected in about 510 BC in the western part of the sanctuary. Adjacent to the temple there was a great pool with a tunnel and a fence that enclosed the sacred woods. The temple was in honour of the god Apollo in his prophetic oracle aspect inspired after the Delphi model to which purification ceremonies were tied. Heracles, the hero made god dear to tyrants, and maybe also Jupiter, whose image we have to imagine on the central wall of the temple were tied to Apollo. By the middle of the 5th century BC, all interventions on the temple are concluded and it begins a slow decline while the structures sacred to Minerva are renovated on the eastern sector of the sanctuary. The starting up again of the cult worshipping Minerva, which continued also after the conquering of Veio by Rome (396 BC) is documented by a splendid series of votive statues of classic and late-classic style boys, such as the famous head, “Malavolta” as to indicate the important role of the goddess in the rituals of the passage from adolescence to adulthood that signalled the fundamental phases of the life of the members of the aristocratic families of Veio. In the 2nd century BC, the tuff mine that destroyed the central area of the sanctuary was opened causing damage to the temple and the sliding down of material downhill. The recovery of the fragments of the sanctuary determined the start up of excavations in 1914, which continued after the discovery of the famous statue of Apollo in 1916.

Ornamental fitting of the Tomb of the Duce (coming from Vetulonia)

The tomb of the Duce (leader) of Vetulonia is of the circular type: a circle of stones driven into the earth actually surrounded the area of the tomb, in which various graves are found. The abundant trousseau, which belongs to several burial places, was found distributed in four pits, while a fifth was found empty and is thought to have been looted. Some elements of the trousseau, currently kept in the storerooms of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum) of Florence, indicate that the founder of the family buried in this tomb was a warrior prince: this theory is supported above all by the discovery of the remains of a cart inside the first pit.

In another pit we find the probable name of the prince, Rachu Kakanas, preserved in the inscription on a fragment of a silver cup. Together with this fragment were discovered a magnificent bronze urn in the form of a hut covered in silver leaf (containing the remains of the cremated deceased) and a small ship in bronze of Sardinian production, decorated around the edges with little free-standing animals, which refers to the journey of the deceased towards l’Isola dei Beati (the Island of the Blessed). This nucleus of objects was completed by some brooches in gold, silver and elettro(an alloy of gold and silver) and some terracotta discs, a symbolic image of the military shield.

The last two pits housed abundant items for banquets in ceramics and bronze, some produced locally in Vetulonia, and others imported. Amongst the latter were found Siro-Cypriot pitchers and bowls and Greek earthenware, imported here thanks to the intervention of Cerveteri. Influences from central-North Europe are noted, on the other hand, in the largesitule (water buckets) in laminated bronze, local re-workings of models from the Hallstattiana culture (present-day Austria).

Circle of Ivories of Marsiliana d'Albegna - Grosseto

The tomb is composed of a rectangular pit situated within a circle of stones embedded in the ground.

The three individuals interred inside were buried with rich funerary fittings that included fragments of a war chariot, a shield and iron spears.

From the designs made at the time of the discovery, it would seem that the central section can be related to a high-ranking personage, since the remains of the chariot and shield were arranged at his head and feet, whereas the spears were alongside another skeleton on his left.

On exhibit in the Museum of Archeology and Art of Maremma in Grosseto since March 1999, these burial fittings include some precious objects, collected inside a bronze basin, placed in an isolated corner of the pit. The tomb owes its name to the very valuable circle of ivories; one stands out in particular from amongst them: the scriptorium, composed of a small board with the alphabet engraved in the upper margin, styli and scrapers (used for etching and “cancelling” the signs written on the layer of wax that was spread on the board). In addition, there is a pyx with a grip on the cover in the shape of a lotus flower and decorated with figurative and zoomorphic designs in the manner of the oriental repertoire, some handles of flabelli (fans) decorated at the base of the handle with groups of plastics with two male figures fighting against a lion, and a comb ornamented with figures of animals (sphinxes, lions, griffons) deduced from the same repertoire of oriental origin. Alongside the ivories are some gold, silver and bronze fibulas as well as a rare funeral mask in silver laminate that reproduces the face of a bearded man.

The fittings date back to 670-640 B.C.

Ornamental fitting of the Tomb of the Lictor (coming from Vetulonia - Grosseto)

This tomb takes its name from the lictor bundle (a bundle of rods with a two-edged hatchet in iron), found in the funeral trousseau. This immediately brings to mind the passage in which the Latin poet Silius Italicus stated that the city of Vetulonia would have passed on to Rome this symbol of supreme power.

From the tales of Isidoro Falchi, who discovered this tomb at the end of the nineteenth century, we learn that it was a circular tomb, defined by stones driven into the ground, and it presented a grave inside covered with stones and earth. On top of the filling of the grave lay the remains of a cart: the iron rims of the wheels are preserved, as are fragments of the bronze leaf which would have covered the parapet of the cart, decorated with figures of animals, braids, lotus flowers and palms in an oriental style.

In the grave, as well as weapons made of iron and an incense-jar in bronze of Vetulonian production, were placed sumptuous items of jewellery, maybe in a special container. We recall the large brooches decorated with designs of animals both real and mythical, made using the techniques of embossing and granulation, the brooch with a bow shaped like a sphinx and the hatpin with a spherical head, decorated using gold-dust with animal and vegetable motifs.

The objects from this trousseau are currently kept in the storerooms of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum) of Florence. 

Demaratus of Corinth

Demaratus was a nobleman of the House of Bacchus at Corinth. Facing charges of sedition, in 655 BC he fled to Italy, according to tradition settling in the Etruscan city of Tarquinii, where he married an Etruscan noblewoman. They had two sons, Lucius and Arruns.

According to tradition, Demaratus introduced Greek culture to mainland Italy, and brought potters from Corinth; Greek potters worked at Tarquinii and its port, Gravisca. Tacitus reported that Demaratus brought literacy to the Etruscans.

Through his sons, Demaratus was the ancestor of the Roman gens Tarquinia. Arruns Tarquinius died shortly before his father, leaving his wife pregnant. As Demaratus knew nothing of his future grandson, he left him no inheritance. For this reason the child, likewise named Arruns, was born into poverty, and called Egerius, meaning "the needy one."

As the son of a foreigner, Lucius Tarquinius was unable to attain high station at Tarquinii, despite his wealth and the nobility of both his mother and his wife, Tanaquil. With Tanaquil's encouragement, he migrated to Rome, where he won the favour of the king, Ancus Marcius. When Marcius died, Tarquin succeeded him to the throne.

Lucius Tarquinius was the father or grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last King of Rome. He was also the father-in-law of Servius Tullius, the sixth King of Rome, who reigned between the two Tarquins. 

The Sculptural Cycle of the tomb of Pietrera from Vetulonia (Grosseto).

In 1892, Isidoro Falchi found some statues inside the tomb of the Pietrera. As they date back to the second half of the seventh century B.C, they constitute one of the first examples of monumental sculpture known in Etruria.

The specimens found, about twenty or so, are only fragments: the figures which have been best preserved are a female head and bust with her arms folded across her chest, and are now part of the collection of the Museo Archeologico (Archaeological Museum) of Florence.

In spite of their fragmentary state, we can affirm that these sculptures in sandstone, almost life-sized, depict eight standing characters, men and women represented with costly clothing and with their arms folded across their chests in the customary ritual of mourning, to immortalize the ritual of the funerary mourning around the tomb.

The rudimentary treatment of the posterior part of the statues leads us to believe that they were backed by a wall and therefore designed to be viewed only from the front: they cannot, therefore, be defined as free-standing statues.

The rigidity of the moulding is contrasted by a chiselled working of the details: locks of hair which fall in curls, necklaces, a belt in relief which displays a decoration with two winged animals. This attention to detail reveals an influence of the minor arts: the statues testify the habit of repeating oriental models in the minor arts, already found on ivories and ceramics from the seventh century B.C.

Due to a clandestine ransacking operation preceding their discovery, we cannot say with certainty where and how the statues were originally placed. Their arrangement can, therefore, only be hypothesised as inside the funerary tomb, along the entrance corridor.

Aule Feluske, an etruscan warrior from Vetluna.

The stele, a sandstone funerary symbol, was probably placed on the mount of earth that covered a circular tomb. It was discovered in the late 19th century in the Vetulonian necropolis of Costiaccia Bambagini of Vetulonia and became part of the permanent collection in the Archaeological Museum of this centre in May 2005.

The stele, a one-meter high, rectangular slab, numbers among the most ancient specimens found in Etruria. On the face of the slab is the figure of a warrior, made through the fine engraving that recalls the technique used on contemporary Cretan models. Around the figure, along the edges of the slab, like a frame, runs an inscription in the typical structural formula of a gift. In fact, it states: “I am Avele Feluske, (son of) Tusnutaie and a (Pa)panai. I was given as a gift by Hirumina Fersnalnas”, having the name of the donator follow the formula of belonging. The use of the graphic sign “8” to identify the sound “f”, not yet diffused through the rest of Etruria, reveals a Sabine influence. The warrior represented is an image that alludes to the rank and social standing of the deceased; he is advancing towards the left and is equipped with a Corinthian-style plumed helmet and a hoplite’s shield, following a Greek model. He is wielding a two-edged axe, a weapon well documented in the Etruscan world, and exhibits mixed armour, typical of the recent Orientalising phase (ca. 600 B.C. circa).

ETRUSCAN CITY OF VETULONIA (Etruscan VATLUNA)

Vetulonia, formerly called Vetulonium (Etruscan Vatluna), was an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, the site of which is probably occupied by the modern village of Vetulonia, which up to 1887 bore the name of Colonnata and Colonna di Buriano: the site is currently a frazione of the comune of Castiglione della Pescaia, with some 400 inhabitants.

It lies 300m above sea level, about ten miles directly northwest of Grosseto, on the northeast side of the hills which project from the flat Maremma and form the promontory of Castiglione.

Vetulonia has Etruscan origins. Dionysius of Halicarnassus places the city within the Latin alliance against Rome in the seventh century BC. According to Silius Italicus (Punica VIII.485ff), the Romans adopted their magisterial insignia, the Lictors rods and fasces and the curule seat, from Vetulonia; in 1898, a tomb in the necropolis was discovered with a bundle of iron rods with a double-headed axe in the centre, and soon afterwards, a grave stela inscribed for Avele Feluske was discovered, on which the fasces were pictured. Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy also cite the town. The rich votive furnishing from the two extensive necropoleis attest to the importance of Vetulonia's elite.

The so-called Mura dell'Arce (cyclopean walls) date probably from the 6th-5th century BC, and aerial photography has revealed further stretches, which show the political and commercial importance of Vetulonia, which was famous for its goldsmiths. Under the Roman Empire, however, it shrank to a secondary center.

Little is known also about medieval Vetulonia: first contended between the abbots of San Bartolomeo di Sestinga and the Lambardi family of Buriano, it was acquired by the commune of Massa Marittima in 1323. Nine years later it was handed over to SIENA.

The site of the ancient city was not identified before 1881. The Etruscan city situated on the hill of Colonna di Buriano, where there are remains of city walls of massive limestone, in almost horizontal courses, was accompanied by two necropolis partly excavated by Isidoro Falchi in 1885-86; the town was renamed Vetulonia by royal decree in 1887.

The objects discovered in its extensive seventh-century necropolis, where over 1,000 tombs have been excavated, are now in the museums of Grosseto and Florence. The most important tombs, in this "richest and most interesting tomb group of northern Etruria", were covered by tumuli, which still form a prominent feature in the landscape.

Vetulonia: Tomb of Pietrera.

Tomb of the Leopards (Tarquinia).

The Tomb of the Leopards (Italian Tomba dei Leopardi) is an Etruscan burial chamber so called for the confronted leopards painted above a banquet  scene. The tomb is located within the Monterozzi necropolis and dates to around 480–450 BC. The painting is one of the best-preserved murals of Tarquinia, and is known for "its lively coloring, and its animated depictions rich with gestures."

The banqueters are "elegantly dressed" male-female couples attended by two nude boys carrying serving implements. The women are depicted as fair-skinned and the men as dark, in keeping with the gender conventions established in the Near East, Egypt and Archaic Greece. The arrangement of the three couples prefigures the triclinium of Roman dining. Musicians are pictured on the walls to the left and right of the banquet. On the right, a komos of wreathed figures and musicians approaches the banquet; on the left, six musicians and giftbearers appear in a more stately procession.

The man on the far-right couch holds up an egg, symbol of regeneration, and other banqueters hold wreaths. The scene is usually taken to represent the deceased's funerary banquet, or a family meal that would be held on the anniversary of his death. It is presented as a celebration of life,while Etruscan banquet scenes in earlier tombs have a more somber character.The scene appears to take place outdoors, within slender trees and vegetation, perhaps under a canopy.

Although the figures are distinctly Etruscan, the artist of the central banquet draws on trends in Greek art and marks a transition from Archaic to Early Classical style in Etruscan art. The processions on the left and right are more markedly Archaic and were executed by different artists.

The tomb was discovered in 1875. In the 1920s, D.H. Lawrence described the painting in his travel essays Sketches of Etruscan Places:

The walls of this little tomb are a dance of real delight. The room seems inhabited still by Etruscans of the sixth century before Christ, a vivid, life-accepting people, who must have lived with real fullness. On come the dancers and the music-players, moving in a broad frieze towards the front wall of the tomb, the wall facing us as we enter from the dark stairs, and where the banquet is going on in all its glory. … So that all is color, and we do not seem to be underground at all, but in some gay chamber of the past.

Mars Of Todi.

The so-called Mars of Todi is a near life-sized bronze warrior, dating from the late 5th or early 4th century BC, produced in Etruria for the Umbrian market. It was found at Todi (ancient Tuder), on the slope of Mount Santo.

The bronze warrior was an expensive votive offering made at a religious sanctuary, possibly to Laran, the Etruscan god of war. It had been buried in antiquity, perhaps ritually,  and left undisturbed until its discovery in 1835. It is an example of the highest-quality "prestige" works from Etruria found in Umbria during this period, and probably came from a workshop in Orvieto (Etruscan Velzna), Velzna was known for its bronze sculptures, more than 2,000 of which were looted by the Romans in 265 BC.

The work is a "typical military figure" with "conspicuously Etruscan" facial features It is an Etruscan realization of reek formal Classicism. The figure probably held a patera (libation bowl) in his extended right hand, and a spear in the left. His helmet is missing but his intricate body armor, depicted with "pedantic accuracy," is one of the best examples showing what plate armor from the period looked like.

The dedication is inscribed on the skirt of the breastplate. It is written in Umbrian in Etruscan characters and marks the beginning of the epigraphic tradition in this part of Umbria. The man dedicating it, however, has a name that is Celtic in origin, an indication of Tuder's "cosmopolitian" character in the Archaic period. The inscription reads Ahal Trutitis dunum dede, "Ahal Trutitis gave [this as a] gift".

The sculpture is currently held by the Museo  Etrusco Gregoriano of the Vatican.

The Lemnos Stele

A little north of Poliókhni lies that village of Kaminia where, in 1885, as part of a church wall, the so-called Stele of Lemnos was discovered. This stele is generally dated at an epoch (shortly) before the Attic conquest of the island, and is now on exhibition at the National Museum of Athens. Portraying a warrior holding a spear, its paramount scientific and historical meaning is constituted, however, by two inscriptions. They are written in a hitherto unknown variant of the Greek alphabet and a language equally unknown in 1885; which language, from obvious reasons, was called Lemnian.

For the first time there was a testimony at hand that enables us to pursue the traces of the Etruscans back to their Aegean country of origin in Asia Minor by applying modern linguistic methodology. From the start -- as soon as those two inscriptions were published -- a convergence between Lemnian and Etruscan became clear: just like the Etruscan writing, the Lemnian writing has chosen only four vowel characters from its Greek mother alphabet: a, e, i, o (the Etruscans having selected a, e, i, u). Over the years, a huge amount of books and essays analysing the Lemnian language has been published, which unfortunately have produced few substantial results and rather frequently involuntarily amusing translations of the text. 

Nevertheless, after more than a century of research, the linguistic relationship between Lemnian and Etruscan -- despite the scanty material -- is nowadays established to a large extent as an undeniable fact.

The phonemic systems can not be set to coincide completely, yet it is significant that apart from the already mentioned four vowel system parallels exist in the consonant inventory, too. There are two varieties of s (here written s and sh) and no indications of the voiced plosives b, d, g, while next to each other are to be found in both languages t and th (no aspirate sound like the Greek one, but rather pronounced like ty).

Evident conformities exist in the vocabulary between Etruscan (ET, Ta 1.169:) avils machs shealchlsc (literally: "at (=-s) years at four and (=-c) at sixty"), and Lemnian mav shialchveis avis(literally: "four at (=-s) sixty at years"). The common translation, "at 64 years", is of course depending on the values assigned to the Etruscan numerals. In view of the extremely meagre vocabulary of the Lemnian language possible interpretations must rely almost completely on so far decoded Etruscan expressions. Yet, the interpretation of mav and mach is based additionally on the fact that in the (Indo-European) Anatolian language Luvian the word "four" is called maua. 

Grammatical analysis may compare constructions of both languages, which the linguist calls 'morpho-syntactic', e.g. the endings -le and -si expressing the logical subject connected with past forms of the passive voice in Etruscan -u and Lemnian -o 

Etruscan (Vc 3.2) ...larthia-le melacina-si mul-u "(was) by Larth Melacina(s) given" und Lemnian holaie-si qokiashia-le...evisth-o "by Holaie kokiashia (?) x-ed" are so convincingly matched that they entitle linguists to postulate a common ancestral stage of both languages which may be termed Proto-Etrusco-Lemnian. 

Further -- which has been only briefly mentioned here with Luvian maua -- there exist enough similarities between the Etruscan and Lemnian languages and the so-called Anatolian languages (in Asia Minor) to show that the roots of the Etruscans in Italy must be sought in the northwest part of Asia Minor -- approximately in the region of Troy. And this might well form the historical core of that myth of Trojan origin, which the Romans have borrowed from their neighbouring nation, in order to claim it for themselves.

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APOLLO OF VEII.

The Apollo of Veii is an over-life-size painted terracotta Etruscan statue of Apollo (Aplu). Originally at Veii, it dates from c. 510 - 500 BC and was sculpted in the so-called "international" Ionic or late-archaic Etruscan style. It was discovered in 1916, and is now on show in the National Etruscan Museum in Rome.

The statue was probably made by Vulca, the only Etruscan artist whose name is known. It was part of a scene of Apollo and Heracles contending over the Ceryneian Hind, 12 metres above the ground on beams on the acroterion of the Portonaccio Sanctuary of Minerva. The statue is dressed in a tunic and short cloak, advancing towards the left with the right arm outstretched and bent (the statue's left arm is towards the ground and may have held a bow).

Together with other statues, it decorated the roof beams of the Temple of Veio in Portonaccio, a sanctuary dedicated to Minerva. Placed on high plinths they were erected with an acroterial function twelve metres high and even though they were created separately, they narrated Greek mythical events at least in part tied to the god Apollo. The statue, which is currently undergoing restoration work, together with the statue of Heracles, formed a group representing one of the labours of the hero before his apotheosis among the divinities of Olympus. The myth narrates the contention between the god and the hero for the possession of the doe with the golden horns. There was probably also a statue of Mercury united to this group of which only the head and a part of the body remain. Apollo, dressed in a tunic and short cloak advances towards his left with his right arm outstretched and bent (his left arm is towards the ground maybe with a bow in his hand); Heracles, with the doe tied around his legs, is outstretched towards the right, leaning forwards to attack with his bludgeon and with his torso in a violent curve.

The Group was conceived for a lateral vision and the solid volume of the figures united with the dissymmetry both in Apollo (the torso and face) and Heracles torso suggest that the artist was knowledgeable regarding optical deformations. The style of the statues is in the ambit of the “international” Ionic manner that characterizes not only the Etruscan artistic culture of the late archaic period of the last years of the 6th century BC but the result achieved reaches very high expressive levels. The creator of the acroterial statues can be identified as the “Artist from Veio, an expert in coroplastic art”.

HYPOGEUM OF THE VOLUMNUS FAMILY.

The Hypogeum of the Volumnus family (Italian: Ipogeo dei Volumni) is an Etruscan tomb in Ponte San Giovanni, a suburb of Perugia, central Italy. Its dating is uncertain, although it is generally assigned to the 3rd century BC.

The Hypogeum was the Roman-Etruscan tomb of Arnth Veltimna Aules. It is part of the larger Palazzone necropolis, a burial ground dating to the 6th-5th century BC, with numerous subterranean tombs. Visitors can see and enter some of the tombs found along paths in the site's grounds. A museum building displays funerary urns and other artifacts found in the excavations of the area. More urns are displayed in the separate building covering the Volumnus tomb. The Volumnus tomb itself is accessed by a staircase which leads several metres under the surface to the portal leading inside to a vestibule. This in turn opens into four small side chambers and three larger central ones, the middle of which housed the remains of the family's main members. Only this chamber now displays burial urns and artifacts. Arnth's urn is made of travertine, and is surmounted by a representation of the deceased lying on a triclinium.

The tomb was used up to the 1st century BC. It was rediscovered on 5 February 1840.

ETRUSCAN TOMB PAINTING.

Tomb paintings include images of funeral ceremonies, athletic competitions, bloody duels, grand banquets, warriors and horsemen, demons and mythical creatures, and journeys to the next world. There are images of bearded snakes, dolphins, flocks of birds, musicians, wild dancers and jugglers. The vibrant colors were created with an array of pigments, some of them quite rare and expensive: white from calcite, red from hematite, black from charcoal, yellow from goethite, and blue from a mixture if silica, lime, copper and a special alkali imported from Egypt.

Few of the tombs with wall paintings are open to the public. Once a sealed tomb has been opened the paintings decays rapidly in the humidity. One tomb called the Tomb of the Leopards has beautiful wall paintings that depict nude wrestlers, men playing musical and a banqueting couple looking upon an egg, a symbol of immortality.

The Etruscan Museum in the Vatican contains one of the world's best collections of Etruscan art. The most outstanding pieces, which were found in Etruscan tombs in Tuscany and Lazio, include gold and silver jewelry, dice that looks just like modern dice, chariots, vase paintings, and small sarcophagi that held the cremated remains of wealthy Etruscans. Among the highlights are lovely Etruscan painting and a bronze statue of boy from the Etruscan site of Tarquina.

ETRUSCAN JEWELRY.

This tomb group represents one of the richest and most impressive sets of Etruscan jewelry ever found. It comprises a splendid gold and glass pendant necklace, a pair of gold and rock-crystal disk earrings, a gold fibula (dress fastener) decorated with a sphinx, a pair of plain gold fibulae, a gold dress pin, and five finger rings. Two of the rings have engraved scarabs that revolve on a swivel bezel, one is decorated with embossed satyr heads, and the other two have decorated gold bezels. The disk earring is originally a Lydian type of jewelry that became fashionable in Etruria in the latter part of the sixth century B.C., when the Etruscans were strongly influenced by eastern Greek artists and their works.

BUCCHERO POTTERY

It is said of the Etruscans that they ate twice a day, well and profusely. The lustrous black pottery called bucchero typifies their material culture in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. It was used for pouring and drinking wine. The word 'bucchero' is not Etruscan but comes from the Spanish name for South American pottery which was much imitated in the nineteenth century. Early wheel-turned bucchero dating from the second half of the seventh century is thin-walled and has a shiny, deep black surface. The solid black colour results from the low temperature and smoky atmosphere in which the pottery was fired. Most probably, bucchero developed as an improved form of the earlier rough impasto. It often appears to imitate metalware. A few decades later, bucchero became less refined as the thickness of the wall increased and the colour grew greyer. Bucchero's fan-shaped ornaments are particularly striking: they were pressed with a comb into the leather hard clay. Other motifs were made with a cylinder stamp which was rolled over the moist surface.

ETRUSCAN GEOMETRIC PERIOD.

In the Geometric period of about 900 to 700 B.C., Greeks continued to be active seafarers, seeking opportunities for trade and founding new, independent cities in Asia Minor, Italy, and Sicily. In the Late Geometric period, around 760–750 B.C., Greeks from the island of Euboea (near northern Attica) established a colony at Pithekousai, near the Bay of Naples. The settlement received Levantine goods in quantity, as well as Corinthian, Cycladic, and Rhodian pottery, most of which were exported to the Italian mainland. This influx of goods and designs from the East played a major role in initiating the Italic and Etruscan Orientalizing period (ca. 750–575 B.C.). Likewise, Euboean vases were exported from Pithekousai to Campania and Etruria, as were local (Italic) vessels decorated with typical Euboean Late Geometric designs, as on this oinochoe, a small jug that was used to dip out and serve wine. Its main figurative scene, two goats standing upright and, perhaps, nibbling at a tree, is a familiar motif in Near Eastern art, and appears on vases made in Euboea at this time. The distinctive barrel shape of this vessel, however, is more Italic than Greek; similar oinochoi have been found in Etruria, near Bisenzio, and at Marsiliana.

SOME ETRUSCAN RULER

The institution of kingship was general. Many names of individual Etruscan kings are recorded, most of them in a historical vacuum, but with enough chronological evidence to show that kingship persisted in Etruscan city-culture long after it had been overthrown by the Greeks and at Rome, where Etruscan kings were long remembered with suspicion and scorn. When the last king was appointed, at Veii, the other Etruscan cities were alienated, permitting the Romans to destroy Veii. It is presumed that Etruscan kings were military and religious leaders. The paraphernalia of Etruscan kingship is familiar because it was inherited at Rome and adopted as symbols of the republican authority wielded by the consuls: the purple robe, the staff or scepter topped with an eagle, the folding cross-framed "curule seat", the sella curulis, and most prominent of all, the fasces carried by a magistrate, which preceded the king in public appearances.
The tradition by which the Etruscan cities could come together under a single leader was the annual council held at the sacred grove of the Fanum Voltumnae, the precise site of which has exercised scholars since the Renaissance. In times of no emergency, the position of praetor Etruriae, as Roman inscriptions express it, was no doubt largely ceremonial and concerned with cultus.

Rulers of Clusium
Osiniu fl. probably early 11th century BC
Lars Porsenna fl. late 6th century BC
Aruns fl. c. 500 BC

Rulers of Caere
Lausus
Larthia
Thefarie Velianas fl. c. late 6th century–early 4th century BC, known from his temple dedication recorded on the Pyrgi Teblets

Rulers of Veii
Volumnius fl. mid 5th century–437 BC
Lars Tolumnius fl. late 5th century–428 BC

Rulers of Arimnus
Arimnestos

Etruscan kings of Rome
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus (616–579)
Servius Tullius (578–535)
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (535–510/509) BC

Other Etruscan rulers
Mezentius fl. c. 1100 ? BC
Tyrsenos
Velsu fl. 8th century BC.