VOLUME: 4 WINTER, 2004 Review by Nancy H. Ramage Ithaca College An unusual and worthwhile exhibit on the passion for vases in the 18th century has been assembled at the Bard Graduate Center in New York City. The show, entitled Vasemania: Neoclassical Form and Ornament: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, was curated by a group of graduate students, together with Stefanie Walker at Bard and William Rieder at the Met. It aims to set out the different kinds of taste — goût grec, goût étrusque, goût empire — that developed over a period of decades across Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. The range of materials, from ceramics to sil- ver, etchings to paintings, wood and brass to fabrics and furniture, is wonderfully evocative of the many facets of the widespread interest in vases. The collection of vases assembled by Sir William Hamilton, British envoy to the Court of Naples from 1764 to 1800, provides the opening context for the exhibit. Two of the vases from his second collection, sold to Thomas Hope in 1801, serve as models in this show. They inspired the kinds of imitations and recreations made by Josiah Wedgwood at his firm called Etruria, in Staffordshire, in the later 18th century. He reproduced the decora- tion and scenes found on both red- and black- figure pottery, and, like many of his contem- poraries, copied the shapes of ancient vases. On the other hand, the copies were not made after the original pots, but after the engraved plates in the magnificent 4-volume work pub- lished by Hamilton and written by the anti- quarian “Baron” d’Hancarville. A hydria (fig. 1) is a copy of a vase that belonged to Hamilton, painted in Wedgwood’s “encaustic” technique that imitated red-figure with red, orange, and white painted on top of the “black basalt” body, as he called it. But here, Wedgwood’s artist has taken all the figures that encircle the entire vessel on the original, and put them on the front of the pot, just as they appear in a plate in Hamilton’s first vol- ume in the publication of his first collection, sold to the British Museum in 1772. On the original Greek pot, the last two figures on the left and right sides were painted on the back of the ves- sel. 1 The third handle on the back of the origi- nal Greek pot has been omitted, since the piece was meant for decoration rather than for use as a water jar. Interestingly, one of Wedgwood’s artists copied the same scene onto an oval platter, but this time omitting the two last figures on each side. Vasemania: Neoclassical Form and Ornament: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture An English knife box (fig. 2) made of mahogany in the 1770s shows to what extent the vase design was adapted for modern needs. As knives were expensive at the time, and the steel blades had to be protected, spe- cial containers were constructed using ancient vase shapes as models. A porcelain bowl (fig. 3) from Marie Antoinette’s dairy at her Château de Rambouillet was made by the Sèvres factory about 1787. Modeled on the kylix shape, and decorated with an exquisitely delicate “Etruscan” pattern in light blue, brown, black, and white, it again shows how ancient shapes and designs served as models for new purpos- es. A beautifully produced and illustrated cata- logue, with essays and full entries for all Fig. 3 Bowl from Marie Antoinette’s dairy at the Château de Rambouillet, ca. 1787. Hard-paste porcelain, Sèvres Manufactory. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Pictures courtesy of Stefanie Walker at the Bard Graduate Center. Fig. 2 Knife box, English, ca. 1770-80. Mahogany inlaid with boxwood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. pieces, accompanies the show, as well as a useful Gallery Guide and various flyers and brochures. The material for the exhibit is mostly culled from the Metropolitan Museum’s storerooms, reminding us of the vast amount of first-rate art in that museum that usually does not see the light of day. This is the first in a series of exhibits that will high- light the Met’s largely unseen material, and that will allow the graduate students at Bard to continue to present topics in collaboration with curators at the museum. The exhibit, at 18 West 86th Street, ran through October 17, 2004. For further information, call: 212-501- 3123. 1 Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, Vol. I (London 1989) fig. 631. Fig. 1 Wedgwood Hydria, Etruria Works, Staffordshire, ca. 1780. Black basalt with “encaustic” painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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VOLUME: 4 WINTER, 2004
Review by Nancy H. RamageIthaca College
An unusual and worthwhile exhibit on thepassion for vases in the 18th century has beenassembled at the Bard Graduate Center inNew York City. The show, entitledVasemania: Neoclassical Form andOrnament: Selections from The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, was curated by a group ofgraduate students, together with StefanieWalker at Bard and William Rieder at the Met.It aims to set out the different kinds of taste —goût grec, goût étrusque, goût empire — thatdeveloped over a period of decades acrossBritain, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.The range of materials, from ceramics to sil-ver, etchings to paintings, wood and brass tofabrics and furniture, is wonderfully evocativeof the many facets of the widespread interestin vases.
The collection of vases assembled by SirWilliam Hamilton, British envoy to the Courtof Naples from 1764 to 1800, provides theopening context for the exhibit. Two of thevases from his second collection, sold toThomas Hope in 1801, serve as models in thisshow. They inspired the kinds of imitationsand recreations made by Josiah Wedgwood athis firm called Etruria, in Staffordshire, in thelater 18th century. He reproduced the decora-tion and scenes found on both red- and black-figure pottery, and, like many of his contem-poraries, copied the shapes of ancient vases.On the other hand, the copies were not madeafter the original pots, but after the engravedplates in the magnificent 4-volume work pub-lished by Hamilton and written by the anti-quarian “Baron” d’Hancarville. A hydria (fig.
1) is a copy of a vase that belonged toHamilton, painted in Wedgwood’s “encaustic”technique that imitated red-figure with red,orange, and white painted on top of the “blackbasalt” body, as he called it. But here,Wedgwood’s artist has taken all the figuresthat encircle the entire vessel on the original,and put them on the front of the pot, just asthey appear in a plate in Hamilton’s first vol-ume in the publication of his first collection,sold to the British Museum in 1772. On theoriginal Greek pot, the last two figures on theleft and rightsides werepainted on theback of the ves-sel.1 The third
handle onthe backof the origi-nal Greekpot has beenomitted, sincethe piece was meant fordecoration rather than for use as a water jar.Interestingly, one of Wedgwood’s artistscopied the same scene onto an oval platter, butthis time omitting the two last figures on eachside.
Vasemania: Neoclassical Form and Ornament:Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Artat the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture
An English knife box (fig. 2) made ofmahogany in the 1770s shows to what extentthe vase design was adapted for modernneeds. As knives were expensive at the time,and the steel blades had to be protected, spe-cial containers were constructed using ancientvase shapes as models.
A porcelain bowl (fig. 3) from MarieAntoinette’s dairy at her Château deRambouillet was made by the Sèvres factoryabout 1787. Modeled on the kylix shape, anddecorated with an exquisitely delicate“Etruscan” pattern in light blue, brown, black,and white, it again shows how ancient shapesand designs served as models for new purpos-es.
A beautifully produced and illustrated cata-logue, with essays and full entries for all
Fig. 3 Bowl fromMarie Antoinette’sdairy at the Châteaude Rambouillet, ca.1787. Hard-pasteporcelain, SèvresManufactory.MetropolitanMuseum of Art.
pieces, accompanies the show, as well as auseful Gallery Guide and various flyers andbrochures. The material for the exhibit ismostly culled from the MetropolitanMuseum’s storerooms, reminding us of thevast amount of first-rate art in that museumthat usually does not see the light of day. Thisis the first in a series of exhibits that will high-light the Met’s largely unseen material, andthat will allow the graduate students at Bard tocontinue to present topics in collaborationwith curators at the museum. The exhibit, at18 West 86th Street, ran through October 17,2004. For further information, call: 212-501-3123.
1 Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, Vol. I (London 1989) fig.631.
Fig. 1 Wedgwood Hydria,Etruria Works, Staffordshire,ca. 1780. Black basalt with “encaustic” painting. TheMetropolitan Museum of Art.
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Letter to our ReadersWinter 2004
Dear Readers,As promised in our last issue, we offer our readers Etruscan news from across the Atlantic.
We are grateful to our correspondents abroad who send us these reports: Luciana Aigner-Foresti, president of the Vienna section, Bouke van der Meer, Stephan Steingräber, MaurizioSannibale. In the last issue, Dominique Briquel, president of the Paris section, sent us newsfrom France, including an exciting, recently discovered inscription relating to the Tetniesfamily, whose relatives were once buried in the beautiful sarcophagi now in Boston. The thirdpresident of the foreign sections, Friedhelm Prayon of Tübingen, has also previously con-tributed to the Foreign News.
We mourn the death of Lucy Shoe Merritt, whose memorial is announced elsewhere in thisissue. It seems so recently that we celebrated the new edition of her classic volume, Profilesof Etruscan and Early Latin Moldings. She has left an important mark on our scholarly field.
We are also saddened to learn of the death of Miriam Balmuth, who did so much for thestudy of Sardinia and for our understanding of its crucial importance in the development ofEtruscan civilization. She brought together scholars from all over the world in her confer-ences, which helped to pull Sardinian studies into the mainstream of the ancientMediterranean.
The shocking news has just reached us of the sudden death of Helmut Rix, whoseEtruskische Text (ET) has become the standard reference for Etruscan language studies. Anobituary will appear in our next issue.
The most exciting discovery in recent months is a painted tomb from Sarteano, nearChiusi. It depicts, in the style of the 4th century paintings from Orvieto, dangers of theUnderworld: a demon and a snake-headed monster. The tomb was beautifully published inArcheo 3(2004) 32.
As this issue goes to press, we are both excited to be more accessible on the web, and con-cerned at the possible loss of our friendly newspaper format. It will certainly make distribu-tion easier, however. We do apologize for the resulting delay in the appearance of this issue.
The idea and the name of Etruscan News were originally inspired by the newsletter of theIstituto di Studi Etrusco-Italici in Rome. Three issues of that newsletter appeared before itended with the untimely death of Mauro Cristofani, director of that Istituto, which has nowbeen subsumed into ISCIMA (see page 5).
As the newsletter of the U.S. section of the Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici, we are proudto include a report on the first event that the section has sponsored: Harry Nielsen’s reviewof the first graduate student conference, held in New York on April 29, 2004. The choice ofthis as the section’s first sponsored event was intended to encourage younger scholars in thestudy of the Etruscans. Those of us who attended the event were delighted at the high quali-ty of the contributions.
In the spirit of ancient competitions and in commemoration of the Olympics in Greece thisyear, we offer for the first time a challenge to our readers. We are asking your help in find-ing the “fatal flaw” in an Etruscan crossword puzzle. The winning answer will be printed inour next issue. We would love to have other games, puzzles, or jokes to lighten future issues,and we encourage your creativity.
Sincerely yours,
The Editors:
Letters to the Editors
Splendid idea to offer EtrNews also as awebsite (hopefully with links to otherEtruscan websites (soprintendenze, institutes,etc.) There should be also an Etruscan websitefor scientific communication like RomArch,GreekArch, Ostia, etc. so that Etruscologistscan exchange ideas easily.
Bouke van der MeerUniversity of LeidenLeiden, Netherlands
Etruscan News has been a joy to receivebecause it presents such a thoughtful and use-ful combination of different kinds of informa-tion. I can’t think of another publication thatso imaginatively mixes articles with scholarlycontent, serious reviews, information on thestate of museums and archaeological sites,and every other kind of material likely to be ofinterest to anyone curious about Etruscan civ-ilization. My main interest in the history ofItaly concerns Imperial Rome, but I want tokeep up with developments in the study ofearlier periods and expand my knowledge ofthem and of the people and institutions pro-ducing and communicating that knowledge.Etruscan News is an essential tool for me intrying to do that. Thank you for continuing tomake this essential publication available.
Thomas R. MartinChair, Dept. of ClassicsHoly CrossWorcester, MA 01610
I was very interested to see Etruscan Newswhen I went to the Etruscan Study Day at theBritish Museum earlier this year.
I thought that you may like to know thatwith a friend, Beti Hand, I have been writing“Distortions,*” an entertaining play about theEtruscans. It shows how they put in place thefoundations of the Roman Empire. To be asauthentic as possible, we have been in dia-logue with various authorities. It has hadseven performances to date, at four differentlocations including festivals and on the 29thand 30th of August, we, The Spirit of EtruriaPlayers, will perform it at St Marks Unitarianchurch, Castle Terrace, Edinburgh, as part ofthe Festival Fringe. There has been a numberof favourable reviews, by people who writeabout drama, but not yet one by anEtruscologist.
Coincidentally, at the Royal Museum ofScotland in Edinburgh there is a current exhi-bition, “Treasures from Tuscany – TheEtruscan Legacy.”
Robert CochraneEtruriaStoke on Trent, StaffordshireEngland
*(Editors’ note: There is a brief review of“Distortions” in this issue.)
I went to an exhibit in Stonington, CTcalled “A Place to Take Root,” about the his-tory of flowerpots and garden containers inAmerica at the Captain Nathaniel B. PalmerHouse (he discovered Antarctica in the mid-19th c). It seems that Frederick Law Olmsted,whose beautiful Central Park you (in NewYork) get to gaze at everyday, went toTuscany and fell in love with the big terracotta pots, as well as faux cement sorts ofpots/urns. The designs are quite intricate. Hebrought a bunch back and put them all overCentral Park. The exhibit seeks to trace theroots of the pots back to Egyptian, Greek, and
Roman times. As always, there is no acknowl-edgment that Tuscan pot designs are likelycopies that Romans made of the Etruscandesigns (perhaps an Etruscan adaptation ofGreek terra cotta pots, like the vases, or theirown unique creations?).
Yours in passion for all things Etruscan, Pam MacFarlandProvidence, RI
Writing Etruscan both RTL and LTR isindeed possible, at least in MAC OS X, ifMellel is used: it allows custom RTL and/orLTR. I think this may be good news for theOld Italic studies at large. My key layout anddocumentation may be downloaded free frommy web pages below as well as versiontracker.com/macosx/ and redlers.com.
Sorin PaligaUniversity of BucharestSlavic Department
... Attached is a word document containingclearer cropped images of the Etruscologistsattending the First Etruscan Conference(1926) of the Istituto, the same as the photo-graph which you reproduced in EtruscanNews 3, and, more conveniently side by side,the labels added by Bandinelli: I am delightedto put faces to the people whose work I study(I have made much use of their books archivedin the library of the Istituto on Via dellaPergola, Firenze!). I had hoped to discover animage of one Francesco Pironti, discussed inProfessor Bonfante’s fascinating article, andwho probably also attended the conference;there is a labeled image of Carlo Battisti (butunclearly or wrongly called “L. Battisti”); hewas employed within two years by the ItalianGovernment to discredit Pironti’s work — Ialso enclose the digitized critical report byBattisti, which makes interesting reading,since Pironti actually had the support of theFascist government and Battisti understand-ably avoided stepping on anyone’s toes. Iintend to study (and hopefully translate intoEnglish) Pironti’s book later this year — thereis one copy of it in Australia and I hope thatPironti’s papers (which include 3 unpublishedvolumes!) might one day also be made avail-able by Mr. Pironti’s daughter for editing andpublishing, at least on an Internet website. Iagree with Professor Bonfante that they repre-sent a most fascinating aspect of the history ofEtruscology, and it is actually quite difficult todecide on the basis of Battisti’s report alonehow mainstream and how doubtful Pironti’swork was.
I call your attention to a new technique,which I first learned about when it was report-ed in the New Scientist journal of the 12th ofJuly, 2003, which described how very smallobjects such as vases, regularly shaped objectslike some cippi, house foundations, city walls,buried at depths up to 6 meters under (dry)ground, can be detected apparently with cer-tainty from the air (aeroplanes or helicopters)using microwave radar technology. The feasi-bility of the technique was demonstratedrecently in Israel.
I hope that Richard Daniel De Pumawill write an article concerning Etruscan for-geries, and make mention of the (fraudulent?)Etruscan Golden Book conserved in theBulgarian National History Museum:(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2939362.stm).
Jeff HillUniversity of New South WalesSydney, Australia [email protected]
In “The Plundering of Etruscan Sites: SomeProgress Toward a Solution,” (Spring 2003.page 9), Marina Papa Sokal writes that “It isimperative to consider additional measures toreduce the total global demand for purchase of
antiquities: first, by greatly reducing theappeal of private collecting.” Alas, vilifyingcollectors, antiquities dealers and museumshas been – is being – tried, and has had noappreciable effect on the scourge of looting.Indeed, it has proved counter-productive. Itsimply diverts us from considering market-based solutions that might actually reduce, ifnot eliminate, looting. It also sends the marketunderground so that looted objects go into pri-vate hands where we will never see them.
We all hate looters and wish they would bejailed. (The then-head of the Carabinieri oncetold me that getting caught looting in Italy islike getting a parking ticket.) So let’s concen-trate on doing things that might be productive– like advances in electronic fences, greaterefforts locally to catch looters by involvinglocals, tougher looting laws with stiffer penal-ties and strict enforcement, regulated excava-tions financed by sharing finds, etc. It is not aquestion of what’s good and what’s bad, butwhat are the realistic alternatives. The moralposturing reflected in Dr. Sokal’s position isfine if it would work. It won’t. That’s alreadybeen proven. That is why I want to try othermeans.
Hershel ShanksEditor, Archaeology Odyssey
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ETRUSCAN NEWSEditorial Board, Issue #4, September 2004
President of the U.S. Larissa Bonfante [email protected] of the Istituto di Classics DepartmentStudi Etruschi ed Italici, New York Universityex officio 25 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10003
Editor-in-Chief Jane Whitehead [email protected] and Classical LanguagesValdosta State UniversityValdosta, GA 31698
Language Page Editor Rex Wallace [email protected] DepartmentUniversity of MassachusettsAmherst, MA 01003
Report from the Fellows Elizabeth de Grummond [email protected] of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI
Submissions, news, pictures, or other material appropriate to this newsletter may be sent toany of the editors listed above. The email address is preferred. Nominations for member-ship in the Section may be sent to Larissa Bonfante at the above address.
News from Viennaby Luciana Aigner-Foresti
The Academy of Sciences of Vienna(Oesterreiches Akademie der Wissenschaften)has been very supportive of the activities ofthe Vienna Section of the Istituto di StudiEtruschi. They have officially commissionedfrom Luciana Aigner-Foresti a study on thecivilian, military, and religious institutions inthe Etruscan political community (with partic-ular consideration of parallels and differenceswithin the ancient Italic and Mediterraneanareas.) The manuscript will be ready for pub-lication at the end of 2005.
Dr. Petra Amann, who presently holds thepost of Researcher at the University, has com-pleted her study of political and cultural rela-tions between Etruscans and Umbrians.
ETRUSCAN AND ITALICEVENTS IN 2003/2004
by Stephan Steingräber
The last months of 2003 and the firstmonths of 2004 were full of exciting eventsconcerning Etruscan and Italic cultures bothin Italy and in other European countries. Aseries of exhibitions, congresses and aca-demic meetings, presentations, lectures andnew archaeological discoveries enriched ourknowledge of ancient pre-Roman Italy.
Among the exhibitions worth mentioningare those at Este, Rome, Formello, Milan,Viterbo and Hamburg in Germany. The exhi-bition “Il passaggio del guerriero. Un pelle-grinaggio tra i santuari atestini” (12/7/02 –12/7/03) in the Museo Atestino of the lovelytown of Este near Padova was organizedmainly by the director of the museum, A.Ruta Serafini. It documented a number ofsanctuaries partly dedicated to the goddessReitia, both in Este (Caldevigo, Meggiaro,Deserto, Morlungo, Casale) and in othersites of Veneto, such as San PietroMontagnon (PD), Vicenza and Altino. Someof these sanctuaries with their typical smallvotive bronze statuettes had been frequentedfrom the 7th century B.C. until the 2nd cen-tury A.D. A voluminous catalogue of theexhibition was also published.
In a series of exhibitions on “Moda, cos-tume e bellezza nell’Italia antica,” theMuseo di Villa Giulia in Rome organized anEtruscan section from September 2003 toMarch 2004. This exhibition included richburial gifts, such as gold jewelry from anaristocratic tomb at Nepi which was usedfrom the second half of the 6th until the 3rdcentury B.C.
In the Sala Orsini of Palazzo Chigi, in thehistorical centre of Formello near ancientVeii, one could visit the very instructiveexhibition “Dalla Capanna alla Casa. I primiabitanti di Veio” (12/13/03 – 3/1/04) organ-ized by the dynamic young Dutch director ofthe museum Iefke van Kampen. The exhibi-tion of 190 objects explained the develop-ment of Etruscan domestic architecture inVeii from the 11th to the 6th century B.C.and included the reconstruction of an almostlife size hut.
In the crypt of Santa Maria della Vittoria,belonging to the SoprintendenzaArcheologica of Milan, a small exhibitionon “Gli Etruschi a nord del Po: Le fasi di etàarcaica dell’abitato del Forcello di BagnoloSan Vito” (1/20 – 3/30/04) was organized byRaffaelle De Marinis, Prof. at the Univ. ofMilan and excavator of the site.
Excavations at Forcello di Bagnolo SanVito near Mantova have now been continu-ing for more than 20 years, and results havealready been presented in a larger exhibitionof the same name in 1986 in Mantova. Thissettlement north of the Po river was populat-ed by Etruscans from about 550/40 to 380B.C. The recent exhibition in Milan docu-mented mainly the oldest phases of the set-tlement and showed, among other things,several Etruscan inscriptions and manyGreek transport amphorae and imported
Attic black- and red figure ceramics. Until the end of June (6/30/04) one could
visit a very interesting exhibition in theFortezza Giulioli of Viterbo entitled “Scavonello scavo: Gli Etruschi non visti” andorganized by the SoprintendenzaArcheologica per l’Etruria Meridionale.This exhibit is reviewed elsewhere in thisissue.
Outside of Italy the exhibition “DieEtrusker” at Hamburg in Germany (2/13 –5/16/04) is especially worth mentioning. Itincluded mostly Etruscan objects frommuseums and collections in Tuscany andGermany and was accompanied by a wellillustrated catalogue with contributions byB. Andreae, H. Blanck, F. Buranelli, A.Hoffmann, F. Prayon and C. Weber-Lehmann. The high point was undoubtedlythe display of the painted panels of theTomba François in Vulci from the VillaAlbani in Rome; these were recentlyrestored thanks to the sponsorship of theGerman Bucerius Foundation.
Particularly interesting congresses havebeen organized at Udine, Orvieto, Perugiaand Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. A con-gress on “Stranieri e non cittadini nei santu-ari del Mediterraneo antico” took place from20 to 22 November 2003 at the University ofUdine. Among the many contributions,mostly by Italian and German archaeolo-gists, the one by Alessandro Naso on theEtruscans in Greek sanctuaries is particular-ly worth mentioning.
As it does every year, the Fondazione peril Museo “Claudio Faina” organized, fromDecember 12–14, 2003, a congress in thevenerable Medieval Palazzo del Capitanodel Popolo of Orvieto. The topic was “IGreci in Etruria,” specifically the physicalpresence of Greeks in Etruria. Most of theleading Italian scholars contributed lectures:Maria Bonghi Jovino, Francesco Roncalli,Giovannangelo Camporeale, GiovanniColonna, Mario Torelli, Adriano Maggiani,Bruno D’Agostino and Giuseppe Sassatelli.The topic yielded very stimulating results.
On February 5-7, 2004 a congress on “Lastoria e l’archeologia di Perugia nell’anti-chità” took place at the University ofPerugia, at the Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.The contributions, mostly by Italian schol-
[continued on next page]
F o r e i g n N e w s
Etruscan Crossword Puzzle
Contest! This puzzle contains a flaw. Solve the puzzle (the answer appears on the last page),then revise the puzzle to correct the flaw. The winning entry will be printed in our next issue.
Translate all names from Greek to Etruscan. Fill all boxes right to left.
Across:1. Ariadne’s husband4. Etruscan word for “son”6. Slayer of the Nemean lion9. Led the Olympians in a battle against
Cronus and the Titans10. Hero of Homer’s second book11. Helen’s brother-in-law; a descendant of
Atreus12. Male (and female) soothsayer13. First deity to plant an olive tree on the
Acropolis
Down:2. “Ox-eyed ___________” (from Homer)3. Goddess born from the sea foam5. Son of Peleus and Thetis, Trojan hero7. Vengeful wife of the king of Mycenae8. Etruscan “ghost”
Answers on page 20
Page 4
ars, dealt with history, epigraphy, history ofresearch, topography and art in Etruscan andRoman Perugia. One week later (February13–14) the University of Louvain-la-Neuveorganized, under the leadership of PaulFontaine, a congress on “L’Etrurie etl’Ombrie avant Rome: Cité & territoire.”Scholars from Belgium, France (D.Briquel), Germany (F. Prayon), GreatBritain (P. Perkins, S. Stoddart) and Italy (L.Donati, A. Maggiani, A. Naso, M.Pacciarelli, M. Torelli) discussed problemsconcerning the process of urbanization inEtruria and Umbria and the relation betweencity and territory.
A new archaeological journal focusing onEtruscan and Italic cultures was inauguratedon February 8, 2004 in the AmericanAcademy of Rome by Giovanni PuglieseCarratelli of the Academia dei Lincei, and
[continued on next page]
Report from theVatican
by Maurizio Sannibale
The recent activity of the MuseoGregoriano Etrusco has concentrated on thestudy of its own collections. Coordinated bythe Direzione del Reparto Antichità Etrusco-Italiche dei Musei Vaticani, a program ofcataloguing and final study has produced thesystematic publication of the Mario Astaritacollection, which is displayed in Sala XX ofthe Museo Gregoriano Etrusco. This is aprestigious collection of ancient figuredvases and of other ancient objects generous-ly donated to the Vatican in 1967 and 1968by the collector and connoisseur, a friend ofSir John D. Beazley, with whom the study ofthe collection began. After a gap of about 20years, the volume by M. Iozzo, LaCollezione Astarita nel Museo GregorianoEtrusco, II,I. La ceramica attica a figurenere (Città del Vaticano 2002) has been pub-lished. At the present time, with the collabo-ration of a group of scholars (Mario Iozzo,Jasper Gaunt, Aaron J. Paul, Giulia Rocco)two volumes are being prepared that aremuch awaited by the scientific community,
one on black-figured ceramics of non-Atticproduction and the other on Attic Red Figureceramics.
As was announced in the previous issue,the two volumes on the “minor” tombs in theSorbo cemetery at Cerveteri are now avail-able. These present important news and rein-terpretations of materials that were last pub-lished in the monograph of L. Pareti in 1947.The volumes published in 2003 are: M.Cascianelli, La Tomba Giulimondi diCerveteri; and F. Sciacca and L. Di Blasi, Latomba Calabresi e la tomba del Tripode diCerveteri. In the latter is also a contributionby M. Sannibale, “Nota sulle indagini scien-tifiche e sui restauri,” which synthesizes thelast acquisitions on the technical data inrelation to the historical-archaeologicalproblems addressed in the volume.
Recently published, through a collabora-tion between the Vatican Museums and theFMR publishing house in Milan, is themonograph by Francesco Buranelli andMaurizio Sannibale, Vaticano. MuseoGregoriano Etrusco, which presents, inprestigious editorial garb, a representativeselection of the works of the collection,accompanied by introductory chapters onthe history of the museum and on Etruscancivilization in general.
Report from theTübingen Section
by Friedhelm Prayon
The two most noteworthy activities of theTübingen Section at the moment are the fol-lowing:
1. The excavation of the Etruscan site ofCastellina del Marangone near Civitavecchia,conducted by the Istituto di ArcheologiaClassica dell’Università di Tübingen under thedirection of Friedhelm Prayon, in collabora-tion with the CRNS of Paris under the direc-tion of Jean Gran Aymerich (1995-99), andwith the participation of the University ofLouvain la Neuve under the direction of PaulFontaine (2000-2001), was concluded in2002. We have been able to understand theoccupation of the site from the Middle BronzeAge to the Mediaeval Period, with anEtruscan presence from the 8th to the 3rd cen-turies B.C. The Etruscan finds include officialbuildings, such as a possible Regia, witharchitectural terracottas, in the center of thesettlement (the acropolis structures date fromthe 6th to the 4th centuries B.C.), and habita-tions, including private houses, on the slopes.Interesting are the surrounding walls, con-structed around 300 B.C., evidently for thedefense of the Caeretan territory againstRome. Under this wall were found traces ofdefenses dating back as far as the 7th c. Amonumental capital in peperino and architec-tural terracottas from the 5th and 3rd centuriesB.C. indicate the existence of at least twosanctuaries at the site, but their exact positionis not possible to verify. At the moment theGerman and French teams are preparing topublish the results of the research in separatevolumes (see Römische Mitteilungen 1999).
2. Bettina von Freitag and FriedhelmPrayon are now preparing, in the museum ofthe Schloss Hohentübingen, an archaeologicalexhibit on the theme “Representations of theHereafter and Ancestor Worship in Etruria,”with original Etruscan objects as well as mod-els that we are making. Included will be: theTomb of the Reliefs, the Tomb of the FiveChairs, and Tumulus II of Cerveteri, a 1:1copy of the François Tomb, and the Tomb ofthe Augurs. The exhibit, planned for thespring of 2006, will then be shown inWürzburg.
by Dieter Mertens, the director of theGerman Archaeological Institute in Rome. Itis edited by the Etruscologist Giuseppe dellaFina, the director of the Museo Faina inOrvieto. Its title is Archaeologiae –Research by Foreign Missions in Italy. Themain aim of the new journal, publishedtwice the year, is to present excavations, top-ographical surveys, materials from archivesand other kinds of researches by foreign (notItalian) scholars and teams in Italy studyingprehistoric through medieval archaeology.
On April 4, 2004, a new volume onancient Orvieto, Storia di Orvieto I –Antichità, was presented at the Museo Fainain Orvieto; it is the starting point of a seriesof four volumes on the history and monu-ments of Orvieto from prehistory until the20th century. The voluminous and richlyillustrated volume of contributions by themost famous Italian scholars was presentedby Stephan Steingräber and Archer Martin.
On February 20, 2004, FrancescoRoncalli presented at Orvieto the Atti del ICorso di Perfezionamento (Anno accademi-co 2002-2003) of the Scuola di Etruscologiae Archeologia dell’Italia Antica; this wasorganized and sponsored by the Fondazioneper il Centro Studi “Città di Orvieto” and theFondazione per il Museo “Claudio Faina”and entitled Italia Antiqua – La formazionedella città in Etruria. This volume includesa selection of the best contributions from theparticipants of the course.
Among the lectures of a more “exotic”character, one can mention “Greeks,Etruscans and Romans in Japan – Museums,collections and researches concerningancient Mediterranean cultures in the land ofthe Samurai,” by Stephan Steingräber onFebruary 8, 2004 in the Ashmolean Museumat Oxford. This event was sponsored by theNissan Foundation and attended by an inter-national audience.
During the last months of 2003, two excit-ing discoveries of painted chamber tombsoccurred, one in Etruria at Sarteano, and theother in Apulia at Arpi. The Sarteano tombwith its impressive demons and monstersdates from the second half of the 4th centu-ry B.C. and can be attributed perhaps to aworkshop from Orvieto. It was recently pre-sented in an article by Giuseppe della Finain Archeo 3 (2004) 32sq. and is discussedelsewhere in this issue. The tomb in DaunianArpi, excavated and briefly presented inArcheo 1 (2004) 13 by Marina Mazzei, datesfrom the late 4th century B.C. and is charac-terized by a painted façade. The figuralscene shows a flying Nike crowning a victo-rious horseman, who is the tomb owner, anda fallen defeated soldier on the ground. Theiconography and the reddish undercoat arevery reminiscent of the contemporaneouspolychrome vases of Arpi with historicizingrepresentations.
In the meantime, work is progressing onthe editing of the monograph Il materialeprotostorico by A. Mandolesi, with contri-butions by various scholars, for the series ofcatalogues of the Museo GregorianoEtrusco. On the occasion of this study theMuseo Gregoriano Etrusco reunited theimportant nucleus of Villanovan finds exca-vated at the end of the 18th c. in the necrop-olis of Vulci-Casal di Lanza, by transferringto it the bronze finds, which had been keptseparately in the Museo Profano of theLibrary.
The Museo Gregoriano Etrusco partici-pated, by lending works and editing texts, inthe following exhibits:
El Teatro Romano. La Puesto en Escena,exhibit catalogue: Zaragoza, Mérida,Córdoba 2003 (Zaragoza 2003)
L’acqua degli Dei. Immagini di fontane,vasellame, culti salutari e in grotta, cata-logue of the exhibit: Chianciano Terme 2003(Montepulciano 2003)
Sea Routes... From Sidon to Huelva.Interconnections in the Mediterranean 16th- 6th c. B.C.: Museum of Cycladic Art,Athens 2003
Pisa e il Mediterraneo. Uomini, merci,idee dagli Etruschi ai Medici, catalogue ofthe show: Pisa 2003, by M. Tangheroni.
New Tomb Discovered atSarteano
by Alessandra Minettitranslated by Jane K. Whitehead
In October of 2003, the excavations whichevery year the Museo Civico of Sarteano con-ducts in the various necropoleis of the region,and which since 2000 were concentrated inthe Pianacce necropolis, yielded a great sur-prise. As one enters the long corridor thatopens behind the tomb’s central chamber,which is reached at the end of the exterior dro-mos cut 20 meters into the travertine, an unex-pected spectacle appears on the left side: thewhole wall is frescoed with figures in verylively colors.
This discovery comes 20 years after the lastgreat Etruscan painting discovery: that of theTomb of the Blue Demons in Tarquinia. TheSarteano find is exceptional for the unique-ness of the painted scenes, which bear littlerelationship to the typical themes in Etruscanwall painting from the second half of the 4thcentury B.C., to which the tomb can be dated.Especially remarkable is the figure of ademon driving a chariot drawn by two lionsand two griffins; these are heading towardsthe exterior of the tomb after having droppedoff the deceased at the edge of Hades. Thequadriga and a demon with these characteris-tics are not found on any other wall or ceram-ic depiction, although their general concep-tion and certain details of their rendering finddirect parallels in some ceramics fromOrvieto, in particular those of the Vanth groupand some found in the Settecamini necropolis.
The demon is probably an innovative ver-sion of Charun, the psychopomp of theEtruscan funerary imagination. The entrance
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E x c a v a t i o n N e w s
Crustumerium
Professor Richard De Puma, Universityof Iowa, reports that excavations atCrustumerium, the archaic Latin site justnorth of Rome, will continue in Septemberand October 2004. It is hoped that excava-tions of the Monte del Bufalo Necropoliswill reveal more 8th and 7th century inhu-mations. Thus far, more than 120 tombshave been explored at the site, although sev-eral have been damaged by tombaroli, espe-cially during the 1980s. At the moment, thecontents of Tomb 113, the impressive burialof a wealthy woman of ca. 650 B.C., are ondisplay in the Museo ArcheologicoTerritoriale in Monterotondo. An accuratearchaeological model of this tomb is beingprepared for exhibition at the museum.
Excavations at Cerveteriby Vincenzo Bellelli(CNR, ISCIMA-Rome)
Like a modern phoenix, the new Istituto diStudi sulle Civiltà Italiche e del MediterraneoAntico (ISCIMA) rises again from the ashesof two glorious institutes of the NationalResearch Council (CNR) founded byMassimo Pallottino and Sabatino Moscati inthe early ‘70s: the Istituto per l’ArcheologiaEtrusco-Italica and the Istituto di Studi sullaCiviltà Fenicio-Punica. This new researchorgan, now directed by Francesco Roncalli,was created in 2002.
The scope of the new Institute is muchbroader than that of its predecessors: thewhole Mediterranean area. The ISCIMA hasaccepted a great challenge. In particular,excavations are under way in Africa (Zama),in Sardinia (S. Antioco/Sulcis), and of coursein continental Italy. Here attention has focusedon two important archaeological sites of cen-tral Italy, both close to Rome, EtruscanCerveteri and Sabine Colle del Forno, wheretwo CNR teams had already worked in coop-eration with the Superintendencies of Latium
and Southern Etruria.The urban area of Cerveteri was fully inves-
tigated from 1983 to 1989 by the late profes-sor Mauro Cristofani and his collaborators.The area chosen for excavation was the VignaParrocchiale – the parish vineyard – a truetreasure for the clandestine excavators whohave been sacking the area for one hundredyears or more. Thanks to the regular archaeo-logical activity carried out by Cristofani’steam, the history of this part of Cerveteri’surban territory is now much clearer. A widesector of the archaic city, probably includingan urban “residence” decorated with architec-tural terracottas of the first Della Seta phase,was completely destroyed at the beginning ofthe 5th c. B.C. to build a sanctuary. A monu-mental temple of the Tuscan order was builtupon the ruins of the archaic quarter, thedebris of which was dumped into a big hollowcut in the tufo rock. Not far from the temple,the city authorities had an enormous ellipticalbuilding constructed that would have surviveduntil the Roman period.
The results of Cristofani’s excavations havebeen fully published; the last task was the vol-ume Caere 4, published posthumously in2003. This book offers much information but
to Hades is symbolized by a painted Doricdoorway that frames a niche. On the other sideof this niche is the usual banquet scene, clear-ly set in Hades, with two male charactersreclining on a couch and expressing anextraordinary and unique gesture of affection.This is probably a father and son rather than ahomosexual couple, but in any case the ges-ture is without parallel in Etruscan wall paint-ing, even though it calls to mind the couple onthe northern slab of the Tomb of the Diver atPaestum. Beside the couple on the couchstands the figure of a servant holding a columfor filtering wine. He should be read as partic-ipating in the banquet, and he calls to mind theyoung men of the Golini I Tomb at Orvieto.Then after a lacuna caused by the destructionof a corner of the tomb by owners in theMediaeval period, one enters the rear chamberwhere, again on the left, is depicted a largeserpent with three heads, a symbol of the
Compositeimage of newtomb paintingdiscovered atSarteano (M.Iozzo)
monsters that the Etruscans believed populat-ed innermost Hades. The hippocamp on therear pediment also, although it is a commonelement in wall painting, has exceptionaldimensions and accentuates the treatment ofthe rear chamber as a recess in the worldbeyond the tomb. Under the pediment lies theimposing gray alabaster sarcophagus with thedeceased reclining on the lid, the final restingplace of the tomb owner.
The tomb is now being restored by theSoprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dellaToscana, which also controls the excavationactivities under the administration of theMuseo Civico Archeologico di Sarteano.These have been carried out by volunteersfrom the Gruppo Archeologico Etruria withfinancing from the AmministrazioneComunale di Sarteano, granted the concessionto excavate by the Ministero per i Beni e leAttività Culturali.
deliberately leaves some questions open. Anew chapter of this Caeretan study is begin-ning: the new goals of the excavators are tocomplete the previous excavator’s work and togather new information on the history, topog-raphy and architecture of the area.
Clarifying the nature of the elliptical build-ing was the first task of the new cycle ofresearch (September-October 2003). It wasnot far from here that ancient excavatorsfound the extraordinary group of marblesculptures now in the Vatican Museums. Fromthe Late Republic on, this monument waswithout a doubt part of the core of RomanCerveteri, together with the theater, whoseruins are visible along the road separating theparish vineyard from the Vigna Marini-Vitalini.
What exactly was this enigmatic ellipticalbuilding? Cristofani’s well-known theory wasthat it was a public building for athletic andtheatrical performances. Its position next tothe theater would show its importance andcivic function. According to the excavator, itwas built at the same time as the temple. Toconfirm or to supersede this hypothesis hasbeen the objective of the first campaign of thenew cycle of excavations directed by Roncalli.
The work has revealed some important newdata; the best preserved structures are part ofthe Roman building, which probably hadmore than one phase. It seems that what waspreviously thought to be a hypaethral buildinghad actually once had a roof. Is this theAugustan basilica? The hypothesis deservesfurther study.
On the other hand, a series of regular cuts inthe tufo have been brought to light all aroundthe building: they could be identified as partsof an odd wooden Late Archaic structure sim-ilar to those represented in Tarquinia’s Tombadelle Bighe and the famous Chiusine cippusnow kept in Palermo, both displaying woodenglacis.
Not far from the elliptical building, weinvestigated a small area situated betweenCristofani’s old excavations and the so-calledsanctuary of Hera, which was explored almost100 years ago by the pioneer of Caeretanarchaeology, the engineer Raniero Mengarelli.The results have been encouraging: there is anintact sector of the ancient city, apparentlydestroyed in the Late Archaic period, whichawaits excavation.
The next campaign will be in the autumn of2004.
rare in places that have later been continuous-ly inhabited,” Larissa Bonfante, professor ofclassics at New York University, toldDiscovery News. She added that the newlyexcavated settlement would provide importantinformation about an obscure period ofancient history. “This is certainly an importantdiscovery, quite aside from the possible iden-tification of Camars. The area surely owed itssuccess to its location on the River Bisenzioand the route northward to the rich Po Valleyand beyond. It can tell us a great deal aboutpatterns of settlement and fortification,”Bonfante said.
Where is Camars? In an area near the east-ern flanks of the city walls is a rural areaknown as Chiuso, which Centauro believes isClusium, a settlement within Camars that wasattacked and besieged by the Roman generalSulla in 89 B.C. If Centauro is correct, thiscould bear out Pliny’s clue and could meanthe tomb of Lars Porsenna could finally bediscovered.
Pliny the Elder wrote that Porsenna’s bodywas buried “sub urbe Clusio” (under the cityof Clusium) with hanging chains and bells“which played when the wind moved them.”
Regional officials have so far denied anyrequests to excavate the area, mainly occupiedby privately owned estates. “Our role is to pre-serve, first of all,” Angelo Bottini, Tuscany’ssuperintendent of archaeology, told DiscoveryNews. “Personally, I do not believe inCentauro’s hypothesis. But archaeology is notan exact science and we are open to proposals.For example, we will have no problem inauthorizing an American university led byrespected researchers to excavate that area,”Bottini said.
Many experts dispute that the ruins discov-ered by Centauro are those of Camars, believ-ing that the ancient city was instead located inwhat is now Chiusi, southwest of Florence.Centauro insists they are wrong. “Camars andClusium have often been mistaken with mod-ern Chiusi because of the similarities in thenames,” he said. “That’s why until nownobody has found it.”
To view this and more photographs of thesite on the Internet go to: http://dsc.discov-ery.com/news/briefs/20040419/chamars.html
Page 6
Huge Etruscan RoadDiscovered
by Giulio Ciampoltrinitranslated by Larissa Bonfante
The excavations financed by the ASCITConsortium, carried out in May and June 2004under the direction of the Soprintendenza per i BeniArcheologici of Tuscany, in collaboration with theUNESCO Forum, Lucca Section, brought to lightin the area “Casa del Lupo” (Comune di Capannori,Lucca) an impressive extraurban Etruscan road ofthe sixth or fifth century B.C. We know that fromthe seventh century A.D. through the mid-nine-teenth century, when the area was drained, the low-lying land east of Lucca was covered by a lake,known as the Lago di Sesto or Lago di Bientina,whose size varied. As early as the sixteenth centuryone could see, under its clear waters, conspicuousruins which the local scholars identified as theremains of a legendary city of Sextum. Modernarchaeological research has shown that they wereactually remains of rural settlements of Romantimes, so plentiful that the area was called “ThePlain of the 100 Farms.”
But no one could have imagined that a heavyblanket of alluvial sediment could also hide anEtruscan highway of around 500 B.C., the first tocome to the surface in Tuscany, and perhaps themost important one ever found in Italy because ofits early date and its excellent condition. It wasrevealed in the course of backfilling the exploratorytrenches opened in 1997 at Casa del Lupo(Capannori), an area that had been designated a pro-tected archaeological/landscape site after the dis-covery of a series of canals dating from the Romanand Mediaeval periods. After only a few days thearchaeologists of the ASCIT Consorium who hadbeen sent to backfill and preserve those ancientcanals realized that below the earth of Casa delLupo lay hidden even more important discoveries.
The archaeologists in charge dug three largetrenches 100 meters apart. These revealed a sizablesection of a late Archaic Etruscan road, constructedwith a sandstone surface, below which was laid afoundation of river pebbles and gravel, with no mor-tar. For a number of reasons, this is an extraordinarydiscovery. The Etruscan road, which runs near andpractically parallel to the highway betweenFlorence and the shore, is seven meters wide. It is invery good condition, so that we can see clearly notonly the phases of construction, but also the rutsmade 2500 years ago by various chariot wheels. Itruns in an east-west direction for almost 200 meters,and it will be easy to follow its course for severalkilometers through an area that is fortunately notbuilt up.. At the present time it looks as though thesection of this road found at Casa del Lupo, nearLucca, is part of the Etruscan road system that ranfrom the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic coast. Such aroad was in fact mentioned by the fourth-centuryB.C. geographer, Skylax: it connected Pisa on theTyrrhenian coast with the city of Spina on theAdriatic by way of Marzabotto and Bologna.
Newly discovered Etruscan road, 7meters wide, near Lucca.
Fabled Etruscan KingdomEmerging?
by Rossella Lorenziedited and reprinted from Discovery News
April 21, 2004: The fabled kingdom of theEtruscan king Lars Porsenna is coming tolight in the Tuscan hills near Florence, accord-ing to an Italian university professor.
Known as Camars, where the lucumo(king) Porsenna reigned in the 6th centuryB.C., this was a leading city-state of theEtruscan civilization that dominated much ofItaly before the emergence of Rome. It wasfrom there that Porsenna is said to havelaunched his most successful attack uponRome in order to restore the exiled TarquiniusSuperbus to the throne. Porsenna laid siege tothe city, but accepted a peace settlement andwithdrew.
If confirmed, the discovery could help shednew light on one of Europe’s most mysteriouspeople. It would also raise the possibility oflocating the fabulous tomb of the Etruscanking. Porsenna’s tomb was said by the histori-an Pliny the Elder to consist of a labyrinth 300feet square with pyramids on top. Accordingto legend, it was adorned with a golden car-riage, 12 golden horses, a golden hen and5,000 golden chicks.
“Apart from legend, I believe Camars has atlast been found. This was the biggest Italiancity before Rome and it represents the entireEtruscan civilization from the very beginningto its decadence,” Giuseppe Centauro, a pro-fessor of urban restoration at FlorenceUniversity who has also worked on restorationprojects in Pompeii, told Discovery News.
Centauro believes Camars is set betweenPrato’s Calvana mountains and Florence’sMount Morello, in a remote countrysidewhich was once used by Sardinian crimegangs to hide the victims of their kidnappings.Indeed, the large area has already yieldedimportant findings.
Two centuries ago, workers building ahouse unearthed the most precious find thatthe area has produced so far, a bronze statuetteof a young man dating from about 500-480B.C., which is now at the British Museum.
More recently, workmen excavating foun-dations for a goods yard came across theremains of what archaeologists, announcingthe discovery last week, called “one of themost complete Etruscan cities to be discov-
ered in Tuscany.” Dating from the 5th centuryB.C., the settlement was built on the banks ofthe Bisenzio river, just outside what Centauroclaims to have been Camars’ defensive walls.
“The city was certainly abandoned. Onehypothesis is that it was flooded by the riverBisenzio,” Gabriella Poggesi, the archaeolo-gist in charge of the excavation, toldDiscovery News. Drawing a line between thediscovery of the city near the Bisenzio riverand the possibility of finding Camars, Poggesidid not want to comment on Centauro’shypothesis.
Centauro and a team of experts have beendetailing all of the finds in the area around thenewly discovered city. He believes the settle-ment so far found is merely one of severalwithin the walls of Camars. His team hasalready discovered that stone walls encircle anarea of seven square miles. Within this area,there are various tombs, extensive house foun-dations, and a sophisticated water system ofcanals and artificial basins.
In one stretch, defensive walls 10 feet thickemerge from the vegetation for 700 yards.“The walls look well preserved. We can hopeto find more evidence of habitation sites, so
Possible central market place, pavedwith flat white stones (Photo: R. Lorenzi)
Defensive walls 10 feet thick emerge from the vegetation for 700 meters aroundwhat an Italian researcher believes is the site of Camars. (Photo: R. Lorenzi)
Page 7
New Research at Carsulae2004
by Jane K. Whitehead
For the first time in over three decades, theRoman baths at Carsulae now see the light ofday. The Roman city of Carsulae was foundedin the late 3rd c. B.C. when the via Flaminiawas constructed through Umbria, and itscourse attracted the native Umbrians downfrom their mountaintop settlements. In thebeginning of July 2004, the Associazione perla Salvaguardia del Patrimonio Culturale SanGemini hired a tractor to clear away 30 yearsof dense, destructive vegetation and to exposethe site as it had been left by the last excava-tor, Umberto Ciotti, in 1972.
In his capacity as Soprintendente ai BeniArcheologici Umbri, Ciotti excavated atCarsulae from 1951 to 1972, with some inter-vals. Assisted by the great architect ItaloGismondi, he opened, consolidated, andrestored the monumental core of the city. Hisresearches in the area of the baths, however,which lie at the southern entrance to the citywell below and away from the center, appearto have been brief and his publication of themscanty. He exposed one apsidal room, whichhis plan shows to be linked by an angular lineof long walls to a cistern near the ViaFlaminia. Unfortunately, we do not haveCiotti’s excavation notes, or any scientificinformation beyond his limited remarks,e.g.”Un saggio eseguito nei primi anni degliscavi statali ha rimesso in luce il pavimento inmosaico di un ambiente terminante con unanicchia ed alcune suspensurae, ma l’esplo-razione non è stata più ripresa in questa partedella città.”1
Furthermore, the remains that Ciotti foundhad already been exposed, at least in part, byearlier excavators and, sad to say, scavengers.For centuries the site had been a rich source ofmarble architectural and sculptural elementsfor the random taking, and traces can be foundliberally immured into the churches of thesurrounding towns. The Cesi family ofAcquasparta sought works to adorn theirpalace in the 16th century. Documentation ofthe extant sculptural and architectural remainsfrom Carsulae did not begin until the 17thcentury.2 The first systematic excavation ofthe site took place in 1783, when Pope Pius VIauthorized Count Sebastiano Graziani ofTerni to open three areas, one of which wasthat of the baths, where figured mosaics in redand white marble had already been found.3 In1800, after those excavations had been com-pleted, E.A. Milj published a catalogue of thevisible remains at Carsulae. He speaks of thebaths: “vestigia dei pubblici bagni abbastan-za magnifici, tassellati a mosaico di finomarmo a più colori, e con figure a bassorilie-vo di animali quadrupedi, acquatici e volatili;ed in cui erano guidate le acque con tubi,canali di piombo in uno dei quali dissotterra-to anni or sono, vi si leggeva F. Elius Cresces.Fec.”4
After the clearing of the bath area in July2004, a group of American students under thedirection of Prof. Jane K. Whitehead ofValdosta State University (Georgia) studiedand documented the condition of the existingfeatures. They began by using a total station tocreate a relief plan of the area of the baths andto integrate that into Ciotti’s published reliefplan of the main part of Carsulae. When they
set in the stakes for the north-south and east-west axes of the grid, they found that the posi-tion of their main datum point was only 20cm. from a slab of concrete that had once helda wooden stake; they believe that this wasCiotti’s datum point, from which he measuredthe depths and location of his excavated finds.
As the remnants of the thick vegetationwere carefully cleaned away, the location ofCiotti’s trenches became evident, thoughmuch eroded by the action of roots and ani-mals that had lived among them. Carefulsweeping revealed the apse, extending fromthe NW end of a rectangular room. It is ofbrick-faced concrete construction, althoughonly the interior line of brick facing is pre-served on the surface for most of its arc. Thebricks are triangular in shape, and are stackedso that their points face into the concrete core.As the plans of the earlier excavation show,the apse appears broken in the middle. Thiscannot be explored further until some meansis found to consolidate the position of brickswithin the concrete, which has been reducedto powder.
The brick-faced concrete construction wasused in other walls of the structure, but not allwith the same shape or positioning of the fac-ing bricks. Another wall is of opus reticula-tum, concrete faced with tapered, lozenge-shaped stones, an earlier type of constructionthat evokes the Augustan period. Whatappears to be an even earlier construction,opus incertum, may have been used for a wallat another point where the roots were still toothick and too embedded in the delicate con-
crete to allow further exploration of the wallthis season.
Several architectural elements emergedwhich were not mentioned by any of the pre-vious excavators or cataloguers of finds fromCarsulae. A large slab from a limestone archlies outside the apse to the SW. Slots, drilledinto its upper surface for pouring molten leadto hold the element in place, indicate that weare seeing the back of the slab. The underside(thus, the front) appears to be carved: perhapsthis is where the “bassorilievo di animali...”described by Milj was seen. A base moldingof peperino, cut flat on one side to rest againsta wall or to elaborate the base of a doorjamb,5 lies beside the arch slab. A limestoneblock carved with a small frieze suggestive oftriglyphs and metopes lies just inside thecurve of the apse. In the area of this blockwere found several thin slabs of a light graymarble, perhaps from the facing of the walls.Just outside the curve to the north and restingagainst the mound of decaying concrete thatmay mark the exterior face of the apse,emerged a part of an unfluted limestone col-umn, about 86 cm. high.
Within the apse and in the northeastern endof the rectangular room, numerous holes orpits occur. It is difficult to know whether thesewere made by animals, by human scavengersfor antiquities, or by the state-sanctionedexcavators. In places, however, they revealcrucial features. One cuts through a coc-ciopesto floor to reveal the hollow beneathand the brick curve of the apse. Anotherexposes one of the brick suspensurae of thehypocaust.
It is clear that the entire area of the apse andthe rectangular room was paved with coc-ciopesto floors, and that, in the rectangularroom, at least, these were covered by mosaics.One mosaic surface has been consolidated inconcrete since its excavation. Hundreds oftesserae were found scattered all about theNW end of the building. These are of whiteand delicate pink marbles, and thus may befrom the mosaic described by Conte Grazianiin a letter to Cardinal Carrara in 1783: “Ilfondo di questo mosaico è tutto bianco, inter-rotto bensì da alcune piccole linee rosse; del-
l’istesso colore sono le figure, o mostri mari-ni tratteggiati con linee bianche.” No trace ofthe figures or of any pattern can be detected inthe scatter, however. The contrast between thepink and the white would have been very sub-tle, and no doubt very calming; one wondersabout the significance of the colors, whichoccur also on the facing of the twin temples ofthe forum, and whether they might be associ-ated with Castor and Pollux and might thussymbolize healing.
The disruption and displacement of severalfeatures may support the theory that the bathswere destroyed by an earthquake.6 One largeslab of cocciopesto floor appears tilted slight-ly upward from horizontal, and severalstretches of wall are out of position and top-pling over.
Against the cliff face that closes the north-ern side of the area of the baths and cuts it offfrom the rest of Carsulae, the dumps fromCiotti’s excavation came to light. These holdmuch information. Ceramic finds weredumped in one area, stone in another. Theceramic dump yielded many box-shaped, hol-low terracotta tubes, which originally linedthe walls of the bath’s heated rooms andserved to convey hot air up the walls. Evenmore alarmingly for the loss of context, thestone dump consisted of hundreds of facingstones from an opus reticulatum wall. Thelocation of that wall may never be known.
Prof. Whitehead hopes to begin excavationof the baths in the summer of 2005. Certainlymany mysteries remain to be solved about thestructure itself: architectural, chronological,functional. Though structurally typical, thesewere not ordinary baths. They are situatedaway from the center of the city and thus sym-bolically removed from the daily life of theinhabitants. They are located at a point of pas-sage, and they lie above, and are closer thanany other building at Carsulae to, the sourceof the curative waters of San Gemini. One isreminded of the bath complex at ChiancianoTerme. The real importance of the baths maylie in the way they reveal the character ofCarsulae itself.
1. U. Ciotti, Carsulae e San Gemini (Rome1976) 42. On the baths see also idem,“Carsulae, near San Gemini (Umbria, Terni),”FA VIII (1956) 266; A. Morigi, Carsulae:Topografia e Monumenti, Atlante Tematicodi Topografia Antica, III Supplemento (1997)31-32; P. Bruschetti, Carsulae (Rome 1995)31.
2. For discussion of these, see Morigi, 15,and Ciotti 1976, 13-14.
3. Ciotti 1976, 12 and n. 12.
4. E. A. Milj, Carsuli rediviva, ovverostoriche ricerche intorno all’antichissimacittà di Carsuli nell’Umbria; Opera illustratacon alcune note e dedicata all’eccelso Meritodegli Illustratissimi e Reverendissimi SignoriUditori della Sacra Rota Romana. Aggiuntain fine un’Indice Diplomatico (Macerata1800) 5.
5. See I. Gismondi’s 1959 reconstructiondrawing of the particolare delle fiancate dellescale of the forum temples: Ciotti 1976, 29.
6. Ciotti 1976, 22; Morigi, 29 and n. 63.
Top: Plan ofCarsulae.The bathsare thesouthern-most struc-ture at thesite. (Plan:Ciotti)Left: Plans ofthe bathcomplexexcavated byU. Ciotti atCarsulae.(after Ciotti)
N
by Larissa Bonfante
Book Reviews
Gli Etruschi. Storia e civiltà, byGiovannangelo Camporeale. Second edition.Turin: UTET, 2004. Pages 607, 93 line draw-ings in the text, 355 photographs at the end.Euros 47.
Only four years after the first edition, 2000(see Etruscan News 2), this new editionappears with updated text and bibliography(to 2003!). A brief preface lists the impressivenumber of exhibits that have taken place sincethe first edition appeared, attesting to theactivity of Etruscan scholars as well as theinterest of the public. This book, with its gen-erous, informative complement of drawings,unglamorous but very serviceable black andwhite photographs, a clear, straightforwardtext and truly remarkable bibliography by thecurrent President of the Istituto di StudiEtruschi, Professor of Etruscologia at theUniversity of Florence, is a bargain at Euros47, affording a knowledgeable, complete cov-erage of every aspect and area of Etruscanlife, customs and beliefs, from human sacri-fice (138) to foods and banquets (177-191),from Etruscan Campania to the Po valley.
Die Etrusker und das frühe Rom, byLuciana Aigner-Foresti. Geschichte Kompact:Antike. Darmstadt, WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft, 2003.
A clear, well-organized, historically orient-ed account of a subject of renewed interest,the relationship between the Etruscans andearly Rome. There are no pictures. Theremarkably up to date bibliography (manytitles from 2003), has mostly German andItalian titles, but includes of course T.J.Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, London1995.
Etruskové, by Jan Bouzek. ActaUniversitatis Carolinae. Philosophica etHistorica Monographia CLXI. UniversitaKarlova v Praze. Nakladatelství Karolinum,Prague, 2003.
A well organized, well illustrated textbookin Czech. A substantial summary in English,“The Etruscans: different from all othernations” (197-207), allows us to read thisscholar’s knowledgeable and original obser-vations on the Etruscans, their place in theMediterranean, and their influence across theAlps.
The Orientalizing Bucchero from the LowerBuilding at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), by JonBerkin. Monographs New Series, Number 6.Archaeological Institute of America.Published by The University of PennsylvaniaMuseum of Archaeology and Anthropology.Philadelphia, PA 2003. Hardback. US$45.00.
Excavations at the Etruscan site of PoggioCivitate (Murlo) have produced some of themost spectacular and provocative materialrecovered from Etruria. This volume presentsthe reconstruction and study of a large assem-blage of bucchero pottery recovered from theLower Building dating mostly from the lastquarter of the 7th and first quarter of the 6th
centuries (26). It is the first comprehensivepresentation of bucchero from this site, one ofthe few non-funerary Etruscan sites to havebeen excavated. It is also one of the few typo-logical examinations of pottery from northernEtruria, and so belongs on our bookshelvesalongside Tom Rasmussen’s basic buccherostudy, Bucchero Pottery from SouthernEtruria, Cambridge, 1979.
Pittura Etrusca. Problemi e Prospettive.Atti del Convegno. Sarteano, Chiusi, October2001. Edited by Alessandra Minetti. Siena,2003.
Mario Iozzo, Director of theArchaeological Museum of Chiusi, presentsthe volume. Contributions cover a variety ofaspects of Etruscan painting, issues of conser-vation, the significance of the TombaFrançois, implications of the geographicalarea of internal Etruria. A particular surpriseis afforded by the paintings in the Tomb of theHescana, discovered near Orvieto in 1883,and restored in 1995 according to the faithfuldrawings made by D. Cardella in 1893. Herethe brilliantly colored restored paintings showa group of previously illegible figures, includ-ing two men kissing. A similar scene appearson a mirror in the British Museum, in whichtwo female figures, Thanr and Alpnu, areshown kissing passionately in the presence oftwo other women (A. Rallo, ed., Le donne inEtruria, Rome, 1989, fig. LXXVI).
Women in Antiquity and Women inArchaeology
The Athenian Woman. An IconographicalHandbook, by Sian Lewis. London:Routledge, 2002.
There are many valuable observations inthis wonderful book, whose two closely relat-ed subjects are the status of women in Greeceand the reception of Greek pottery. In taking aless restricted look at the many possible inter-pretations of scenes with women on Greekvases than has been the case in other recentstudies, it takes up the many aspects ofwomen’s existence in ancient Athens andinvestigates the reasons for the choice ofscenes on particular types of vases: why cer-tain scenes are or are not represented onfunerary vases. “Pottery… is probably not theplace to look for the expression of maritalaffection: pots present a particular and notvery informative view of marriage, not unlikethe modern wedding photograph which hasmuch to say about conspicuous consumptionand little about the individuality of the partic-ipants” (176).
One of Lewis’s points is that the meaningof the iconography on Athenian vases is not aphotographic record of daily life, but can varywith the function of the vase and the point ofview of its owner. According to her the ownerwas, as often as not, an Etruscan. Concerningsuch an Etruscan viewpoint, Liz James asks,in a perceptive review (Antiquity 78, No.3000, June 2004, 450-452), “If some of thesevases were, as Lewis argues, an idealised por-trait for Etruscan viewers, then what are theEtruscan ideals and mores they conform to?”But this is in fact a minor point consideringthe scope of the book and its wide-ranging,
stimulating view of the relation between thereality of the life of Athenian women and theirrepresentation on Attic vases.
Aphrodite’s Tortoise. The Veiled Woman inAncient Greece, by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones.Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2003.Distributed in the US by the David BrownCompany, Oakdale, CT.
Rarely does a book on a classical topicstrike on such a timely subject, given therecent law banning the veil — and other visi-ble religious symbols – from French schools,and the related ongoing discussion about thesignificance of the veil for Islamic women.The author, who organized a well-attended,highly successful conference on AncientDress in 2002, maintains that the veiling ofthe female head or face was part of a male ide-ology that required women to be silent andinvisible creatures. Like a mute tortoise, shehad the liberty to wander about underneathher all-covering shell, taking her house withher, as it were. Furthermore, he claims thatthere has been a conspiracy of silence amongscholars, for classical scholarship would haveto admit the similarity to “contemporary veilsocieties, especially those of the Arab world”.
Acknowledging that Greek women wereveiled and that Greek males had an ideologyof female veiling opens up the danger that theGreeks themselves should be classed as the“Other.” He brings a great deal of interestingmaterial to bear, on dress, attitudes and artis-tic renderings, as well as intriguing compar-isons, all seen from an original point of view.There is a wonderful collection of images. Anumber of arguments against his extremeviews come to mind, such as the fact thatyoung boys were also veiled, and that in someways the flirtatious language of veiling couldbe compared to the language of the fan. But itis an original and stimulating book on a verycurrent subject.
Itaca. Eroi, donne, potere tra vendetta ediritto, by Eva Cantarella. Campi del Sapere.Milan: Feltrinelli 2002. Euro 18.
An eminent historian of ancient law takesthe story of the Odyssey as a description of thesociety, the culture, customs and beliefs of theGreek world of that time. A beautifully writ-ten book, in which scholarship and imagina-tion serve to recreate the place wherePenelope and Telemachus waited for thereturn of Odysseus, to which Odysseusintended to go back against all odds, and forwhich he turned down offers of immortalityand a life of eternal ease.
Archeologia al femminile. Il cammino delledonne nella disciplina archeologica attraver-so le figure di otto archeologhe classiche vis-sute dalla metà dell’Ottocento ad oggi, byLaura Nicotra. Rome, L’Erma diBretschneider 2004.
The eight women archaeologists includedin this beautifully organized, well-produced,informative volume range in date from thearistocratic Ersilia Caetani Lovatelli (1840-1925) to Alessandra Melucco Vaccaro (1940-2000). The other six are Esther Boise VanDeman, Kathleen Mary Kenyon, RaissaGourevitch Calza, Semni Papaspiridi
Karouzou, Gisela Maria Augusta Richter, andLuisa Banti. Our readers will be particularlyinterested in Luisa Banti, who held the chairof Etruscan Studies in her native Florence,and was at the same time an eminent Minoanscholar, who carried on the work of LuigiPernier.
Breaking Ground. Pioneering WomenArchaeologists, edited by Getzel M. Cohenand Martha Sharp Joukowsky. Ann Arbor, MI:The University of Michigan Press, 2004.
“Breaking Ground presents twelve fascinat-ing women whose contributions to the devel-opment and progress of Old World archaeolo-gy – in an area ranging from Italy toMesopotamia – have been immeasurable.”Jane Dieulafoy, chronologically the firstwoman archaeologist in the book, excavatedthe palace of Xerxes at Susa with her husbandMarcel in 1884-86: this was the first greatarchaeological expedition at Susa. The biog-raphy, by Eve Gran-Aymerich, of this strong-willed woman who took part in the war withPrussia along with the men, dressed in themen’s clothes she eventually wore regularlyas a symbol of equality, makes fascinatingreading. So does the beautifully written life ofEsther Van Deman, by Katherine Welch, whobrings out the atmosphere of the Italy in thefirst part of the twentieth century and VanDeman’s years at the American Academy inRome, where she carried out her remarkablework on Roman construction and Romanaqueducts, technical, gritty subjects docu-mented with her crisp, evocative photographs.
The other Pioneers included are MargaretMurray, Gertrude Bell, Harriet Boyd Hawes,Edith Hall Dohan, Hetty Goldman, GertrudeCaton-Thompson, Dorothy Garrod, WinifredLamb, Theresa Goell, and Kathleen Kenyon.Margaret Cool Root’s introduction, “Womenof the Field, Defining the GenderedExperience,” mentions others, including thewives of famous archaeologists who were notalways given due credit.
In fact, the editors of what was originallyplanned as a multi-author, multi-volumeseries, Women in Archaeology. The ClassicalWord and the Ancient Near East, made anexcellent choice in deciding to include wivesof archaeologists, such as Maria Brendel.Unfortunately this inclusiveness resulted intoo many biographies and eventually meantthat a drastic choice of these twelve was madeby the publisher. It is to be hoped that this willindeed be the first volume of many, accordingto the original plan. For the moment, the otherbiographies can be found online:www.brown.edu/breakingground.
Exhibit CataloguesDie Etrusker. Luxus für das Jenseits. Bilder
vom Diesseits – Bilder vom Tod, Essays andcatalogue by Bernard Andreae, AndreasHoffmann, and Cornelia Weber-Lehmann,with contributions by Francesco Buranelli andFriedhelm Prayon. Munich, Hirmer Verlag,2004.
Etruscan Treasures from the Cini-AlliataCollection, Francesco Buranelli, Maurizio
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Sannibale, eds. Rome: Crisalide 2004.The lavishly illustrated catalogue on the
jewelry from the exhibit (see below), com-piled by Francesco Buranelli, DirectorGeneral of the Vatican Museums, andMaurizio Sannibale, Director of the GregorianEtruscan Museum of the Vatican Museums, isa scholarly treasure on Etruscan and Romanjewelry. Maurizio Sannibale is responsible forthe detailed entries on the pieces, a substantialspecialized bibliography, and a section onmaterials and techniques including the resultsof the latest research on granulation, anEtruscan specialty. The restoration report isby Fabiana Francescangeli. There follow sec-tions for the wider public visiting the exhibit:a historical-archaeological note on Italybefore the Romans, a Time Line, Glossary,and Suggestions for Further Reading inEnglish.
Unveiling Ancient Mysteries: EtruscanTreasures, runs from 1 June until 31 October2004 at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art,which is located on the campus of St.Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Oklahoma,30 miles east of downtown Oklahoma Cityand 90 miles southwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma.Further information about the show can befound on the museum’s website atwww.mgmoa.org.
The exhibit is reviewed elsewhere in thisissue by Elizabeth de Grummond.
Vinzenz Brinkmann, Raimund Wünsche,Bunte Götter. Die Farbigkeit antiker Skulptur.Eine Ausstellung der StaatlichenAntikensammlungen und Glyptothek Münchenin Zusammenarbeit mit der Ny CarlsbergGlyptotek Kopenhagen und den VatikanischenMuseen, Rom. Second Printing. Munich:Staatliche Antikensammlungen undGlyptothek, 2004.
Contributors: Hansgeorg Bankel; HermannBorn; Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann and RichardPosamentir; Elena Walter-Karydi; PaoloLiverani; Ulderico Santamaria and FabioMorresi; Stefano Spada; Jan StubbeOstergaard; Heike Stege, Irene Fiedler, andUrsula Baumer; Sylvia Kellner; BrigitteFreyer-Schauenburg; Lucrecia Ungaro andMaria Luisa Vitali; Oliver Primavesi;Ingeborg Kader; Andreas Prater.
Reviewed in Bryn Mawr Classical Review2004.08.07, by Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway,Bryn Mawr College thus:
“Not only do Museums and exhibitions failto stress sufficiently the role of color inancient sculpture and architecture, but appar-ently even many archaeologists today contin-ue to ignore or deny the reality of its import.This criticism …may no longer be valid afterthe appearance of the book under review,which, since it is already in its second print-ing, must be reaching a wide readership.Ostensibly intended as the catalogue of anexhibition, this hefty — and very colorful —volume does not follow the usual formula oflisting objects on display together with intro-ductory essays on various aspects of interest.Indeed, I remain a bit uncertain as to what wasto be actually exhibited, first in Munich (16Dec. 2003 - 29 Feb. 2004) and then, in slight-ly modified form (p. 9), in Copenhagen (early2004) and at the Vatican (Fall 2004). Instead,the text is composed entirely of essays, mostof them by Vinzenz Brinkmann and a few bynon-German authors (in German translation).
The whole represents a formidable attack onour traditional positions and an exhilaratinginsight into the world of ancient art.” Mail to:([email protected])
Ancient DressBrave Hearts: Men in Skirts, by Andrew
Bolton. (London, New York 2003)Another imaginative exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s CostumeInstitute is accompanied by Andrew Bolton’swonderful catalogue. As in the case of theGoddess exhibit, Harold Koda has organized ashow that opens up questions of the history ofcostume and fashion as well as the history ofart and of social interaction. It illuminates theway people look at each other, the relationshipof men and women, of ethnic groups, of themetropolis and the provinces, of the conven-tions adopted as specific symbols in certainplaces at certain times, and the ways theirmeanings change in various times and places.Looking at fashion in such a way helps usunderstand unspoken assumptions of our ownpresent as well as of the past.
Ancient Greek Costume. A Bibliography,compiled by Linda Jones Roccos.
Starting in 1975, a remarkably completeyear by year record of the subject:
Costume et société dans l’Antiquité et leHaut Moyen Age. Textes réunis par FrançoisChausson et Hervé Inglebert. Textes, Imageset Monuments de l’Antiquité au Haut MoyenAge. Université Paris X, Nanterre. CNRS.Paris, Editions Picard, 2003.
Ancient dress has finally attracted the atten-tion of a wider group of serious scholars, aswell as of costume and fashion institutes.Thirteen contributions include an examinationof Aegean dress and saffron in ritual, byCaroline Zaitoun; Greek dress on terracottafigurines, by Violaine Jeammet; and details ofGreek dress, in particular: buttons, funeralattire, and ritual transvestitism, by YvetteMorizot. Other articles are text-based, andrange from a study of elections and the togacandida in the Roman Republic (ElisabethDania), through the cloak of St Martin (SylvieLabara), to Coptic textiles and theatrical cos-tume in Late Antiquity.
Parliamo di Moda. Manuale di storia delcostume e della moda. I. Dalla preistoria altrecento. II. Dal quattrocento al settecento. III.Ottocento, novecento e XXI secolo. By SaraPiccolo Paci. Bologna, Cappelli Editore,2004.
This beautifully illustrated, up to date text-book, initially written to serve for the studentsat the Polimoda in Florence, is a model of suc-cinct, complete documentation of a subjectlong neglected by all but a very few scholars.It will surely find a wide audience. SaraPiccolo Paci is true to the quotation fromStéphane Mallarmé, La dernière mode, 1874,which she places at the beginning of the book:in studying the history of fashion, one mustalso explain the reason why something wasworn.
Greek Vases and Etruscan MarketsJohn Boardman, The history of Greek
vases. Potters, painters and pictures. London:Thames and Hudson, 2001.
The index, under “Artists, Groups andWares,” lists several passages for “Etruscan.”
These deal with early Greek vases in theGreek colonies in South Italy and Sicily, andtheir possible influence in Etruria; sixth-cen-tury Etruscan schools, including “ some of thevery finest of all Greek decorated vases, theCaeretan hydriae, full of colour, verve andconsiderable narrative ingenuity.” Also men-tioned are Hellenistic Etruscan wares, andvases made for export to Etruria, Tyrrhenianamphorae, Etruscan shapes copied byNikosthenes and other Attic potters. “Thatimported scenes might admit local interepre-tations and even generate a series of locallyproduced scenes does not imply that the mod-els were either deliberately painted or chosen,any more than that they were understood inthe same terms as those in which they werecreated… [Only] another series of late blackfigure stamnoi (the Perizoma Group), not anEtruscan shape but one which was sent toEtruria, show athletes in loincloths, whichwas not a Greek habit at all, though Etruscan.”
Greek Vase Painting. Form, Figure, andNarrative. Treasures of the NationalArchaeological Museum in Madrid. MeadowsMuseum of Fine Arts, edited by P. GregoryWarden. Dallas, TX: Southern MethodistUniversity Press 2004.
This slender volume is very full of verygood things. A catalogue of forty-four vasesfrom the collection of the ArchaeologicalMuseum in Madrid, the last four of which areEtruscan or Etruscan-related: the editor,Gregory Warden, uses the word “Greek” in itsbroadest sense. Each of the introductoryessays takes a fresh, original look at an aspectof Greek vases. These include “Painters, Potsand Pictures,” by Karl Kilinski II: “the major-ity of finer Athenian vases have been retrievedfrom Italy…” “Vases on Vases,” by JeniferNeils, deals with self-advertisement in ancientvase painting, mise en abîme, using an art his-torical term. Ann Steiner examines some“New approaches to Greek vases: repetition,aesthetics, and meaning;” Sarah Peirce,“Myth and Reality on Greek vases,” andGregory Warden, “Men, Beasts, andMonsters.” Finally, Paloma Cabrera writes onthe collection of Greek and Etruscan antiqui-ties in the Archaeological Museum of Spain.
Greek Painted Pottery: Images, Contexts,and Controversies. Proceedings of theConference sponsored by The Center for theAncient Mediterranean at ColumbiaUniversity, 23-24 March 2002. ColumbiaStudies in the Classical Tradition, 25. NewYork and Leiden: Brill, 2004. List price: EUR99 / US$ 130. ISBN 90 04 13802 1. Pages190, 40 illustrations.
I have not yet seen the volume, which waspresented at the Italian Academy of ColumbiaUniversity, September 2004. It deals, at leastin part, with the reception of Greek vases, asubject that puts the Etruscans not only in theindex, but in fact center stage. We look for-ward to finding the book, whose contributorsare specialists in the field, in libraries andbookstores in the near future.
VariaHommages à Carl Deroux. IV. Archéologie
et Histoire de l’Art, Religion, edited by PolDefosse. Collection Latomus 277. Bruxelles,Editions Latomus 2003.
The large number of contributions to thisFestschrift for the President of the distin-guished Société d’Études Latines deBruxelles has been organized into five vol-
umes: I. Poetry; II. Prose and linguistics,Medicine; III. History and epigraphy, Law;IV. Archaeology and history of art, Religion;V. Christianity and the Middle Ages,Renaissance and the survival of Latin. VolumeIV includes a bibliography of Carl Deroux. Ofparticular interest are contributions by F.-H.Massa Pairault on Vanth and the FrançoisTomb, and by Jean Gran-Aymerich on buc-chero vases: did they substitute for moreexpensive wares or were they objects ofvalue?
Archaeologiae. Research by ForeignMissions in Italy 1. 2003. Pisa, Rome: IstitutiEditoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 2003.
A new journal, edited by Giuseppe M.Della Fina, intends to publish articles on thework of foreign academies, institutes andindependent scholars in Italy. It is thereforeinternational in scope, an aspect reflected bythe Editorial Board, which includes suchfriends of the Etruscans as FrancescoBuranelli, Françoise Gaultier, Archer Martin,Nigel Spivey, Andreas Steiner, and StephanSteingräber. In this issue are articles by EricDe Sena on the social and historical aspects ofthe commerce of olive oil in ancient Latium,on the process of urbanization of Etruscan set-tlements from 700 to 500 B.C. by StephanSteingräber, on epigraphical evidence for thegens Caelia in Tusculum and their relation toPraeneste and Rome. The publication of thereading notes of the autodidact, phil-EtruscanLucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, includ-ing photographs of his unpublished note-books, by Alessandra Costantini andChristoph Hausmann, I found particularly fas-cinating for the glimpses it allows into thearguments and discussions of the “Etruscanmyth” in the years 1829-1830. At the end is auseful bibliography of publications on exca-vations carried out by foreign institutions,1999-2002.
Etruscan Studies. 8 (2001). The Journal ofthe Etruscan Foundation.
The journal, founded and long edited byour own Jane Whitehead, now has P. GregoryWarden as its editor. The current issue is ded-icated to Nando and Sarah Cinelli, founders ofthe Etruscan Foundation, who died withinweeks of each other in 2002 (see EtruscanNews 1, 2002, page 8). Stephan Steingräberwrites on Urbanization, Jodi Magness on cer-tain features of seventh-century Etruscantombs and burial customs, which she believesto have been brought to southern Etruria byNear Eastern immigrants who became mem-bers of the Etruscan elite. Two articles reporton excavations. “An Orientalizing PeriodComplex at Poggio Civitate,” by Erik Nielsenand Anthony Tuck, includes the preliminaryaccount of a fragmentary inscribed buccherobase, currently under study. Michael Thomaswrites on “Excavations at Poggio Colla(Vicchio di Mugello). A Report of the 2000-2002 Seasons.” Two others are on iconogra-phy. Shanna Kennedy Quigley studies visualrepresentations of the birth of Athena/Menrvaand finds that they exemplify different Greekand Etruscan cultural attitudes towardwomen. Jocelyn Penny Small begins herstudy of possible representations of the entryof Tarquinius Priscus into Rome with thecaveat, ”Iconography and divination havemuch in common. Both are divinely inspired.”Reviews and Book Notes complete an inter-
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esting volume.
Articles“The Warrior of Lattes: An Iron Age statue
discovered in Mediterranean France,” byMichael Dietler and Michel Py, Antiquity vol.77, No. 298, December 2003, 780-795.
This is a preliminary report on the latestdiscovery of a large-scale stone statue, onlyrecently announced. “Dietler discovers statuein France that reflects an Etruscan influence,”reads a headline in the Chicago Chronicle forFebruary 19, 2004. The stone statue of a nearlife-size Celtic warrior dating to around 500B.C. was discovered at Lattes, a Celtic seaportnear Montpellier, in southern France. Thefragment is a torso, dated by its armor andclothing to the sixth or early fifth century B.C.It is not a kouros type, but apparently oncebelonged to a kneeling warrior holding aweapon, such as a bow or a spear. Accordingto the authors several features of this statuereflect the influence of Etruscan merchants,probably from Caere, in this area, not only forthe locals but also for the Iberians, previouslyenvisaged as providing some of the modelsfor the art of this region. Etruscans may havebeen living at Lattes as part of a trade enclave.Dominique Briquel comments, “It seemsmore and more probable that there was inLattes a real Etruscan settlement, with housesand official buildings (a temple seems to havebe found).”
A brief article on the discovery of the sta-tue appears in this issue.
“For the Mother and for the Daughter.Some Thoughts on Dedications from Etruriaand Praeneste.” by Nancy de Grummond. InCharis: Essays in Honor of Sara A.Immerwahr, edited by Anne. P. Chapin.Hesperia Supplement 33, American School ofClassical Studies at Athens 2004.
The author deals with the controversialinscription of the Ficoroni cista, NOVIOSPLAUTIOS MED ROMAI FECID/ DINDIAMACOLNIA FILEAI DEDIT. The usualtranslation is, “Novios Plautius made me.Dindia Macolnia gave me to her daughter.”The name of Novios Plautius, the craftsmanwho made the Praenestine cista at Rome,looks Umbrian, Dindia Macolnia’s is proba-bly Etruscan. Much discussion has centeredon the word ROMAI, “at Rome.” Many havetaken it as evidence that Rome was a flourish-ing center of artistic production in the fourthand third centuries. The place of manufacturewas probably spelled out to signify that it wasan exception, however: Praenestine cistaswere normally made in Praeneste, but this onewas made at Rome, as a special commission.Nancy de Grummond’s interesting articlefocuses on the dedication, which she argueswas a gift from Dindia Macolnia to TheDaughter, Kore, rather than to her ownunnamed daughter. The author offers manyinteresting and original suggestions about theEtruscan religious background of the divini-ties of the Mother and the Daughter in Italy.
Martin Guggisberg, “Herakles im WeissenHaus. Zu einer italischen BronzestatuetteJohn F. Kennedys,” Antike Welt. Zeitschrift fürArchäologie und Kulturgeschichte 33, 2002.
A small Umbro-Sabellian statuette ofHerakles that JFK once kept on his desk in theWhite House is the subject of this delightfularticle, which leads into an interesting dis-
course on the role of the myth and image ofHerakles for the Founding Fathers.
Stephan Steingräber, review of RitaBenassai, La pittura dei Campani e deiSanniti (Rome 2001), Gymnasium 111, Jan.2004.
The reviewer, who has himself publishedan article on the development, distribution,and architectural context of South Italiantomb paintings, and is presently preparing avolume on the pre-Roman painting of MagnaGraecia, praises this book as a well-illustrat-ed, well-documented, innovative work. Thefirst part includes a catalogue of some 100painted tombs, topographically arranged,while the second analyzes the tomb types, theiconography of their decoration, their style,chronology and possible artistic “schools,”and even attempts to reconstruct tomb groups,which are almost always missing in the caseof Etruscan tombs.
Etruscan Influence in the World of theCelts and in the North
Das Rätsel del Kelte von Glauberg. Glaube,Mythos, Wirklichkeit. Stuttgart: Theiss, 2002.
Articles by Otto-Herman Frey, DirkSteuernagel and others in this lavishly andintelligently illustrated book provide thebackground for the sensational find atGlauberg in Hesse of princely graves and amonumental stone statue and fragments, theso-called leafy-crowned “Mickey Mouse.”The influence of the Greek kouros by way ofEtruscan art is traced to the northern regions,with a useful survey of large-scale stone stat-ues on both sides of the Alps.
Die Keltenfürst vom Glauberg. Einfrühkeltischer Fürstengrabhügel am Hang desGlauberges bei Glauberg- Glauberg,Wetteraukreis. Archäologische Denkmäler inHessen 128/129. Der Fürstengrabhügel undseine Erforschung, by Fritz-RudolfHerrmann. Die Funde aus denFürstengräbern, by Otto-Herman Frey.Wiesbaden 1996.
A timely, popular, careful publication of the1987 discovery of the tomb mound, and theresults of the 1994-95 seasons of the (ongo-ing) excavation. Carefully laid out maps,plans, color photos of the site, the finds andcomparanda, and distribution maps of thetypes of finds are all accompanied by a cleartext. The reader gets a wonderfully close-uppicture of this exciting find, which throwsnew light on the elite of ca. 500 BC buriedhere with their precious ornaments and tableware. Contacts with Etruria to the south bringin Greek influence, as well as typicallyEtruscan material and motifs, such as bronzeswith the telltale limb-in-mouth motif, and thebronze “Schnabelkanne” or pitcher decoratedwith human and animal figures together, as insitula art and the Murlo acroteria.
Hallstatzeit. Die Altertümer im Museum fürVor- und Frühgeschichte. Staatliche Museenzu Berlin, II, by Ingrid Griesa and Rainer-Maria Weiss, edited by Wilfried Menghin.Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern,1999.
A systematic archaeological survey of thefinds of this period, in Italy, Germany, andSlovenia, with clear texts, spectacular photo-graphs of landscapes, closeups and drawingsof excavated material, and plans of excavatedsites.
Odile Cavalier, ed., La Tarasque de Noves.Réflections sur un motif iconographique et sapostérité. Actes de la table rotonde, décembre2001. Musée Calvet, Avignon, 2004.
Of particular interest is the article by JeanGran Aymerich, “Le fauve carnassier dansl’art étrusque et son influence sur le premierart celtique,” dealing with that typicallyEtruscan limb-in-mouth motif of lions andpanthers in Orientalizing art, and its influenceon Celtic art.
The Amber Route, from the Baltic toItaly
Jan Bouzek,”The Central European Amberroute during the La Tène and Early Imperialtimes, in C.W. Beck, J. Bouzek, eds., Amberin Archaeology. Proceedings of the IIInternational Conference on Amber inArchaeology, Liblica 1990. Prague 1993.
The volume is reviewed in Antiquity 69,March1995.
Jan Bouzek,”Some new aspects of theAmber Route studies,” Atti del XIII CongressoUISPP Forli, 1996. Workkshop 6, 1. Forli1998.
On the “tribal aristocracy.”
Joan Todd, ed., Amber in Archaeology.Proceedings of the IV InternationalConference on Amber in Archaeology. Talsi,2001. Riga 2003.
Chronology.”Reviews:P.F. Bang, “The Mediterranean: A
Corrupting Sea? A Review-Essay on Ecologyand History, Anthropology and Synthesis: P.Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea. AStudy of Mediterranean History.”
T. Fischer-Hansen (ed.), Ancient Sicily; andH. D. Anderson, H. W. Horsnaes, S. Houby-Nielsen and A. Rathje (eds.), Urbanization inthe Mediterranean in the 9th to 6th CenturiesBC (by A. Domínguez)
M. Jurisic, Ancient Shipwrecks of theAdriatic; and E. Grossmann, with contribu-tors, Maritime Tel Michal and Apollonia (byA. J. Parker)
C. Dougherty, The Raft of Odysseus (by A.Snodgrass)
R.L. Fowler (ed.), Early GreekMythography Vol. 1 (by J. Boardman)
A. Invernizzi, Sculture di Metallo da Nisa(by J. Boardman)
K. Jordanov, K. Porozhanov and V. Fol(eds.), Thracia 15. In Honour of AlexanderFol’s 70th Anniversary (by J. Boardman)
A. Kuhrt, ‘Greeks’ and ‘Greece’ inMesopotamian and Persian Perspectives (byS. Dalley)
A.-A. Maravelia (ed.), Ancient Egypt andAntique Europe (by J. Bouzek)
G. Muskett, A. Koltsida and M. Georgiadis(eds.), SOMA 2001-Symposium onMediterranean Archaeology (by J. Bouzek)
B.S. Ottaway and E.C. Wager (eds.),Metals and Society (by P. Dolukhanov)
A. Rathje, M. Nielsen and B.B. Rasmussen(eds.), Pots for the Living, Pots for the Dead(by J. Boardman)
C. Scheffer (ed.), Ceramics in Context (byJ. Boardman)
G.R. Tsetskhladze and A.M. Snodgrass(eds.), Greek Settlements in the EasternMediterranean and the Black Sea (by J.Bouzek)
B. Werbart (ed.), Cultural Interactions inEurope and the Eastern Mediterranean (by J.Bouzek)
Ancient West & East 4.1Articles:J. Bouzek, “Local Schools of Thracian
Toreutics in the 4th Century BC.”J. Hind, “Archaic Scythia: Neither Scythia
nor Archaic? (Herodotus, Hist. 4. 99. 2).”Reviews:“New Publications on Murals,” by F.R.
Serra Ridgway.B.A. Barletta, The Origins of the Greek
Architectural Orders (by R. A. Tomlinson)A.K. Bowman, H.M. Cotton, M. Goodman
and S. Price (eds.), Representations ofEmpire. Rome and the Mediterranean World(by R. Alston)
G. Bradley, Ancient Umbria (by Philip J.Smith)
K. Clarke, Between Geography andHistory (by R. Alston)
J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall ofthe Roman City (by J. Tuck)
L. Moscati-Castelnuovo (ed.), Identità ePrassi Storica nel Mediterraneo Greco (by A.Snodgrass)
W. Regter, Imitation and Creation (by D.Ridgway)
St John Simpson (ed.), Queen of Sheba (byB. Overlaet)
V. Tosto, The Black-Figure Pottery SignedNIKOSTHENES EPOIESEN (by D. Ridgway)
[continued from previous page]
Page 10
Book Review
Ancient West and East
The journal Ancient West and East containsmany articles and reviews that would be ofinterest to our readers. Here is a samplingfrom three volumes.
Ancient West and East (AWE) 2.1 (July2003)
Articles: S. Klinger, “Observations on the Range and
Nature of Attic Black and Red Figure Potteryin Israel: the Yavneh-Yam Collection”
Reviews:“West and East: A Review Article”V. Schultz, La redécouverte de l’or des
Scythes; and I. Lebedynsky, Les Scythes (byH.-C. Meyer)
R. Benassai, La Pittura dei Campani e deiSanniti (by F.R.S. Ridgway)
J. Boardman, Cyprus between East andWest (by V.A. Tatton-Brown)
M. Diepeveen-Jansen, People, Ideas andGoods (by J.R. Collis)
P. Flensted-Jensen, T. Heine Nielsen and L.Rubinstein (eds.), Polis & Politics (by T.Figueira)
A. Meadows and K. Shipton (eds.), Moneyand its Uses in the Ancient Greek World (by S.Kovalenko)
T.S. Schmidt, Plutarque et les barbares (byR. Osborne)
Ancient West & East 3.2Articles:G.-J. Burgers, “Western Greeks in their
Regional Setting: Rethinking Early Greek-Indigenous Encounters in Southern Italy.”
Monica M. Jackson, “Jewellery Evidenceand the Lowering of South Italian Ceramic
Page 11
REVIEW ARTICLEby R. Ross HollowayBrown University
A. J. Nijboer, Manufacturing and theMarket in Early Etruria and Latium:From Household Production toWorkshops: Archaeological evidencefor economic transformation, pre-mon-etary exchange and urbanization incentral Italy from 800 to 400 B.C.,Groningen, 1998.
In his account of the reign of AncusMarcius, Livy (I.30.5) mentions mutualinterference on the part of the Romansand the Sabines with traders at the shrineof Lucus Feroniae. Dionysius ofHalicarnassos (XXXII. 1) called this fairthe most important of those heldthroughout Italy. Located in the AgerCapenus on a terrace above the Tiber’sflood plain, the sanctuary was ideallypositioned to serve as the site of a mar-ket. But these notices, occurring inrecitations of early Roman history whereso much is anachronism and fantasy, arehardly more than a hint of the economiclife in early Italy.
Over the last half century archaeologyhas come to the aid of the history of theearly Romans, the Etruscans and theirneighbors in a remarkable way. There isnow an archaeological history of Etruriaand of Latium in the Iron Age groundedin new knowledge of urban developmentand the sociology of the necropolis. A. J.Nijboer’s important contribution, pub-lished as a dissertation in 1998, goes far-ther toward creating an economic historyof this area in the Iron Age than any pre-vious study. Like most dissertations,Manufacturing and the Market in EarlyEtruria and Latium has been ignored bythe review pages of the major journals inthe field, but it deserves to be brought tothe attention of the wide audience inter-ested in Etruscan studies.
The author’s purpose is made clear atthe outset.
“I will argue that a redirection of the
production facilities is an intrinsic
component of the centralization
processes occurring in Italy from 800
to 400 B.C. They are embedded in the
transition from village to town, from
communal to private property and
from tribal to state formation.” (p. x)
Nijboer is not trying to make work-shop development the exclusiveengine of the transformation of cen-tral Italy during this time. But he
methodically shows that it is anengine that the historian ignores
at his risk. The archaeologicalevidence comes principally
from pottery and metal work.Pottery at the beginning of
the Iron Age can be seen assimple household production or
household industry. The termshave been defined to distinguish the
making of pottery for the consumptionof the single household from householdproduction also sold to others. It isattractive to think, as Nijboer does, thatuntil ca. 800 in the region under discus-sion, “The majority of the pottery wasproduced by women who were eithercompletely or partially independent intheir ceramic requirements” (p. 187),although the situation, even inProtovillanovan times, may have beensignificantly more complicated and spe-cialized workshops had certainly existedearlier, for example in CastelluccianSicily and, I would think, in the centersof the Apennine Culture in the peninsula.The point at issue, however, is the emer-gence of full time industrial workshopsin Central Italy after ca. 800. And what isfascinating in Nijboer’s discussion is theprogression from production of carefullycrafted luxury items, bucchero fine forexample, made to satisfy an elite whorequired such items, to standardizedproducts of lower artistic merit, made fora wider market of consumers. Behindthese developments is the creation ofindustrial workshops. But at the sametime the status and social position of thepotters were adversely affected, resultingin that proletarianization of the work-force, which eventually led to industrialslave labor.
It is not uncommon to encountersweeping generalizations (and occasion-al absolute banalities) about ancientsocieties based on equivocal archaeolog-ical testimony. But Nijboer has painstak-ingly reviewed the evidence at sites inEtruria and Latium. Satricum, where hewas part of the Dutch excavation team, isnaturally his first point of reference, butparticularly striking is the testimonyfrom Laurentina-Acqua Acetosa andMarzabotto. At both sites a group of pot-tery workshops make up a potters’ quar-ter. At Poggio Civitate and Caere there isdirect evidence of the production of roofterracottas, which were beginning to beused on Italian buildings during the sev-enth century and represent a notableinvestment in building materials. AtCaere the center of this production occu-pied an area of 400 sq. meters. Suchdevelopments are part and parcel of theemergence of urbanization and the cre-ation of citystates in central Italy.
The evidence of pottery production isreinforced by that of metallurgy, whichreceives equal attention in this volume.
Bronze workshops were already in exis-tence at the dawn of the Iron Age in Italyand had been for centuries. But it was thegrowing use of iron, passing from thestatus of a precious substance to themetal of choice for weapons and tools,that represents the great innovation ofthe period. Once again, archaeologicalevidence can be used to follow thisdevelopment in detail. Lago dell’Accesa,a mining village near Populonia, wasformed of a group of “porticus” housesnot unlike the buildings at Laurentina-Acqua Acetosa. The work sheds atPoggio Civitate once again are of capitalsignificance, as is the site of Marzabotto.Hoards, such as the great iron hoard fromSatricum, can also be called into evi-dence. In examining PithekoussaiNijboer takes up the hypothesis that theGreeks in this trading community cameto Italy in search of metals and in partic-ular to establish a way-station for thetrade in Elban iron ore. Rather than thisrole, the author attributes to Pithekoussaithe function of an offshore emporium,“combining local manufacture with trad-ing activities,” Like the potter, the ironworker was the victim of the downwardpressure exerted on labor by the expan-sion of iron working into the productionof utilitarian goods. The dynamism ofItalian industry in the Iron Age has nowfound a new and compelling illustrationin the riverine manufacturing center atPoggiomarino in Campania. Metal work-ing was a major activity here, andPoggiomarino, upstream from the coaston the Sarno River, apparently operatedin much the same way as Pithekoussai,importing ore or scrap and sending fin-ished goods into the heart of the peninsu-la (see http://www.archemail.it/poggio.htmand http://www.kwart.kataweb.it/kwart/ita/videodett.jsp?idContent=211194&idCategory=2404&formato=2 —video)
The question of the trade and markets,therefore, is one that arises directly fromthe hard evidence of industrial develop-ment at these sites. Nijboer’s answer is anuanced one. A market economy didemerge in Italy by about 600, supplanti-ng the pre-market exchange patterns ofan earlier date, but the development wasincomplete. Exchange remained on thelevel of full value metallic equivalents,aes rude or aes grave. The impact wasimmediate. It can be seen, for example,in Latium, where, as this reviewer hasargued (The Archaeology of Early Romeand Latium, London 1994), the emer-gence of the market discouraged theaccumulation of prestige goods for use asgrave goods. This is also the age, more-over, of the introduction of standardizedweights and standardized measures ofvolume and length.
The citystates developed at theexpense of places like Poggio Civitate,Acquarossa and Lago dell’Accesa.Satricum reveals “a faltering urbaniza-tion process,” but buying and sellingcontinued there because of the sanctuary.The importance of sanctuaries for pro-viding the focus of rudimentary politicalorganization, like the Latin League, and
at the same time offering sites for mar-kets, such as was the case at LucusFeroniae, is an aspect of the economicdevelopment of central Italy on whichthe author might have laid greateremphasis, although he does not neglectit. One may also see Joan M. Fayn,Markets and Fairs in Roman Italy,(Oxford 1993), which, however, focusesits attention on the Late Republic andEmpire.
Nijboer’s work also examines theEtruscan emporia on the coast, whichdeclined just as the cities became indus-trially self-sufficient. The history ofthese ports of entry, however, was alsoaffected by political factors, the pressureof the Gallic tribes on the people of thepeninsula and Greek hostility culminat-ing in Dionysius I’s sack of Pyrgi. Thatthe reduction of imports in Etruria, andparticularly of Attic red figured pottery,was perhaps less drastic than Nijboersuggests has been recently argued byChristoph Reusser, Vasen für Etrurien(Zurich 2002). Nijboer is not inclined tosee Rome as a true emporium in archaictime. The evidence is slender, of course,but given the limited scope of excava-tion, even in the Sant’ OmobonoSanctuary by the river, it may be prema-ture to pass final judgment.
My hope is that these paragraphs haveserved to suggest the significance of thiswork. The topics that comprise its fieldof investigation are all well known tostudents of Etruscology and Italic antiq-uities. But Nijboer has drawn themtogether into a convincing picture of theindustrial and economic development inthe area over four important centuriesand has shown their human effects andsuggested their social consequences.
Membership of theU.S. Section of theIstituto di StudiEtruschi ed Italici
Officers: Larissa Bonfante, President;William Harris, Vice President; RichardDe Puma, Secretary; Board: RichardBrilliant, Mario Del Chiaro, Nancy deGrummond, Ross Holloway, Erik Nielsen,and Jean Turfa.
Associate Members (MembriAssociati): Marshall Becker, Evelyn Bell,Alexandra Carpino, John Dobbins, IngridEdlund-Berry, John Hall, Jeff Hill, SusanKane, Paul Keyser, Helen Nagy, JeniferNeils, Theodore Peña, Lisa Pieraccini,Nancy Ramage, Peter Schultz, ShirleySchwarz, J. Penny Small, David Soren,Nicola Terrenato, Anthony Tuck, RobertTykot, Rex Wallace, P. Gregory Warden,and Jane Whitehead. We invite interestedscholars to apply for AssociateMembership by sending a letter with aone-page curriculum vitae to the secretaryof the section: Richard De Puma,Department of Art, University of Iowa,Iowa City, IA 52246; email: [email protected].
Page 12
Dietlerdiscovers statue in Francethat reflects an Etruscaninfluence
by William HarmsReprinted from the Chronicle of the University
of Chicago
A life-sized statue of a warrior discoveredin southern France reflects a stronger culturalinfluence for the Etruscan civilizationthroughout the western Mediterranean regionthan previously appreciated. Michael Dietler,Associate Professor in Anthropology, and hisFrench colleague Michel Py have published apaper in the British journal Antiquity on theIron Age statue, found at Lattes, a Celtic sea-port that Dietler is studying in southernFrance.
They found the fine-grained limestone stat-ue in the door of a large courtyard-style housethey are excavating in the ancient settlement,which is five miles south of the modern daycity of Montpellier. The statue dates from thesixth or early fifth century B.C.
“The house is different from any we haveseen in the area,” Dietler said. “It is muchlarger than other houses in the settlement anddoes not follow the traditional indigenousarchitectural styles, nor is it precisely likethose of the Etruscans or Greeks.”
The team discovered the statue embeddedin a door, which indicated that it had beenreused as part of the structure when the housewas built, sometime around 250 B.C. It is theonly statue found so far at the site.
One thing that is unusual about the statue isthat it was found in a secure archaeologicalcontext “Most of the other statues we havefrom this period were discovered in the 19thcentury, for example, and we don’t know forsure where they came from,” Dietlerexplained.
The statue, which was damaged while serv-ing as a door jamb, is unusual in other ways.From what remains of it, largely a torso,scholars have determined the statue is of akneeling warrior holding a weapon, such as abow or a spear. Most other statues from theera are of warriors seated in cross-leggedpositions.
Body armor and clothing commonly seenin Italy and Spain decorate the statue.
Previously, scholars have thought thatthe objects represented on statues foundin the region demonstrated that north-eastern Spain influenced their design.But Dietler’s work suggests there has
been some confusion about these culturalinfluences, and that some likely originated
in Etruria, with a complex circulation of metalobjects throughout the westernMediterranean.
Dietler’s statue has two round discs that arecarved in relief on the chest and back of thewarrior. Also carved on the statue are foursmooth cords superimposed over a ridgedstrap that passes over the top of the shouldersand along the middle of the torso, encirclingthe arms. On the back disc is the effaced tailof a crest of a helmet.
The warrior is dressed in a finely groovedpleated skirt, which is encircled with a widebelt. The belt buckle on the Lattes warrior isone of the strongest clues of the statue’s cre-ation date, as examples of this type fromgraves in Spain and Italy are no longer foundon statues dated after the early fifth centuryB.C.
Etruscans may have lived at Lattes at onetime as part of a trade enclave.
They were still apparent in about 475 B.C.,when the settlement became part of theMasaliote sphere of trade, based in a largercommunity of Greek colonists nearby wheremodern Marseilles is now located.
Lattes is an important site for understand-ing the Iron Age in the western Mediterraneanand the history of ancient Greek and Romancolonialism. It was occupied from the sixthcentury B.C. to the second century A.D., atwhich time the lagoon that connected it to theMediterranean filled with silt, and residentsgradually abandoned the community.
The site, which was known as Lattara inancient times, was rediscovered in the 1970sas a result of urban expansion fromMontpellier. After initial archaeologicalexploration showed there was an importantsite in the area, it was preserved, and a majormuseum and archaeological research complexwas built on the edge.
French researchers, who are joined byDietler and colleagues from Spain and Italy,conduct an annual excavation of the site,which also is an international field school forgraduate students. They have revealed, inaddition to unique shell art, other unusual fea-tures of the community.
At the period of its greatest extent, Latteswas one of the largest sites in the region, andcovered approximately 50 acres. Unlike othercommunities of the period, it was a fortifiedlowland site rather than a hill fort, most ofwhich were much less than half Lattes’ size.
Reconstruction of thestatue found at Lattes,with the image of thefragment positioned inthe torso of the warrior.
Flag of Etruriaby Piero Telesio
This is the state flag of the Kingdom ofEtruria, 1804-1807: five stripes alternatinglight blue and white, with the arms in the cen-ter.
Why the fleur-de-lys? The Kingdom ofEtruria was created by Napoleon in 1801 outof Tuscany for the Bourbon-Parma family inexchange for the Duchy of Parma, which wasannexed to France. The kingdom was short-lived, as Napoleon gave it to his sister, ElisaBonaparte, in 1808. The first king of Etruriawas Louis of Bourbon-Parma, who died pre-maturely in 1803, leaving his widow as regentqueen and his son Charles Louis as king.
The arms on the flag are Bourbon (for theBourbon-Parma) and Medici (for Florence).The Bourbon-Parma descend from Philip V,king of Spain (grandson of Louis XIV and thefirst Bourbon king of Spain), and ElisabettaFarnese, heir to the Duchy of Parma. The wifeof Louis, and hence queen of Etruria, wasMarie-Louise, daughter of Charles IV (CarlosIV), king of Spain. The dukes of Parma were,in order, Carlo I (later to become king ofNaples as Carlo VII, giving rise to theBourbon-Sicilia branch, and later king ofSpain, as Carlos III, giving rise to the presentSpanish branch), followed at Parma by hisbrother Filippo, head of the Parma branch ofthe Bourbons. The next duke was Ferdinando,followed by Louis (Ludovico, to become kingof Etruria), followed by Charles-Louis (CarloLudovico).
After the fall of Napoleon, Etruria was notrestored to the Bourbon-Parma. Instead, itreverted to being a Grand Duchy, with theGrand Duke from the house of Habsbourg.Carlo Ludovico was made Duke of Lucca. AsNapoleon’s wife, the ex-empress of France,Marie-Louise, was made ruler of Parma untilher death, at which time the Duchy of Parmareverted back to the Bourbon-Parma.
For those more interested in this short-livedkingdom, see La reine d’Etrurie, by Sixte diBourbon (Parma 1929), out of print.
A most interesting website for those wholike flags: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/it-etrur.html
Sent by Norman Roberson.
Vehicles in FuneraryDepositions
By Adriana Emiliozzi
Two recently restored Etruscan vehicleswere put on exhibit for the first time last May,2004, at the Museo Civico of TrevignanoRomano, in the Palazzo Comunale. The inau-guration of their permanent exhibit took placeMay 8, 2004. The vehicles, a cart and a chari-ot, join the rest of the material from theprincely Tomb of the Flabelli, discovered in1965, already permanently on display at themuseum. They may be seen during Museumhours, Tuesday through Friday, 10-13;Saturday 9-13, 16-20, and Sunday 9-13. Freeadmission.
The remains of one or two wheeled vehi-cles, buried complete, dismantled or burnt, arefrequently found in the funerary equipmentbelonging to the members of the ancientEtrusco-Italic aristocracy. A precise accountpublished in 1997 shows the recovery ofapproximately 280 such items. Most of themare recognizable by the metal parts which sur-vived the decomposition of organic materialslike wood, rawhide, and leather used on themain structure.
The finds are distributed over the period750 to 400 B.C., and geographically over anarea including modern Tuscany, Latium,Umbria, Marches, and Abruzzi in centralItaly, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, andTrentino-Alto Adige in Northern Italy, andCampagna and Basilicata in Southern Italy.The Etruscans, Latins, Faliscans, Sabines,Umbrians, Picenes, and other peoples whoinhabited these regions (except the Greeks ofSouthern Italy) used to place vehicles in thetombs of the aristocracy as a status symbol ofthe deceased, both male and female.
Recent studies show that two-wheeledvehicles buried in Etrusco-Italic tombs wereof two types: the chariot driven standing, andthe cart driven seated. The first type was usedin processions, or for hunting or racing, or bywarriors going into battle. Its function wasthus like that of the Roman biga. The secondtype was also used by women, and served indaily life for short or long trips, with or with-out baggage; it was also used for ceremonies,particularly weddings. The function of thiskind of vehicle is like that of the Roman car-pentum. The Tomba dei Flabelli of TrevignanoRomano contained two vehicles: a chariot anda cart.
The currus (chariot)The remains of distinctive iron accessories
– fragments of the nailed rims once belongingto wheels, three of the four hub caps that cov-ered the heads of the two-wheel hubs, a metalplate bearing two pins that were originallyplaced where the pole and the axle were fixedtogether – are proof of the presence of a char-iot in the Tomba dei Flabelli at TrevignanoRomano. The reason why these are the onlyparts of the chariot still surviving should beevident
In fact, the structure of such a vehicle, suit-ed to a brisk pace, was essentially made oforganic materials such as wood and rawhide,which have decomposed with the passing of
The port was an important gateway to theCeltic residents of the interior and connectedthem with Etruscan and Greek traders.Outside of the Greek colony at Marseilles,Lattes has the first evidence of olive oil andwine production in France.
A r t i c l e s
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around the bottom half of the sides. The floor,with room for no more than two people stand-ing, was made of thin, interwoven rawhidestrips, which gave elasticity and strength tothe whole structure, thanks to the natural dry-ing process. The presence of this sort ofrawhide mat was essential for absorbingexcessive vibrations, as the wooden structureof the chariot was rigidly fixed by joints,wooden pins, and leather bindings to thedrawing system, which consisted of the equal-ly rigid connection between the pole and theaxle.
Reconstruction of chariot fromMonteleone di Spoleto, whichcame to the Metropolitan Museumof Art in 1903. (A. Emiliozzi,Carrida Guerra e Principi Etruschi.Rome 1997, 187, fig. 6).
Vatican Offers Volumes ofHelp to Latin Lovers
by Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican’sLatin lovers — that is, those who love the lan-guage — are issuing a new dictionary on how tosay contemporary words like doping, FBI andvideophone the way Julius Caesar might have.
It may never become a “liber maxime diven-ditus” — a best seller — if only for the steepcost of 100 euros ($116). But the release of thebook this week is one of those esoteric, nicheevents that has put talk in literary circles intooverdrive. Or as the language of ancient Romewould put it, “instrumentum velocitati multipli-candae.”
The Italian-Latin dictionary, called LexiconRecentis Latinitas was put together to join twoearlier volumes, A-L and M-Z, which had beenreleased in past years but had sold out. It offersstudents of Latin, still the Catholic Church’sofficial language, a way of speaking or writingabout things that did not exist when ancientRome ruled the world.
So, FBI is “officium foederatum vestigatori-um” and Interpol is “publicae securitatis custos
internationalis.” Television correspondentsembedded with U.S. military in Iraq might beamused to know that they had filed stories via a“telephonium albo televisifico coniunctum,” orvideotelephone. Sports fans can learn how tosay doping in Latin, “usus agonisticus medica-menti stupecfactivi,” and commuters areadvised that “tempus maximaefrequentiae”means rush hour.
Father Reginald Foster, who translates PopeJohn Paul’s documents from Latin to English,says such dictionaries may be fun and useful butmuch more is needed to revive the language.“What we really need is more training in Latin,”Foster, a leading Latin professor, told Reutersby phone on Wednesday. “But maybe thesethings will help increase interest in the languagebecause there are a million things that did notexist then, especially the political jargon,” hesaid.
Foster offers the Latin version of a phrasethat came into the news after the dictionary wasprinted: President Bush’s “road map” forMiddle East peace. He would write it as “tabel-la viarum ad pacem” or “tablet of the road forpeace.” That road will likely be a long one.Even a “puer explorator” — boy scout —knows that
Review of “Distortions”by Terry Winter
Reprinted from The Sentinel, Staffordshirenewspaper, July 8, 2004
It’s a simple equation, isn’t it? JosiahWedgwood + Portland Vase = Etruria, Stokeon Trent! Not for Beti Hand and RobertCochrane, whose play “Distortions” focusesupon the original Etruscan culture, a dominantforce some 2,500 years ago. The denizens ofthis ancient country developed a system ofpowerful city-states and a flourishing, influen-tial civilization. In their entertaining play theco-dramatists depict the inevitable, culturalclash between the burgeoning Etruscan nobil-ity, as its sophisticated nobility colonize theneighboring state of Rome, which in its infan-cy is relatively uncultured, but already show-
ing signs of its own aggrandizing, ultimatelyimperial hubris.
Given that the Forum Theatre at Hanley’sPotteries Museum & Art Gallery offered theperfectly-named venue, members of the Spiritof Etruria Players gave us a splendid interpre-tation of a piece where supernatural religiousincoherence and floundering attempts at prag-matism co-existed as uneasily as they do nowin George Bush’s USA.
Gill Adamson scores as the ambitious,omen-obsessed Tanaquil, propelling hersomewhat diffident husband into Roman king-ship as the first Tarquin, and Steven Raymondis convincing as both the household god, Lars,and the couple’s even more rapacious son,petulant Prince Tarquin (a prototype ofemperors Caligula and Commodus).
For another review of this play see:http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/4031
time. Only some of the most luxurious vehi-cles bore rich bronze decorations, like thoseexhibited by the chariots, dating from the 7thand 6th centuries B.C., from Populonia, Vulci,Capua, Monteleone di Spoleto, Castel SanMariano, and Ischia di Castro. A chariot couldbe drawn by two (a biga), three (a trigai), orfour (a quadriga) horses.
A light frame made from a U-shapedbranch, closed at the back by a cross-bar, wasfitted with railings usually made from young,flexible branches, which, after being bent anddried, formed the sides of the chariot. Largeand finely worked leather panels were fixed
The carpentum (cart)Together with the chariot (currus), a cart
had also been placed in the Tomba dei Flabelliat Trevignano Romano. It can be recognizedwith certainty thanks to the iron and bronzeelements that survived the decomposition ofthe wooden parts; the two nailed rims belong-ing to the wheels, some of the bronze finialrings covering the wheel hubs, and the typicalfinial made of cast bronze, with the remains ofthe metal clamps that had fixed it to the tip ofthe wooden pole. Unlike the chariot, whichwas always drawn by horses, the cart (carpen-tum) was usually drawn by a pair of mules orasses.
The distinctive trident-shaped finial fixed atthe end of the pole is quite common. Its exactposition in the structure of the vehicle had notbeen fully understood until recently. Forexample, it was thought to have been on the
front of a chariot to keep the reins separated;this is why it was improperly called poggiare-dini. The recent discovery of a cart in thetomb of a Picene princess at Sirolo, nearAncona, has made its real function clear: it isa metal device connecting the two ends of aforked pole, fixed by means of metal clamps,small nailed bands, and leather bindings.
The cart is found in both female and maleburials as well as mixed burials, in the sameareas of ancient Italy and in the same periodas the chariot. Most poles seem to appear inthe fork-shaped type, but sometimes there is asingle pole placed in the center of the plat-form. Carts with two separate poles like thoseof modern times seem not to have been usedby the Etruscans and other Italic peoples,while they are to be found among the ancientcivilizations of the Near East, particularly inCyprus.
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“Tarquinia and theCivilizations of theMediterranean,” Conference held at theUniversità Statale diMilano, 22-24 June 2004
by Francesca R. Serra RidgwayInstitute of Classical StudiesUniversity of London
In 1982 a team led by Maria BonghiJovino, Chair of Etruscan Studies at theUniversità Statale di Milano, started excavat-ing the site of ancient Tarquinia, on the Civitaplateau just outside the modern town. Whatthey found was from the beginning so extraor-dinary that by 1986 it had prompted a memo-rable exhibition and conference in Milan.1
Since then the area has continued to pro-duce rich evidence of a continuous humanpresence from the late 10th to the late 3rd cen-turies B.C. It was not used for habitation orregular burial, but rather for activities of anapparently religious character centered on anatural cavity in the rock; these included theshallow burials, ranging in date between the9th and the 6th centuries, of four infants, aboy, a man, and a woman, which may be inter-preted as human sacrifices. In the early 7thcentury, the building of a monumental altar-temple (using Near Eastern wall techniques)was accompanied by the votive deposition ofthe impasto pottery that had been used in a rit-ual “banquet,” and deliberately broken andtopped by the similarly “disabled” and nowfamous bronze shield, axe, and trumpet-litu-us.2 The cavity was obliterated in the 5th cen-
tury by the construction of a substantial road,marking the decline of the “sacred-institution-al complex,” which nevertheless seems tohave preserved some of its devotional conno-tations.
The full report on the results of research upto 1988 is published in the first three volumesof the Tarchna series (“L’Erma” diBretschneider, Rome 1997, 1999, 2001).Preliminary information regarding subsequentcampaigns, which cover not only the “com-plex” but also the deep layers of the previous-ly known Ara della Regina temple, was givenin the catalogue of the new permanent exhibi-tion in the Museo Nazionale at Tarquiniaitself.3 As further reports are nearing publica-tion, the discussion and literature concerningthese finds and their immediate and wider sig-nificance has grown enormously. The 2004conference was designed to draw together thethreads of “the story so far.”
The proper academic business was preced-ed on the evening of Monday, June 21 by adelightful dinner in the enchanting centralcloister of the University, once a grandRenaissance hospital. This established thegenial and good-humored atmosphere of thewhole gathering, which included dinners alfresco in the nearby garden of Cento Pizze,just a stone’s throw from the Piazza delDuomo and other famous Milanese land-marks. The next two and a half days saw adense program of lectures and extended dis-cussions, all delivered in perfect Italian, what-ever the nationality of the participants. Theyextended well beyond the immediate focus ofTarquinia and the Civita, under the knowl-edgeable chairmanship of professors GemmaSena Chiesa (Milan), GiovannangeloCamporeale (Florence), Michel Gras (Paris
and Rome), Piero Orlandini (Milan) andDavid Ridgway (London). After the introduc-tion, “Knowing and Enhancing SouthernEtruria’s Heritage,” by the ArcheologicalSuperintendent of Southern Etruria, A. M.Moretti Sgubini, the following papers weredelivered, which are listed not in the order ofdelivery, but moving from center to peripheryaccording to their content:
Annette Rathje (Copenhagen), The Sacredand the Political: The Votive Deposit atTarquinia
Francesca R. Serra Ridgway (London),Pottery from the “Complex” on the Civita:Craft, Function, Society
Maria Cataldi (Rome), A Euboean Cupfrom the Poggio della Sorgente Cemetery atTarquinia
Nancy Winter (Rome), The ArchaicArchitectural Terracottas at Tarquinia:Exchanges and Models
Simonetta Stopponi (Macerata), The “aTelaio” Building Technique at Orvieto
Davide Cialfoni (Milan), Architectural andWall Typologies at Tarquinia: Parallels in theAncient Near East
Gilda Bartoloni (Rome), The Beginnings ofUrban Formation: Similarities andDifferences
David Ridgway (London), Tarquinia,Demaratus and the “Hellenization of theBarbarians”
Bruno d”Agostino (Naples), New Thoughtson the Diffusion of the Earliest Greek Potteryin the Tyrrhenian Area
Stephan Steingräber (Rome), The LateClassical and Early Hellenistic Tomb Paintingof Tarquinia in its Mediterranean Context:Iconography, Style, Technique
C o n f e r e n c e R e v i e w sJ. M. J. Gran Aymerich (Paris), At the
Maritime Border between Tarquinia andCaere: Civitavecchia and Research at LaCastellina
Friedhelm Prayon (Tübingen), TheTerracottas from La Castellina delMarangone
Marijke Gnade (Amsterdam), The Areas ofTarquinia and Satricum Compared
Giovanni Colonna (Rome), New Light onEtrusco-Corinthian Pottery: the VeientinePittore dei Rosoni.
The program was brilliantly rounded off bythe presentation of the Milanese team’s plansand strategies for the future, The TarquiniaProject: Prospects and Plans for FutureResearch, by Maria Bonghi Jovino and someof her multidisciplinary colleagues, dealing inparticular with the classification of the finds,geophysical prospecting, compositionalanalyses of artifacts, and electronic organiza-tion of data. We wish them well, and weeagerly await the Atti of this important meet-ing.
1 Exhibition catalogue: M. Bonghi Jovino,ed., Gli Etruschi di Tarquinia (Modena 1986);conference proceedings: M. Bonghi Jovinoand C. Chiaramonte Treré, eds., Tarquinia:ricerche, scavi e prospettive (Milan 1987).
2 See CAH iv (1988) 295.3 A.M. Moretti Sgubini, ed., Tarquinia et-
rusca: una nuova storia (Rome 2001). For awell-informed and readable introduction inEnglish, see R. Leighton, Tarquinia, andEtruscan City (London 2004).
Non Solo PaneL’utilizzo delle risorsealimentari dalla preistoriaad oggi
Organized by the Museo e IstitutoFiorentino di Preistoria “Paolo Graziosi,” theDipartimento Generale delle PoliticheFormative e dei Beni Culturali delle RegioneToscana, and the Dipartimento di Scienzedell’Antichità “G. Pasquale,” Scuola diSpecializzazione in Archeologia of theUniversity of Florence, this series of lectures,from April 7 to May 21, 2004, was supportedby the Comune di Firenze and EquolandS.C.r.l.
Nutritional resources, essential conditionsfor the survival of our species, characterizethe “culture of food” that this series of lec-tures seeks to explore through significantexamples from the history of civilization.Beginning with prehistory, when the commu-nity of hunter-gatherers depended strongly onclimatic and environmental conditions,through antiquity and up to today, the meansof acquiring, producing, and consuming fooddetermine the nature of the nutritional culture,which is variable and multiform even withinindividual civilizations.
Food, in fact, as a mirror of thought and
thus as an ethnic, social, and economic indica-tor also carries with it important symbols of orforces for social inequality. By producingfood, which today we seek to interpret also ona biochemical basis, humanity has formed apact with its living environment and createddynamics and power relationships that werenot always balanced. Abundance and famineare two parallel tracks along which the histo-ry of humanity runs; humans are the heirs tobehaviors that have deep roots in the past, andare forced to make choices that require wis-dom and social conscience.
The speakers and their subjects were:Renata Grifoni, University of Pisa, Uomo e
risorse alimentari nella preistoria.Giovannangelo Camporeale, University of
Florence, Uomo e risorse alimentari pressogli Etruschi
Gloria Rosati, University of Florence,Uomo e risorse alimentari nell’Antico Egitto
Giuseppe Rotilio, University of Rome “TorVergata,” Basi biochimiche dell’addattamentodell’uomo alle risorse alimentari
Maurizio Bettini, University of Siena, Ledonne romane che non bevono vino
Emanuele Papi, University of Siena, Uomoe risorse alimentari nel mondo romano
Giorgio Pizziolo, University of Florence,Uomo e ambiente: I paesaggi dell’alimen-tazione
“L’Etrurie et l’Ombrieavant Rome. Cité et terri-toire”
Over the past ten years, excavations andsurveys have shed light on the ancient politi-cal landscape. With a view toward this, theUniversité Catholique de Louvain, along withthe KUL (Leuven), the FUNDP (Namur) andthe Università degli Studi di Udine, organizedan international colloquium on the formationof cities and their territories in Etruria andUmbria from the Late Bronze Age to theRoman conquest. It was held in LouvainFebruary 13-14, 2004.
Archaeologists presented papers based on asite or a specific territory. Their hypotheseswere compared to the views of historians ofthe two regions. The objective was to re-eval-uate the forms and the chronology of urban-ization in Etruria and Umbria in the light ofthe most recent archaeological discoveries,while taking into account the ancient tradi-tion.
The program included the followingpapers:
P. Fontaine (UCL), F. van Wonterghem(KUL) and Cl. de Ruyt (FUNDP):“Introduction. Repenser l’urbanisation del’Étrurie et de l’Ombrie préromaines”
M. Pacciarelli (Univ. Napoli):
“Complessità sociale e organizzazione del ter-ritorio in Etruria tra Bronzo finale e prima Etàdel Ferro”
A. Maggiani (Univ.Venezia): “Volterra.Formazione della città e del territorio”
L. Donati and L. Cappuccini (Univ.Firenze): “Chiusi, la genesi della città ai con-fini del territorio chiusino: il caso di PoggioCivitella”
Ph. Perkins (Open Univ. Milton Keynes):“The cultural and political landscape of theAger Caletranus, North-West of Vulci”
F. Prayon (Univ. Tübingen): “Castellina delMarangone et le problème du plan orthogonalen Étrurie”
A. Naso (Univ. Udine): “‘Qui suntMinionis in arvis’ (Verg., Aen., 10.183).Quadro di sintesi sui Monti della Tolfa, nelVII-VI sec. a. C.”
G. Bradley (Univ. Cardiff): “Cities andcommunities in pre-Roman Umbria”
L. Bonomi Ponzi (Soprintendente perl’Umbria, Perugia): “Terni, Colfiorito, GualdoTadino. Tre esempi emblematici dell’Umbriaantica”
D. Manconi (Soprintendenza Umbria,Perugia): “Due capisaldi della Valle Umbra:Spello e Spoleto”
M. Torelli (Univ. Perugia): “Interferenzeculturali, politiche e sociali tra Etruria edUmbria tra arcaismo e fase classica”
D. Briquel (Univ. Paris-IV): “L’Ombrie vuepar les Romains”
Page 15
Spoken Latin Seminar:Conventiculum Rusticum
The Rural Washington Latin Seminar(Conventiculum Rusticum Vasintoniense) washeld in June 2004 in the Wenatchee area ofcentral Washington State. The moderatorswere:
Stephen Berard, Ph.D., professor of WorldLanguages,Wenatchee Valley College
James Dobreff, M.A., veteran moderator ofthe Lexington Conventicula
Terence Tunberg, Ph.D., professor ofClassics, University of Kentucky/Lexington
Akihiko Watanabe, Ph.D., instructor at theUniversity of Kentucky/Lexington
Other fluent Latin speakers and experi-enced moderators were in attendance. Formore information, go to http://ttt.boreocciden-tales.org/deconventiculis.php.
This Conventiculum Rusticum was anexcellent opportunity for practicing speakingLatin. Most days’ activities included an excur-sion, during which the participants, with thehelp of moderators, not only chatted amongthemselves in Latin but also described in Latineverything they saw: trees and plants, moun-tains and glaciers, rivers, animals, birds,insects, weather, and many other things. Thisseminar was of special interest to those whoenjoy the outdoors and who wanted to improve
their Latin skills in friendly conversation whilehiking through forests, mountains, and otherrural settings. Every day both easy and moder-ate hikes were available; and those who sodesired had several opportunities to engage indifficult hikes and/or mountain climbs.
The last three days and two nights of theseminar were dedicated to a trip to Stehekin, avillage nestled among the peaks of the NorthCascades. Since Stehekin could only bereached by water, the seminar participantsmade the fifty-five-mile ferry trip to the vil-lage along Lake Chelan, and returned toWenatchee two days later. They spent one dayentirely in Stehekin and its environs, with par-ticipants breaking up into smaller groupsaccording to interest.
Who attended the seminar? All Latin teach-ers at the elementary and secondary levelswere invited, as well as college and universityprofessors. This seminar was especially rec-ommended to graduate students in Classicsand related fields since, just as with any lan-guage, the ability to speak Latin immenselystrengthens one’s ability to read and writeLatin well. Also, in order for spoken Latin toflourish, which is our common goal, it is espe-cially necessary for future Latin instructors tosee that our language is fully capable of serv-ing as an instrument for daily life and forexpressing all human concerns, even the most
Review of the First AnnualGraduate Student Conference:“The Etruscans and theOthers”
by Harry R. Neilson IIIFlorida State University
The First Annual Graduate StudentConference of the US Section of the Istituto diStudi Etruschi ed Italici, organized by HarryNeilson and Larissa Bonfante, was held at theParliamo Italiano Language School in NewYork City on April 3-4, 2004. The Etruscansand the Others was the theme of the two-dayconference, which brought together a widerange of graduate students and distinguishedprofessors from various universities includingFlorida State University (Alexis Christensen,Lorraine Knop, John Ricard), The ItalianAcademy for Advanced Studies in America atColumbia University (Dr. Gabriele Cifani),The University of North Carolina at ChapelHill (Hilary Becker, Dr. Nicola Terrenato,Robert Vander Poppen), Rollins College (Dr.Gretchen Meyers), and Rutgers University(Rachel Goldman).
The conference, held at the beautifulParliamo Italiano Language School, was gra-ciously hosted by the school’s director, Ms.Franca Pironti Lally. Unfortunately, due tounforeseen circumstances, Jean Turfa wasunable attend to present her response andclosing remarks. The conference presentersand attendees attempted to make up for herabsence with topical and interesting responsesafter each paper. Professors Nicola Terrenato,Nancy de Grummond, Larissa Bonfante, andJane Whitehead led the discussions, and thewarm and intimate setting of the conferencevenue lent itself to productive and topicalcommentary.
The theme of the conference was theEtruscans’ relationships with other culturesincluding the Romans, Scythians, and peoplesof the Near East. Because the Etruscans exert-ed formidable influence on other cultures inantiquity, the mutual relationships formed
through commercial, artistic, and culturalexchange between the Etruscans and otherpeoples of the Mediterranean afforded thepresenters with a wealth of topics includingarchitecture, painting, sculpture, settlementpatterns and Romanization, lightning andhepatoscopy. Dr. Gretchen Meyers comparedearly palace structures from Crete and Cypruswith Archaic Etruscan monumental buildingsat Poggio Civitate and Acquarossa. HilaryBecker illustrated how the Roman road sys-tem in Etruria affected Romanization byincluding certain Etruscan cities in its networkand by excluding others. Rachel Goldman dis-cussed the relationships between Etruscan andRoman tombs. Alexis Christensen examinedthe similarities between Roman and Scythiangifts of land for serving the state. John Ricardconsidered the Near Eastern origins of theEtruscan practice of hepatoscopy. RobertVander Poppen examined settlement datafrom the Mugello Valley in order to constructa framework for the development of socialstratification and power networks within theterritory of Fiesole. Lorraine Knop reviewedthe Etruscan concept of lightning as aprophetic tool and hypothesized that thedepiction of the lighting bolt in Etruscan artwas influenced by the specific myth in whichit appeared.
Two papers in particular highlighted theconference. The keynote speaker, Dr. NicolaTerrenato, looked at the Mediterranean in thefourth century B.C. as a world of competingcity-states rushing to create an empire. Heargued that Tarquinia was, for a time, a majorcompetitor in this endeavor. Dr. GabrieleCifani ended the conference with a presenta-tion of his recent work on archaic Rome, themost exciting of which is newly discoveredevidence for the earliest Roman arch. BothTerrenato and Cifani debunked the stereotypedeveloped in the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries that the Romans werealways a warlike people with aspirations forempire.
This first annual graduate student confer-ence was such a success that it is now plannedas a biannual event.
modern. Those who already knew the funda-mentals of Latin grammar and could alreadyread Latin quite well but who had never spo-ken Latin were encouraged to attend theConventiculum and hold their first Latin con-versations. Those who did not yet speak Latinwere urged not to feel intimidated, sincealmost everyone had begun to speak Latin rel-atively recently and thus understood perfectlywell the difficulty of getting started.
The Preparatory Sessions. All those wantedto practice the general elements ofConversational Latin were invited to arrivethree days before the beginning of the seminarand practice speaking Latin with StephenBerard, each other, and perhaps other modera-tors, on a few more familiar topics, adding newand useful expressions to their vocabulary, get-ting used to speaking, and building up theirconfidence.
The Locations of the Seminar. Preparatory Sessions: WenatcheeThe Preparatory Sessions was held on June
17th and 18th at Wenatchee Valley College.Participants were either housed privately orstayed in local motels/hotels or camped innearby campgrounds. Wenatchee is located incentral Washington State on the east slopes ofthe Cascade range, along the banks of theColumbia River, the second largest river inNorth America after the Mississippi. Since
Central Washington contains an unusuallywide variety of terrains and microclimates, itwas an extremely suitable location for visitingand observing the environment. There are sev-eral mountain systems, volcanoes and volcanicenvironments, exposed geological formations,glaciers and ice fields, evergreen and decidu-ous forests as well as rainforests, rivers,streams, creeks, waterfalls, river rapids, mead-ows and prairies, agricultural regions,orchards, and deserts both semi-arid and arid.The city of Wenatchee itself, the “AppleCapital of the World,” lies in the rain shadowof the Cascade Mountains and in the midst ofthe irrigated farming belt of Washington State.Enjoying a relatively sunny climate, theWenatchee Valley is the destination of manywho enjoy outdoor recreational activities. TheEnchantments, a nearby subsystem of steep-uplift basalt mountains, about a half-houraway from Wenatchee by car, are covered byAlpine conifer forests up to an altitude ofabout 7,000 feet. The highest point in theEnchantments, Mount Stuart (9,416 ft. / 2,870m.) is partly covered on its north face by threeglacier systems.
The Main Seminar: the Dirty Face LodgeThe main, week-long part of the
Conventiculum, that is, before the excursion toStehekin, was held in the Dirty Face, locatedin the forest near Lake Wenatchee.
LUCY SHOE MERITTAugust 7, 1906 - April 13, 2003
On February 15, 2004, the Department of Classics and the College of Liberal Arts honoredthe memory of Lucy Shoe Meritt with an event held at the Santa Rita room on campus. Theprogram reflected two of the main interests in her life, music and architecture, enjoyed in thecompany of her many friends. We are grateful for all that Lucy gave each of us, and we arepleased to see that her interests continue to stimulate faculty and students, friends, and fam-ily.
PROGRAM
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION:“’To see what you look at’:From the Etruscans to Post-Modernism in Austin Architecture”Professor Ingrid E.M. Edlund-Berry, Department of Classics, University of Texas at
Austin – ModeratorMichael S. Guarino, Design Director, TeamHaas Architects, AustinProfessor Thomas N. Howe, Southwestern University, Georgetown and Restoring
Ancient Stabiae Foundation Grady L. Jennings, AIA, Partner, Jennings*Hackler and Partners, Dallas Pablo Sanchez, Lead Architect, P.A.S. Design, Inc., Austin
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: Chamber Music in Lucy’s Memory
Trio Sonata in F Major, Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)Katherine Bracher and Cynthia Shelmerdine, recordersDavid Armstrong, keyboardDawn Biega, cello
Trio Sonata in G Major, Johann Friedrich FaschAlex Mourelatos, fluteOlive Forbes, violinDavid Armstrong, keyboardHope Rider, bassoon
MUSICIANS:Professor David Armstrong Department of Classics, University of Texas at AustinProfessor Katherine Bracher Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington (retired)Olive Forbes Reference Department, General Libraries, University
of Texas at AustinProfessor Alex Mourelatos Departments of Philosophy and Classics, University of
Texas at AustinProfessor Cynthia ShelmerdineRobert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics, University of Texas at
AustinHope Rider Admissions Processing, University of Texas at AustinDawn Biega Austin
Page 16
The Etruscan Language:an Introduction
By Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante Manchester University PressManchester and New York 2002
Reviewed by Miles BeckwithDepartment of EnglishIona College, New Rochelle, NY
For a number of years, one of the bestsources for books in Classics was Allen’sBooksellers in Philadelphia. Their cata-logues could be counted on to hold a fewgems, and one could always enjoy the occa-sional wry comment added to certainentries. Sometime in mid-nineties, therewas a listing for Mayani’s The EtruscansBegin to Speak, to which was added theshort marginal note: “They don’t havemuch to say.” While such a comment mayhave been acceptable in the early 60s whenMayani’s book first appeared in English, itis increasingly inappropriate now. In thelast forty years there have been great stridesin the decipherment of Etruscan; unfortu-nately, much of this work has happened onthe Continent—in Italian and German pub-lications—and the progress of Etruscandecipherment is woefully underreported inthe English speaking world.
The second edition of Giuliano andLarissa Bonfante’s The EtruscanLanguage: an Introduction may finallyremedy this situation by introducing therecent state of the language to English-speaking scholars and students. One has
Etruscan Texts Projectby Rex Wallace
Etruscan Texts Project is now on-line at etp.classics.umass.edu.Etruscan inscriptions recovered afterthe publication of Helmut Rix et al.,Etruskische Texte are being added tothe database. We expect to have 500inscriptions on-line within the nextseveral months, and we encourage ourreaders to make use of this referencetool.
only to compare this work (xxvi & 253pgs.) to the first edition (x & 174 pgs.) tosee how much has changed since that vol-ume was published in 1983, and that earliervolume—in turn—was itself publishedalmost twenty years after the discovery ofPyrgi’s bilingual, which ushered in themodern era of Etruscan studies. The bookhas been thoroughly updated, and containsextensive bibliographic references to workspublished since the 1983 edition. Becauseof the existence now of Rix’s two-volumeedition of Etruscan texts (Etruskische Texte,editio minor), the authors give his numera-tion in addition to a TLE citation wheneverpossible.
Like the earlier edition, the book underreview has three parts. The First Part,“Background,” contains a single chapter“Archaeological Introduction”—updated,but not substantially different from the firstedition. The Second Part, “The Language,”follows the first edition in being dividedinto Chapters ii through vi, which respec-tively cover: “Introduction to the languageof the Etruscans,” “The study of theEtruscan language,” “The alphabet and pro-nunciation of Etruscan,” “Grammar,” and“Etruscan writing: the aftermath.” Onceagain, the presentation is similar to the ear-lier edition, but here a number of importantupdates have been incorporated into thetext. Rix’ analysis of un as a second personpronoun is listed along with mi: mini in thesection on pronouns (pp. 91-92), and thereare a number of small but importantchanges in the sections on verbal morphol-
ogy and syntax. The third and final part, “Study Aids,”
contains sections on Etruscan texts,Glosses, and Mythological Figures alongwith a listing of the names of cities, namesof months and a comparative word chart.The list of texts is considerably expandedfrom the earlier edition, and it is here thatthe reader will see how much more compre-hensive the present volume is (53 pages asopposed to 33 in the earlier volume). Theoverall format is the same: like the earlyedition the inscriptions are both describedand illustrated to give the student a thor-ough sense of the provenance and epigra-phy of each text. This is especially impor-tant for the study of Etruscan, and one miss-es it in some other handbooks (consider,e.g., Dieter Steinbauer’s mammoth––andotherwise very useful––Neues Handbuchdes Etruskischen).
There is not space here to cover all thechanges and expansions, but I will note afew random points. A number of newlypublished inscriptions have been added tothe book such as a bucchero olpe (discov-ered in 1988 and listed here as text #5) withits depiction and inscription regardingmetaia ‘Medea;’ and text #10, which sum-marizes Bonfante and Wallace’s importantanalysis of a buccheroid impasto pyxis (SE64 [2001] 201-212). A number of importantadditions and corrections have also beenmade, e.g., the translation of text #9 (#8 inthe older edition) now correctly glossesmlakas as ‘beautiful(’s)’ after the importantanalysis by Agostiniani (SE 49 [1981] 95-
Tabula CortonensisBibliography
by Rex Wallace
The Etruscan inscription now known asthe Tabula Cortonensis is without doubt themost significant epigraphic find of the pastquarter century. The publication of the edi-tio princeps by Luciano Agostiniani andFrancesco Nicosia in February of 2000 hasbeen followed by a steady stream of schol-arly publications concerning the readings ofthe damaged portions of the inscription, theoverall interpretation of the inscription, andthe linguistic analysis of portions of the textas well as individual word-forms found inthem. In the last issue of Etruscan News Ipromised an update on this inscription. Somuch interesting work is in press or is aboutto go to press, however, that I think it bestto postpone my review until this work hadbeen officially published. In the meantime,I append an updated bibliography on theTCo.
Adiego, Ignasi-Xavier, “The EtruscanTabula Cortonensis: a tale of two tablets?,”to appear in Die Sprache;
L. Agostiniani and F. Nicosia, Tabula
Cortonensis (Rome 2000); C. De Simone, “La Tabula Cortonensis:
Tra linguistica e storia.” Annali dellaScuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classedi lettere e filosofia 3 (1998 [2000]) 1-122;
idem, “Il testo etrusco della TabulaCortonensis: un primo bilancio critico.”Ocnus 9-10 (2001-2002) 69-11;
idem, “Su due termini della TabulaCortonensis,” Incontri Linguistici 25(2002) 77-85;
H. Eichner, “Etruskisch -svla auf derBronze von Cortona,” in F. Cavoto, ed., TheComplete Linguist. A collection of papersin honor of Alexis Manaster Ramer(Münich 2001) 141-152;
G. M. Facchetti, Frammenti di dirittoprivato etrusco (Florence 2000);
idem, “Note Etrusche,” to appear inArchivio Glottologico Italiano;
idem, “Some New Remarks on theTabula Cortonensis (= TCo),” to appear inEurope Through Millennia — Languages,Races, Cultures, Beliefs. Proceedings of theInternational Conference (Lodz, Poland,25th-26th June 2004), (StudiaIndogermanica Lodziensia);
A. Maggiani, “Dagli archivi dei Cusu.Considerazioni sulla tavola bronzea di
Cortona,” Rivista di Archeologia 25 (2001)94-114;
M. Pandolfini and A. Maggiani, eds., LaTabula Cortonensis e il suo contesto stori-co-archaeologico. Atti dell’Incontro di stu-dio, 22 giugno 2001 (Rome 2002);
H. Rix, “Osservazioni preliminari ad unainterpretazione dell’aes cortonense.”Incontri linguistici 23 (2000) 11-31;
K. Wylin, “Forme verbali nella TabulaCortonensis,” Studi Etruschi 65-68 (2002)215-223;
A. Zamboni, “Sigla del quattuorviratonella tavola di Cortona,” Athenaeum 90(2002) 431-441.
In the book of papers edited byPandolfini and Maggiani (2002), the mostimportant papers on the Tabula are:
G. Facchetti, “La Tabula Cortonensiscome documento giuridico,” pp. 87-92;
A. Maggiani, “Riflessioni sulla Tavola diCortona,” pp. 65-75;
E. Peruzzi, “Per l’edizione della Tavola,”pp. 39-42 (also printed in La Parola delPassato 56 (2001) 203-210), and
H. Rix, “La seconda metà del nuovotesto di Cortona,” pp. 77-86.
L a n g u a g e P a g e
111). While the first edition often shied away
from the longer and more (exceedinglymore) difficult texts, some of these havebeen included now, such as Laris Pulenasinscription (text #31 = TLE 129 = Ta 1.17),the Perugia Cippus (text #64 = TLE 570 =Pe 8.4) and also the newly published TabulaCortonensis (text #65). Each of these isgiven a brief but interesting discussion witha tentative translation. Once again, howev-er, the authors have decided not even to tryto give an overview of the one Etruscanbook, the Liber Linteus and have essential-ly simply followed the practice of the earli-er edition in giving a short passage whoseinterpretation is relatively secure. Althoughone can understand their decision––and itwas probably a wise one––one still wishesfor a more extensive discussion of thislongest, but most difficult, Etruscan text.(The interested reader can find a lengthydiscussion of this text in Steinbauer’s newbook, cited above).
Like the earlier edition, the book closeswith a Bibliography, an Index to Sources, aConcordance, and an Index. This is anextremely useful book and will be of greatservice to anyone interested in Etruscanlanguage and/or Etruscan civilization. Itsgreatest use will be to Classicists and othernon-specialists, but anyone working onEtruscan will need to own a copy of thisbook.
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M u s e u m N e w s a n d R e v i e w s
Museum Newsby Larissa Bonfante
The newly restored Aplu of Veii is now ondisplay at the Villa Giulia. When I visited myfavorite museum this summer I found the godtemporarily housed in a little chapel in theNinfeo di Villa Giulia, a cool grotto-like areawhere the popes used to keep cool in the heatof summer before the advent of air condition-ing. I wondered how Apollo felt at being sep-arated from his brother Hercle and the rest ofhis family, which as it happened was not visi-ble to the public. Only the Sarcophagus of theMarried Couple could be seen, since that partof the building was closed for renovations. Ilook forward to the re-opening, though Iadmit still having fond memories of the star-tling renovations of the 1950’s by the architectMinissi, all very modern and exciting, withlots of transparent plexiglass.
These last few years, the galleries ofancient art of many museums have beenclosed while they are being renovated. Wehave missed them, but we are promised won-derful results. The University of PennsylvaniaMuseum of Archaeology and Anthropologywas the first to open its reinstalled EtruscanWorld Gallery (see Etruscan News 2, 2003,page 3). The Michael C. Carlos Museumof Emory University in Atlanta opened itsnew galleries this September 13, 2004. JasperGaunt promises to write a short account oftheir small but intriguing Etruscan holdings.We can look forward, in 2005, to the openingof the J. Paul Getty Museum, whosePompeian villa will be devoted to ancient art.The year after, 2006, will see the opening ofthe Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newgallery of Etruscan art, highlighting the
Monteleone Chariot’s new restoration carriedout under the direction of Adriana Emiliozziby the Museum’s Sherman FairchildConservation Center.
This year has brought special popular exhi-bitions of Etruscan interest which are also ofimportance to scholars.
An exhibit on color in ancient Greek sculp-ture in Munich has been so successful that ishas been held over this summer. BunteGoetter, “Colored Gods – the Polychromy ofAncient Sculpture” (see Book Reviews), thebrainchild of Vinzenz Brinkman, curator ofthe Munich Glyptothek, has aroused muchinterest and some shock at the sight of bright-ly colored copies of Greek originals. A well-illustrated catalogue explains the evidence forthe controversial show, which was the subjectof an article by Jordan Bonfante in TIMEMagazine (December 22, 2003). The nextvenue is the Vatican Museum; then may wehope for a U.S. tour? Those of us familiar withthe brightly painted terracotta sculpture of theEtruscans might be able to imagine sucharchitectural pediments and other decorations.But then again, have we not unconsciouslybeen contrasting such lively, colorful Etruscangods as the Apollo of Veii with gleamingwhite marble Greek divinities? Great excite-ment has also greeted the paintings from theFrançois Tomb, on view in Vulci, their hometown, through September 26, 2004, in a splen-did exhibit that makes their original place-ment beautifully clear.
Other exhibits, at the Villa Giulia Museumin Rome, at Viterbo, Trevignano, Edinburgh,Bard College in New York City, and Shawnee,Oklahoma, are reviewed or mentioned else-where in this issue.
The Etruscans Come toOklahoma
by Elizabeth de Grummond
A previously unseen collection of Etruscanartifacts is on display this summer in the showUnveiling Ancient Mysteries: EtruscanTreasures at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Artin Shawnee, Oklahoma. At the heart of theshow is an assemblage of 225 pieces ofEtruscan jewelry from the collection of ItalianPrince Fabrizio Alliata. Prince Alliataacquired the jewelry from his father-in-law,Count Vittorio Cini, an Italian businessmanwho had assembled an extensive art collectionin the early to mid-twentieth century. (Aninteresting historical figure, Count Cini wasalso instrumental in the Italian resistancemovement during World War II, and he wassent to the concentration camp at Dachau onaccount of his political views. He was liberat-ed from Dachau in 1944 in a daring rescue byhis pilot son.) Stored until recently in PrinceAlliata’s home, this collection of Etruscanjewelry has never been displayed publicly. Inpreparation for the show, the artifacts haverecently undergone conservation treatment atthe Vatican Museums.
The show itself focuses on the jewelry fromthe Alliata collection, but this is complement-ed by other ancient Mediterranean piecesfrom the Gregorian Etruscan Museum of theVatican Museums, and the Mabee-Gerrer’sown collections. The items on display range indate from the Villanovan Period to A.D. 30and include bronze and terracotta objects aswell as the gold jewelry. The exhibit contextu-
alizes the jewelry through display on variousaspects of Etruscan civilization, such as poli-tics and commerce, Etruscan history, the cultof the dead, and society and commerce.Recent research and discoveries in the field ofEtruscan studies are also explored in a portionof the show that was put together with theassistance of Dr. P. Gregory Warden ofSouthern Methodist University.
The jewelry from the show is well pub-lished in a lavishly illustrated catalogue,Etruscan Treasures from the Cini-AlliataCollections, compiled by FrancescoBuranelli, Director-General of the VaticanMuseums, and Maurizio Sannibale, Directorof the Gregorian Etruscan Museum of theVatican Museums. In addition, prior to theopening of the show, the museum sponsoredseveral public lectures, with talks by Mabee-Gerrer Museum director Debby Williams,Kelly Kirk, Dr. Greg Warden, and ChrisRamsay. A lecture series will also take placeduring the run of the show. Among thosescheduled to speak were: Ron Lodes, whodiscussed Etruscan gold jewelry making, 17June; Dr. Greg Warden, who spoke aboutEtruscan art, 8 July; Robin Davis, who spokeabout Etruscan clothing, 29 July; and Dr.Tyler Jo Smith, who lectured on Etruscan cul-ture, 19 August.
Unveiling Etruscan Mysteries: EtruscanTreasures ran from 1 June until 31 October2004 at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art,which is located on the campus of St.Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Oklahoma.Further information about the show can befound on the museum’s website atwww.mgmoa.org.
Treasures from Tuscany –The Etruscan Legacy atthe Royal Museum ofScotland, Edinburgh
by Robert CochraneEtruriaStoke-on-TrentStaffordshire
Outside the exhibition of “Treasures fromTuscany,” there is the reconstructed head ofSeianti Hanunia Tlesnesa, (whose sarcopha-gus is in Room 71 in the British Museum).This introduces the general public to a realperson, who enjoyed living a full life in athriving society of 2200 years ago. Inside theexhibition there is a large time chart thatshows where and when Etruscans lived andalso the locations of other contemporary civi-lizations that they would have influenced. The500 Treasures from Tuscany have beenarranged to exemplify various themes illus-trating the Etruscan culture, for example: “therise to prominence,” “the role of religion,”“decline,” and “amelioration in the RomanEmpire.”
The fortieth anniversary of the twinning ofEdinburgh and Florence is one reason for the
exhibition. With so many international visitorsto Edinburgh, it will be possible for the widestpublic to become more aware of this influen-tial civilization.
The book that accompanies the exhibitionis edited by the curator Dr Elizabeth Goringand is published by the Royal Museum ofScotland. Because of its style it would be veryhelpful and accessible to the layperson. In theintroduction it states that, “we are consciousof our European heritage of which Etruscans
Scavo nello ScavoReviewed by Biagio Giuliani
Scavo nello Scavo. The UnseenEtruscans: Research and rediscovery in thestorerooms of the Archaeological museumsof Southern Etruria. Catalogue of the exhib-it edited by Anna Maria Moretti Sgubini(Rome-Viterbo 2004).
The catalogue of the exhibit held inViterbo (March 5 – June 30) in the FortezzaGiulioli appears in an attractive, simple,
user-friendly format. It follows closely thelayout and itinerary of the exhibit, and at thesame time explains more clearly the intentof the show. In her introduction, the editor,A. M. Moretti Sgubini, reveals that themuseum’s storerooms are also laboratories.She describes what their contents are, andthe activities and research that need to becarried out in them.
Museum storerooms not only serve tocontain material that cannot be exhibited inthe limited display space but also function aslaboratories where research can be carriedout, and material from previous and evenvery early original excavations can be reex-amined. Objects never before displayed –such as those in this exhibit – can often berestudied profitably within the framework ofcurrent knowledge, which has been enrichedby years of research.
In this exhibit and catalogue, surprisesawait us. The catalogue provides a widetopographic overview of southern Etruriaand the Ager Faliscus by setting objectsfrom those regions back into their variouscontexts and chronological horizons, fromthe 9th through the 3rd centuries B.C. Thebook is made up of two substantial sections:Section 1, on aspects of architecture anddecorative systems in Southern Etruria;Section 2, on funerary rituals, customs, and
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are a significant part … it is right that ourexhibition should encourage us to dwell onthis.” Dr Gordon Rintoul, Director of theNMS, states that “we aim to provide theanswers (so that) you, the visitor, may detectmany more.” An example of this is that thedouble-headed axe, associated with the lic-tor’s rods, even today is a symbol of the powerof magistrates. With the many other civilizingideas that the Etruscans have implementedand passed down to us, I hope that this may betaken up in the future by a further Etruscanexhibition possibly on the theme of “what theEtruscans did for us.”
“Treasures from Tuscany” is informativeand inspirational. It is on in Chambers Street,Edinburgh, until 31 October, 2004.
Royal Museum. Photo courtesy of Nat.Museums of Scotland’s website.
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The new ArchaeologicalMuseum of Terni and theRediscovery of the“Naharkum Numen”
by Paolo Renzitranslated by Jane K. Whitehead
In the last quarter of the 19th century,from the excavations that were conductedabout one km. to the east of the historicalcenter of Terni for the building of the greatindustrial complexes, the arms factory(1875) and the steel mill (1884), there cameto light an enormous proto-historic necropo-lis consisting originally of about a thousandtombs. The oldest burials, datable to theLate Bronze Age (10th c. B.C.), were of aProtovillanovan type: the bodies were cre-mated and buried in biconical urns, whichwere placed in pits dug into the sandy soiland sometimes furnished with modest gravegoods. The most recent burials, datingbetween the 9th and 8th centuries B.C.,reveal the rite of inhumation, and were ofthe fossa type, often surrounded by a circleof stones and surmounted by a tumulus;some were also furnished with rich gravegoods. A small number of even later burials,5th-4th centuries B.C., were also found. At alower level of the necropolis were discov-ered traces of huts and hearths belonging toa village whose ceramic production places itin the Conelle-Ortucchio Culture of theEneolithic.
Unfortunately, the majority of the graveswere destroyed and the finds scattered. Itwas to the credit of the Terni archaeologistLuigi Lanzi (1848-1910) that several con-trolled excavation campaigns in the areas ofthe two necropoleis took place under thedirection of Angelo Pasqui, GiuseppeBellucci, and Enrico Stefani. These allowedthe discovery and scientific study of about360 tombs before 1916. The finds weredivided between the city of Terni and theItalian state: the latter sent them to twonational museums in Rome, the MuseoEtnografico Luigi Pigorini and MuseoEtrusco di Villa Giulia.
The same Luigi Lanzi established the old
archaeological museum, divided into aRoman and Mediaeval section in the formerconvent of S. Francesco and a pre-Romansection in the town library at PalazzoCarrara. These buildings were closedbecause of damage caused by the Allied airbombardments that struck Terni in 1943-44,causing more than 2000 civilian deaths andthe destruction of much of the historical cen-ter. Since then, the city has not had a suitableplace for the conservation and appreciationof its very rich archaeological patrimony andhas begun to lose awareness of its trulyancient origins.
The great necropoleis of Terni prove theexistence of a protohistoric Umbrian culturethat flourished in the valley of Terni in thefirst millennium B.C., before the Romansarrived in the area at the beginning of the 3rdc. B.C. This culture can be identified as the“Naharkum numen” (the “nation of theNera”) cited in the famous Iguvine Tablets(Tab. Ig. Ib 16-17; VIb 54 and 58-59; VIIa12 and 47-48), the principal document forthe language and culture of the ancientUmbrians. “Nahar” is the Umbrian name ofthe river that cuts through the plain of Terni:in Latin, Nar, today, the Nera. The termwould indicate the presence of sulphur in thewaters, a quality that made them sacred.
Roman Terni, called InteramnaNahartium in the ancient sources, reveals inits name, not only its topographical charac-teristic of being built on a fluvial peninsula,but also its ancient Umbrian roots: it recordsthe ancient people of the Naharci, Latinizedinto Nahartes. An epigraphic note dated to32 A.D. (CIL XI 4170) places the foundationof the city in 672-673 B.C., evidence of itsawareness of its own antiquity already in theRoman Empire. Proof of the truth of this tra-dition is found in the traces of protohistorichabitations: foundations of huts, and ceram-ics recently found within the historical cen-ter of the city and datable to the 7th c. B.C.
Objects found in the tombs indicate thatthere were contacts and cultural and com-mercial exchange with all the other contem-poraneous Italic cultures with which itshared a border: Etruscans, Faliscans,Picenes, Sabines. The valley of the Nera
river in the Protohistoric period was animportant crossroads for the passing of tran-shumant flocks between the pastures of thecentral Appennines and the Etruscan andLatial countryside, as well as a connectingroute between the Tyrrhenian and Adriadiccoasts.
After a lapse of 80 years, new excavationsbetween 1996 and 2000 found and scientifi-cally documented another 45 tombs in thesame area near the train station. This hasawakened a new desire in the local popula-tion to learn about, preserve, and appreciatetheir ancient origins, as well as to demandthe reopening of the museum.
On May 29, 2004, after 60 years, the newMuseo Archeologico del Comune di Terniwas inaugurated. It is located in the build-ings of the former Siri, an abandoned indus-trial area just outside the historical city cen-ter. This area, still in the process of restora-tion, will eventually house a complex ofmuseums, including the PinacotecaComunale and the Paleontological museum.
The new museum occupies more than 600sq. m. of space and is divided into two sec-tions: pre-Roman (Rooms 1-8) and Roman(Rooms 9-17). The former section openswith some scattered finds of the Neolithicand Eneolithic periods and with Middle andLate Bronze Age finds from the area of theMarmore. Also displayed are the gravegoods from the old museum that were sal-vaged from the bombings and are now out ofcontext and regrouped by typology. Therecent excavations of late 7th c. burials nearthe train station are documented by theobjects from 10 tombs (two of which arereconstructed), and by objects from 8Orientalizing burials, excavated between1909 and 1911, that had been displayed inthe Villa Giulia Museum at Rome.
In Room 7 are impasto ceramic finds fromthe protohistoric habitation in the city ofTerni itself; these correspond in date to themost recent phases of the necropoleis. Theobjects attest to a population in the areafrom the Iron Age (9th to 8th c.) up to thethreshold of Romanization (beginning of the3rd c.). Also in this room is a pricelessarchaic relief, probably a funerary stele,divided into three registers. It dates probably
costumes as seen through storeroom redis-coveries.
These larger sections are broken up intoshort introductory chapters that recontextu-alize the objects according to the territorywhere they were found, their function, thehistory of their discovery, and publicationsin which they have been studied. The objectsare then individually documented bydescriptions, photos, drawings, and plans.
Section 1 includes the description of thedecorative system of the Lo Scasato II tem-ple of Falerii and a comprehensive summaryby C. Carlucci of the architectural terracot-tas of the Civita of Tarquinia, which, thoughstudied, have never before been exhibited. Inthe same section, V. Acconcia and A.Piergrossi present a wholesale rereading ofthe various excavations and of the objectsfound in the oikos-shaped building at thePiazza d’Armi at Veii, from its excavation
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to the 5th c. and depicts several armed fig-ures. It was found in 1901 at the edge of thecity on the bank of the Nera, and is so far theonly figural image of the Nahartes people.
Room 8 is dedicated to the sacred area ontop of Monte Torre Maggiore, the highestmountain in the area, 1121 m. above thetown of Cesi; for 20 years theSoprintendenza Archeologica dell’Umbriahas been excavating there. They have uncov-ered two temples of similar plan, built in dif-ferent periods, within a sacred enclosure thatalso held many service buildings. Thenumerous finds from this area, especially theex voto, from the most ancient schematicbronzes to the most recent in fictile materi-al, suggest that here was practiced a cultrelating to healing, perhaps connected to thecollection of water. The female head intravertine found in 2001 within one of thetemples may be part of the cult statue.
The Roman section (Rooms 9-17) is dis-tinguished by numerous inscriptions thatillustrate various aspects of the private andpublic life of Interamna. Room 11 also con-tains two male busts from Carsulae. Alsolocated here are recent finds from the centerof the city, such as 2nd to 1st c. B.C archi-tectural terracottas and fragments of paintedplaster from a probable basilica. Room 12displays the interesting material from theceramic dump of a domus discovered in2002. The last rooms are dedicated toobjects illustrating aspect of cults, citizenpriesthoods, and funerary practices in thecity in Roman times.
A catalogue for the museum does not yetexist. For the finds one might consult:Materiali per il Museo Archeologico diTerni (Arrone 1997). For the necropolis ofthe steelworks: V. Leonelli, La necropolidella prima età del ferro delle Acciaierie aTerni (Florence 2003). For the recent proto-historic discoveries at Terni and in theregion: Gli Umbri del Tevere, Annali dellafondazione per il Museo Claudio Faina, 8(Rome 2001). For the Roman inscriptions:C. Andreani and M. Fora, “Regio VIUmbria. Interamna Nahars,” in Supplementaitalica 19 (Rome 2002) 11-128.
by Enrico Stefani to the present time. A. M.Moretti-Sgubini and L. Ricciardi publishentries on the Archaic terracotta architectur-al decorations from buildings dedicated tofunerary cults at Tuscania. The contributionsof M. P. Baglione and M. A. De Lucia Brolliprovide another important piece in the mosa-ic of the archaeology of the Faliscan territo-ry: objects from the urban sanctuary ofPizzo Piede di Narce. Particularly interest-ing are the contemporary photos from the1933 excavation.
Section 2 deals with funerary rituals, cus-toms, and costumes. Entries here deal withindividual tomb groups, which togethercover a discrete chronological period andprovide a complete overview of the area. V.D’Atri ascribes the first tomb, a cremationburial from the necropolis of the Osteria diVulci, to the mid-9th century B.C. M. A. DeLucia Brolli studies the cremation burial in astone cista from the Ager Faliscus of the firsthalf of the 8th c. B.C. L. D’Erme deals with
grave LXX of the Cava della Pozzolanafrom Cerveteri with tomb furnishings ofornamental objects, among them the hand-some bronze lozenge-shaped belt datable tothe second quarter of the 8th c. B.C. F.Boitani and A. M. Moretti-Sgubini write onthe graves of armed warriors, in particular,the Tomb of the Warrior AA1 from thenecropolis of the Quattro Fontanili and theTomb of the Warrior from the PolledraraTomb of Vulci.
A. M. Moretti-Sgubini also deals with theobjects from two chamber tombs, the Tombaa Tre Camere of the Necropoli Orientale diCastro and of Tomb 86 in the new excava-tions (Nuovo Recinto) of the Banditaccia.The latter reflects the commercial relationsof Etruria, and of Cerveteri in particular,with the Greek world of the sixth centuryB.C., with its two Laconian kraters, a black-figure Attic amphora, an Ionian cup, and anEast-Greek lydion. Of particular interest arethe recently restored fresco paintings from
the Tomba Bruschi, identified by inscrip-tions as belonging to the family of theApuna. It contained a series of five sar-cophagi, all of which have sculpted imagesof women reclining on their lids. V. Vincentidates this tomb between the end of the 4thand the beginning of the 3rd c. B.C. accord-ing to the style of the paintings and the dressof the images on the sarcophagus lids.
The final section, Section 3, includesobjects from the collection of EugeneBerman as well as some of the archaeologi-cal artifacts recovered from the policeassigned to protect and guard the nationalarchaeological patrimony. This last sectionthus assembles a group of objects withoutprovenance and therefore without archaeo-logical or historical context. They all belongto a world of “tombaroli” and antiquitiesdealers, a world, which, especially inEtruria, has had an existence parallel to theofficial history of archaeological research.
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Archaeologiae
The Istituti Editoriali e PoligraficiInternazionali announced the inaugurationof a new journal: Archaeologiae: Researchby Foreign Missions in Italy, edited byGiuseppe della Fina. The journal has beencreated to report on archaeological investi-gations carried out in Italy by foreign uni-versities and research institutions. It will becharacterized by an interdisciplinaryapproach and will address themes rangingfrom prehistory to industrial archaeology,although its attention will be focused onClassical archaeology, as most foreign mis-sions are concerned with the Etrusco-Italicand Roman periods and Magna Graecia.
The journal will also publish articles onmethodology and history of archaeologicalstudies. Thus, it will seek, on one hand, toparticipate in the lively debate taking placeparticularly in English-speaking countries,and, on the other, to recover nineteenth andearly twentieth-century investigations, like-wise conducted by foreign scholars, thatwere never published. Every number willalso host a news section with brief informa-tion on current excavation campaigns.
The official languages of the journal willbe Italian, English, French, German andSpanish.
The Scientific Committee has the ambi-tious intentions of creating a stable forumfor archaeologists of various nationalitiesworking in Italy and to further the emer-gence of a new generation of archaeolo-gists.
It is possible to subscribe to the journal atthe site: www.libraweb.net.
Memorial for MiriamBalmuth
The Balmuth family held a memorialservice for Miriam S, Balmuth on Saturday,November 13, 2004, 3:00 P.M., at theGoddard Chapel of Tufts University,Medford, MA. The family has establishedan endowed fund in honor of ProfessorBalmuth. Donations may be sent to: TheMiriam S. Balmuth Endowed Fund, c/o JeffWiney, Tufts University Office ofDevelopment, 200 Boston Avenue, Suite2600, Medford, MA 02155. Checks shouldbe made payable to “Trustees of TuftsUniversity” with Miriam S. BalmuthEndowed Fund noted.
Accordia Lectures2004-2005
The Accordia Research Institute,University of London, announces its series“The Italy Lectures 2004-2005:”
November 9: “Where are the ‘houses’?Recent work in the Sicilian Iron Age,”Robert Leighton, University of Edinburgh
December 14: Accordia AnniversaryLecture, “The ‘Paper Museum’ of Cassianodal Pozzo (1588-1657): collecting printsand drawings in seventeenth-century Rome,the architectural drawings after the Antiqueof Pirro Ligorio (c. 1513-83),” IanCampbell, Edinburgh College of Art
January 18: “Revisiting the EtruscanUnderworld,” Francesca Serra Ridgway,Institute of Classical Studies, University ofLondon
February 15: “A Punic Empire?Carthaginian imperialism in Sicily andSardinia revisited,” Richard Miles,University of Cambridge
March 8: “The western Phoenicianswithout texts,” Nick Vella, University ofMalta
May 3: “Phenomenology and Italian pre-history: the Tavoliere-Gargano Project,”Sue Hamilton, Institute of ArchaeologyUCL.
Fibulae
The Casa Editrice Polistampa, il Sistemadei Musei Senesi, il Comune di Murlo,ANTEA, and the CNR - Progetto FinalizzatoBeni Culturali announce the publication ofthe book, Fibulae - Dall’età del bronzoall’Alto Medioevo: tecnica e tipologia, editedby Edilberto Formigli.
Monumenta LinguaeMessapicae
The Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà Italichee del Mediterraneo Antico of the ConsiglioNazionale delle Ricerche and its director,Francesco Roncalli, announce the publica-tion of Monumenta Linguae Messapicae,edited by Carlo de Simone and SimonaMarchesini, with the support of theDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Temple UniversityCourse
Temple University, Rome, offered for thevery first time, in its 2004 Summer Session,a course dedicated to the Etruscans,“Etruscan Italy,” taught by Prof. LisaPieraccini. The course includes lectures atthe Villa Giulia Museum, trips to Cerveteriand Tarquinia, and more. This five-weekintroductory course covers the beginning ofthe Etruscan period in Italy up to the 2ndcentury B.C.Contact: Temple University, Rome
Lungotevere Arnaldo da Brescia 1500196 RomaTel.: 06-320-2808
World HeritageCommitteeRecommendation
We are pleased to inform you thatthe World Heritage Committee has
adopted the following recommendationconcerning the nomination of Cerveteri
and Tarquinia (Italy) during its 28thSession in China:
“The World Heritage Committeeinscribes the Etruscan Necropoleis ofCerveteri and Tarquinia on the WorldHeritage List on the basis of cultural crite-ria i, iii and iv.”
Further information is available on theUNESCO web site (http://whc.unesco.org/)
Gwenaëlle BourdinAssistante du Directeur Programme P.M.ICOMOS Secrétariat International49-51 rue de la Fédération75015 Paris
Etruscans on the WebSome of us were pleasantly surprised to
discover something already quite familiar toa computer-savvy younger generation: youcan access Etruscan bucchero, for instance,through a Google search, by double-clicking“images.”
A pair of interesting sites to explore are amonthly bulletin on information and cultureof the territory of the Lago di Bracciano atwww.lavocedellago.it, and some very beau-tiful views of Tuscany at http://lami-atoscana.splendor.it.
The Castellani and Italian Archaeological JewelryExhibit at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, 18West 86, Street, New York City, from November 18, 2004 through February 6, 2005. GalleryGuide $10.00, Catalogue $90.00.
BANDO PER UN PREMIO DI “ETRUS-COLOGIA ED ANTICHITA’ ITALICHE”Terza Edizione
L’Associazione Storico-Artistico-CulturaleIngegnere Carlo Cecchini con sede in Procenonell’intento di valorizzare e tutelare beni d’in-teresse artistico o storico, nonché di promuo-vere la cultura, la ricerca scientifica e l’arte,bandisce un premio di € 2600 (duemilaseicen-to) per contributi a stampa (monografie ,memorie, articoli) o tesi di dottorato di ricer-ca, afferenti al campo delle antichità etr-usche ed italiche, pubblicati a partire dal1/1/1998. Saranno presi in esame lavori -nelle lingue italiana, francese, inglese, spag-nola e tedesca - di studiosi italiani o stranieriche non abbiano superato i trentacinque annidi età alla scadenza del presente bando. Nonsaranno presi in esame i dattiloscritti, ivi com-prese le tesi di laurea, e i contributi in collab-orazione senza indicazione delle partiattribuite ai singoli studiosi, o non individua-bili in base alla personalità scientifica di cias-cuno dei firmatari. La Commissione si riservadi tener conto, oltre che delle pubblicazioni,del curriculum studiorum dei candidati e dieventuali apporti alla valorizzazione e allatutela del patrimonio archeologico etrusco editalico.
La domanda redatta in carta semplice -contenente i dati anagrafici ed il recapito delcandidato, compresi eventuali numero tele-fonico, fax ed e-mail, corredata dalle pubbli-cazioni (in quadruplice copia, di cui unarimarrà nell’archivio dell’Associazione e lerimanenti tre verranno a richiesta restituitecon spedizione a carico dell’interessato) e delcurriculum studiorum - dovrà pervenire entroe non oltre il 31 marzo 2005 al seguente ind-irizzo:
Presidente dell’Associazione Storico-Artistico-Culturale Ingegnere Carlo Cecchini.– Castello di Proceno –Corso ReginaMargherita 137 – I-01020 PROCENO (VT)–ITALIA.
Il materiale inviato sarà preso in esame dauna Commissione composta da docenti uni-versitari.
La Commissione deciderà l’assegnazionedel premio con propria valutazione insindaca-bile, il cui esito, con relativa motivazione,verrà comunicato tempestivamente. La con-segna del premio al vincitore avverrà in unacerimonia pubblica in Proceno entro la pri-mavera del 2004 . Nella stessa occasione ilvincitore esporrà il contenuto della sua pro-duzione scientifica.
Etruscan Foundation
The Reception of the Etruscan Foundationwill take place at the Annual Meetings of theAIA-APA in Boston, at the Sheraton Hotel,Dalton Room, January 8, 6-8 PM.
Page 20
Answers to puzzle on page 3
Invitation to Attend theISEI REception at AIA-APA Meetings in Boston
The U.S. Section of the Istituto di StudiEtruschi ed Italici and the newsletter,Etruscan News, will meet in connectionwith the Annual Meeting of theArchaeological Institute of America andthe American Philological Association atthe Sheraton Hotel in Boston, January 6-9,2005. We will host a dessert reception onJanuary 8, from 10:00 P.M. to midnight inthe Gardner Room. The reception is co-sponsored by the Program in AncientStudies, New York University.
Report from theNetherlands andBelgiumby L. Bouke van der Meer
The Allard Pierson Museum at Amsterdamhas acquired a red impasto pithos decorated inthe white-on-black technique, in theOrientalizing style, made at Cerveteri, datedbetween 650 and 625 BC. It also acquired abone plectrum, a type of plucking implementto set in motion the strings of a lyre or cithara.It was found in Southern Etruria and can pos-sibly dated to the 6th century BC. Both arti-facts will be published by Herman Brijder andRené van Beek in the Mededelingenblad vanhet Allard Pierson Museum. The museum hasnow lent many pieces to the current Etruscanexposition at Hamburg.
Prof. Dr. Paul Fontaine organized a suc-
Red impasto pithos, white on black, Orientalizing Period, from Cerveteri, 650-625 B.C.Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam.
Students in ActionCompiled by Elizabeth de Grummond
Alexis M. Christensen
Students who wish to be included in futureeditions of Students in Action shouldemail Elizabeth de Grummond [email protected]
A number of students involved in the fieldof Etruscan and Italic studies participated inthe recent graduate student conference “TheEtruscans and the Others” sponsored by theAmerican Section of the Istituto di StudiEtruschi ed Italici and held in New York Cityin April. (A review of this conference appearselsewhere in this issue.)
Alexis M. Christensen, Ph.D. candidate atFlorida State University, presented a paperentitled “Going in Circles: Rewards forHeroism in Etruscan Rome and Scythia?” atthe ISEI graduate conference. Lorraine E.Knop, Florida State University, is writing anMA paper entitled “Lightning in Etruria” inwhich she examines the impact of foreign cul-tures on Etruscan views of lightning and theways in which the Etruscans influencedRoman lightning concepts. Knop also present-ed a paper on this topic at the ISEI graduateconference. Katie Rask, likewise an MA stu-dent at Florida State University, is currently atwork on her MA paper, “Liminal Space inEtruria,” for which she is collecting the evi-dence for door gods, crossroad rituals, andboundary deities in an effort to explore thesacred nature of Etruscan liminal space.Wayne L. Rupp Jr., a Ph.D. candidate atFlorida State University, will be spendingnext year as an instructor at the IntercollegiateCenter for Classical Studies in Rome.Elizabeth Wilson, Florida State University, iswriting an MA paper entitled “Four Gesturesand their Meanings in Etruscan Art,” in which
she explores the “mano cornuta” gesture, thehand-to-forearm gesture, the gesture of thearm extended with the palm facing outward,and the gesture of grasping another’s wrist inEtruscan art. She compares these motifs inEtruscan art to those of other contemporarycultures in order to determine their signifi-cance.
In addition to delivering a paper at the ISEIgraduate conference, Hilary Becker,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, isat work on a dissertation about the economyof North Etruria. She has also been teaching acourse in Roman Art, and this summer shewill again be the finds director for excavationsconducted at the Etruscan and Roman site ofTorre di Donoratico under the direction ofNicola Terrenato. Jeffrey Becker, now in hisfifth year as a doctoral student at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, isbeginning to write a dissertation that exam-ines the nature and form of MiddleRepublican architecture in central Italy. Healso continues his involvement in the study ofearly Roman villa architecture, based on workdone at the Villa delle Grotte in Grottarossawith Nicola Terrenato. This summer he willparticipate in excavations at the Meta Sudansin Rome.
Elizabeth de Grummond, University ofMichigan, delivered a paper entitled “DeosSine Simulacro: Animism, Anthropomorphism, and the Nature of Early RomanReligion,” at the Archaeological Institute ofAmerica conference held in San Francisco inJanuary. She continues to work on a disserta-tion on the topic of temples and religion inearly Rome. She is also currently the chair ofthe Student Affairs Interest Group of the AIA,a group that she recently helped to found thatnow includes 35 members from some 20 dif-ferent institutions. Lyra Monteiro, a recentgraduate of New York University’sAnthropology and Classics Departments and
cessful colloquium on “Etruria and Umbria inpre-Roman times; City and Territory” atLouvain-la-Neuve (13-14 February 2004).Lecturers were M. Pacciarelli (protohistoricEtruria), A. Maggiani (Volterra and its territo-ry), L. Donati (Poggio Civitella nearMontalcino), L. Cappuccini (Chiusi and terri-tory), P. Perkins (the territory of Vulci), F.Prayon (Castellina del Marangone), A. Naso(the area of Monti della Tolfa), M. Bonomi-Ponzi (Apennine Umbria), D. Manconi (ValleUmbra), D. Manconi (Spello and Spoleto), D.Briquel (written sources on the history ofurbanization in Umbria), M. Torelli (Etruriaand Umbria in the 6th and 5th c. BC), G.Bradley (history of Umbria), and S. Stoddart(Gubbio revisited). P. Fontaine, F. vanWontherghem and Cl. de Ruyt presented thegeneral introduction (“Rethinking the phe-nomenon of urbanization in Etruria andUmbria”). The papers of the colloquium anddiscussions will be published.
now also a graduate student at the Universityof Michigan, has been awarded this year’sJack Winkler Prize by the Women’s ClassicalCaucus of the American PhilologicalAssociation for her NYU essay onMetapontum. Diana Ng, also at theUniversity of Michigan, is the recipient of theprestigious Olivia James TravelingFellowship. Ng has previously worked inCyprus and Italy, but will use the fellowshipto travel through Turkey, where she will studythe public architecture of Roman Asia Minorin light of its use as governmental propagan-da.
Elizabeth Greene, Tufts University, partic-ipated in excavations last summer at PoggioCivitate. She is just finishing her Master’sdegree at Tufts, and she will begin the Ph.D.program in the Department of Classics at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hillthis fall.
