Chapter VI

.), and there are not wanting evidences of commercial intercourse with and importation from the Eastern Mediterranean. But two salient features of the Italian wares are the employment of handles and the unique form of the hut-urn (see below).

[Illustration:

From _Notizie degli Scavi_. FIG. 179. CINERARY URNS FROM TOMBS OF VILLANUOVA PERIOD AT CORNETO. ]

The clay is mostly of the same kind as that of the urns, and the smoked and irregularly fired surface shows that furnaces were not yet in use, but that an open fire sufficed for the purpose. The technique is exceedingly primitive, and the forms are simple but heavy. In the latter respect the striking difference in the inherent artistic capacity of the Greeks and Italians is already apparent. The latter never at any time displayed that unfailing eye for form which distinguishes the Greeks in all their products. The shapes include saucers like the urn-covers, bowls with a flat vertical or high-looped handle, flasks with long beak-like necks like the early Cypriote vases, bowls with small feet, jars with one or two handles, _aski_, and _kerni_, or groups of vases united on one stem.

Many of these are quite plain, but the majority are decorated with geometrical patterns, like the _ossuaria_ or urns already described. Some of the patterns show quite a mechanical regularity, as if produced from a stamp. These take the form of circular sinkings and other patterns formed by circles, an early instance of a motive which afterwards became common in Etruria. There are even some instances of designs in colour, a sort of cream pigment being used. A peculiarity of this class is the fondness for protuberances in the form of horns on the handles (_ansae lunulatae_), which are also found in the Terramare, as already mentioned; or knobs round the body of the vase, in order to hold cords for suspension, which afterwards served a merely decorative purpose, like the bosses on cups described by Homer.[2258] Sometimes are to be seen rude attempts at modelling horses or heads of oxen, or at giving the whole vase the form of a bird, as is seen in some of the _aski_.[2259]

The absence of accessory vases in Villanuova tombs, as is sometimes the case at Vulci,[2260] seems to show either very great antiquity or else a long survival of an older type. On the whole, however, a chronological classification is hardly possible. Generally speaking, the pit-tombs were still in use throughout Etruria at the end of the eighth century, and no tombs of the next stage can be dated earlier than 700 B.C. The line of demarcation for the latter end of the period is therefore the seventh century, coincident with the first undoubtedly Greek importations found in the tombs.

The real interest of the Villanuova period is, however, centred in remains which do not come within our province—namely, the objects in bronze which have been found in such enormous numbers at Bologna, Vetulonia, and elsewhere.[2261] They fall into line with the earliest remains on Hellenic sites—such as Olympia, Rhodes, and Crete—and a connection can often be traced, as in the fibulae, with the Hallstatt civilisation.[2262] On the other hand, they are entirely free from any Oriental influence.

Sometimes the cinerary urns in the tombs of this period take the form of huts (_tuguria_), though these are more often found in the neighbourhood of Rome, as at Alba Longa. They represent, in fact, the civilisation of the Italiote people on their first arrival in Latium, which they probably colonised by moving southward through Umbria and Picenum, leaving Tuscany to the Etruscans. One of the best examples of these hut-urns is that from the Hamilton collection in the British Museum (Plate LVII. fig. 4), which still contains ashes. The ashes were inserted through a little door, which was secured by a cord passing through two rings at its side and tied round the vase. The ornamentation suggests the rude carpentry which was applied to the construction of the dwellings of this primitive people, the cover or roof being vaulted, with raised ridges intended to represent the beams of a house or cottage. These urns have no glaze on their surface, but a polish was produced by friction. They are occasionally painted with patterns in white, inlaid in grooves. On the Museum example are fragments of maeander. They are usually found inside large vases, which protected them from falling earth and other accidents. The fact that they were found under beds of lava originally led to an exaggerated opinion of their antiquity, but in any case the nature of their contents confirms their very primitive use.[2263]

An interesting account of the early settlements in the southern extremity of Etruria is given by Von Duhn,[2264] as the result of exploration by local archaeologists on the sites of Falerii (Civita Castellana) and Narce.[2265] The most interesting feature of these results is the gradual migration of the peoples from the hill-tops to the valleys as they became more civilised. Thus many modern cities, such as Florence, are direct descendants of the early hill-settlements of primitive Italy. In Etruria it was usually the reclaiming of the marshes for cultivation that enabled the population to settle in the lower and more accessible situations.

The Faliscan region well illustrates this principle, as does Narce. In the earliest graves on the hill-tops cremation is the rule, and the urns are of the Villanuova type. Nothing of later date than the eighth century is found, and no importations. The hut-dwellings at Narce seem to have been of the hut-urn type. The common pottery is of the primitive hand-made greyish black clay; but after the eighth century the position of the settlement was shifted lower down, and in these later tombs a remarkable series of red-glazed wares is found (see below, p. 301), and Greek and Oriental importations soon make their appearance. Narce soon fell under Etruscan sway, but Falerii retained its individuality for some time longer.

(3) THIRD PERIOD: TOMBS _A FOSSA_; FIRST GREEK INFLUENCES

The next stage in the development of Etruscan civilisation is marked by a change in the form of the tomb. The pit is now replaced by a trench; in other words, the vertical form is exchanged for a horizontal one. Concurrently with this change the practice of inhumation becomes fairly general. This period may be regarded as extending from the eighth century B.C. to the beginning of the sixth, and is marked by the first signs of importations from Greece in the shape of Geometric pottery and bronzes. In general character it is not strongly marked off from the preceding. The great advance is in the development of art in the objects found in the tombs. Not only do we witness the first beginnings of what is destined to become the typical species of Etruscan pottery—namely, the _bucchero nero_—but towards the end of the period the Greek influence, as evidenced by finds of wheel-made vases with Geometrical decoration, or even of the so-called Proto-Corinthian type, becomes widely felt. It was no doubt largely due to the foundation of colonies in the south of Italy, such as Cumae. Altogether it is a most important period for the history of Etruscan pottery. Of Oriental influence there are at present hardly any signs, and all wheel-made vases found in these tombs are probably of Greek origin, as it does not appear that the wheel was in regular use before the middle of the sixth century.[2266]

It is now necessary to turn our attention to the local hand-made varieties. And, in the first place, it is worthy of note that pottery of the Villanuova type actually survives the transition from the pit-tombs to the trenches, as is seen at Corneto, Vetulonia, and elsewhere. Probably it indicates the pottery in common use, the imported objects being only regarded as _de luxe_; or else, as Prof. Helbig suggests,[2267] the former types were preserved for religious reasons connected with burial rites, as was often the case in Roman religion.

In the earlier types of pottery from the _fossa_ tombs, such as are common at Vulci, the hand-made pottery of _impasto Italico_ still continues, preserving the same shapes and the same simple linear decoration; but it is better baked, and the surface is somewhat better polished. Red wares are also found, and yellow wares with Geometrical ornaments painted in red, which are evidently local imitations of the Greek Geometrical fabrics (see below).

Later, while the technique remains unaltered, a difference is seen in the forms, which become lighter, more varied, and more symmetrical. Such shapes as the stamnos, kantharos, and trefoil-mouthed oinochoë now for the first time appear. The methods of ornamentation are also modified; new varieties of incised patterns are seen, and the bodies of the vases are sometimes fluted or ribbed; while such motives as friezes of ducks, which are also found on the contemporary bronzes,[2268] now first find a place. M. Gsell, describing in detail the various fabrics found in the Vulci tombs of this period,[2269] speaks of pottery of a grey clay baked to red, perhaps in a furnace, forming urns and jars of a considerable size. He thinks that some primitive kind of wheel (see above) must have been used to produce these. In some of the _impasto_ wares there is a decided advance in technique, the clay being better levigated and the walls of the vases thinner. Some black wares seem to have been _fumigated_ like the later _bucchero_. Generally speaking, both incineration and inhumation are still practised.

The ornaments are incised, stamped, or painted, and the decoration almost exclusively linear, the stamped patterns being usually in the form of stars. This pottery is, in fact, merely a continuation of that of the pit-tombs, except that the imitation of metal-work is much more strongly in evidence.

Yet another variety preserves the methods and forms of the Villanuova class, but introduces a new kind of clay, altogether black, as distinguished from the earlier reds and browns. A remarkable specimen of this early black ware found at Orvieto has incised upon it the subject of Bellerophon and the Chimaera, the style being, as we should expect, childish to the verge of the ludicrous.[2270] Later, the black wares acquire a very fair glazed surface, and are ornamented with incised linear patterns of zigzags, chevrons, etc.; these are mostly small vases. It is in these two particularly that we see the forerunners of the highly developed _bucchero_ ware.

Besides these local fabrics, there are found Greek imported wares with Geometrical decoration of pale yellow clay, with ornaments in brown turning to red; the commonest form is the oinochoë, and the patterns include circles, zigzags, wavy lines, embattled patterns, etc. These are all wheel-made, and are, in fact, the same types as are found in the Dipylon cemetery at Athens and in Boeotia (