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Analysis of Etruscan Iconography

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Analysis of Etruscan Iconography COMPARISON OF MYTHOLOGICAL AND NON-MYTHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY DISPLAYED ON ETRUSCAN POTTERY by Danielle Ann Carlborg Submitted to the Faculty of The Archaeology Studies Program Department of Sociology and Archaeology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 2011 Copyright © 2011 by Danielle Carlborg All Rights Reversed ii COMPARISON OF MYTHOLOGICAL AND NON-MYTHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY DISPLAYED ON ETRUSCAN POTTERY Danielle Ann Carlborg, B.S. University of Wisconsin - La Cross, 2011 When we think of Ancient cultures the ones that come to mind are Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia but Etruria or commonly referred to as the Etruscans is frequently not included. This could be due to its assimilation by the Romans. The Etruscan nation was not only the predasecors to the Romans in the Italian peninsula but much like the Romans they created trade networks that reached as far as the ancient cities of Carthage and Athens. The presence of these trading networks with the Greek City States can be seen through the number of ceramic vessels found in tombs along the southern portion of the peninsula. The interesting aspect of these vessels is the images or iconography being displayed not only on the Greek pottery but on Etruscan ceramics as well. This study explores the nature of the scenes imitated by the Etruscans on their own pottery as a result of their interactions with their Greek neighbors. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my parents and family for always supporting me in whatever direction I had decided to follow. Especially to my mother Dawn McFarland-Heaney for never telling me I couldn’t do something if I just applied myself. And to my father Tim Carlborg for keeping me grounded not only through my college experience but for when I needed it. I would also like to thank Dr. Mark Chavalas for supporting me in this unique endeavor and for being on hand to answer my questions emails and for pointing me back to my topic when I needed it. Thank for you not only your patient but for your time. And thank you to the archaeology department and the faculty for the last five years for your support. iv INTRODUCTION Archaeologists interpret artifacts in many different ways. They can be an innovated development in technology or a subtle change in the design to improve the function of the object. An artifact usually is man made or altered by man in order to create something new. One type of artifact is known as ceramics. Ceramics are constructed using clay often mixed with sand, shell, or rock fragments. After mixing these materials, an individual could make a number of pottery vessels, figurines, and other items. Archaeologists typically find sherds of pottery vessels rather then whole vessels. A sherd is a portion of a larger vessel. The sherd itself can range in size from the size of a small rock to a complete side of a vessel. Because of the great number of variations found in ceramics they can often be used for distinguishing one period from another based on changes in their decoration, shape, style and the type of materials used. But when analyzing them one might have questions about the shreds, such as; why did the ceramist choose this particular temper? Is there a reason for the shape of the vessel? Is there a function behind the choices? Does the pot have decoration? If not, then why not? If so, then what is the meaning behind the decoration on the pot? Since the early nineteenth century, ceramics with distinctly Greek “traits” have been found at archaeological sites in Italy, particularly those of both habitation and funerary nature associated with the Etruscan culture. Earlier theories suggested that they were actually Greek ceramics that had just been imported. However, this has been shown to be a false assumption. Material analysis conducted on the vessels shows that they were manufactured using local raw 1 materials, not materials found in Greece. The question is why are there locally produced ceramics painted with depictions of Greek myths and scenes of everyday Greek life? This study examines assemblages of Etruscan artifacts found at four different sites in the Italian peninsula. Data on these artifacts was previously compiled by Robin Osborne (2001) and focuses on the relative abundance of various elements of iconography or the images displayed on the surface of the pottery vessels. Iconography can be pictures, designs, or geometric shapes displayed on pottery. I will be specifically focusing on which specific types of iconography are most prevalent on the Etruscan materials; those depicting scenes of everyday life, or those depicting mythological events. BACKGROUND The culture referred to as the Etruscans occupied the southwestern part of the Italian peninsula. The peninsula is composed of three major typographical provinces from the western to the eastern border: the anti-Apennines, the pre-Apennines, and the Apennines Mountains. The anti- Apennines lie near the western border and extend until what is now as modern day Rome and Florence following along the Tiber valley until it crosses over the Val di Chiana and joins the Arno valley at Arezzo (Baker and Rasmussen 1998). Banti suggests that we can use historical texts along with archaeological data to map out the boundaries of the former Etruscan nation. From this data, their boundaries ranged to the north to the bank of the Arno River, the Ombrone River and the southern hills of the Apennines Mountains situated north of Pistoia, and to the south to the Tiber River, to the west to the Tyrrhenian Sea (Banti 1973). Complications arise when looking for the eastern boundaries because until the end of the sixth century B.C. they did 2 not cross the Apennines Mountains. However, after the start of the fifth century B.C., they appeared to have moved past Lake Trasimen as seen in Figure 1. Figure 1: Map of Etruria and its Boundaries (changed after Bonfante 1986) 3 Toward the southern boundaries of Etruria are the colonies from Greece and Phoenician areas. The reason we know there was a connection is from material remains excavated from both Greek and Etruscan cities, historical text and established trade routes. On figure 2, you can see a number of Greek and Phoenician colonies along the coastal areas of the Italian peninsula. The red dots represent colonies that were established by Greece where the green dots represent ones established by Phoenician travelers. As you can see a majority of the colonies are along the southern and western boarder of the peninsula with the exception of colonies being established on Corsi and Sardi as well as a single colony in the northern portion of Italy. The blue marks on the map represent principal native areas. As you can see even though there was a large majority of the country established toward the north there is a strong possibility of established trade routes with the southern area. 4 Figure 2: Map of Etruria and Greek/Phoenician Colonies (after Bonfante 1986). Unlike the geographic boundaries of the Etruscan nation the origin of this group of people has been a little more difficult to determine. The origin of the Etruscan culture has been difficult to uncover due to the numerous theories suggested by ancient historians and modern ones. The historian Herodotus suggested that the Etruscans were originally from an area called Lydia now in the modern Turkish provenance of Manisa. Due to famine, their king divided his people into two groups where one being lead by his son would leave the area to find a new area to settle in where the other group would remain behind. The second group eventually settled in Umbrian territory (Banti 1973). Herodotus’s theory was that the Etruscans or the Tyrrhenians/Lydian as 5 he referred to them might have been involved in the Trojan War suggesting that their migration happened after the war was over. He suggests that they were skilled metal workers, introduced retail trade, and were said to have invented the games that were often played by the Greeks to demonstrate how adapt men and young boys were. “These games are supposed to have been invented at the time when they sent a colony to settle in Tyrrhenia, and that story is that in the reign of Atys, the son of Manes, the whole of Lydia suffered from a severe famine. For a time the people lingered on as patiently as they could, but later, when there was no improvement, they began to look for something to alleviate their misery. Various expedients were devised: for instance, the invention of the dice, knucklebones, and ball-games” (Histories 1.94). He later goes on to say that they survived for eighteen more years until the king decided to intervene. “So the King divided the population into two groups and determined by drawing lots which should emigrate and which should remain at home. He appointed himself to rule the section whose lot determined that they should remain, and his son Tyrrhenus to command the emigrants. The lots were drawn, and one section went down to the coast at Smyrna, where they built vessels, put aboard all their household effects and sailed in search of a livehood elsewhere. They passed many countries and finally reached Umbria in the north of Italy, where they settled and still live to this day” (Histories 1.94). Dionysius of Halicarnassus’s tale shares some of the same characteristics of with the exception of them already being an established group. The issue with his theory is that Dionysius used numerous opinions, merged them together, and with a little adjustment created his own opinion (Pallonttin 1975).
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