Fig. 259.—Italian Hut-Urn (No. 675). Ca. 1:4.
Italy.—In the earliest period inhumation was the custom in Italy, but cremation gradually became more and more common. The Twelve Tables (450 B.C.) show both practices prevailing side by side. The hut-urns (Nos. 675 and 676; fig. 259) found at Monte Albano, near Rome, are evidence of cremation having been practised at a very early date in Italy (eighth to seventh century B.C.). They served as receptacles for the ashes of the dead, and are an instance of the custom of making the last resting-place of the deceased as like as possible to his habitation during life. They represent rude wattled huts, in which the roof-beams of rough branches can be clearly distinguished. The Etruscan tomb-chambers, one of which is shown in a picture in Case 59, furnish a later instance (seventh to sixth century B.C.) of sepulchres built in imitation of living-rooms. A small model (in Case 59) of an Etruscan built tomb shows the skeleton in armour, with painted vases placed about it (No. 677). The Etruscan cinerary urns are distinguished by the frequent introduction of the portrait. The "Canopic" urns, which take the shape of jars roughly in the form of a human body and head, are especially noteworthy. The example illustrated (No. 678, fig. 260), probably of the seventh century B.C., has the face pierced with numerous holes, most likely for the attachment of a mask. Two Etruscan sepulchral masks (No. 679) in terracotta, of about the end of the sixth century B.C., are exhibited near the Canopic urn and are shown in fig. 261. These remarkable masks are covered with incised designs, most likely of magic significance, intended to avert evil from the dead. A separate half-mask (No. 680) of this type is exhibited here, and another will be found with the objects illustrating superstition in Case 106. In these masks we can see the innate Italian tendency to preserve the features of the dead, and we may perhaps recognise in them the origin of the waxen portrait masks of his ancestors which the Roman noble set up in his hall. The portrait is again found on the lid of the sixth-century Etruscan funeral urn (No. 681; fig. 262) in Case 59. Here a draped woman lies on a couch of elaborate form, decorated below with a relief of two lions devouring a bull. A kindred type of Etruscan funeral monument will be seen in the two large terracotta sarcophagi in the Terracotta Room.
Fig. 260.—Canopic Urn (No. 678). Ht. 1 ft. 11 in.
Fig. 261.—Etruscan Funeral Masks (No. 679). Ca. 1:6.
Fig. 262.—Etruscan Funeral Urn (No. 681). L. 1 ft. 11½ in.