As regards their shape, they are of a peculiar but uniform type, with a small handle at the widest part, and cover in the form of an inverted bowl or saucer with handle (Fig. [179]: see also Fig. [178]).[[2257]] The ornamentation consists of geometrical ornaments incised or stamped in bands round the neck and body—such as maeanders, chevrons, stars, and dots—the incisions being made while the clay was moist. In rare cases we meet with painted ornaments in white applied directly to the surface. Besides the urns, which often almost fill the chamber, accessory objects in the form of common pottery, fibulae, and other bronze objects, spindle-whorls and amber objects, are found in the tombs.
The common pottery does not in its character exhibit much advance on that of the Terramare. The difference, indeed, consists not so much in development of technique as in a greater variety of decoration. It has points of resemblance with the far earlier pottery of Hissarlik and the early Bronze Age tombs of Cyprus (see 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).
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.