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 (Chapter VII.); the earliest instances belong to the end of the eighth century, in some late pit-tombs at Caere, in which also “Proto-Corinthian” pottery was found. They coincide with the great impetus given to Greek colonisation in Sicily and Southern Italy, and probably came by that way into Etruria. It should be borne in mind that these vases were imported not for their own merit, but for the value of their contents. It has already been mentioned that local imitations of them are found in the trench-tombs.
To the seventh century belong also two classes of pottery which are more or less connected, and are chiefly associated with Caere.[[2271]] The first class consists of a series of vases of red ware, mostly large jars and πίθοι, ornamented with designs in relief, the lower part of the body being usually ribbed. The designs take the form of bands of figures stamped round the upper part of the vase, either in groups on the principle of the metope or in extended friezes. In the former case the design was produced from a single stamp for each group; in the latter, it was rolled out from a cylinder resembling those in use in Assyria for sealing documents. Besides the jars, plates of this ware are not uncommon; they may have formed either covers like those of the Villanuova ossuaria, or stands for the jars, in order to hold drippings of liquid, etc. The use of the πίθοι in tombs is not quite clear, though they were doubtless in daily use for holding grain or liquids.[[2272]]