The subjects are always of an Orientalising character, similar to those found on Greek vases under Oriental influence, and comprising animals, monsters, hunting scenes, combats, and banquets. The origin of these vases is doubtful; they may be either indigenous or imported, as similar examples have been found in Rhodes, Boeotia, Sicily, and elsewhere; but they are rare outside Etruria. The suggestion of a Sicilian origin[[2273]] has found some favour, but it is more likely that they are native productions after Greek models (see Vol. I. p. [496]); some are undoubtedly of local make,[[2274]] and they were probably made at Caere or in the neighbourhood. Their prototypes go back almost to the Mycenaean period, but were hardly imported before 700 B.C., after which time the local imitations begin, being one more instance of the invariable rule that all Etruscan pottery is more or less imitative. Similar vases in metal were manufactured on the coast of Asia Minor, and the ἀναθήματα of the Lydian kings at Delphi[[2275]] were probably examples of this class.[[2276]]
From Gaz. Arch.
FIG. 180. PAINTED ETRUSCAN PITHOS FROM CERVETRI (IN LOUVRE): BIRTH
OF ATHENA; BOAR-HUNT.
The second class shows some affinities to the other in regard to the shape and the nature of the clay; but the important difference is that the vases are decorated with painted subjects instead of reliefs. The subjects are painted in white outline on a brick-red glazed ground, the process being as follows: The clay, which resembles the impasto Italico, is first hardened by baking, and then a mixture of wax and resin and iron oxide is applied to it, and a lustre given to the surface by polishing. The pigment, a mixture of chalk and lime, is then laid on. The process can hardly be said to be Greek, and yet the subjects are purely Greek, being borrowed in part from the Greek Geometrical vases, such as sea-fights, and in part from later (Ionian) sources[[2277]]; we actually find representations of the Birth of Athena and the Hunt of the Calydonian Boar (Fig. [180]).[[2278]] The shapes of the vases again are certainly local, as are the animal forms, which resemble those incised on the bucchero wares. The drawing is usually crude in the extreme. It is interesting to note that on the vase from which Fig. [180] is taken the potter has painted in white an Etruscan inscription (not shown in the cut). Another vase of the same class was found in the Polledrara tomb (see Plate [LVI]. and p. [300] below). The method of painting in opaque pigment on a red or black ground is, it would seem, an Ionian characteristic, being found at Naukratis in the seventh century (Vol. I. p. [347]), and also, as we shall see on other quasi-Ionic fabrics in Etruria.
Generally speaking, the tombs a fossa are not later than the middle of the seventh century; evidence of this is given by the absence of bucchero proper and of Corinthian fabrics. There are, however, traces of their lingering on even down into the sixth century, as at Vulci, where Helbig mentions a tomb found in 1884 containing Corinthian vases of that date.[[2279]] At Corneto the latest belong to the end of the seventh century.
(4) FOURTH PERIOD: CHAMBER TOMBS; ORIENTAL INFLUENCE
Our fourth period, which in many respects shows a close continuity with that of the tombs a fossa, is nevertheless clearly defined by two circumstances: firstly, the adoption of a new type of tomb, doubtless developed out of the fossa, which takes the form of a large chamber, and is therefore known as a camera; secondly, the influence of Oriental art, concurrently with an increased influx of importations from Greece. The period covers about a century of time, from 650 to 550 B.C., and includes several of the largest and most important tombs that have been found in Etruria, which will demand more or less detailed treatment. In none, however, were any great finds of pottery made; but one of these tombs, the Grotta d’ Iside or Polledrara tomb at Vulci, contained several specimens of exceptional interest.
The simplest form of chamber-tomb consists of a narrow corridor or δρόμος leading into a larger chamber; next, the δρόμος opens into a square or rectangular vestibule, round which various side-chambers are attached; finally, the tomb assumes the form of a vast subterranean edifice composed of several wings, and used for more than one corpse—in fact, a “family vault.”
While on the one hand the ceramic types of the Villanuova period still linger on, as in the retention of ossuaria for the receipt of ashes, on the other the painted Greek vases and the local bucchero wares increase more and more, and altogether there is a great advance in the direction of variety and richness. This period saw not only the general introduction of the wheel into Etruria, but also the introduction of the alphabet of Western Greece, through Cumae. A vase of bucchero ware found at Vetulonia bears an Etruscan inscription, which can hardly be much later than 700 B.C.,[[2280]] and we have already seen an instance on a vase from Caere.
In the earlier chamber-tombs no bucchero is found, and the pottery is of the same types as in the trench-tombs; but with the enlarged arrangement of the tomb come the Corinthian vases of Orientalising style, to be followed later by the Ionian and later Corinthian fabrics, and finally by the Athenian wares. The vestibule disappears after the sixth century, and all later tombs have the simple δρόμος. The typical contents of a chamber-tomb are, as regards local pottery, in the earlier tombs impasto Italico wares, in the later bucchero. The former is hand-made, the shapes similar to those found in the trench-tombs—i.e. pots incised with zigzags, circles, and other patterns, or painted in white. The latest varieties are wheel-made, of bucchero forms. The latter wares, which are much more numerous, are evolved from the impasto: (1) by the use of the wheel; (2) by the introduction of the furnace; (3) by extensive imitation of Greek ceramic and metal forms. The earliest bucchero vases at Vulci and Corneto synchronise with Corinthian pottery of the middle style, about 630-600 B.C., and they last down to the end of the fifth century.