Ethnicity and the Etruscans 413These observations, made by outsiders often hostile to the Etruscans, are somewhat
exaggerated or at best simply unbalanced accounts. They are probably based on
knowledge of the upper classes, a relatively small percentage of the Etruscan population.
But it is not difficult to find the realities that gave rise to these judgments. One may
select as evidence the spectacularly wealthy inhumation of a female named Larthia in
the Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cerveteri (of the Orientalizing period; ca. 650–625BCE),
almost certainly the burial of a queen (Haynes 2000: 75–9). Tanaquil would have been
exactly her contemporary. The monumental stone tomb set in a great tumulus featured
a principal chamber where the deceased was laid out with a waist-length gold bib upon
her chest, surrounded by other stunning, often outsize, objects of gold, amber, silver,
bronze, and fine ceramics. The burial was exceptional in Etruscan culture, of course,
and if it was indeed royal, was appropriate enough as an expression of the status of
the lady. On the other hand, one may select as typical of the Etruscans any one of
the numerous, more modest inhumations at Archaic Orvieto. These tombs regularly
contained fine bucchero pottery along with imported Greek vases, some of exceptional
quality, and objects of bronze and iron. But the rather small chambers of the tombs and
the abundant clay vessels, while impressive, show a different social and political identity.
Similarly, the thousands of cremation burials of the Villanovan Iron Age at Cerveteri,
Tarquinia, and other sites, often with few grave goods, or cremations of a later date
(third–first centuryBCE) at sites such as Volterra and Chiusi, suggest more modest levels
of prosperity.
The deceased is often represented as reclining and sometimes banqueting, on the ash
urns and also in the paintings on the walls of tombs at Tarquinia (Figure 27.1; Tomb
of the Lionesses, ca. 530BCE). In the paintings, feasting, drinking, dancing, and other
entertainment goes on, and women mingle freely with men, reclining on couches along
with them. Reports of promiscuity could find support in several famous depictions of
group sex, as in the Tarquinian Tomb of the Bulls and Tomb of the Flagellation, in the
latter of which a naked female is actually whipped as she is subjected to sexual acts. But
there are relatively few such scenes, and we can only guess at the contexts that might
justify their presence. It is certain that the Etruscans had an overwhelming conviction
that there was life after death, and their funerary services celebrated the journey of a
loved one to the other world. The banqueting and festivities were thus an integral part
of the ritual activities necessary for a funeral at which they bade farewell to their deceased.
Sexual allusions and scenes of husband and wife reclining together related to themes of
fertility and immortality. Further, an abundance of grave goods need not be construed
as simply luxury, but more as funeral practice focused on providing all that the deceased,
conceived of as divine, would need in the afterlife.
Is it possible to tell anything about the actual physical appearance or ethnicity of the Etr-
uscans from these depictions? The banqueter represented in the Tomb of the Lionesses
(Figure 27.1), generally believed to be the deceased, wears a mantle with a curved hem
that leaves the shoulders exposed, with no tunic underneath. This is actually the garment
known to the Romans as the toga, which according to abundant evidence was worn first
by the Etruscans (Bonfante 2003: 45–52). His hair is light in color, perhaps blond, and
its style is also very likely exactly what men were wearing in Etruria in the sixth century,