- Richard Daniel De Puma –
Most formulaic inscriptions record the names of unfamiliar Etruscans. However, this
one mentions avile vipiiennas, an archaic Etruscan form of a name equivalent in Latin
to Aulus Vibenna. This seems to prove that the legendary brothers, Aulus and Caelius
Vibenna of Vulci, did exist and that the tradition connecting them with Servius Tullius
(also known as Mastarna or in Etruscan macstrna), one of Rome’s early kings, has some
basis in historical reality.^45 Furthermore, the date of the bucchero inscription and the date
assigned by later Roman historians to the events surrounding the Vibenna brothers are
consistent, both belonging to the middle of the sixth century bc.
BUCCHERO AND ETRUSCAN COMMERCEThe abundant natural resources and geographical centrality of Etruscan Italy assured its
success as a major commercial center. Of the many trade items – raw ores like iron and
copper, agricultural products like grain, wine, olives, olive oil, perfumed oils, unguents,
and bronzes – bucchero was perhaps the most common type of Etruscan pottery to fi nd
its way to foreign emporia. This is an especially dynamic area of Etruscan studies and
new research is continually refi ning our understanding of it.^46 It can be treated only
superfi cially here.
Trade in Antiquity was never a simple operation but often involved a long series of
contacts and exchanges. One foundation may well have been “gift-exchange.” This process
could be used by elite members of Etruscan society, the landowners who controlled a
natural or manufactured resource, who wished to establish a profi table relationship with
other local or foreign elites. Etruscan communities might exchange goods with neighbors
and those living near a river route could eventually ship their products to the coast.
From there they might begin another long series of exchanges along a changeable route
of emporia that eventually led to a distant foreign territory. As time went on, these
exchanges might have evolved from simple “silent commerce” as described by Herodotus
(4.197) in connection with the Carthaginians and people living in parts of North Africa
beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, to more formal trade contracts and partnerships.
If one plots a map of sites where bucchero has been found outside Etruria, one sees
that it appears at locations throughout Italy, especially in Campania, Sicily and Sardinia,
and the Mediterranean basin. Areas that have especially numerous fi nds include southern
Gaul (essentially from Antibes west to Ampurias) and portions of southern Spain. More
remote locations include Tarsus in southern Asia Minor, Naukratis in the Nile Delta,
Tocra in Libya and Kościelec in northern Poland. Often the bucchero found at these
sites is fragmentary, although most can be identifi ed as kantharoi, and is associated with
Etruscan transport amphoras used to ship wine or olive oil.
There has been a steady, concerted effort on the part of many Etruscologists in
recent decades to demonstrate the importance of bucchero as a signifi cant indicator of
Etruscan cultural infl uence, trade, technical skill and taste. Numerous public and private
collections of bucchero have been carefully studied or reassessed, a great deal of technical
data has been collected and interpreted, and it is fair to claim that we are today in a much
better position to appreciate the relevance of bucchero in the greater context of Etruscan
civilization.