- chapter 6: Orientalizing Etruria –
in Etruscan Orientalizing, appears in connection with funerary themes and is regularly
quoted in the apparatus of aristocratic tombs. The key to interpretation is given at the tip
of the bow of the fi bula by the head of Hathor, Egyptian goddess of the celestial sphere,
a solar deity and mother accompanying the solar boat of Ra. In her primary essence as
life-giver she is also the goddess of fertility and natural cycles of regeneration and in this
sense may be understood her close relationship with the realm of the afterlife.
In the case of the Regolini-Galassi Tomb, where technique, style and iconography seem
to follow a coherent program, one almost has the impression of facing the artisans of the
“palace” who are certainly in possession of knowledge, but also in the suite of goods.^30 The
disappearance of the palatial economy, and political and economic transformations during
the fi rst millennium bc, may have facilitated the movement of “free” artisans, according to
a model more akin to what will be the situation of the Classical world. It remains an open
question whether, in the eighth and seventh centuries bc, emancipated and autonomous
Levantine specialized workers have come to Etruria, rather than submit to some form of
hierarchy or subjugation, whereby they could still fall into the category of “goods,” objects
rather than agents in the dynamic of “gift” exchange.^31 According to the model of the Near
East from the Bronze Age and mid-fi rst millennium bc, artisans, as well as doctors, priests
and magicians, were themselves prestige goods in the bureaucracy of the palace and could
be the object of gift exchange and also of long distance diplomatic relations.^32
At present, foreign immigrants of Levantine origin are frequently recognized in
Etruria (see Chapter 48), in the case of architecture, sculpture, and various crafts, but
it is even conceivable that one can add those artisans of the sacred that are wizards and
priests. Forms and magical rituals are still closely tied to empirical aspects, such as the
transmission of knowledge and technology. Certainly, divining practices as peculiar as
hepatoscopy and brontoscopy should be traced back mainly to Mesopotamia rather than
Latium and Tuscany.^33 Also associated with the Levantine world are rituals and foundation
deposits in the construction of buildings, together with the practice of the banquet, also
equally adopted by the Greeks.
THE CITY OF THE DEAD AND OF THE LIVINGThe monumental evidence of tumuli in the city of the dead refl ects the society of the
living. The tumulus, a vastly more enduring monument than the royal houses, marks
the territory in the image of the noble families who base their status on ownership and
inheritance of land. This is well refl ected by the onomastic inscriptions that soon take
binomial shape, introducing the patronymic, clearly linked to the right of succession
(see Chapter 22). At the same time smaller tumuli are arranged around the large ones,
refl ecting a social system based on clientes, with hierarchies and dependencies.
The carved bases of these tumuli, which can reach 50–60 meters in diameter, are
characterized by a sequence of segments and moldings, similar to the architectural
tradition of northern Syria and perhaps introduced by an architect of Eastern origin. They
are the only discriminating elements of a monumentality that occurs suddenly and models
a territory, according to Anatolian infl uences that are found only in Phrygia and in Lydia,
where the necropolis of Bin Tepe in Sardis (Lydia), with dozens of huge tumuli (the Gyges
Mound is 220 meters in diameter), is the closest parallel to the Etruscan necropoleis.^34
From Tumulus MM (“Midas Mound”) of Gordion – now dated to 740 bc and which
thus precedes by at least a generation the mythical Phrygian king to whom it had been