chapter i 6: Etruscans in Campania
Traditionally, a second period of “Etruscanization” of Campania appears to coincide
with the final phase of the Orientalizing and the Archaic period (sixth century bc). In this
case also, today one tends to consider this phenomenon a form of cultural influence rather
than a process of colonization (D’Agostino-Cerchiai 2004; Cerchiai 2010). The Etruscan
cultural contribution occurs in four main aspects that affect the entire region, beyond the
limits traditionally assigned to the Etruscan component of Campania:
- an extensive process of urbanization and settlement aggregation;
- the beginning of local production of bucchero and expansion on a regional scale;
- the elaboration of a “Campanian system” in the ornamentation of public buildings
(Fig. 16.7), based on a standardized complex of revetments in polychrome terracotta
designed for temple structures of Tuscan type with superstructure in perishable
material, the result of the amalgamation of Etruscan, Greek, and indigenous craft
experience (see Chapter 49); - the spread of Etruscan writing, even in areas of indigenous tradition, documented
by many inscriptions incised on vessels found in funerary offerings. Next to the
Etruscan names and in the presence of Greek names, in fact, there appears an extensive
documentation of indigenous onomastic formulas often completed by the noble family
name (gentilizio), to indicate the success of those aristocracies of local origin that will
play a crucial role in the later history of Campania (Fig. 16.4).
A document of exceptional character is the so-called Tabula Capuana, one of the longest
public texts surviving in the Etruscan language, datable in its original form between the
end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century BC, but recopied in the course of
the fifth century (Fig. 16.8 no. 4; see Chapter 22).
Current historical-archaeological reflection, however, also tends to privilege in this
phase the profound integration of the elites, attested by the archaeological and epigraphic
evidence, that seems to transcend, in this phase, the ethnic differences, and appears to
mark a fundamental stage in the process of formation of an identity for the Campanian
Figure 16.3 Pontecagnano. 1. Helmet-lid with anthropomorphic figures; 2. Tomb 180: the panoply;- Tomb 2198: selection of grave goods with Nuragic bronze figurine; 4. Cup with pendant semicircles
from Tomb 7129.
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