CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

THE IMAGERY OF TOMB OBJECTS

(LOCAL AND IMPORTED) AND

ITS FUNERARY RELEVANCE

Tom B. Rasmussen

T

he Monte Abatone necropolis is one of Cerveteri’s largest. In 1961 a rich tomb
was excavated here, and numbered 610. There was no metalware or jewelry, but
it contained a large variety of pottery dating to the late sixth and early fi fth century
bc, ranging from local bucchero to some striking Athenian black-fi gure ware together
with a fi ne red-fi gure cup by Oltos with Herakles wrestling a sea-god (Moretti 1966;
Beazley 1963: 1623, 66bis). In many ways MA 610 is not untypical of Etruscan tomb
assemblages of this period, as often they consist of a mix of objects from different regions
(metalware has usually been removed by earlier tomb-robbing), and in the late Archaic
period the most important external source was Greece, especially Athens.
But were the objects placed in tombs chosen at random or is there some logic to their
choice? If the latter, are there specifi c funerary interpretations that can be placed on
the imagery they display? A further question is whether there is a tie-up between the
iconography of tomb objects and tomb paintings, the funerary purpose of which is more
assured?
Most imported Greek pottery is of shapes that are suited to the banquet or drinking
party (Osborne 2001: 291), and these would, of course, have been useful for any banquets
that took place at Etruscan funerals. A quick answer as to why certain objects are found
in tombs could be that whatever equipment was used at the funerary banquet was simply
collected up afterwards and interred with the tomb occupants, as suggested by Werner
(2005: 75) for Etruscan black-fi gure pottery. But even if this were the case, it still leaves
questions about the imagery featured on tomb goods.
Where Etruscan painted pottery is concerned, it is worth noting that it is fi rst and
foremost an urban, and primarily a funerary, phenomenon. In fact, 99 percent of Etruscan
black-fi gure pottery of known provenance has been found in tombs (Paleothodoros 2011:
45). It is clear from a number of fi eld surveys that, apart from very frugal amounts of
the Etrusco-Corinthian fabric, out in the farming communities of the countryside (for
example in the Albegna valley: Perkins 1999) there was minimal circulation of painted
pottery. In the case of imported pottery, Attic is plentiful at town sites, at Roselle for
example (Donati 1994: 100), and even at minor urban centers (Reusser 2002: 204). The