The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Annette Rathje –

Figure 44.1 Lid of funerary urn from a tomb at Tolle (Tomb 23), circa 630–620 bc. Museo Civico

Archeologico di Chianciano Terme, courtesy of Giulio Paolucci.

Figure 44.2 Lid of funerary urn from Montescudaio, territory of Volterra, seated banquet circa 650 bc.

Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, courtesy of A. M. Esposito.

AN UPPER CLASS PHENOMENON

Banquet equipment has been found from the elite tombs of the Orientalizing period
(roughly from the second half of the eighth century bc to the end of the sixth century
bc) and is interpreted as a refl ection of the adoption of foreign manners and customs. The
period in question represents a process of selection of Greek, Near Eastern and occasionally
Egyptian goods. Material objects and perishable goods as well as foreign customs and new
ideas circulated among the Etruscans, as they were part of the Mediterranean cultural
trade networks. It is, however, important to understand that the Etruscans selected and
adapted foreign cultural elements to their own traditions.^6 They adopted the Greek way
of drinking and combined it with Near Eastern splendor. The way of feasting seems to
have changed, as feasts became a display of conspicuous consumption. The echelons of