- chapter 6: Orientalizing Etruria –
in the presence of Levantine individuals. The arrival of Demaratus in Etruria offers
an interpretive parameter on the mobility and possibility for integration of a foreign
individual into an already structured group, especially to introduce new knowledge.
Demaratus, the father of the future king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, came from Corinth,
exiled after the royal line of Bacchiads to which he belonged was outlawed in 657 bc by
the new ruler, the tyrant Cypselus. Demaratus arrived in Tarquinia, tracing the routes
westward which, as a wealthy merchant he had already traveled, along with others of his
countrymen; their names are known for the close connection with arts and crafts: Eucheir
(“skillful hand”), Diopos (“talented eye”), Eugrammos (“good at drawing”). Similar
stories, or the possibility for a foreigner to be co-opted into the ranks in the Etruscan
nobility, are implied in an Etruscan inscription on a vase discovered in the “Tumulus of
the King” in the Doganaccia necropolis of Tarquinia, close to that of “The Queen” (see
below), which quotes a certain Rutile Hipucrates, whose family name clearly expresses
his Greek descent.
For decades the Etruscan principes seem to emulate the pomp and ceremony of Near
Eastern courts. One wonders what their actual perception and cognition of such a distant
world could have been. Was it suffi cient to import and introduce new techniques and
iconography to convey new cultural patterns and knowledge? Certainly image and symbol
are able to replace the written word and the sign, but since their acquisition does not
appear random here, the receptor must have been able to understand and perhaps to select
them. A “dialogue” between cultures was necessary rather than a “silent barter” system.
It is believed that the Etruscan counterpart of this trade was in metals, agricultural,
and livestock products, salt, perhaps even slaves. Of course our old image of the economy
is strongly affected by our industrial civilization, with its abundance of goods and raw
materials, ease of transport, and availability of large and immediate sources of energy.
This should make us refl ect on the real value of objects and materials in Antiquity. Think
of the metals. Usually ships were not loaded with ore. In fact, there are ingots on the
wrecks found and by the time an ingot appears, a whole process of transformation has
already transpired. A metal ingot implies an intrinsic value, as a sort of non-perishable
storage of energy and manpower, which have been spent for the research and curation of
mineral deposits, the extraction and transportation, metallurgical processes, and access to
energy sources, namely the burning of forests and the production of charcoal. On the one
hand is the technological know-how, and on the other, specifi c and abundant manpower,
supported by adequate food production. If the metal-smith can be thought of as a single,
itinerant individual, the serial process of production that leads from the ore to the metal
requires a territorial organization of resources that includes the control of the mines. It is
perhaps no coincidence that coinage involves metallurgy.
Even textile art, with the production of clothing, represents a source of wealth, as well
as a signifi cant leap in the quality of life. Weaving was done in the home and carried on,
almost as a prerogative, by women of rank. The clothes mostly remain in the negative, as
archaeological documents, but there remains the presence of fi bulae found in the graves,
or even offered in Greek sanctuaries^13 (see Chapter 42). Iconographic documents such as
the tintinnabulum from Bologna and the throne of Verucchio show the processing steps.^14
We should not forget that textiles may have carried decorative motifs and iconography.
For all the crafts in the Orientalizing phenomenon we see that the specialization of roles,
the urban experience, understood as an organization of public and private spaces within
it, and land management, are both the preamble and the product.