- Maurizio Sannibale –
attributed^35 – comes a bronze situla with lion’s head, a drinking vessel of Assyrian type
that we see represented in the reliefs of the time of Sargon II (722–705 bc) at Nineveh
and that we fi nd actually exported to Veii in the second half of the eighth century bc.^36
At the same time, the birth of a monumental sculptural tradition is attributed to
Levantine masters who adopted Syro-Hittite models.^37 This is actually a model of ancient
ancestry and looks very impressive in the form of enthroned ancestors in the Tomb of the
Five Chairs at Cerveteri (Fig. 6.20) or in the Tomb of the Statues at Ceri (more directly
related to Eastern models), keeping in mind corresponding fi gures of the two ancestors
in the dynastic tomb of Qatna discovered in Syria in 2002 (Fig. 6.21). The two statues
of basalt, placed on either side of the antechamber of the tomb located in the Royal
Palace, are dated stylistically to the Middle Bronze Age II (1850/1800–1750/1700 bc)
but the context is the Late Bronze Age (fi fteenth to fourteenth centuries bc). The tomb
documents archaeologically for the fi rst time the kispu ritual, known from the literary
sources of the Near East, namely the continued sustenance of the deceased with food, that
here was ritually consumed in perfect communion between the living and the dead in
the central chamber.^38 The similarities with the funeral rites of Etruria, several centuries
later, are still impressive.
Some Caeretan tombs are also equipped with a stepped podium, which allowed access
to the top of the artifi cial hill of earth, for the practice of funeral rites. The staircase of the
Melone del Sodo II at Cortona is further enhanced by two carved antae with a warrior in
the act of stabbing a sphinx that attacks him (Fig. 6.22). These monumental structures,
built for reasons of worship, were probably not exclusive to Cerveteri and Cortona and it
is possible that in future they will be discovered elsewhere.
Figure 6.20 Seated female fi gure in ceramic from the Tomb of the Five Chairs, Cerveteri. 650–600 bc.
London, The British Museum D219.