- Jean Gran-Aymerich with Jean MacIntosh Turfa –
In the south of the Iberian Peninsula, chamber tombs constructed in ashlar masonry,
as at Toya (Jaén), have suggested to some a relationship with fi ne Etruscan funerary
architecture (Fig. 17.16b).^100 On the littoral, buildings of a certain scale, such as buildings
A and B at Illeta dels Banyets (El Campello, Alacant-Alicante), and taken to be temples
or warehouses, may show a very hypothetical Etruscan infl uence (Fig. 17.16c).^101
Concerning vestiges or spolia of monuments, the site of Lattes has revealed (re-used
and mutilated) a Late Archaic sculpture of a kneeling warrior (archer?), of Etrusco-Italic
infl uence, for which parallels exist in the Iberian world. This statue would have been part
of a commemorative monument of unknown location.^102 The funerary cippus in fi ne calcite
in a distinctly Caeretan columned style, discovered and preserved at Carthage, would have
no doubt crowned the tomb of an Etruscan from Caere.^103 It is the only certain example of
an Etruscan’s tomb, and of Etruscan infl uence of a monumental nature, outside of Aléria
in Corsica. The historical sources (Strabo 5.220 or 5.2.3) mention the construction of
two Etruscan chapels at Delphi (attributed to Caere-Agylla, and Spina). However, the
suggestion that the anonymous structure located next to the thesaurus (“treasury”) of the
Massaliots is to be attributed to Caere has not received unanimous support.^104
Written documents and inscribed objectsEtruscan inscriptions identifi ed in archaeological contexts far from Etruria constitute the
most meaningful evidence for this culture. Putting aside the very specialized case of the
Stele of Lemnos, which does not pertain to our topic (see Chapter 22, Fig. 22.1), it is
necessary to mention the liber linteus from Egypt now in Zagreb. This unique document,
the longest text preserved in Etruscan, would have been written in south-central Etruria
and gives evidence for an Etruscan priest travelling to Africa, probably during the late
Republican period. An analogous case is presented by three cimarking territory in the
Oued Miliane Valley (Bir Mcherga), to the south of Carthage, although in this instance
the inscriptions were done on site, in the Late Roman Republican period, after the
destruction of Carthage and the forced immigration of Etruscans probably at the orders of
Sulla.^105 Amongst the later Etruscan inscriptions, we should also recall the bronze token
from Gouraya-Gunugu, Algeria (see also Chapter 17) (Fig. 19.12).^106
Figure 19.12 Token in bronze, a sort of tessera hospitalis, discovered at Gounougou, Gouraya, Algeria.
Second century. (Briquel 2006).