- Jean Gran-Aymerich with Jean MacIntosh Turfa –
Other uncommon objects of Etruscan origin would have belonged to aristocrats
coming from Etruria. In this category belong, in Carthage, the statuette of Dar Seniat,
the funerary cippus of Caeretan style and the ivory tessera hospitalis. This last object,
discovered in the tomb of a Carthaginian is evidence of his diplomatic relations with
Etruria and recalls the presence of a Punic lamp on the shipwreck at the Cap d’Antibes.
One might once again evoke the underwater discoveries of parade armor (Giglio, Agde,
Gavà at the mouth of the Llobregat south of Barcelona), which give evidence of travelers
or sailors of high status. The best complete panoplies of Etruscan parade armor located
far from Etruria were found in the tombs of Aléria: one pair of greaves in the process of
restoration revealed high quality decoration with mythological themes.^164
CONCLUSIONThis survey of Etruscan objects discovered very far from Etruria reveals numerous
scenarios depending on chronology and geography. A universal interpretation is unlikely
as the evidence is multifaceted and dispersed, corresponding to different realities and
with similar objects meaning different things in different situations. The need for minute
examination and interdisciplinary expertise for each case does not, nevertheless, make it
impossible to draw broad conclusions from the evidence.
Amongst the recurrent questions surrounding this matter of widespread Etruscan
objects are those pertaining to commercial enterprises, be they real or supposed, and
especially concerning the real authors of these maritime distributions, the Etruscans
themselves, or perhaps the Greeks or even the Phoenicians. The land-based distributions
raise the problem of knowing if the dispersions are “random,” or if rather they were part of
long distribution circuits by caravan and river, controlled by the local aristocrats. Finally,
we might question whether objects as curious as bucchero kantharoi, often appearing in
very small numbers in far-away lands, were really understood as merchandise. In truth,
these exceptionally singular vases by their very peculiar form could have served other
functions, especially in the wine-drinking ceremony.^165
To deal with these questions, we turn our attention here to explicitly mercantile
products (saleable goods), to personal possessions that would indicate an Etruscan presence
(personal effects) and to singular vases (kantharoi) which dot the Etruscan outward venture
(accompanying products).
Saleable goodsThe shipwrecks with Etruscan cargoes give the best proof of commercial traffi c in
the region of Etruria: that of wine amphorae. In the western Mediterranean, Etruscan
amphorae are well represented in the sixth century, while Phoenician amphorae – and in
their wake those of the Greeks and the Zentralitalischenamphoren – knew a much earlier
diffusion. These amphorae were accompanied by a representative range of banquet
wares in ceramic and bronze. These Etruscan bronzes, used in the consumption of wine,
would have been the object of a very active trade on specifi c circuits of distribution:
in the direction of the princely sites of the Celtic hinterland, which controlled the
continental exchange routes; and in the direction of the maritime cities and trade
centers of the western Mediterranean, such as Marseille and Carthage, masters of large
portions of the sea.