- chapter 19: Etruscan goods in the Mediterranean world –
The great majority of Etruscan bronzes are mass-produced vases, widely distributed
and sometimes taken as prototype models by distant workshops. These three criteria
- mass-production, diffusion of a number of relatively standardized pieces, and the
adoption of forms or decoration – provide serious arguments for including these banquet
paraphernalia amongst the goods in the commercial circuits. Moreover, a portion of the
cargo from Grand Ribaud shipwreck F is comprised of stacks of Etruscan bronzes, small
dishes, destined for southern France.
Thus far, complete commercial cargoes of Etruscan goods have not been identifi ed
in the wrecks of the eastern Mediterranean, but for the sixth century, the Corinthian
Trader’s House attests intensive Greek involvement in the distribution of Etruscan and
Italic wares.
Personal effects
For the oldest periods, throughout the eighth and seventh centuries, isolated pieces
(a fi bula, a razor) of which there are a few examples far from Etruria, appear to be objects
for personal use, whose far-fl ung presence may have resulted from personal travel or
transmission by persons abroad (Fig. 19.15). Certain object combinations, such as the
patera and pyxis from Appenwihr, raise the hypothesis that a person (Etruscan?) could, in
the midst of the Celtic realm, have practiced ceremonies with the aid of these objects and
specifi c products (incense?).^166
Figure 19.15 Villanovan razor and Etruscan fi bulae from Bourges and environs.
Eighth–sixth century. (Gran-Aymerich 1995a).