- chapter 20: Mothers and children –
THE ETRUSCAN ARISTOCRACYThe basic element of society in classical Greece was the male citizen and soldier. In
Rome it was the pater familias. In Etruscan society, which retained its aristocratic nature
throughout its history, it was the married couple that represented one generation in
the continuous chain of generations of a great family in which the wife’s noble birth
was as important as that of the husband.^10 This Etruscan aristocracy arose at a certain
point in the history of the cities between the Arno and the Tiber, when it marked the
juncture between prehistory and history. Archaeology can trace its development from the
necropoleis, the cities of the dead, whose rich graves provided these great families with
an opportunity to exhibit their wealth, connections and prestige.
In the more or less egalitarian burials of the prehistoric Iron Age, the Villanovan
period, men and women were distinguished by their grave goods; the men’s armor that
identifi ed their role as warriors, and the textile tools and jewels with which women were
provided in the afterlife.^11 The canopic urns that held their ashes were made to seem
lifelike, and indeed anthropomorphic, by a process of animism that was felt to magically
restore some life to the deceased ancestor. The urns were buried fully dressed, or had their
garments and jewelry painted on.^12 Though the cloth garments have mostly disappeared,
the bronze fi bulas or safety pins that held them in place have survived, and we can see
that their forms differed – those of the women were leech-shaped, while the men’s had
a twisted, serpentine form. The gender of the deceased whose ashes were placed in the
canopic urns was also identifi ed by their lids: those of the men were either actual helmets
or clay substitutes, while the women’s urns were covered by shallow bowls used for
funerary libations or liquid sacrifi ces. Many were topped by schematic fi gures, pairs of
males and females standing together or holding each other in a fi nal embrace.^13 At Chiusi
urns were placed on a throne, males and females distinguished by their hairstyles, beards
and jewelry. (Fig. 20.2). In the Tomb of the Five Chairs at Cerveteri, fi ve ancestors – three
males and two females – were placed on seats of honor before a table, as at a banquet.^14
Figure 20.2 Canopus from Dolciano, Chiusi. Enthroned image of male ancestor. Chiusi, Museo
Archeologico Nazionale. Villanovan, 650–600 bc. (Photo Courtesy Soprintendenza per I Beni
Archeologici della Toscana).