- chapter 30: The sanctuary of Pyrgi –
obligatory path around its perimeter, according to rituals appropriate to the processions
of Demeter cult. This particular value of the cults practiced in the sanctuary received a
clear confi rmation from the discovery of two documents, both of which carry a clearly
interpretable message. First it is necessary to recall the lower part of a votive statue, of
two-thirds life-size, assigned to the late Classical period, depicting a personage carrying
a piglet held by the hind legs. This important votive fi ts into the scheme of the canonical
ex-votos of the Demeter sanctuaries, where the “offrant with piglet” evokes a fundamental
step in the rituals followed there. The second document, likewise unequivocal, consists
of an inscription dedicated to Demeter, one of the few Greek inscriptions recovered from
the southern area; it was found in the open space along the sea, in front of the shrine
designated β and called the “west piazza.” This is the second of two squares defi ned
within the sacred space, the larger one, the “north piazzale,” stretched over nearly a
quarter of the area of the sanctuary, in the northeast sector. The realization of these spaces,
framed by the various altars and shrines of which traces remain, has been traced to a
massive renovation that was begun after the serious act of impiety linked to the looting
by Dionysius. The violation of the consecrated area and of what was contained in it made
it necessary to reconsecrate the sanctuary, obliterating existing structures and gathering
up what had been consecrated to the gods as offerings or as instruments of worship. The
southern area was obliterated and the two squares, north and west, were made using a
massive “fi ll” in which votive offerings were mixed, the remains of animal sacrifi ces, and
instruments used for the cult which, as such, could not be removed from the sacred area.
In this way, a collection was formed that even now constitutes an assemblage for research
that is privileged in the variety of materials present, and above all, by the exceptional
quality and quantity of the Attic ceramics, all reduced to minute fragments and dispersed
over many different spots. Despite the poor state of conservation, the recovered fragments
have made it possible to reconstruct a single framework for the sanctuaries of Etruria,
thanks to the presence of very special pieces, whose interest has increased signifi cantly
because it belongs to a fi nd-context which confers on the complex, and on each individual
piece, a value quite different from that inherent in grave goods (to date our most common
source for such vases).
It should be noted, fi rstly, that in the fi lls in the squares, it appears clear that a deliberate
selection was made in the choice of Attic pottery, privileging some very peculiar forms,
that have been associated with vases present in various sanctuaries of the Greek world
dedicated to female divinities presiding over the rites of passage from childhood to the
age of fertility (as in the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron), or, to the sphere of fecundity,
as is the case in Demeter sanctuaries and in others related to them such as the sanctuary
of the Malophoros at Selinus. In the deposits in the squares at Pyrgi there recur thus
series of the little oinochoai in the form of a female head, certainly to be assigned to rituals
linked to female deities, and an even more numerous series of lekythoi, of varying capacity
and quality, from the most common types produced in large numbers from the end of
the sixth century bc, to the more rare pair of red-fi gured lekythoi by the Berlin Painter. A
substantial number of plates, almost exclusively black-fi gured, is another fi nd outside the
usual situation for Etruscan sanctuaries; also extraordinary is the presence of the precious
Attic white-ground pottery, a product that, by its very delicacy, was not intended for
common use, but recurs as an offering in the sanctuary of Eleusis, and is represented
in Pyrgi by a kylix and two plates. In the sanctuaries of goddesses, especially Brauron
and Eleusis, there are known the pair of black-fi gured epìnetra, objects culturally related