- chapter i: Etruscan environments –
or by capture. This line was often transgressed and the crew of a ship could easily fall
victim to the slave market or kidnapping. In classical Greek accounts, the singer Arion
won many valuable treasures when he sang in Sicily. On his way back home to Corinth
the ship’s crew decided to steal Arion’s prize gold. He was allowed to sing one fi nal song
before he was hauled overboard. But the dolphins that heard him sing took him on their
backs safely back to Corinth where the tyrant Periander eventually punished the sailors.
Even gods could be assaulted at sea. Famous is the magnifi cent vase by Exekias, found in
a tomb in Vulci. On this vase we see Dionysus sitting in his ship, with vines and grapes
rising from the sail. Pirates, transformed to dolphins, surround the ship. In a sublimely
humorous way the man-dolphin transformation is depicted on an Etruscan amphora
of the late sixth century stored in the Toledo Museum (see Fig. 8.1 and Chapter 24).
Evidence of the hard work onboard Mediterranean ships is a man believed to have been
a sailor and killed or sacrifi ced and buried in the gorge sanctuary at the Pian di Civita
Area Sacra, Tarquinia (see Chapter 29). His skeleton is marked with wounds and the wear
of a hard-working life spent running on slippery decks and rowing in stormy weather.^48
Although there was confl ict at sea, the Greeks and Phoenicians worked and traded
peacefully on Etruscan soil. The great emporia to the southern cities are famous, including
Tarquinia’s Graviscae, Caere’s Pyrgi and Vulci’s Regae. Greek infl uences, both religious
and social, are particularly noticeable in Graviscae. Forty years of excavations at the site
have unearthed various sanctuaries, among them one is devoted to Aphrodite situated in
close connection to metallurgical activities in the area with large fi nds of slag from iron,
copper and lead production together with smelting furnaces.^49 The connection between
Aphrodite and metalwork is an ancient one in the eastern Mediterranean, especially at
Cyprus where she is at times connected to Astarte. In Pyrgi the Phoenician element is
more marked with the famous temples A and B and the adjacent L-shaped edifi ce with a
row of small rooms for commerce and/or temple-prostitution, presenting everything for
a visiting sailor’s convenience (see Chapter 30).^50 These were among the ports exporting
Etruscan surpluses of metals, olive oil and perhaps wine around the Mediterranean.
Etruscan amphorae have been found in such remote places as Monte Polizzo, an inland
mountain centre in the Elymian heart of Sicily.^51
Also buccheroware – the black, shining, metal-imitating Etruscan pottery – was
exported from these harbors, with or without contents. It was obviously highly esteemed
in foreign countries, evidence perhaps of the cultural impact of the Etruscans in Archaic
times. Just as Greek vases were imported to Etruria as prestige goods from a distant
and sophisticated civilization and eventually placed in the proprietor’s grave, Etruscan
vases seemingly also had the same exotic value to places in the western Mediterranean
and the cities to the north in France and Germany (see Chapters 17 and 19).^52 Another
cultural achievement that was transmitted from such ports was the Greek alphabet from
Euboea. Via the Etruscan script, these letterforms were adopted by the Romans and the
Gallic people in France and travelled, with the aid of trading centers along the French and
German rivers, up to the distant Nordic countries, where they would be developed in the
form of runes.^53 The hitherto earliest inscription found in Italy is a small vase found in the
tomb of a lady in Gabii (Osteria dell’Osa) from around 775 bc. Praising the woman’s skill,
the Greek word “Eulin,” which means “good in linen,” remains on her vase.^54 Pollen from
linen is detected in most pollen analysis and cloth from linen and wool was highly valued
in Etruria. Depictions of the splendid textiles now lost can be admired on tomb walls as
paintings, for instance the detailed toga picta of Vel Saties in the François tomb, or the