- chapter 43: Food and drink in the Etruscan world –
in the Afterlife (perhaps symbolically representing a plentiful surplus of food).^21 Chiusi
produced handsome bucchero pesante “dining sets” dated to the sixth century bc, which
often included bowls with lids, cups, plates, and serving utensils, placed in a so-called
focolare tray and may have been for the deceased to use in the Afterlife. (Fig. 43.4).^22 The
Etruscans have left us a plethora of cooking utensils at domestic sites (cooking stands,
hearths, etc.), at sanctuaries (vases, dishes, pouring utensils, etc.) and in tombs (braziers,
roasting spits, etc.). Depictions of cooking ware and cooking utensils are not hard to
fi nd featured in Etruscan art. Take for example, the Tomb of the Reliefs at ancient Caere,
where skewers for meat, cooking pots, a butchering knife, and a pestle are just some of
the items portrayed in painted relief in the tomb.^23
FOOD AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD:
RITUAL MEALSExamples of meals prepared and offered or eaten for ritual use at the temple and tomb have
survived.^24 The most obvious being the sacrifi cial remains of animals left at temples and
sanctuaries throughout Etruria (which tells us much about the type of animals butchered
and eaten). The bones from pig, goat, sheep and bovine are the most commonly found
remains at such sites (see Chapter 1). Exactly who was eating the meat and how these
portions were divided up is lost upon us today, although most scholars would agree that
priests and “religious offi cials” were privy to such meals.^25
Figure 43.3 Caeretan brazier, circa 575 bc, Cerveteri, Monte Abatone Tomb 120. The Monte Abatone
Sphinx cylinder relief decorates the rim (after Pieraccini 2003, Fig. 16).Figure 43.4 Bucchero focolare (brazier set with bowls, lids and trays), second half of the sixth century
bc, Chiusi (after Turfa 2005, no. 124–135), University of Pennsylvania Museum, image no. 5096.