Sarcophagi of the Etruscan Period

The Etruscan art (c. 1000-100 B.C.) was contemporary with the Greek culture. This period is important in its own right due to its Greek and Roman connections. In spite of the few traces that remain of them, much is known by their buried tombs and necropoleis (city of the dead).

Through the 7th-5th c. B.C., their greatest power was the Etruscan fleet which controlled the western Meditteranean, making Eturia an important trading nation. The fleet had established trade routes throughout the Aegean, the Near East and North Africa and was actually responsible for extending Greek influence to northern Italy and Spain.

Like the Greeks, Etruscans had never formed a single nation but coexisted as separate city-states. But unlike the Romans, the Etruscans never formed an empire. As said, not much survived of the Etruscans aside from their burials. The only traces of their lost language remain on epitaphs. Very few Etruscan buildings still stand because the materials commonly used had been wood, mud, and tufa (a type of limestone).

The Etruscans had clearly believed in an afterlife which was closer to the Egyptian concept yet specifics of their beliefs are a mystery. Their burials were materialistic like ancient Egypt because the dead were buried with items such as mirrors, jewelry, weapons, and banquet ware.

During the 7th c. B.C. and earlier, cinerary containers for cremation were used (Fig. 1). These were found often in the form of the human head (Cinerary, from Meditteranean, 600 B.C). The urns were vessels themselves, there had been specific body markings for the different sexes. This created a generalized likeness in all the deceased. This was a rather somber memorial to the dead.

The heads were shown with exquisite modeling ...

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...omb walls.

The Etruscans were the borderline between the Greeks and Romans, still carrying over the Greek characteristics and laying the ground for what would become Roman art. The afterlife was the continuous burning question behind the inspiration for this movement. What had started as a simple vessel to carry the ashes of ones ancestors quickly transformed into a cultural identity.

Works Cited

Higher Education. A History of a Western Art. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. Book.

Stockstad, Mary. Art History: Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008. Book.

An Etruscan Urn Puts A Face to the Deceased. Photographs. glyptoteket.com. N.p. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.

Sarcophagis From Cerveteri. Photograph. wordpress.com. Wordpress, 2013. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.

Banditacca. Photograph. travelswithnancy.com. N.p. Web. 6, Dec, 2013.