Etruscan Ash Urns
The Etruscan civilization flourished in northern and central Italy from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE. Although archaeologists are not certain of Etruscan origins, they "suspect that [the Etruscans] came from the eastern Mediterranean, possibly Asia Minor . . . . [and] brought civilization and urbanization with them."1
Much of what is known about the Etruscans comes from their tombs and it is their use of cremation urns that provides insight into their culture and their art. The hut urn is based on early Etruscan dwellings and is meant to provide a home for the deceased in the underworld. The human-headed urns, so-called 'canopic' jars based on similar containers found at Canopus in lower Egypt,2 are meant to portray the deceased and to provide "a kind of magic survival . . . for the dead in their final resting place . . . [and] immortalised the dead man's features and so wrested him from the powers of darkness."3 These, in turn, became the genesis for portraiture as perfected by the Romans.4
These seven examples of Etruscan cremation urns have been recreated by third year ceramics student, Paul Boultbee, as part of a project for Classics 209 for the Fall 2003 term.
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Canopic urn representing a female figure and based on an example found at Chiusi, Italy. The heads and faces were intended to revive and give permanence to the physical entity destroyed by cremation. The original is from the 7th century BCE and is made of terracotta. (Florence. Soprintendenza alle Antichita-Firenze. |
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Modern version of the Etruscan canopic urn. |
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Cremation urn displaying the simplistic style of early Etruscan artists. (Siena. National Archaeological Museum) |
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Early Etruscan canopic jars often had domed lids rather than lids with heads. |
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Cinerary urn, in the form of a house or palace with arched door, based on an example from Chiusi, Italy. (Florence. Museo Archeologico) |
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Villanovan ash urn in the form of a hut from the 8th century BCE. Urns of this style were made before the villages on the Roman hills united and came under Etruscan rule. These types of urns are also found extensively in southern Etruria. (Rome. Villa Giulia) |
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Mask from a canopic urn from the first half of the 7th century. Masks such as this were attached to cremation urns by bronze wires. The original is bronze though the masks could also be made of clay. (Munich, Antikensammlungen) |
1. Richard Hooker, "The Etruscans," Rome. (1996)
2. Michael Grant, The Etruscans (New York: Scribner's, 1980), 31.
3. Raymond Bloch, "The Etruscans," in Larousse Encyclopedia of Prehistoric and Ancient Art (London: Paul Hamlyn, 1957), 308.
4. Werner Keller, The Etruscans (New York: Knopf, 1974), 233.