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Veii. A Deposit of Votive Pottery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Leslie Murray Threipland
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Extract

In October 1963 a deposit of pottery was exposed on the low ground below the Veii escarpment, south of the Cremera (Fig. 1), adjacent to the line of the Ponte San Silvestro (Formello) Etruscan road as it wound up to the gate (Carta d'Italia, 1:25,000, Istituto Geografico Militare, Sheet Formello, Grid Reference 845565).

The deposit superficially appeared to consist almost entirely of sherds of poorly made bucchero and of coarseware cooking pots. In order to verify this and to establish a type series, members of the British School, at the request of the Superintendancy of Antiquities, Southern Etruria, carried out a brief exploration of the site under the direction of Mrs. Anne Kahane and the writer.

The excavation showed (Fig. 2) that the sherds lay closely packed in dark soil, together with occasional tufa lumps, in a shallow pit dug into soft brown earth against a low vertical rock-face. Both this face and another low vertical edge above it give the general appearance of quarry faces and evidence of other quarrying can be seen in the tufa at the river's edge.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 37 , November 1969 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1969

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References

1 Mrs. Anne Kahane was also mainly responsible for preparing the excavated material for examination; Mr. Philip Kenrick drew the illustrations, helped to make up the type series and took the photographs. My sincere thanks are due to both of them. Prof. Mario Torelli has kindly commented on the graffiti.

2 A number of these may have joined together so that the count does not imply an actual number of vessels but merely gives the overall picture.

3 Pallottino, M., Le Arti, vol. i, 1938–1939, pp. 402–3Google Scholar.

4 Except for the few vessels which are conspicuous for their dark uniform fabric and high gloss (see pp. 5,7 below).

5 Cf. Gjerstad, E., Early Rome IVGoogle Scholar (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Rom.), figs. 115–7, p. 426 f., and Casale Pian Roseto, some 2 · 2 km. north-east of Veii, where a great number of bucchero vessels were found with other household wares of the late fifth–fourth century. An account of this site is due to be published shortly in the Papers of the British School at Rome. For further bucchero references, see p. 4 below.

6 Small handmade cooking pots of similar shape and size to our Fig. 6, 3 are found in several tombs at Narce (Dohan, Italic Tomb-Groups, pl. VII, 14; pl. XXX, 31, 32, late sixth century); at Poggio Buco (G. Matteucig, Poggio Buco, pl. IX, 15; pl. XIV, 13, 14, late seventh century), and the shape but not the fabric of Type G, 17–20 is represented at Sutri (PBSR, xxxiii, 1965Google Scholar, fig. 12, form 38 (a)) in the late second or even first century B.C.

7 Nearly all these types (cups, pygmy cups, bowls, kantharoi) are already common in the sixth century, e.g. Narce, 65 M, pl. XLI, Dohan, op. cit.; San Giuliano, Not. Scav., 1963, Tomb III, p. 14 f.; and again in poorer fabric, see E. Gjerstad's ‘Ordinary Bucchero,’ A, B, and C (op. cit., note 5 above).

8 Frequently found at Veii in the archaic period, cf. Not. Scav., 1930, p. 310, nos. 1,3, etc. (= TLE, 34 ff.) For the problem of the punctuation between syllables cf. Slotty, Fr., Beiträge zur Etruskologie, i, Heidelburg, 1952Google Scholar.

9 It seems to be treated as a genetivus genetivi, of the type avlesla, arnθalisla, etc., of which, however, I do not know examples earlier than Hellenistic. In fact, it must be considered as a unique example, for the archaic period at any rate, of a consonantal group with nasal, aspirant, and liquid elements. (M.T.)

10 Oinochoai with short squat necks are found commonly in Faliscan tombs of the fifth century in poor grey bucchero (Villa Giulia: Falerii Veteres, Necropoli di Valsiarosa (No. 1068), di Celle, di Colonnette; Narce, Necropoli di Monte li Santi, Monte li Croce; Corchiano, Necropoli del Vallone) although the shape is well known in fine black bucchero in the middle of the sixth century (Necropolis at San Giuliano, Not. Scav., 1963, Tomb III, Fig. 20, 14).

11 Cf. St. Etr., xxxiii, 1965, p. 492Google Scholar ff. (from tombs), and ibid., xxxi, 1963, p. 213 ff. (from a votive deposit).