Experiencing Etruscan pots: ceramics, bodies and images in archaic Etruria

378 Pages·2014·4.39 MB·English

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Experiencing Etruscan Pots: Ceramics,
Bodies and Images in Archaic Etruria

by Lucy Shipley

Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
March 2014
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Contents

Author Declaration 13
Abstract 15
Acknowledgements 17
1 Introduction 21
1.1 Experiencing Etruscan Pots ........................................................ 21
1.2 Etruscan Places, Etruscan Trade, Etruscan Things ..................... 26
1.3 Agency and Phenomenology in Italian Prehistory...................... 34
1.4 Seeking Etruscan Experiences .................................................... 37
2 Traditions and Trajectories 41
2.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 41
2.2 Initial Entanglements: 1250-1400 ............................................. 45
2.3 To Make a Nation: 1723-1800 ..................................................... 50
2.4 Politics of Involvement: 1918-1943 ........................................... 53
2.5 Division and Development post 1945 ........................................ 58
2.6 Meanwhile, across la manica.................................................. 64
2.7 From Romance to Rigour ............................................................ 68
2.8 Incorporating Ideas ..................................................................... 71
2.9 Conclusions .................................................................................. 74
3 Thinking “things” through: a phenomenology of objects 77
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 77
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3.2 Subject to the Centre: From Hegel to Merleau-Ponty . . . 80
3.3 Perception to Performance: Judith Butler ............................... 84
3.4 Volatile Bodies ............................................................................. 87
3.5 Throwing Like a Girl ............................................................... 90
3.6 Phenomenology for Pots ........................................................... 94
3.7 Objects and Social Discourse .................................................. 100
3.8 From Theory to Practice ........................................................... 104
4 Quantifying Experience- Methodologies 109
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 109
4.2 Making a Corpus, Structuring Data ..................................... 111
4.3 Four Sites, Seven Wares ................................................................... 117
4.4 Experiencing the Etruscan Banquet ....................................... 127
4.5 From Table to Tomb ........................................................................... 134
4.6 An Experiential Analysis ......................................................... 138
5 Touching and Feeling: Vessel Bodies 149
5.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 149
5.2 Body Proximity Groups: Hand to Mouth, Clay to Skin . . 157
5.3 Sizing Pots Up: Height, Rim Diameter, Volume .................. 163
5.4 Seeking Skill- Secondary Characteristics ............................... 172
5.5 Experience, Performance, Control: Conclusions .................. 180
6 Seeing and Revealing: Images on Pots 187
6.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 187
6.2 Angles of Access: Image Placement....................................... 191
6.3 Additional Features, Additional Feelings ......................................... 197
6.4 Eyes and Fingers: Conclusions ............................................... 202
7 Experiencing Bodies: Bodies in Images on Pots 209
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 209
7.2 Human and Other Bodies ....................................................... 212
7.3 Gendered Bodies ....................................................................... 224
7.4 Bodies on Pots: Conclusions ................................................ 235
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8 From Being to Doing: Actions of Bodies on Pots 241
8.1 Introduction .............................................................................. 241
8.2 Multiple Layers of Experience ................................................. 245
8.3 Themes in Activity .................................................................... 248
8.4 Conclusions ............................................................................... 256
9 Conclusions 263
9.1 Introduction .............................................................................. 263
9.2 Drink while you Think .......................................................... 265
9.3 Changing Pots, Changing Persons ............................................ 275
9.4 Back to the Future ........................................................................ 282
A Pottery Corpus 287
A.1 Imported Vessels....................................................................... 287
A.2 Indigenous Vessels .................................................................... 315
A.3 Corpus Bibliography ................................................................. 325
B Mythologies 329
B.1 Introduction .............................................................................. 329
B.2 Methodology ............................................................................. 331
B.3 Results ....................................................................................... 332
B.4 Conclusions ............................................................................... 338
Historical and Literary Sources 341
Bibliography 343
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List of Figures

1.1 Map of Etruria .............................................................................. 28

2.1 Detail from Giotto’s fresco of Hell in the Scrovegni Chapel,
Padova. ..................................................................................... 48
2.2 Detail from the Tomb of the Blue Demons, Tarquinia. . . 49

3.1 Moebius strip. ............................................................................. 89
3.2 Young girl throwing a stone into the sea. .............................. 92

4.1 Ceramic groupings by traditional terminologies and user-centric
categories. .................................................................................. 117
4.2 Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia .............................................. 129
4.3 Etruscan pottery in use 2. ........................................................ 129
4.4 Diners from the Tomba dei Vasi Dipinti .............................. 130
4.5 Crater, Tomb of the Lionesses, Tarquinia ................................ 133
4.6 Funerary Ceramics from Vulci ..................................................... 138
4.7 Shaping the body through two glass vessels ........................ 139

5.1 Process of “skill score” calculation ......................................... 156
5.2 Pottery by relationship to the body ........................................ 158
5.3 Pottery by body proximity groups ...................................... 159
5.4 Body proximity groups by origin (proportional percentage)160
5.5 Body proximity groups by site. ............................................ 161
5.6 A- Vessel height B- Vessel height by production origin. . 165
5.7 A- Indigenous and B- Imported vessel heights and body
proximity groups. .................................................................. 166
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5.8 A- Vessel rim diameter B- Vessel rim diameters and production
origin....................................................................................... 167
5.9 A- Indigenous and B- Imported vessel rim diameters
and body proximity groups. ................................................. 168
5.10 A- Vessel volumes. B- Vessel volumes and production
origin....................................................................................... 169
5.11 Volumes and body proximity groups of A- Indigenous
vessels. B- Imported vessels. ............................................... 170
5.12 Handle groups and production origin for drinking vessels.171
5.13 Rim diameter as a percentage of vessel height for A-
imported vessels and B- indigenous vessels by body proximity
group. ...................................................................................... 174
5.14 Diameter as percentage of average hand length (180mm)
by body proximity group ...................................................... 175
5.15 A- Vessel skill scores B- Proportional percentage of skill
scores and production origin. ................................................. 176
5.16 Ease of use scores by body proximity group. ..................... 177
5.17 Ease of use scores for A- imported and B- indigenous
drinking vessels by site......................................................... 178
5.18 Ease of use scores for A- imported and B- indigenous
serving vessels. ...................................................................... 179
6.1 Typology of image placement. ............................................. 188
6.2 Typology of image stimulation. ............................................ 190
6.3 Image placement....................................................................... 192
6.4 Secondary placement of images on indigenously produced
vessels..................................................................................... 193
6.5 Image placement and body proximity groups. .................... 194
6.6 Placement of images by site. ................................................... 195
6.7 Visual and combined visual/tactile image experiences. . 198
6.8 Experiences of images by site. ................................................ 200
6.9 Image rendering techniques .................................................... 201
7.1 Typologies of bodies .............................................................. 210
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7.2 Typologies of gendered body ............................................... 211
7.3 Humans and Other bodies ........................................................ 213
7.4 Types of bodies by body proximity group ............................ 214
7.5 Types of bodies by site. ............................................................. 215
7.6 Huntsman with dog and rabbits as passive accompaniments.216
7.7 Huntsman being eaten by a large feline (a lion?) ...................... 217
7.8 Hercle not being eaten by the Nemean lion. ......................... 218
7.9 Male figure taking a well-behaved cheetah for a walk. . 220
7.10 Male figure with supernatural mount from Vulci. ....................... 221
7.11 Theseus and the Minotaur from Vulci. ......................................... 221
7.12 Winged female figure. ........................................................... 222
7.13 Lion-headed male with lions. ............................................... 223
7.14 Gendered bodies ....................................................................... 225
7.15 Ages of bodies (all vessels) ....................................................... 226
7.16 Gendered bodies by body proximity group. ......................... 227
7.17 Gendered bodies by site ........................................................... 228
7.18 Positions of female bodies. ....................................................... 229
7.19 Positions of female bodies by site. ........................................... 230
7.20 Passivity in female bodies in imported pottery: an active
woman is pacified and made an object ............................... 231
7.21 Active yet peripheral female bodies. ....................................... 232
7.22 Active female bodies. ................................................................ 233
7.23 “Potnia Theron” figure with owls from Poggio Civitate. . 234
7.24 Female with olisbos from Vulci. .................................................... 235
8.1 Process of activity definition. Green arrows signify an
affirmative answer, while red arrows a negative. ................... 243
8.2 Single and multiple action themes by production origin. 245
8.3 Single and multiple action themes by body proximity
group. ..................................................................................... 246
8.4 Action themes on: A- indigenous vessels and B- imported
vessels.................................................................................... 248
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