Funerary Practice
Rituals and Ideology of the Orientalizing Aristocracies:
Pisa and the Origins of the Funus Imaginarium
Stefano Bruni
The excavation of a large tumulus, built between the end of the
8th and the first decades of the 7th centuries in the necropolis
of Pisa has revealed the traces of a very complex ritual that
sheds light on the origins of the funeral ceremonies of the
Roman emperors. This paper aims to present to an honoured
colleague, for the first time, both the monument and the
associated rituals.1
This volume celebrates a great scholar and, for me, a great
friend, to whom, along with her unforgettable partner, I owe
an introduction to another unforgettable friend, Giuseppe
Sinopoli. Here I offer some observations on a monument,
which I had the good fortune to show to Sybille in the field,
long ago on the 17th October 1995, a few days after the
excavation began, and she was kind enough to recall this,
honouring the discovery with a page in her manual of the
Etruscan world (Haynes 2000).
On 3 October AD 1559, Hercules II, fourth Duke of Ferrara
died, aged just over 50, from an unexpected and unidentified
‘fever’. From 6 October the corpse, dressed in the ducal robes,
was laid in state in a mortuary chapel on a raised catafalque,
surrounded by candles. Next, after the body was embalmed, a
vigil was kept for the Duke for nearly 50 days in the chapel of
the palace. The vigil was broken on 20 November when his heir,
Alphonso, secretly returned to Ferrara, from France where he
had been when his father died. The following day, in secret,
without any pomp and with few companions, the body of
Hercules II was buried in the church of the monastery of Corpus
Domini, that is to say in the mausoleum of the Este family.
The funeral ceremony of Hercules II did not, however, end
here. On the 26th November 1559 the son finally made an
appearance in the city with great pomp, in a dramatic and
solemn procession through the streets of Ferrara, embellished
for the occasion with a series of architectural ephemera:
arches, faux architecture, trophies, displays, fountains,
allegorical statues and the like. The procession concluded at
the cathedral, where a religious ceremony sanctified the
coronation of Alphonso as fifth Duke of Ferrara.
The next day, with the public buildings draped in black, the
solemn funeral of Hercules II took place. Following a ceremony,
first attested in modern times in 1327 for Edward II of England
(Litten 1994, 4–5), a ‘plaster statue in the form of an effigy of
the Duke, in death’ received the oration of the Ducal Secretary.
It celebrated the ancestry of the Este and exulted the virtues of
the deceased. Next the funeral procession, with the effigy of
the Duke laid on a litter, carried on the shoulders of 14
gentlemen and followed by a riderless war horse, with a
brocade harness, set off from the castle to the cathedral,
retracing the same route taken by Alphonso the previous day. It
continued to the church of Corpus Domini where, with the
insignia of the officials of Hercules II laid on the bier, the
brothers finally completed the ‘funeral ceremony and the most
74 | Etruscan by Definition
solemn obsequies’.
The complex ceremonies that were staged in Ferrara –
carefully reconstructed in detail and analysed a few years ago
(Ricci 1998) – intimately wove together the funeral rituals and
the rites of succession. Although it constituted an unicum in the
Italian scene, it was completely justified from the political
standpoint of the Este duchy. However, it also fits into a long
ideological tradition associated with the French monarchy, and
it had achieved its definitive structure a few years earlier in
1547, in the funeral of Francis I (Giesey 1987a, 127 s.; Giesey
1987b, 18 s.).
Long ago, it was noted that the ceremony, that originated a
few generations earlier, had been modelled, by the Valois, on
the apotheoses of the Roman emperors (Kantorowicz 1957). In
particular, the complex ritual appears to be a reproduction of
the imperial funera of Trajan (Epit. de Caes. 13, 11; Richard
1966a) and Septimius Severus (Dio Cass. LXXVI, 15, 3–4;
Herodian, IV, 2, 1–11; Richard 1966b, 789–92) that were
described by authors well known to French scholars for a good
half century.
The funus imperatorum entailed a set of ceremonies that
were surprising and compulsory and were intimately
associated with the apotheosis of the emperor (consecratio).
These were firmly anchored in the same ideals that underlay
the rituals of a triumph (cf. Richard 1978, 1122–5), as shown by,
amongst others, a celebrated passage of Seneca concerning the
funeral of Drusus the Elder that underlines how the funus
might be simillimum triumpho (Sen. Consol. ad Marc. 3, 2).
From the 2nd century, that is from when the practice of
inhumation was spreading, according to the numerous known
literary references, the ceremony had two stages. First, the
exequiae during which the mortal remains of the emperor
received burial, and then the funus publicum, a complex and
articulated ritual, during which a wax effigy of the emperor,
dressed in triumphal robes (ἐν ἐπινικίῳ στολῄ: Dio Cass. LVI,
34, 1), was carried on a litter and then burnt on a pyre
(Bickermann 1929, 5-9; Richard 1966b; Arce 1990).
Apart from some details specifically connected to the
imperial deification, such as the custom of flying an eagle
above the pyre, that bear a Hellenistic stamp (Arche 1990,
131–40), the funus publicum, simultaneously a political
celebration and rite of passage, was chiefly a funus in effigie. As
such it has much in common, not only at the level of
dramaturgical ritual, with what is called the funus
imaginarium by the Scriptores historiae Augustae (Pert. 15, 1).
This is the funeral ceremony that took place in cases when the
body of the deceased was not actually present, and for which a
tomb was erected that was destined to remain empty
(Chantraine 1980; Kierdorf 1986, 44–5; Arce 1990, 155–7; cf.
Dupont 1986).
This ritual is succinctly described in the Aeneid (III, 62–8),
Rituals and Ideology of the Orientalizing Aristocracies
when Aeneas erected a cenotaph for Polidorus, and the Trojans
held a funeral for him, poured libations of milk, and spilt the
blood of victims, and then, for the last time, following the rites
of their fathers, called on him by name at the top of their voices,
inviting him to enter into his eternal home. In this way with
dues paid and the offer of a place to rest, the spirit escaped a
punishing destiny and avoided the danger that it might
torment the living in restless wanderings. The ritual of
invocation (epiclesis) is also attested in the Greek world (Hom.
Od. IX, 65), and equates in some measure to a correct burial
that allows the dead to be buried and attain peace, as
confirmed by Ausonius even in the 4th century ad (Auson.
Parentalia 2, 10).
More details emerge from the account of the funus
organised by Septimius Severus for the consecratio of his
predecessor Helvius Pertinax. He was assassinated in Rome in
ad 193 and buried as a simple privatus after Didius Julianus’
partisans had violated his corpse. The Historia Augusta (SHA
Pert. 15, 1), Herodianus (IV, 2, 5) and later Dio Cassius (LXXV, 4,
3) offer quite detailed accounts of the funus imaginarium of
this emperor who was cremated in effigie at the end of the
ceremony.
The whole ritual of the funus in effigie remains
unexplained, even if the rite of cremation – despite other
considerations and the possibility of finding an explanation in
family traditions and customs (Franciosi 1984, 49–53; 1989,
115–16) – seems to fit with ideological practices documented
from the beginning of the Archaic period that consider a
passage through fire as an immortalization ritual (Van
Liefferinge 2000). It seems to have had its origins in the funeral
practices of the late Republican period, when during Caesar’s
funeral a wax image of the deceased appeared for the first
time, displayed on the bier, decked out with the distinctive
signs of a triumphator (Bayet 1961, 47; Flower 1996; Weinstock
1971, 350–1, 360–1).
Closed within the coffin, the natural and mortal body of
Caesar, that had been up to then visible, rested invisibly.
Meanwhile, his normally invisible political and everlasting
body, was made visible thanks to the effigy, the persona ficta.
The funeral ritual thus heralded a political theology that took
shape with Augustus and became fully developed in the course
of the 2nd century ad. These rituals were to have a long history,
and can even be traced in the second half of the 18th century ad
in the obsequies of the Marchese Filippo Bourbon Del Monte,
who died in Livorno in 1780 where he was governor of the city
(Bruni 2007, 61 s.). Even if the rituals were assimilated and
adapted to the exigencies of the Christian world, incorporating
the distinction between the mystical body and the physical
body of Christ, the corporeal metaphor of the ‘body politic’ had,
behind it, an even more ancient tradition.
Important new evidence concerning this topic has now
been discovered in the rituals documented in a large tumulus
tomb from the early Orientalizing period, uncovered between
1994 and 1998 on the northern fringes of what seems to be the
necropolis of the north-western settlement cluster of
Villanovan Pisa.1
The tomb is defined by a ring of thin slabs of stones set
vertically in the earth and regularly spaced, forming a circle
30m in diameter (Figs 1–3). All around, about 2m beyond this
perimeter, equidistant pairs of large monoliths were placed,
regularly spaced about 7m apart. In the north-eastern sector of
the circle two small slabs were inserted perpendicular to the
perimeter, which formed the supports for a step, probably of
wood, that provided access to the interior of the tumulus.
In the interior of the monument, at the centre, a complex
structure was located. It consisted of a large rectangular pit,
4m long and about 1m deep, cut into the ground beneath the
man-made layers. Within this had been placed a large wooden
casket (2.50m x 1.50m x 0.70m). Inside, only a few remains of
vases and some sheep bones were found – probably the traces
of a funeral ceremony. The pit was then filled with carefully
laid, small stones. Above these, sherds of impasto vases, an
amphora and a bronze ribbed cup were found. The pit was then
covered with fine soil up to the level of the top of the stone
perimeter of the circle, apart from a triangular hole filled with
sterile clay, upon which were deposited a large iron trident
with a ritually broken handle. The ground conditions, blighted
by a high water table and acidic soil, prevented the recovery of
the iron trident that was highly corroded.
Next, above this, a large stone altar was constructed. It was
found, partly dismantled, and on its upper surface were a large
iron knife and four iron skewers alongside the jaw bone of a
horse. To the south east of the altar, a large storage jar (dolium)
had been deposited, set in a rectangular pit. It was carefully
sealed with a cylindrical lid. Inside, a large quantity of ashes
were found, mixed up with numerous small copper tacks, tiny
fragments of bronze sheeting, deformed by fire, and a thin gold
wire, possibly part of an earring.
Figure 1 Tumulus tomb in via San
Jacopo, Pisa. Photo: the author
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Bruni
Figure 2 Aerial plan of Tumulus tomb in via San Jacopo, Pisa. Photo: the author
Figure 3 Aerial view of Tumulus tomb in via San Jacopo Pisa. Photo: Fabrizio
Chiarantini
It appears that once the funeral ceremony was over the
altar was dismantled and some parts were ritually broken by
blows from a sledgehammer and then deposited in a
rectangular pit excavated to one side, about 5m from the altar,
within the stone circle. After this the mound of the tumulus
was raised.
The few finds found in the pit appear to confirm a quite
early chronology for the monument, within the first quarter of
the 7th century. Both the bronze patera,2 and the amphora,
probably Phoenician,3 date to this time.
For now, the monument is unique among the Pisan
necropoleis. Because there were no human remains in the
interior it is a tumulus inanis, a cenotaph for someone who died
in a foreign field, or more likely, at sea. We will return to this
point, but for now we will focus on the strictly architectural
features of the tomb.
The tumulus provides evidence for how monumental
architecture appeared in Pisan burials in the early
Orientalizing period, just as in other centres of ancient Etruria.
This was a departure from the earlier burial customs. At Pisa
the appearance of this new type of burial appears to be
connected with the emergence of a powerful aristocratic social
class, for which there is also good evidence in the settlement
(Bruni 1998, 99–105). It is, however, difficult to trace the
original source of the architectural form of the tumulus.
Unlike the monumental architecture of coastal Etruria,
which despite various influences, shows signs of Eastern and
Levantine architectural models, the Pisan structure seems to
find its roots in local traditions of constructed tombs that use
tumuli to cover inhumations in a grave (tombe a fossa). In these
tombs the earthen mound forms the grave marker (sema) on
the surface with a diameter of a few metres and a similar
height. The novel features of the Pisan monument are its
monumental form and the complex internal articulation that is
functionally related to new-style funeral ceremonies. The
monumental form appears in the increased dimensions of both
the tumulus and the cut of the deposition place, but can also be
seen in the perimeter of the tumulus, carefully built of uniform
slabs, and in the definition of a space for a funerary cult with
an access ramp to the interior of the tumulus. The forms of the
ritual strongly influenced the internal organisation and it is
only through the reconstruction and analysis of the rituals that
the architectural choices can be understood. Above and beyond
these considerations, the exterior aspect of the Pisan tumulus –
a burial marked by a circle of stones crowned with a low
earthen tumulus – can be compared with similar monuments
from the same period that are a feature of the necropoleis of
Vetulonia and its territory, Populonia, Marsiliana d’Albegna
(Colonna 1986, 401 s.; Bruni 2000, 169) and even, exceptionally,
Bisenzio (Colonna 1973, 67–8) and Tarquinia (tomb 65/8 in the
necropolis of Macchia della Turchina (Bruni 1986, 224). In
Tarquinia, tomb structures defined by circles of stone already
existed in the early Iron Age, for example tomb 23 at Poggio
dell’Impiccato where a pit burial was discovered, according to
the site notebooks, in the centre of ‘a circle of irregular nenfro
stones’ (Florence, Soprintendenza Archeologica Archives,
1904, pos. F/9, of 1–3 February; see also Zifferero 2006).
The topographical organization of the Pisan site, with a
large tumulus at the centre of a distribution of much smaller
tombs ringing the larger monument may indicate that a
hierarchical social structure existed within the Pisan
community of the early Orientalizing Period. This society may
have been divided into kinship groups within which some
principes gentis emerged alongside a gentilitial elite. Just as in
other centres of Tyrhennian Etruria, the power of these
aristocracies was firmly rooted in ownership of the land.
Furthermore, some of the evidence recovered during the
excavation can help to clarify the rôle of the Pisan prince for
whom the tumulus was constructed. The iron trident, ritually
broken, and deposited above the grave cut, has a particularly
important rôle in this reconstruction. First, the nature of the
deposition brings to mind the heroic rites of the Homeric
tradition, finding a good analogy with the funeral ceremonies
of Elpenor described in the Odyssey (12, 11–5) where an oar was
set up on his tumulus, a symbol of his rôle in the hierarchy of
Odysseus’ companions. Secondly, the trident is an object with
76 | Etruscan by Definition
Rituals and Ideology of the Orientalizing Aristocracies
strong symbolic power.
Tridents are documented in central Italy from the late
Bronze Age and they are relatively frequent in Near Eastern
contexts, where they are associated with the triple thunderbolt
of the storm god and are a royal attribute (Rossoni 1998;
Sciacca 2004, 272–8). Finds of three-pointed harpoons are
rather rare in the West: apart from Pisa, in Etruria there are
only the over-sized bronze example from Vetulonia which gives
its name to the tomb – the so-called Circle of the Trident
(Cygielmann and Pagnini 2006, 72–4, pl. VII.f) and, possibly,
an iron example from the Circle of the Fibula, the richest tomb
in the necropolis of Marsiliana d’Albegna, from the middle
decades of the 7th century bc (Minto 1921, pl. 48,3; Bruni 1998,
164). This trident was seriously damaged when the flood of the
4th November 1966 struck the Museo Archeologico Nazionale
in Florence. Nevertheless a careful examination of the
surviving fragments seems to confirm that it must have been a
standard in the form of a trident having non-functional points
that were tipped with small spheres. The hypothesis that it
should be identified as a type of stand (sostegno) (Cygielmann
and Pagnini 2006, 74) therefore seems unlikely. In addition to
these tridents, a bronze two-pronged fork could be included: it
too is over-sized and was found in the tomb of Vigna di Mezzo
at Rondineto near Como and dates to the end of the 8th century
(Gambari and Colonna 1988, 159, fig. 21).
An extensive series of images, all from a later period,
illustrate the meaning of the trident as a symbol of royalty.
Examples from Greece are the iconography of Poseidon
(Walters 1892–1893, 13) or the appearance of a similar object as
the sceptre of Arcesilas, ruler of Cyrene, on a celebrated
Laconian cup (Boardman 1998, fig. 420). In the Etrusco-Italic
world there is the well-known relief from Bormio (Egg 2000,
324, fig. 5) and, as far as can be distinguished from the
surviving paintwork, a possibly female seated deity on one of
the painted slabs from the temple of Portonaccio at Veii dating
to the central decades of the 5th century (Stefani 1951, 139,
pl.30; 1953, 79–80, fig. 54a-b; Colonna 1987, 444; Lubtchansky
1998, 139–41, fig. 17). In addition, both of these provide
evidence connecting this type of harpoon with the sea: a fish
figures above the central point of the Lepontine sculpture and
an aquatic scene filled with fish adjoins the scene on the
Veientine slab.
Indeed, if we exclude a few rare Attic representations from
the mid-6th century that show a trident being used by
Meleager and Mopsos for the heroic hunting expedition par
excellence, the hunting of the Calydonian boar (Schnapp 1997,
286–98, figs 237–8, 248, 250, 254, 257, 260, 271), the trident is
the weapon of choice for heroic fishing activities, particularly
for catching tuna or swordfish, species of fish that must have
had a particular ideological significance in the Greek world.
The heroic nature of this kind of fishing which required a
complex strategy and specific rituals also stands out because it
is the only type of fishing permitted in Platonic paideia (Pl.
Leges VII, 823b–e; cf. Soph. 220).
A similar idea may be discernable in outline behind the rare
representations of fishing in the Etruscan world, where this
type of fishing must have had a particular importance since
some ancient authors note lookout points for tuna, if not real
and proper tuna fisheries, at Populonia and around Monte
Argentario (Strabo, V, 1, 6 and 8). It is no coincidence that as
late as 520-10 bc fishing with a trident appears in the heroic
paradigm of sea fishing in the second chamber of the Tomb of
Hunting and Fishing in Tarquinia (Roma 1989, 133–6).
Furthermore, scenes of fishing for large prey are the only form
of fishing found in the art of the Orientalizing period as shown
by the representations on an impasto oinochoe from tomb I in
the Casalaccio cemetery at Veii, dating to the beginning of the
7th century (Cristofani 1983, 29, fig. 16; Bruni 1998, 108, 261),
and also, probably, the representation on a Caeretan heron
plate from the Laurentina necropolis, dating a little after the
mid-7th century (Martelli 1988, 263 n. 39; Lubtchansky 1998,
135–8; Cerchiai 2002, fig. 1).
Fishing with this type of venabula, is even today considered
‘caccia di onore e di vittoria’ (honourable and victorious
hunting). It is a practice that has a distinctly heroic association,
and seen this way, corresponds to the significance of the spear
in terrestrial hunting. Just like the spear, the trident – or rather
sea-spear – is a symbol of royalty and consequently of the
power its bearer holds over the sea.
In the same way as the Vetulonian prince buried in the
Circle of the Trident, the Pisan prince seems to have derived his
prestige and personal wealth from activities related to the
control of the sea. This was seafaring, not necessarily with a
military intention, in the form of both aristocratic trade and
piracy, that the Etruscans already carried out before Greek
colonization started in the West. This is not surprising and fits
very well with the overall picture of Pisa as set in a framework
of relationships with the sea, and having a strong Tyrhennian
and marine component from its origin.
The absence of human remains in the tumulus cannot be
accounted for by the acidity of the soil, since the same soil
preserved the animal bones already described. Nor can it be
explained by disturbance of the funeral deposits since they
were found intact, beneath the base of the altar, a huge stone
weighing hundreds of kilogrammes. This means that the Pisan
monument, as has been mentioned, was a tumulus inanis, a
cenotaph (Bruni 1998, 109–13; Bartoloni 2000, 169–70; Ricci
2006).
This situation is not often encountered (or rather not
frequently recorded) in archaeological finds but it is not an
isolated instance. It is related to the Homeric géras thanóntōn
(Homer Iliad 23, 70–9) the conception of death, and what is
due to the dead, common in the Classical world. This was made
manifest in the funeral ceremony, the gifts, the construction of
the tomb and the burial of the dead. The tomb and the grave
marker that go along with the ceremony needed to be
appropriate to the rank and achievements of the deceased, only
in this way could everlasting fame among the living be
achieved. In cases where an individual may have died in a
foreign field, or at sea, and it was not possible to gather the
remains and complete the burial rites, then, in the Greek world,
a kolossós would be substituted, that is an image, that was
treated as a cadaver and laid in the tomb in place of the
physical remains (Vernant 1970, 343).
Something similar must also have taken place in Etruria. If
we leave aside aside the difficult case of the slightly older tomb
7 in the Guerruccia necropolis in Volterra, where a blackish
large storage jar sealed with a stone, and laid in a pit, contained
only ashes, without any cremated bone or grave goods
(Ghirardini 1898, 157), there is significant evidence from the
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necropoleis of Vetulonia. Here, according to the excavator,
some tombs enclosed in a circle of stones containing two or
more pits yielded stone ‘grave-markers’ (cippi), together with
the remains of vessels used in the funeral banquet in the
central pit, that is in the space specifically reserved for cult
practices associated with the burial (Circle of the Sphinx,
Circle I of Sagrona, Circle of the Two Cones: Bruni 2000,
168–9). The grave-markers clearly represent an image of the
deceased, following the ideology that sees the grave marker as
the monument to the deceased (μνημα), an image as a
substitute for the deceased. There is a long series of parallels in
both Greece and Etruria where there is evidence of the
phenomenon in the form of a relatively rich set of Archaic and
Hellenistic inscriptions that clearly illustrate how the
monumentum, whether a stele or cippus, did not only serve to
mark the burial place but also represented the presence of the
deceased in the world of the living as if by a form of metonymy
(Bruni 1998, 150–1).
The ritual documented in the Pisan finds reveals an
extremely elaborate set of funeral beliefs. However, their
reconstruction is severely limited by the lack of written sources
relevant to the rituals and beliefs of the Etruscan world.
Nevertheless some aspects of the evidence available enable us
to identify analogies with what is known from the Greek and
Roman worlds.
The most striking observation is the inverse relationship
between the scale of the tomb structure and the absence of
tomb goods. This feature seems to indicate a close adherence to
customs analogous to those of the Greeks that can be detected
behind the story of the funeral ceremonies of Patroklos, who
was buried in a tumulus without any accompanying grave goods
(Hom., Il., XXIII, 107–257; cf. Schnapp Gourbellion 1982, 77 s).
The few fragments of jar and pyxis recovered from the
bottom of the pit have burnt surfaces, as do the sheep bones,
and seem to derive from the funeral ceremony. Although the
high water table made the excavation of the pit extremely
difficult, carbonized material found in the bottom suggests
that a fire was set in the northwest corner, upon which would
have been burned a sheep, some storage jars and also a
simulacrum of the deceased, to which we shall return. The
types of ceramic jars appear rather run-of-the-mill, but not
coincidentally, jars of honey and oil were also amongst the
offerings burnt on the pyre of Patroklos, along with rams
(Hom., Il., XXIII, 166–71; for the heroic associations of honey,
see Rykwert 1976, 35).
The sacrifice of the horse on the altar above the pit,
destined for the rites that followed the burial, can also be
traced back to heroic rituals. This animal, considered by the
ancients to have a chthonic nature, seems to fulfil a specific
rôle that on the one hand places it with the most splendid of the
gifts destined for the gods and for the heroes, the agalmata
(Hom., Od. IV, 589–90), and on the other hand it makes the rite
conspicuous, because of the rarity of the horse as a sacrificial
victim (Capozza 1963, 251 s; Bruni 2005, 24–5). Once again, the
mythical connection is with the funeral of Patroklos and the
four horses sacrificed by Achilles on the pyre (Hom., Il. XXIII,
171–2). However, there is no shortage of archaeological
evidence for the sacrifice of horses, known from the 8th
century in Euboea, Eretria, and Lefkandi, as well as at the
princely tombs of Salamis in Cyprus. In Etruria this practice
78 | Etruscan by Definition
appears, exceptionally, in the final decades of the 8th century,
and despite the gaps in the available evidence, seems to
continue, albeit limited to a few coastal cities, at least until the
early Hellenistic period in particularly important and
prestigious contexts (Bruni 1998, 112–13, 262). In the case of the
so-called ‘Fossa della Biga’ at Populonia a passage from
Herodotus (VI, 103) comes to mind that relates how in Athens,
around 524 bc, the four mares from the chariot with which
Cimon, the father of Miltiades, thrice won at Olympia, were
buried in front of his tomb after the sons of Pisistratus had him
killed.
However, the killing of a horse is not the sole distinctive
feature of the ritual ceremony that marks the funus found in
the tumulus in via San Jacopo. Other features also attract our
attention. During the ceremony a pyre, which analysis has
shown to have consisted exclusively of oak wood, was set alight
and the ashes from the fire were carefully collected into a large
storage jar placed at a higher level to the side of the altar.
Numerous, shapeless scraps of sheet bronze and small rivet
heads found mixed with the ashes, indicate that something
made of sheet metal was also burnt on the pyre.
In addition to the possible association of oak with royalty
and heroic virtues, the exclusive use of oak again brings to
mind the cremation of Patroklos, for which the Achaian
warriors felled numerous oaks from Mount Ida (Hom. Il. XXIII,
116–22). However, the interpretation of the ideology behind the
cremation and the object burned in the fire is more complex.
Although it has turned out to be particularly difficult to identify
the object in question from what survived, some suggestions
can be made. It was most likely a sphyrelaton, perhaps not
unlike the anthropomorphic bust from the Circle of the Fibula
at Marsiliana d’Albegna (Venice 2000, 586 no. 136), or the
human figures from the complex scenographic group from the
Tomb of the Bronze Chariot from Vulci (Venice 2000, 568–9, no.
81), or indeed to some bronze lids of funerary urns from the
area of Vulci (Viterbo 2004, 225 s. no. III.a.24).
However, even if parallels with these finds may be made
because of their three-dimensional nature, shared with the
Pisan simulacrum, the ideology behind this creation seems to
have been different. The series of sphyrelata were
anthropomorphic images designed to be part of the setting for
funereal cult practices of particular importance that took place
within the tomb, or perhaps even in the case of the urn lids they
were intended to recreate something of the physical presence
of the incinerated corpse. In contrast to these, the Pisan
simulacrum would have acted almost like a double of the dead
person, a substitute for the absent corpse, or to use the Greek
term, a kolossós. Just as with the other sphyrelata the emphasis
is placed not so much on the reproduction of the features of the
deceased as on the desire to create a reference to their physical
form. The real presence, the effigy, the imago, substitutes for
the cadaver that it was not possible to recover, and this
becomes the focus of the funeral rites.
For the moment, the find is unique for such an early period.
The kolossós, and its incineration, relate to aspects of ritual that
were probably already common in the archaic period. These,
along with other aspects of the ideological heritage and related
ceremonial and practical equipment of the Orientalizing
aristocracies, were revived because of their potent significance
by Imperial ideology.
Rituals and Ideology of the Orientalizing Aristocracies
Notes
1
2
3
Publication of the site is underway by the author: for preliminary
reports see Bruni (1998, 105 s., pls 26–30; 2000, 159s, figs 9–11;
2003, 341s.; 2006, 11s.). It has been mentioned elsewhere by
Bartoloni 2000 170; 2003, 73 s.; Camporeale 2000, 381s; 2001, 16s;
Maggiani 2006, 437, n. 2; Romualdi 2000, 157s. For the human
remains see Severini (2004, 361s) and for the animal remains see
Sorrentino (2004, 366s.). This paper was translated from the
Italian by Phil Perkins.
The surviving parts of the rim and bowl of the patera match
Sciacca (2005) type C.b and are quite similar to examples from
Marsiliana, particularly the ones from tomb 91 in the Banditella
necropolis (Sciacca 2005, 143 no. Ma57, fig. 210), which are a
precise match, even to the dimensions.
Numerous sherds of the amphora, now awaiting conservation,
were recovered. The rim had a diameter of 11.8cm and it was 45cm
high. The dark red poorly-levigated fabric, with a thick, pinkish
white exterior slip along with the indistinct, incurving almond rim
and the slender profile of the upper part matches Bartoloni (1988,
93) type B1. The proportions, shape and fabric allow comparisons
with an example from tomb 15 at Castel di Decima (Bartoloni 1988,
94, n. 9; Botto 1993, 17, fig. 1a; Ramon Torres 1995, 144; Zevi 1975,
274. no. 32, fig. 48; Zevi 1985, 120 no. 1). The amphora is for now
rather isolated in Etruria; see now, however, the finds from San
Rocchino di Massarosa in Versilia (Bonamici 2006, 483).
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