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[German version] A. Definition and function The Graeco-Roman altar (ἐσχάρα, βωμός; eschára, bōmós; Lat. ara, ‘fireplace’) is defined by its function and not as an object of a certain type. An altar can be an ephemeral natural or artificial elevation, hearth or building for sacrifices involving fire, drink or other elements (in contrast to the sacrificial pit dug into the ground, the βόθρος [ bóthros], Hom. Od. 10, 517; Lucian Char. 22) and marks the centre of a sacrificial act. There are sanctuaries without a  temple, but never without an altar ([23. 150]; a…

[German version] Etruscan family name of an important gens from Caere (today Cerveteri; 4th/3rd century BC), known from the inscriptions of two chamber tombs in that place, the Tomba dei Tarquini and the Tomba dei Rilievi. The latter is the most elaborately furnished Etruscan chamber grave in the form of an Atrium with thirteen niches which represent cubicula. The names ascribed to the dead compose a genealogy of four generations, the name of the grave's donor Vel Matunas, son of Lars, being inscribed on a Cippus at the entrance to the grave. Funerary architecture (III. C. 1.) Prayon, Fried…

[German version] Hill covered with settlements, located in northern Cappadocia to the south-east of  Boghazki. Excavations in 1930-32 under H. H. von der Osten. These revealed, for the first time in Chalcolithic central Anatolia, continuous settlement histories from into Byzantine times [2]. Chronologically of importance is the post-Hittite-‘Phrygian’ layer of Alişar IV with ceramics in the style of silhouette-like animals [1. 1-10; 3]. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography 1 E. Akurgal, Phryg. Kunst, 1955 2 H. H. v. d. Osten, The Alishar Hüyük, OIP 29-30, 1937 3 G. …

[German version] Etruscan name of a gens (small clan with a shared ancestor) from Tarquinia. It is found on an elaborately furnished family grave of the 4th/3rd cents. BC; the sarcophagi of the individual family members are identified by their names and offices. Tarquinii Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography H. Rix (Ed.), Etr. Texte, 1991, Ta 1.9, 1.13, 1.15  S. Steingräber, Etrurien. Städte, Heiligtümer, Nekropolen, 1981, 398.

[German version] I. Introduction The Greek word νεκρόπολις/ nekrópolis, ‘city of the dead’, is attested in Antiquity only in Strabo (17,1,10,14) as the name of a suburb of Alexandria [1] (Necropolis). Modern scholarship transfers the term necropolis to cemeteries of various cultures and time periods. General definitions as to shape and size do not exist. In this article, necropolis refers only to sites of a certain size and usually lying outside the settlements themselves. The size of a necropolis, the …

[German version] Italian name ('pot') for Etruscan vessels: 1. in the form of clay cauldrons; 2. of round-bellied vessels with handles and base. 'Thina' inscriptions of the 7th/6th cents. BC from Cerveteri (Caere) bear witness not only to the Etruscan name of the vessel type, but also to its linguistic affinity to the dinos of the Hellenic world, whose shape was related. The inscription thina on an amphora of the 5th/4th cent. in Populonia suggests that the name was later also transferred to other restricted vessel shapes. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography G. Colonna, Nomi etru…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia The Sumerian term é and the Akkadian term bītu, meaning 'temple' or 'house (of the deity)', were not restricted to 'dwellings' of deities of a particular size or importance. They applied to sanctuaries from small neighbourhood shrines in residential areas to large, freestanding, tall buildings, from one-room cult sites to temple complexes with extensive auxiliary buildings, and they could be used for temples where one or many deities were worshipped. Prehistoric structures are often classified as temples only because apparently they nei…

[German version] Etruscan and Roman goddess. According to Liv. 7,3,7, year nails were driven in her temple in Volsinii, in analogy to the custom at the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline in Rome. The sanctuary has not been localised with certainty. Inscriptions in Bolsena attested to the continuation of the cult until the 3rd cent. AD (CIL VI 537,4: Nortia, te veneror, Lari cretus Vulsiniensi), and there is also an honorary inscription dedicated to a c[ uratori t] empli deae N[ ort] ia[ e] [1]. The Etruscan name of the goddess may have been * Nurti, from which gens names such as Nurtine are der…

[German version] I. General Pins and needles (βελόνη/ belónē, περόνη/ perónē, ῥαφίς/ rhaphís, Latin acus) were put to a variety of uses in the ancient household: they were used for hair, garments and sewing. They were also a utensil, for example, in the work of doctors (Surgical instruments), sailmakers etc. Tattoos were also done using special needles. The shape of the pin, long and thin with one sharp end, has not changed since prehistoric times. In sewing needles, the head is generally unadorned and flat; …

(Tusci), the Etruscans. I. History [German version] A. Name A people in Italy who, between the 9th and 1st cents. BC, created the highest form of civilization in the Western Mediterranean before Roman civilization prevailed over the same territory. Various popular names were applied to the E.: Rasna (or Graecized Rasenna) in Etruscan sources, Tyrrhenoi or Tyrsenoi in Greek sources, Turskus in Umbrian sources and Etrusci, Tusci or Lydii (according to Hdt. 1,94 because of their possible origin in Lydia) in Lat. sources. Camporeale, Giovannangelo (Florence) [German version] B. History…

[German version] I. Name Strabo was the first to refer to the peninsula of Asia Minor (AM) west of the  Taurus (Str. 2,5,24; 12,1,3; cf. Plin. HN 5,27f.; Ptol. 5,2) as a single unit by the name of Asia in the narrower sense, as opposed to the continent of Asia. The term of Asia minor in this sense is first used in Oros. 1,2,26 (early 5th cent. AD). Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart) [German version] II. Geography AM is the westernmost part of the Asian continent between 36° and 42° northern latitude, and 26° and 44° eastern longitude, stretching from the Aegean to the Euphrates ( c. 1,200 km), and fro…

Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) Research on the Etruscans as a people and culture did not follow a linear progression, nor was it initially guided by scholarly considerations. Instead it was full of speculation ( Etruscheria) and theories of art. However, since the 19th cent. Etruscology has been a significant element in the development of the methodology and modern questions of Classical Studies. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) [German version] B. Middle Ages and Renaissance (CT) Apart from occasional references in the Tuscan chronicles o…

[German version] Etruscan nomen gentile from Volsinii/Orvieto, passed down epigraphically and pictorially over several generations in the Tomba Golini I (4th cent. BC) there. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography J. Heurgon, Un legatus à Volsinii, in: MEFRA 86, 1974, 707-721 S. Steingräber (ed.), Etr. Wandmalerei, 1985, 286.

[German version] Important Etruscan gens, known from the Tomba François in Volci/Vulci, 4th/3rd cent. BC. Several family members are named in inscriptions there, the founder of the tomb, Vel S., is depicted richly robed. An Avele Sataiies, dedicator of an Attic vase of unknown provenance in Heidelberg (end of the 6th cent. BC), and a Fasti S., mentioned by name on an Hellenistic urn from Clusium (modern Chiusi), were probably members of the same gens. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography F. Buranelli (ed.), La Tomba François di Vulci, 1987, 147-161.

[German version] Etruscan gentilicium of aristocratic families, especially in  Volsinii and  Tarquinii (Tomba dell' Orco), possibly synonymous with the Latin Fulginii. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen)

[German version] Etruscan god of war, most often depicted as a youth and identified by name. From the 5th cent. BC represented on Etruscan mirrors, frequently in the context with other deities, especially with Turan/Aphrodite; to a large extent equivalent to Greek Ares and Roman Mars, not identical with Etruscan Maris. L. also occurs on vessels and as free-standing sculpture (monumental: ‘Mars of Todi’), but not on the bronze liver of Piacenza ( Divination VII). Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography I. Krauskopf, s.v. L., Dizionario della civiltà etrusca, 1985, 147f. E. Simon, s.…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Urarṭu Archaic settlement of dwellings 18 km south-west of Samsun near the Pontic coast in north Anatolia. Excavations by Th. Macridy [3] in 1906 yielded the remains of a citadel and, most of all, high quality terracotta roof ornaments in the Greek-Ionian style [1]. The ceramics, too, point to close contacts with Ionia or the Ionian colonies of the Pontic coast [2]. The ancient name of the settlement, which only flourished in the 6th cent. BC, i…

[German version] Etruscan nomen gentile, recorded in inscriptions on sarkophagoi belonging to the Hellenistic tomb of the P. family in Tarquinia, including a lid figure of one Laris P. with an inscribed scroll (Book B.). It contains the curriculum vitae of the dead person, named Laris Pule Creice ('the Greek'),. and names four generations of ancestors. Based on the formula ancn zich nethsrac Laris P. is mostly regarded as the author of a book on Etruscan haruspicy (Haruspices II. C.). Divination Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography R. Herbig, Die jüngeretruskischen Steinsark…

[German version] Etruscan gentilicium of aristocratic families, especially in  Volsinii, known through the figured painted tomb of H. found there.  Etrusci, Etruria Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen)

[German version] (Lat. fibula, from figibula; figere, ‘tack’, ‘pin’), a multi-part clasp used in clothing. Because of the wide range of types and decor, fibulae provide one of the most important guides for the differentiation and chronology of prehistoric and primitive cultures. For the various types and cultures, see  Needle. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen)