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[German version] Supreme Etruscan female deity, etymologically linked with Latin Iuno and perhaps originating in Latium. She was assimilated to Greek Hera at an early stage, e.g. she is the wife of Tinia/Zeus. But U. also had Italic elements (Iono Sospita) with special relationships to Hercle/Heracles [1] and Turan [1]/Aphrodite. U. was a patron goddess of some cities, e.g. Veii, from where the cult and statue were removed to Rome in 396 BC by evocatio (Iuno Regina), and of some…

[German version] An important Etruscan vase-painter of the black-figure style ( Vase painting, black-figured) with a workshop at Vulci (ca. 530-500 BC); attribution by Beazley, refined by Spivey. He displays a penchant for ornamental motifs and winged creatures such as sirens, sphinxes and pegasi. The figures are often elongated and drawn with expressive gestures: they are initially under strong Ionian, later Attic influence. Battle scenes are dominant among motifs of mythical imagery. The workshop continued, at a lower level of achievement, until the early 5th. cent. (Spivey). Pr…

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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…

[German version] 1. Central room in the ancient Italian and Roman house with lateral cubicula (sleeping chambers) and rear tablinum (room serving as passage between the atrium and the peristylion) flanked by the   alae which had no door. Early forms of the atrium are reproduced in Etruscan chamber tombs (Cerveteri), the oldest evidence is represented by Etruscan domestic architecture at the end of the 6th cent. BC in Rome (the Palatine) and in the Etruscan Marzabotto. The early Roman atrium served as a reception room for the clientes whom the patron received while sitting on the solium. In the central   impluvium with  cistern the rainwater was collected. Vitruvius (6,3,1ff.) differentiates between five types, the atrium testudinatum and the atrium displuviatum with rainproof roofing, the latter with an opening for daylight; the other atria with funnel-shaped roof construction (  Compluvium ), in the atrium tuscanicum free-hanging, in the atrium tetrastylon and atrium corinthium supported by four…

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(κάτοπτρον/ kátoptron; Lat. speculum). [German version] I. Greek Circular hand mirrors made of bronze with decorated ivory handles were already known in the Mycenaean period. Then mirrors are again evident from the second half of the 8th cent. BC. Greek mirrors can be divided into hand mirrors, standing mirrors and folding mirrors. Silver mirrors from the Mycenaean period have not survived, those from later periods only in exceptional circumstances. Round hand mirrors were developed as a direct imitatio…

(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 Um…

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[German version] I. Middle East and Phoenicia Ivory, i.e. tusks of the boar, the hippopotamus and particularly the (African as well as Asian)  elephant, was extremely popular from the Neolithic period onwards as a material in ‘craftwork’. In the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age, the important workshops of the Syrian-Phoenician coastal towns and also of Egypt developed styles that were recognizably their own. Ivory carvings (IC) were widespread through intensive trade and almost always formed part of the tributes to the Assyrian kings. The repertoire comprised luxury goods of all kinds: jewellery, seals, linings of furniture made of wood/panels, vessels, reliefs and three-dimensional figurative representations. The methods of IC were to a large extent identical to those of wood carving: three-dimensional elaboration, flat engraving and linear cutting, perforated wor…

[German version] I. Definition 'Town' and 'city' in modern parlance have become general t…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia The cult of the dead in Mesopotamia is documented in written as well as archaeological sources. In the written sources, the term kispum is used for the act of supplying the dead with food and drink (monthly or bimonthly). An important part of the ritual was the ‘calling of the name’ [3. 163] ─ kispum thus served to ensure not only the existence but also the identity of the dead in the  Underworld. In the absence of the cult of the dead, the Underworld changed into a dark, inhospitable place. The living also had an inter…

[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,…

[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, fr…

[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; below it is an oval or circular eye. In hairpins and garment pins, on the other hand, the head is decorated in an extremely wide variety of ways - ornamental (disc pins, multi-headed pins, pierced-neck pins, etc.) as well as figurative (heads, hands, animals, people and deities, plants, objects such as dice, vases etc.). Many examples of pins and needles survive since the Neolithic Period. They have been made of wood, bone, ivory, bronze, silver and gold, and rock crystal for the heads. To prevent the breaking of the pin's …

[German version] I. Definiti…

[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), …