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[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] 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. Definition Funerary architecture (FA) refers to architectonically designed structures built above the contemporary ground level for the purpose of  burial, as opposed to underground hypogea, which have rooms for the cult of the dead and hero cult. Columbaria can combine both types. Hypogea with a ground level cult room influenced the early Christian martyria above the graves. Regarding further aspects of FA, cf.  Hypogaeum;  Maussolleum;  Necropoleis. Kammerer-Grothaus, Helke (Bremen) II. Egypt and the Near East [German version] A. Egypt The Egyptian buria…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Numerous Ancient Oriental temples, palaces and private residences were painted inside, but due to the a secco-technique, only traces of the paintings still remain. Each colour has its own symbolism. Red, the colour of life and strength, was used as early as the 10th millennium BC for painting the walls and floors of houses (e.g. Ain Mallaha, Israel). Clay or lime plaster served as the base [1; 2]. The oldest and best-preserved figural wall paintings (WP) are found in the houses of…

[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 sanctuaries (Pyrgi [1], Graviscae, Caere), often in cultic association with other deities,…

[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 …

[German version] I. General Town planning is the designing of urban settlements (Town, city) on an organizational basis, with the central and particular functions of the town, e.g. as a port or a political centre, having an effect on its external and internal form. Most towns and cities in the Middle East and Egypt arose in the earliest times (in the Middle East from the 5th millennium onwards) at economically or strategically important points (trade routes, river crossings, anchorages). Towns and c…

(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…

[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…

[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. 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 t…

[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.