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[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…

[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. 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] Term in Roman augural theory for an augural temple (Fest. 157) and for the field of observation marked out by the  augur for collecting auspices (cf. Varro Ling. 7,6-10; Liv. 1,18,6-8); everything outside it is described as tescum. In general the term templum referred primarily to sacred buildings (Temple), but also to other locations “in quibus auspicato et publice res administrarentur et senatus haberi posset” (' in which public affairs were regulated by auspices and a meeting of the Senate could be held', Serv. Aen. 1,466) [1]. Because of the spatial divisio…

[German version] Etruscan book type in the form of a written linen cloth folded according to a fixed pattern. The so-called ‘Mummy-wrapping of Agram’ ( liber linteus Zagrabiensis) is preserved in the original with c. 40 cm height and 340 cm preserved length containing a ritual text in calendric form ( Calendar; no earlier than the 3rd cent. BC). There are also pictorial and sculpted copies of libri lintei in Etruscan graves, on sarcophagi and urns. Divination Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography F. Roncalli (ed.), Scrivere etrusco. Exhibition catalogue Perugia, 1985.

[German version] Etruscan king who, according to  Pausanias (5,12,5), made a votive offering at Olympia as the first foreigner: a throne that was placed in the temple of Zeus. Cf. the throne of the Phrygian king Midas as the oldest votive offering in Delphi made by an outsider. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography M. Cristofani (ed.), Dizionario della civiltà etrusca, 1985.

[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] I. Definition 'Town' and 'city' in modern parlance have become general terms to describe settlements of a particular size, with a particular complement of buildings and administrative and legal structure. Owing, however, to the manifold forms assumed by towns and cities, we lack a specific, all-embracing definition: criteria such as a closed built environment, a highly evolved division of labour, and central administrative and economic functions for the surrounding territory, have p…

[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)

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] 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. 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…

[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; …

Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) In contrast to the reception of Greek and Roman cultures, the reception of Etruscan culture can be considered peripheral and largely indirect. However, during the Renaissance and in the 18th cent. (as a result of a 'misinterpretation', particularly in the field of architecture) it was of some importance, as well as in the modern era.  Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) [German version] B. From the Renaissance to the 17th Century (CT) Even though individual monuments and literary reports of the Etruscans were k…

[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] 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] [1] Etruscan name for the city of Tarquinia Etruscan name for the city of Tarquinia (Tarquinii) from the 5th cent. BC (Early Etruscan: * tarchuna). Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) [German version] [2] Etruscan nomen gentile Etruscan nomen gentile, especially in the 'Tomb of Inscriptions' in Caere/Cerveteri. The names of more than seven generations are inscribed there, of which the two last are in the Latinized form Tarquitius. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography M. Cristofani, La Tomba delle Iscrizioni a Cerveteri, 1965.

[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)

[German version] Young Etruscan goddess or demon mostly represented as winged; on Hellenistic mirrors she appears together with goddesses, heroes or nymphs. Her name appears frequently with epithets that indicate different functions that are still not clarified in detail. It is also not clear how she is distinguished from Etruscan Vanth. Prayon, Friedhelm (Tübingen) Bibliography I. Krauskopf, s.v. L., Dizionario della civiltà etrusca, 1985, 148 R. Lambrechts, s.v. L., LIMC 6, 217-225.