Walters, Henry Beauchamp: Catalogue of the bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (London, 1899)

xlvi

CATALOGUE OF BRONZES.

daily and rural life, such as ploughing, but it is quite impossible to determine
the use to which these objects were put. The duck which occurs so frequently
in this series of objects (Nos. 345-358) is characteristic not only of early Italian,
but of early Greek bronze work.* * * § It occurs as a decorative motive on the
fibulae from Cameiros (No. 150), and again on vases of the Geometrical style ; as
also on numerous objects from thc Hallstatt civilisation. It is noteworthy that
these bronzes are almost entirely free from Oriental fantasies or infiuence of any
kind, which indeed can hardly be traced in Italy before the sixth century B.C. ;
but there are parallels in the early art of Crete, and the frequent appearance of
the ape seems to suggest a connection (through Crete) vvith the north coast of
Africa.f A jar containing about fourteen thousand objects of similar character
from a bronze-founder’s hoard was found at Bologna, and h'as been shown to
date from the end of the Bronze Age in Italy, about the ninth century B.C.
Similar extensive finds have been recently made at Vetulonia (Notizie degli
Scavi, 1887, p. 471 ff, and Falchi, Vehtlcnia, 1891). An inclusive date for
these objects may be given as 800-500 B.C.

We have now arrived at the stage of the earliest Etruscan
Oriental and civilisation, which is marked by the contents of the
Hellenie Polledrara tomb at Vulci. Such remains from Etruscan

influences in territorv as can be attributed to an earlier date than this

Etruria. (600 B.C.) have nothing specially Etruscan about them, and in
fact prcsent the same features as objects found elsewhere in
Italy. The traditions of the people themselves indeed predicate for them a
much remoter origin. According to their own beliefs, they settled in Italy about
the eleventh century B.C., and there is no doubt that the confederation of the
twelve cities was formed about the tenth century. The tradition of an
immigration from Lydia has. very strong support,f and may well be founded on
fact. The early tombs for instance closely resemble in style those of Asia
Minor, with their fa^ades and vaulted roofs and the tumuli erected over them.
These tombs in Italy are known as a fossa, or “ trench-tombs,” as opposed to
the “well-tombs ” of the Villanova period.

As already indicated, it is in the Polledrara objects that we find the first
traces of. Oriental influence.§ Among them are ostrich-eggs, which can only
have been brought from Africa by way of Egypt, and thence either by
Phoenicians or by Greeks from Naucratis. This tomb also contained a
porcelain scarab with a cartouche of Psammetichos I. (B.C. 656-611), and five
porcelain aryballi with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Similar porcelain vases have
been found at Cameiros in RhodesJ and are supposed to belong to the seventh

* Journ. HelU Stud. xiii. p. 206.

f See Bull. dipaletnol. Ital. xxiv. (1898), p. 161, and Reinach, Sculpt. eu Europe, pp. 77-128.

J Hdt. i 94. ; Verg. Aen. viii. 479 ; Hor. Sat. i. 6, I ff.

§ The Pollcdrara tomb, otherwise known as the Grotta. d’lside, was found on the estate of that name
at Vulci in 1S39. Most of the contents are now in the British Museum ; see above, p. xv. Lord
Northampton once possessed a Corinthian vase from this tomb.

|| First Vase Room, A 1184, 118S-1191, etc.