Chapter Eight. Stone sculpture in the context of etruscan tombs: A note on its position

Abstract

On the basis of a limited number of archaeological funerary contexts in Etruria of the Orientalizing and Archaic age it is possible to analyse the evidence and try to interpret the sculptural decoration and its meaning within the context. This chapter focuses mainly on the archaeological evidence of South Etruria and Northern Etruria. It provides data with regard to the exact find context for only a small number of Etruscan funerary stone sculptures of the Orientalizing and Archaic age. The main part of the sculptures comes from outside the grave context and therefore remained visible. However, not all cases in which sculpture comes from outside of a tomb that had already been violated have been taken into account. Another category of sculpture is that of the architectural elements in stone. Some animal protomes decorated the corners of funerary monuments, as in the case of the necropoleis of Orvieto and Castro. Keywords: animal protomes; archaeological evidence; archaic age; architectural elements; Etruscan funerary stone sculptures; etruscan tomb; orientalizing age