Abstract
The paper deals with the iconography and meaning of an Orientalizing amphora in the National Museum at Madrid. The vase has been attributed to the «Pittore delle Gru» by M. Martelli. According to the interpretation given by the author, the painting on it shows an open-air cult place in a grove. Cult places of this kind are mainly known through archaeological fieldwork and literary evidence of later periods, whereas a contemporary representation as on the amphora at Madrid remains highly exceptional. Together with finds of animal bones from San Giovenale and Tarquinia, the depiction on the amphora testifies to cult activities related to wilderness and deer in the 9th to 7th centuries BC in Etruria. We can conclude that there was an indigenous tradition of such cult activities, which at some time (probably from the 6th century onwards) were connected to the Greek goddess Artemis.
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