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Notes on some distinctive types of bronzes from Populonia, Etruria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, London University
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Extract

The weapons from Populonia and Vetulonia have been the subject of an admirable study by Signora Tallochini and I am most grateful for her help when I was working in the Archæological Museum at Florence, where I was afforded every facility for studying the bronzes from these sites.

Tomb 7 at Piano delle Granate, Populonia, an inhumation ‘fossa’ grave contained the bronze dagger (fig. 1, no. 1), a fibula with slightly thickened round bow, a bronze ring, fragments of bronze nails and bronze hooks, and fragmentary remains of the bows and pins of fibulas. There was no pottery. The description and contents of the tomb are published in Notizie degli Scavi, 1917, p.76 and also in A. Minto, Populonia: la Necropoli arcaica, Florence, 1922, p. 64. This tomb was one of a group of ‘fossa graves’ excavated in 1915 and situated close to the seashore on the flat area known as Piano delle Granate. When I visited Populonia in 1953 it was still possible to locate the tholos tombs and the fossa graves, which, with many cremation burials, were found all over this area, in spite of the thickness of the ‘macchia’ often entirely covering the tombs. An examination of the relative position of the chamber tombs and fossa graves certainly confirmed Minto's conclusion based on a study of the contents of the three different kinds of burials, that the cremation, fossa and some of the earliest type of chamber tombs must all have been used contemporaneously. This group of tombs when excavated also yielded the series of stilted fibulas and the fibula ‘a serpegiante’ (fig. 2).

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 22 , March 1957 , pp. 126 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1957

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References

page 126 note 1 Tallochini, A., ‘Le Armi di Vetulonia e di Populonia’ in Studi Etruschi XVI, 1942Google Scholar.

page 127 note 1 For a list of Italian flange hiked swords see Bulletino Paletnologia Italiana, 1926, pp. 64 ff.Google Scholar, where a list of Italian swords of all types is given. This is continued in B.P.I. N.S. 5–6, 1941–1942, p. 197Google Scholar. For illustrations see Naue, Vorrömischen Schwerter, pl. VII. Peake, The Bronze Age and the Celtic World, pl. XIII. Also Calzoni, , Il Museo Preistorico dell' Italia Centrale in Perugia, p. 51Google Scholar. Two examples from Cetona. There are many others not included in the above lists mostly in private collections or unpublished in local museums. Mr. John Cowen has identified and listed fifty examples, but of these less than half have adequate information as to provenance and details of finding.

page 127 note 2 See p. 135.

page 127 note 3 See note 6, p. 128.

page 127 note 4 See N.Sc. 1900, p. 464, fig. 21, and Säflund, , ‘Punta del Tonno’, in Dragma Martino Nilsson dedication (Lund. 1939) pp. 458 ff.Google Scholar

page 127 note 5 Rellini, , ‘La Caverna di Latronico’ in Monumenti Antichi XXIV, 1917Google Scholar.

page 128 note 1 Evans, A. J., ‘Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos,’ Archæologia, LIX, 2Google Scholar. Pl. XCI and fig. 90, dagger and fig. 71, knife. For Terramara daggers cf. Säflund, G., Le Terramare (Acta Inst. Sued. Rom. no. 7, 1939)Google Scholar.

page 128 note 2 For Timmari, see Quagliati, in Mon. Ant. XVIGoogle Scholar, and MacIver, , Villanovans and Early Etruscans, p. 94Google Scholar and pl. 19.

page 128 note 3 Orsi, , in Mon. Ant. IXGoogle Scholar, pl. VII, 17 and Peet, Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy, fig. 257.

page 128 note 4 Brea, L. Bernabô, La Sicilia prehistórica y sus relaciones con Orientey con la Península Ibérica. Madrid, 1954Google Scholar, pl. XIV.

page 128 note 5 Cf. Säflund, op. cit., p. 477, Abb. 26 with Brea, , ‘Civiltá Preistoriche delle isole eolie’ in Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina, III, 1952Google Scholar, pl. V, 1 and other examples from Lipari.

page 128 note 6 Baumgartel, E., ‘The Cave of Manaccora, Monte Gargano’, Part II in Papers of the British School at Rome XXI, (N.S. VIII) 1953Google Scholar.

page 128 note 7 See the Italian examples in my ‘Bronzed lugged axe or adze-blades from Asia’, Iraq, XV, 1, 1953, fig. 3. p. 79Google Scholar.

page 130 note 1 For a list of the occurrences of this specifically Sicilian development of the fibula ‘a gomito’ see Sundwall, , Die älteren Italischen Fibeln, Berlin 1943, abb. 197, p. 138Google Scholar, and abb. 224–7, p. 148. Also Brea, op. cit., 1954, fig. 24, 5, 6 and 8, for stages 1–3.

page 130 note 2 See Loud, , Megiddo IIGoogle Scholar, pl. 223, 78. Albright in AASOR, 21–22, 1943, p. 2Google Scholar, n. 1, considers that Level VA is identical with IVB and dates Levels VA–IVB 950–915 B.C. See also Albright in A.J.A., 1940, pp. 546–550Google Scholar and Crowfoot, in PEQ., 1940, pp. 132–47Google Scholar, where a date of c. 960–870 B.C. is suggested.

page 130 note 3 Dr Brea in a letter to me dated June 1955, considers that Ausonian II begins before Cassibile and possibly as early as mid-Pantalica I period, i.e., c. 1150 B.C. and continues to c. 800 B.C.

page 130 note 4 Catalogue of the Cesnola collection, no. 4741, p. 485 and also in A.A.A., III, 1910, pp. 138–44Google Scholar.

page 130 note 5 There are four examples in the Museum at Palermo of unknown provenance and in the Modica hoard, B.P.I. XXVI, 1900, p. 174Google Scholar, pl. 12, 2, three examples here, as at Monte Dessueri, associated with Sicilian shaft-hole axes. For a detailed discussion of this type in Spain and Western Europe see Hawkes, C. F. C. in Ampurias, 14, 1952, pp. 81 ffGoogle Scholar. For examples of stage I with slightly curved pin see also the Tre Canale hoard, Catania, , B.P.I., 1888, 172Google Scholar, pl. 14, nos. 2, 3, 5.

page 130 note 6 Kübler and Kraiker. Kerameikos, Die Nekropolen des 12 bis 10 Jahrhunderts, Taf. 27, 28 and abb. 2.

page 131 note 1 Vetulonia, Falchi, Vetulonia, Tav. 3, 22, and another example, N.Sc. 1928, p. 52, fig. 5, ‘Circolo’ tomb. Massa Maritima, Levi, D., ‘Necropoli arcaica di lago dell' Acessa’ in Mon. Ant. XXXVGoogle Scholar. Tav. XI, 1, with discussion of the distribution on p. 86 f.

page 131 note 2 The Populonia example from Piano delle Granate, Fossa tomb 8 is published in N.Sc. 1917, p. 77, fig. 8, and Minto, , Populonia, La Necropoli Arcaica, Florence, 1922, p. 64Google Scholar, and fig. 9, 13. It was found with a small bronze triangular knife blade, a bronze bell and a fibula with slightly thickened round bow. There was no pottery. Terni, N.Sc. 1914, p. 37, fig. 30. Fossa grave. Vetulonia, N.Sc. 1885, p. 142, pl. 9, 30, and Åberg, , Bronzezeitliche und Früheisenzeitliche Chronologie, IGoogle Scholar, abb. 105. From a pozzo grave with house urn.

page 132 note 1 See note 1, p. 127 and Sprockhoff, , Die Germanischen Griffzungenschwerter, Berlin, 1931CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cowen, J. D., ‘Bronze swords of Northern Europe’ in P.P.S., 1952, p. 129Google Scholar, and ‘The earliest Bronze Swords in Britain and their Origins on the Continent of Europe,’ P.P.S., 1951, p. 195Google Scholar.

page 132 note 2 Bonnet, , Die Waffen der Völker des alten Orients, Leipzig, 1926Google Scholar, Schaeffer, , Enkomi-Alasia, Paris, 1952Google Scholar, and Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. in Iraq, VIII, 1946Google Scholar, ‘Daggers and Swords in Western Asia’.

page 132 note 3 See footnote 1, p. 127.

page 132 note 4 Childe, , Prehistoric Migrations in Europe, Oslo, 1950, p. 179Google Scholar, and in P.P.S., 1948, p. 185Google Scholar.

page 132 note 5 Hawkes, C. F. C. in P.P.S., 1948, p. 216Google Scholar and in Atti del Congresso di Preistoria e Protostoria Mediterranea. Florence, 1950, p. 262Google Scholar. Professor Hawkes tells me he now considers the dates in this table too low and would start Reinecke Hallstatt A c. 1150 B.C.

page 132 note 6 The term leaf-shaped is avoided here as so many cut and thrust swords with tongue-grips in Europe and the Near East do not have leaf-shaped blades. See Gordon, D. H., ‘Swords, Rapiers and Horse-riders’ in Antiquity, 1953, pp. 67–78Google Scholar.

page 132 note 7 For the Ægean area see Lorimer, H. L., Homer and the Monuments, pp. 264 ff.Google Scholar, and Schaeffer, op. cit., pp. 337 ff. K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, op. cit., p. 55. Type 49.

page 132 note 8 Montelius, La Civilization primitive en Italie, pl. 142, 10.

page 133 note 1 Childe, op. cit., fig. 139, Schaeffer, in Syria, X, 4, 1929Google Scholar, pl. LX, 3, and Cuneiform Texts of Ras Shamra-Ugarit (Schweich Lectures, 1936), p. 35, pl. XXII, fig. 2. Another sword inscribed with the name of Mineptah was excavated at Ras Shamra in 1953, but the hilt of this is not flanged. It has a long narrow tang similar to the Egyptian sword from El Kantara, Bonnet, op. cit. abb. 28, 5. See Schaeffer, in Antiquity, 1955, p. 226Google Scholar.

page 133 note 2 Peake, op. cit., pl. XIII, 9. Montelius, op. cit. pl. 149, 9. N.Sc., 1892, p. 485, Peet, , Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy, p. 420Google Scholar.

page 133 note 3 See Naue, op. cit., pl. VII, 6, and Peake, op. cit., pl. XIII, 12.

page 133 note 4 Eph. Arch., 1904, p. 46Google Scholar, fig. 11, and Hall, , Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age, p. 256Google Scholar, fig. 332. See also Milojčič, Vladimir, ‘Einige “Mitteieuropaische” Fremdlinge auf Kreta’ in Jahrbuch des Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, 1955, Festschrift für Ernst Sprockoff, p. 153Google Scholar and abb. 3.

page 133 note 5 Watzinger, , Tell el Mutesellim IIGoogle Scholar, fig. 45, and H. L. Lorimer, Homer and the Monuments, pl. XIX, 2.

page 133 note 6 The bronze swords from the Hama cremation graves should be added to my list. One of them P. J. Riis, Hama, Les Cimitières à Crémation, fig. 136, b, belongs to the same type as the Enkomi Tomb 47 sword and Pigorini 102149.

page 134 note 1 Montelius, op. cit., pl. 142, 1–4, 5a and b.

page 135 note 1 In the hoard from Poggio Berni, near Forli, however, discussed by Vogt, Emil, ‘Der Beginn der Hallstattzeit in der Schweiz’, in Vierzigstes Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte, 1949/1950Google Scholar and published in B.P.I., 1939, p. 52Google Scholar, fig. 1, fragments of two cut-and-thrust swords, a bow fibula with two beads and knives of the same type as the Fucino recurved knives mentioned above were found together in the same hoard. This association suggests that the Fucino group could also have been a single group. I owe this reference to Mr. John Cowen.

page 135 note 2 Montelius, op. cit., pl. 142, 6. This drawing is not accurate and the hilt is too wide.

page 135 note 3 Peake, op. cit., pl. XIII, 2.

page 135 note 4 B.P.I. XLVIII, Tav. III.

page 135 note 5 For the relationship of Tomb 18 to Building 18 see Schaeffer, Enkomi-Alasia, and a further discussion on this subject by du Plat Taylor, J., P.E.Q., 1956: 1Google Scholar.

page 135 note 6 B.P.I., XXVI, 1900Google Scholar, Tav. XII.

page 137 note 1 See K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, op. cit., 1946, pp. 38 ff.

page 138 note 1 N.Sc. 1934, fig. 55, p. 399. After carefully examining this fibula in Florence I suggest it might possibly belong to Sundwall, op. cit., p. 147, abb. 218 class. See also Minto, , Populonia, 1943Google Scholar, fig. 14, 5. Sundwall lists this fibula as belonging to another variant of the same class, see abb. 224, the Sicilian form with long catch plate, but the catch plate is not shown in the published photograph nor is it visible in the case in the Museum at Florence.

page 138 note 2 See Curtis, , Memoires of American Academy in Rome, III, note 3, p. 37Google Scholar, pl. 24.

page 138 note 3 In P.P.S., 1952, p. 121Google Scholar. ‘A Two-looped Socketed Axe of the Seventh Century B.C.’

page 138 note 4 ‘Urartian Bronzes in Etruscan tombs’, Iraq, XVIII, 2, 1956Google Scholar.

page 138 note 5 At Idalion. Swedish Cyprus expedition, II, pl. CLXXI, 208. Period 3 of that site, c. 11th century B.C. An iron example.

page 138 note 6 Wolf, , Die Bewaffnung des Altägyptischen Heeres, Leipzig, 1925, p. 75Google Scholar, abb. 47.

page 140 note 1 de Morgan, H., Recherches au Talyche Person, in Delegation en Perse Mémoires VIIIGoogle Scholar, fig. 410. Compare also bronze pendants and bells from Redkin Lager and the Talish, Schaeffer, Stratigraphie comparée et Chronologie de l'Asie Occidentale, figs. 298 and 217 with Populonia fossa graves, Minto, , Populonia, 1943Google Scholar, Tav. XVI, 2, and the serpentine fibula from the Manaccora cave, Baumgartel: op. cit., pl. XI, 1, with Schaeffer, op. cit., fig. 301, 16, also beads of twisted bronze wire are common at Populonia and the Talish. M.D.P., VIII, fig. 421.

page 140 note 2 Montelius, op. cit., pl. 169, figs. 12 and 22. B.P.I. X, 1884, pp. 83Google Scholar and 39. B.P.I. IX, 1883, p. 24Google Scholar. For Talish daggers of this type see de Morgan, J., La Prehistoire Orientale, IIIGoogle Scholar, fig. 197, and Mission Scientifique en Perse, figs. 62, 1 and 56, 8.

page 140 note 3 Przeworski, Die Metallindustrie Anatoliens, Taf. XVIII, 6. Length 47·7 cm.

page 140 note 4 From Castello delle Preci, Norcia. Montelius, op. cit. pl. 252, 12.

page 140 note 5 Schaeffer, Stratigraphie, fig. 301.

page 140 note 6 Minto, , Populonia, Florence, 1943, p. 71Google Scholar, and in N.Sc., 1923, p. 159, and Populonia, La Necropoli arcaica, Florence 1922, p. 162 ff.Google Scholar

page 140 note 7 Pallottino, , Nuovi orientamenti sulla cronologia dell' Etruria protostorica in Rendiconti della Pont. Accademia Romana di Archceologia, XXII, 1946–1947, p. 40Google Scholar and Leopold, in B.P.I., 1939, p. 149Google Scholar, fig. 2, 2.

page 141 note 1 It is possible that the inward curve on the blade of the Populonia lanceolate spearheads, see Tallochini, op. cit., Tav. 1, 2b (the early form at Populonia) is due to sharpening and that the blade was originally cast in the same form as the Megiddo and Coppa Nevigata examples. For Coppa della Nevigata see Mosso, in Mon. Ant. XIX, 1908Google Scholar. Tav. X. Two of the sherds of painted pottery excavated by Mosso and now in the Pigorini Museum also suggest Cypriote connections. They can be compared with the very late Mycensean IIIc pottery from Enkomi published by Schaeffer and must be 11th century in date. Peet, , in Liverpool Annals of Archaeology III, 1910, p. 124Google Scholar, fig. 5, a and b.

page 141 note 2 Guy and Shipton, Megiddo Tombs, fig. 170 and fig. 174. See also Henschel-Simon, E., ‘Toggle-pins in the Palestine Archaeological Museum’, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, VI, p. 169Google Scholar. For an example from Aegina, see Welter, G. in Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, 1938, p. 537Google Scholar, Abb. 48.

page 141 note 3 J.H.S., XIV, 1894, p. 120Google Scholar, fig. 14. Furtwangler, , Antike Gemmen III, p. 37–38Google Scholar, fig. 16. Cf. Handle of bronze bowl in Cesnola collection, Myres, , Catalogue of the Cesnola Collection, 479Google Scholar, no. 4703.

page 141 note 4 These blades deserve a detailed study both in Italy and the Near East. See Petrie, Tools and Weapons, pl. XXVI, 130–41, and Bonnet, , Die Waffen der Völker des alten Orients, abb. 44, p. 95Google Scholar.

page 141 note 5 Pallottino, M., The Etruscans, Pelican Books, 1955, p. 70Google Scholar.

page 141 note 6 Maetzke, Guglielmo in Studi Etruschi, XXI, 1950, 1, p. 297Google Scholar.

page 141 note 7 Rittatore, F., in Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, VI, 1951, pp. 167 ff.Google Scholar

page 142 note 1 Paton, , ‘Excavations in Caria’ J. of Hellenic Studies, VIIIGoogle Scholar, Paton, and Myres, , ‘Karian sites and inscriptions’, J.H.S., XVI, 1 & 2Google Scholar, Mauri, A., ‘Viaggio di esplorazione in Caria’, Annuario della Regia Scuola Archeologica di Atene, IV–VGoogle Scholar, Bean, G. E. and Cook, J. M., ‘The Halicarnassus Peninsula’, Annual of the British School of Athens, No. 50, 1956Google Scholar.

page 142 note 2 Pallottino, op. cit., 1946–7, p. 37.

page 142 note 3 For the Asiatic evidence see my ‘Urartian Bronzes in Etruscan tombs’, Iraq, XVIII, 2, 1956Google Scholar.