Aminti, F.

Benvenuti, Marco

Cappuccini, Luca

Iozzo, M.

Lazzarini, L.

English

Florence Research

141Provenancing of a marble artefact from the Etruscan town of Chiusi (Siena, Italy): a contribution to the knowledge of trade exchanges between Etruria and the Central Aegean in the Archaic periodL. CAPPUCCINI1, F. AMINTI1, M. BENVENUTI2, L. LAZZARINI3, M. IOZZO4AbstractA fragment of marble sculpture recently discovered in the VII-V cent.BC PT-1A archaeological Unit at Chiusi (Tuscany) has been analyzed in de-tail from a morphological, minero-petrographical and compositional (C-Oisotope composition) standpoint. Archaeometric results indicate a Naxianprovenance, probably from the Apollonas quarry. Historical documents in-dicate that quarry exploitation ceased at the beginning of V century BC, thusproviding a lower chronological limit to the artifact’s age. This, coupled witha stylistic analysis of the fragment, allow us to surmise that the original sculp-ture was a Greek kore. The occurrence of this sculpture at Chiusi may haverelevant implications in the comprehension of trade and political relationshi-ps between inner Etruria and the Aegean world in the Archaic period.The archaeological backgroundArchaeological excavations of Etruscan elite tombs demonstrate that,in the course of the VII cent. BC, luxury goods from Eastern Mediterra-1 Dip. to Scienze Antichità “G. Pasquali” (Univ. Firenze) – Piazza Brunelleschi, 3-4,50121 Firenze (Italy), e-mail: nibbio.luca@libero.it2 Dip. to Scienze della Terra (Univ. Firenze) – Via G. La Pira, 4, 50121 Firenze (Italy)3 Laboratorio di Analisi dei Materiali Antichi, Univ. I.U.A.V di Venezia, San Polo,2468/B, 30125 Venezia (Italy)4 Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, Via della Pergola, 65, 50121Firenze (Italy)142nean were actively imported into Etruria. These trade-exchanges initiallyinterested the Etruscan towns close to the Tyrrhenian coast (Vulci, Cerve-teri, Tarquinia, Vetulonia, etc.) and then progressively extended to innerEtruria (Chiusi, Orvieto) some tens of years later and up to the entire VIcent. BC. Starting from the beginning of the VI cent. BC, however, Athensreplaced Corynth and the Eubea as the main Greek trade partner of theEtruscan towns.The study of trade import in inner Etruria has recently received newpulses from the analysis of inhabited areas of main Etruscan towns. In par-ticular, archaeological researches at Chiusi (Fig. 1) uncovered several peri-pheral settlements (called “surficial topographic units”) at a short distancefrom its present-day town centre. One of these settlements (PT1-A) yiel-ded several fragments of Attic black figure pottery dating to the secondquarter of VI cent. BC 1, i.e., the earliest ever found in the Etruscan settle-ments of Chiusi.The PT1-A UnitThe PT1-A unit is located about 1 km west of Chiusi (Fig. 2). It occurson a flat topographic surface which played a major role for the develop-ment of archaic Chiusi as revealed by recent excavations in the nearby Pet-riolo area (Gastaldi 2000; Fig. 2). Archeological objects dating from LateBronze Age up to the beginning of V cent. BC have been found within thisUnit. These include, in addition to the aforementioned early-VI cent. BCAttic pottery, local “impasto” pottery (spools and spindles), bricks and1 The study of pottery fragments has revealed the presence of at least three dinoi andthree black figure lekanides which can be dated between ca. 580 and 560 BC (Iozzo,2004). Fig. 1 – Sites of central northern Italy fromwhich Greek marble artefacts of the Archaicperiod have been reported.143“white on red”-style architectural terracottas, as well as bucchero and Etr-usco-Corinthian pottery.Recently, a white marble fragment, about 13 cm. long and up to 6 cmthick, was found (Fig. 3). Although heavily damaged, it is still possible toobserve two fine pleats on the object’s convex side. An Italian provenancefor the manufact seemed immediately unlikely. In particular, the coarsegrain size of the marble clearly excluded Carrara as a possible marble sour-ce. In addition, the two pleats and the curved surface of the fragment re-sembled more closely a portion of a Greek kore. The stratigraphic associa-tion of this fragment with archaeological items dating from the beginningFig. 2 – The PT1-A Unit (Chiusi).Fig. 3 – The marble fragment discove-red in the PT1-A Unit (Chiusi).144of V cent. BC (or earlier) could indicate trade exchanges in an early (ar-chaic) period between Greece and inner Etruria. Therefore, a more precisedetermination of the source area for the marble became a key issue in thearchaeological project’s framework.The archaeometric analysesA multi-tracer approach has been widely used to establish the prove-nance areas of ancient marbles (cf. Attanasio 2003; Gorgoni et al., 2002,with references). In the last twenty years, in particular, several provenancestudies took advantage of combined petrographic and stable isotope (Cand O) analyses (cf. Herz, 1992; Moens et al., 1988, 1992; Gorgoni et al.,2002). The latter authors provided a refined petrographic-(C-O) isotopicdatabase for ancient marbles, which we used as a reference for the presentarchaeometric study.A thin section from the fractured portion of the marble piece was obtai-ned and analyzed for mineralogical and textural features. Calcite is the ab-solutely dominant mineral phase. The marble fabric is typically heterobla-stic, with coarse grained crystals of calcite (MGS up to 4.5 mm; Fig. 4)commonly embedded within a fine-grained carbonate matrix. Crystalboundaries are typically curved and/or embayed; polysynthetic twins ofcalcite are often bent and deformed. All these features point to a medium-high metamorphic grade (cf. Lazzarini, 1980; Moens et al., 1988). The largeMGS values, and the overall textural and mineralogical features seem to in-dicate a provenance from the Aegean Sea, very likely from the island ofFig. 4 – Photomicrograph (Nicols//) of the marble thin section, showing an elongated cal-cite crystal about 4,5 mm long. Many calcite crystals show curved/embayed boundariesand partially deformed twins.145Naxos; Thasos, Paros and Prokonnesos (Marmara) may be alternativesource areas (cf. Gorgoni et al., 2002).Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis were carried out on our sample.The isotopic signature of the marble fragment (δ18OPDB = –5.70±0.1 permil; δ13CPDB = +1.32±0.05 per mil) has been compared with compositio-nal fields obtained by Gorgoni et al. (2002) for medium- to coarse-grainedmarbles, both from ancient artifacts and quarries (Fig. 5). The analyticalpoint plots in the Naxos island isotopic field, close to (but significantly se-parated from) Aphrodisias, Marmara and Paros fields.Combined petrographic and isotopic results are in agreement with aprovenance of the Chiusi marble fragment from Naxos. This well-knownCycladic island hosts a number of marble quarries which were exploited inthe antiquity, among which Apollonas (on the northern coast) and Melanes(in the centre of the island) were of particular relevance in the archaic andclassical periods. The petrographic features of our marble fragment (i.e.,the curved/embayed grain boundaries, the mosaic texture with interstitialfine-grained plagues, etc.) appear to resemble more closely the marble sam-ples coming from Apollonas rather than from Melanes (or Flerià) quarries,which show, for instance, higher degrees of cataclastic deformation andlarger grain size.Fig. 5 – Plot of C-O isotope composition of the Chiusi marble fragment in the Gorgoniet al.’s (2002) reference diagram.146Discussion of resultsThe supposed provenance from Naxos of the analyzed marble frag-ment may provide important clues to the determination of sculpture’schronology and type. Archaeological data suggest that exploitation of themarble quarries at Naxos ceased abruptly around 499 B.C., presumably be-cause of the invasion of the island by the Persian troops (Kokkorou-Alewras, 1992; 1995, p. 39). Consequently, the marble fragment found atChiusi should belong to a sculpture dating earlier than this date, in agree-ment with archaeological findings at the PT-1A Unit dating up to the be-ginning of V century BC. The original sculpture (from which the fragmenthas been detached) could then be a kore: the two ribbons on relief couldrepresent the pleats of the dress which, taking into account the surfaceconvexity, should have been originally almost horizontal. On the backside,a few korai have pleats on relief formed by the dress kept at distance fromthe body by the right hand: our fragment could come from the right thigh-groin junction of a kore of this kind 2. Of particular interest the comparisonwith the kore in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, dated to the se-cond half of VI cent. BC: at the right thigh-groin junction the dress’ pleatsshow almost exactly the same distance as in our fragment (Fig. 6).2 The drapery style compares well with that shown by several korai dating between530 and 550 BC (cf. Richter, 1968), namely korai n. 669 (parian marble), n. 615 and n. 681(“islands’ marble”) and the New York Metropolitan Museum’s kore (parian marble).Fig. 6 – The New York Metropolitan Museum’skore (backside). The Chiusi fragment could deri-ve from the thin-groin junction of a sculpture ofthis kind.147Conclusive remarksBased on archaeometric analyses, we suggest a Naxian provenance forthe marble fragment found at Chiusi. Taking into account historical docu-mentation, this provides a constraint to the artifact’s age (probably no laterthan the beginning of V cent. BC) and, in conjunction with morphologicalanalyses, allows us to surmise that it belongs to a Greek kore.This determination may provide some contribution to the question ofwhy and how works of art of this kind reached Etruria in the archaic peri-od. A number of marble sculptures (dating at the VI century BC) havebeen unearthed by archaeological excavations in several areas of Centraland Northern Italy. One may recall the head of a kouros found at Marzabot-to, a goddess from Orvieto (Maggiani, 1999; Corso, 2000) dating to 500BC, and the two kouroi (the so-called “Milani kouroi”) from the Osimo area,which all are presently interpreted as imported sculptures (cf. Landolfi andMarinis, 2001). The import of marble artifacts by the Etruscans is definitelybetter documented in the V century BC, especially at Spina (Schilardi,2000), where recent archaeological studies (Lazzarini and Turi, unpub-lished data) revealed the exclusive use of Parian marble. As to CentralEtruria, a few sculptures were found in archaeological sites along the mid-dle and lower Arno river valley. Among the many, one can recall theLorenzini head from Volterra (made in “local” marble according to Cristo-fani, 1979), and several kinds of funerary monuments like the club-shapedcippi of the Pisan area. These findings may be correlated with the birth anddevelopment of the Pisa emporium during the VI century BC, whichopened the way to the arrival in Etruria of specialized skilled workers fromabroad (for more details see Maggiani, 1999, pp. 233-249, with references).A few marble sculptures of clear Greek-Oriental style appear in this periodin some areas of inner Etruria as well. However, only a small number ofthem (including the Chiusi fragment and the club-shaped marble cippusfound at Orvieto: cf. Maggiani, 1999) were obtained from Naxian marbles.The presence in inner Etruria of works of art in Greek marble may be ex-plained either by the migration of specialized skilled workers through themiddle Arno valley or by trade exchanges along the Tiber, Paglia andChiana valleys.Moreover, the occurrence of a kore-like sculpture at Chiusi is a furtherevidence of the strong relationships existing between this town and Orvie-to since the second half of VI cent. BC. The Chiusi fragment resemble veryclosely (as to marble provenance and age) the “Venus” from Cannicella atOrvieto and the preserved drapery of one kore found at Orvieto (cf. Mag-giani, 1999). The strong political connections between the two Etruscantowns may have promoted the birth of one kind of cultural koiné, to whichbelonged the sculptors of the above marble artifacts. These workers’ acti-vity may have exerted a strong influence over the subsequent statuary in“pietra fetida” and travertine, mainly devoted to funerary purposes (Mag-giani, 1999).Finally, the artistic relevance of the marble fragment is a further eviden-ce that the PT-1A Unit was inhabited by an elité social class, possibly sincethe end of VII cent. BC. To the present state of the research, however, itis not yet clear whether the site was a cultual area or rather an elite, privateedifice. As for the Venus from Cannicella at Orvieto, the Chiusi kore-likeartefact can be, in fact, interpreted either as a gift (made by specialized skil-led workers) or as a cultual (ex-voto?) statue.AcknowledgementsIsotopic analyses were carried out at the Laboratory for chemical andisotopic analyses of CNR – Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse (Pisa,Italy). The paper benefited from fruitful discussions with Luigi Donati. Wewish to thank Claudio D’Amico for his valuable review of an early versionof the manuscript. The research was partly financed by MIUR (60% grantsto MB).ReferencesAttanasio D., de Marinis G., Pallecchi P., Platania R., Rocchi P., 2003, AnEpr and isotopic study of the marbles of the Trajan’s Arch at Ancona: an exampleof alleged Hymettian provenance, Archaeometry, vol. 45, Issue 4, pp. 553-568.Cristofani M., 1979, La testa “Lorenzini” e la scultura tardoantica in Etruria Set-tentrionale, in Studi Etruschi, XLVII, pp. 85-96, tav. XXIII, figg. a-b.Corso A., 2000, A goddess of Cycladic marble from Etruria, in “Paria Lythos”,D.U. Schilardi and D. 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Provenancing of a marble artefact from the Etruscan town of Chiusi (Siena, Italy): a contribution to the knowledge of trade exchanges between Etruria and the Central Aegean in the Archaic period

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Provenancing of a marble artefact from the Etruscan town of Chiusi (Siena, Italy): a contribution to the knowledge of trade exchanges between Etruria and the Central Aegean in the Archaic period

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