Divinità e offerenti in Mantova etrusca (original) (raw)
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Novità epigrafiche da Mantova etrusca
Archaeological discoveries in the city of Mantua over recent years have helped identify an area of approximately four hectares that corresponds with the spot occupied by the earliest buildings of the original Etruscan settlement. Within this area various elements have been identified that mark it out as a sacred area dating back as far as the archaic period. Presumably the floors of the buildings would have been of beaten earth and the walls made of degradable materials such as timber and mud. Some of the buildings would have been roofed with terracotta tiles. There is a notably high number, about fifty, of engraved inscriptions on the pottery left as votive offerings. Three of these, dating back to the archaic period, are dedications to Vei and Zipni, providing evidence of the existence of a place of worship dedicated to female divinities at that time. Paleographic and onomastic data highlights a Celtic presence in the area as far back as the late archaic period.
L'isola di Mantova e gli Etruschi
Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana 2016, 2018
2 la presenza veneta è testimoniata nel territorio dell'odierna provincia di Mantova a partire dal Bronzo Finale, con le principali attestazioni da abitati di casalmoro, sacca di goito, sermide, castellaro lagusello e dalla necropoli a incinerazione di Fontanella Mantovana di casalromano, a tal proposito si veda r. DE Marinis, Il confine occidentale del mondo protoveneto/paleoveneto dal Bronzo Finale alle invasioni galliche del 388 a.
Nuove riflessioni su sacrifici umani e omicidi religiosi nel mondo etrusco
Scienze dell'Antichità 23.3, 2017
This paper aims to examine the testimonies (literary, iconographical, archaeological) that are usually considered in order to assert the historicity of human sacrifice in the Etruscan culture. As a result of the review, it does not seem plausible to recognise with enough certainty the practice. The author tries then to focus his attention to the real core of the issue: the definition of what we should intend for “human sacrifice”. If we accept that the sacrifice is a ritual action, it should be clearly recognisable and characterised by repetition. Those characteristics seem to be absent in the supposed cases of human sacrifice in the Etruscan documentation. Finally, a new proposal is put forward to distinguish two different categories: the one of the human sacrifice (that does not seem to be performed by the Etruscans) and the one that could be defined as “religious killing”, that may instead have occurred occasionally.
The exhibition Hinthial. The Shadow of San Gimignano. The Offerer and the Etruscan and Roman Ritual Finds presents to the public for the very first time an outstanding discovery unearthed on the heights of Torraccia di Chiusi in the territory of San Gimignano, a short distance from the Fosci stream, in the foothills descending from San Gimignano towards the Valley of the Elsa River. The archaeological discovery was made in the course of renovation work on a private building in 2010. Workmen engaged in digging stumbled upon a discovery that can only be described astonishing. A bronze statue lay buried in a supine position at the bottom of the trench. Halting all work, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Siena, Grosseto e Arezzo embarked on a series of investigations in 2011, followed by an archaeological excavation that brought to light an extraordinary open-air Etruscan sacred area, which had been in use for at least 500 years, from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD. The statue had been buried close to a squared stone monolith, which must have served as an altar, and on which ritual sacrifices in the form of religious offerings were made to the local gods. The block of stone showed clear signs of having been exposed to fire. The archaeologists also found coins, potsherds, whole unguent pots and fragments of brick in the vicinity. The sacred area was situated close to a spring, so it may have been associated with the worship of a god linked to water and earth. The discovery owes its outstanding nature to unearthing of the Offerer, a wonderful statue in the style of the elongated small bronzes of the Hellenistic era that is visually reminiscent of the celebrated Evening Shadow of Volterra. The figure, 64 cm in height, is indeed the most elegant and sophisticated such statue in the entire corpus of known Etruscan bronzes. Similarly to the Evening Shadow, it was also produced in series. As the product of a highly experienced craftsman, it harks back to the precedent of great early Hellenistic sculpture and recalls the elongated ex-votos of central Italic inspiration bound to local religious tradition. Both the statue and the cultural sphere of the artist who created the San Gimignano Shadow can be traced back with certainty to ancient Velathri/Volterra in the first half of the 3rd century BC. We may safely assume that the Torraccia di Chiusi area of workshop was one of the sanctuaries marking the border of the territory of Volterra: the "narrow passage" concealed in the place name alludes to the pre-Roman, Imperial and Early Medieval road that was later to become the Via Francigena and that passes directly through the sacred area. The "mouth" hidden in the name of the Fosci stream mark the entry into the territory of Velathri/Volterra. The bronze statue, unearthed in excellent condition, depicts a standing male figure wearing a toga hanging down to his calves and leaving his shoulder, right arm and most of his chest bare; on his feet he wars sandals laced up to his calves. In his right hand he holds a mesomphalos phiale while his left, held close to his body, emerges from his mantle with the palm facing outwards. His legs are slightly apart, suggesting a slight movement to the left. His facial features are clearly defined with large eyes and a prominent nose, full lips and a chin with a typical dimple in the middle. His hair is arranged in wavy locks conveyed with deep furrows running from a parting at the back towards his face, covering part of his forehead and ears. The Shadow of San Gimignano is on display at the heart of an exhibition whose title uses the Etruscan term Hinthial, which can be translated as "soul" and "sacred" and which has been devised as a full immersion in San Gimignano's sacred landscape in the Etruscan and Roman eras. The close encounter with the Shadow sets out to accompany visitors to the area of worship along a ritual pathway that recalls the gestures and perceptions of the Offerer. Thus this toreutic masterpiece has arisen from its burial place and tells us of the hopes, prayers and offerings made for over five centuries in this sacred area that stood on the border of the territory of ancient Volterra in the Hellenistic era.
Angizia, Feronia, Marica. Divinità e culti italici nell'Eneide
This contribution focuses on the analysis of the presence of Italic divinities and cults in the Aeneis. In particular, some divinities (Angitia, Feronia, Marica, Mefitis, Iuppiter Anxur) and some rituals (the Hirpi Sorani) are taken into consideration. Some speculations on the Vergilian poem as depository of information on pre-Roman Italy lead to the vexata quaestio of the sources of the Aeneis, to the relationship between Virgil and Varro, and consequently to the connection between the poem and the Augustan cultural and political project. Among the conclusions, it comes out that the poet did not hesitate to modify the historical data at his disposal, using the references to Italic religions as a means to enrich the epic narration and to give to the reader a particular image of Italy at the moment of Aeneas' arrival.
La cura animarum nella diocesi di Mantova fra IX e XI secolo
Le origini della diocesi di Mantova e le sedi …, 2006
Renata Salvarani La cura animarum nella diocesi di Mantova fra IX e XI secolo in Le origini della diocesi di Mantova e le sedi episcopali dell'Italia settentrionale nell'Alto Medioevo. Atti del convegno, Mantova 16-18 settembre 2004, Trieste (Collana di Antichità Alto Adriatiche) 2006