This volume is a subset of the papers actually delivered at the Leiden conference. Camporeale and Torelli could not attend but furnished papers; two doctoral students presented papers not published here see Natalie L. A materially-oriented work such as this is a sort of ground-truthing of ancient Mediterranean religion, a fine supplement to literature that often relies extravagantly on textual and epigraphic sources.
Case studies cover selected material in great depth, but naturally do not substitute for general works on Etruscan religion. By the early 7th century BC, contact with Levantine and Greek immigrants resulted in monumental architecture. Across Etruria, stone altars, permanent sanctuaries and the anthropomorphic representation of gods developed in close association.
A transition in funerary belief occurred late in the 5th century as banquet scenes gave way to the Underworld. From the 5th to 2nd centuries, the phenomenon of terracotta anatomical votive offerings marks a new spirit of Volksreligion , while written sources betray an increasingly hierarchical development of the Etruscan pantheon, and of pan-Etruscan sanctuaries, crowned by the fanum Voltumnae. BC for evidence of continuity of cult, suggesting that the original goddess was Artemis, and that focus then shifted to Uni, paralleling the political evolution of Tarquinia.
Precocious adoption of Levantine architectural techniques and patterns, such as pier-and-panel masonry walls Edificio Beta, BC , is taken as corroborating eastern stimuli on the cult. Gods are identified based on the character of the votives and ample doses of Greek literature: in the absence of Etruscan literature, interpretations cannot be verified.
A bucchero vase inscribed mi Uni demonstrates one recipient of the cult ca. An aerial photo with both sites marked appears as fig. Four cippi , one marked with cross-hairs, were placed under main crossroads. Although many altars and shrines were concentrated on the acropolis along with a now-lost feature restored as an auguraculum platform , the peripteral Temple of Tina, identified by inscribed bucchero vases, was an essential part of the urban fabric.
