At the heart of the Etruscan city of Caere exists the Hypogaeum of Clepsina, an underground ritual chamber which scholars theorize to be a mundus, a liminal space linking the earthly realm with the underworld. It was a place where chthonic rituals were conducted in honour of the infernal gods and the ghosts of the ancestors, and its creation was tied to notions of civic foundation. The hypogaeum was constructed or renovated around 273 BC, at the time when the city of Caere was officially converted into a Roman praefectura. As one of the earliest projects undertaken in the newly established Roman Caere, the hypogaeum likely had a symbolic significance, reinforcing the establishment and stabilization of the territory under Roman control. Consequently, gaining a deeper understanding of the mundus of Caere, especially in terms of the cult worship and rituals that occurred within it, contributes to our knowledge of the role that religion played in Roman expansion in Italy during the Republican period. One of the most remarkable features of the hypogaeum is its painted niche, which is adorned with frescoes of two large palm trees. This thesis will explore the symbolic meaning of the palm trees, since these frescoes provide important clues as to the deity originally worshiped within the ritual chamber. The connection between the palm tree motif and Apollo will be investigated, as the god’s cult was imbued with strong solar, oracular, and chthonic associations in Etruria and Central Italy. He was syncretized with the Italic deity, Soranus, otherwise known as Śuri, a deity who received cult veneration at the important sanctuary of Caere’s port settlement, Pyrgi. Apollo Soranus, or Śuri, was a chthonic deity equated with the ruler of the underworld, and thus was a god altogether fitting to preside over the mundus of Caere. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The Hypogaeum of Clepsina is an underground ritual chamber in Caere, which scholars theorize to be a mundus, a liminal space where chthonic rituals were enacted in honour of the infernal gods. The mundus was tied to notions of civic foundation, which suggests that the hypogaeum’s construction (or renovation) around the year 273 BC, the time when the city of Caere was officially converted into a Roman praefectura, was a statement of Rome’s re-establishment of Caere. Thus, gaining a deeper understanding of the hypogaeum, especially the cults worshiped within it, contributes to our knowledge of the role that religion played in Roman expansion during the Republican period. The palm tree frescoes decorating the niche of the hypogaeum provide important clues as to the identity of the deity worshiped in the mundus. They are a reference to the god, Apollo Soranus, or Śuri, who was a chthonic deity fitting to preside over the mundus of Caere.

L'enquête porte sur l'Italie et les premiers temps du monde étrusque. Elle s'intéresse plus particulièrement à la période comprise entre un moment avancé du Premier âge du Fer et de la fin de l'Orientalisant (800-580 av. n.è.). Cette période charnière est celle du passage de la culture villanovienne à la culture étrusque. Les découpages chronologiques traditionnels ont entravé la lecture dans la diachronie de la documentation archéologique, et donc des transformations en œuvre dans la société étrusque. Dans ce travail, je me suis appuyée sur un corpus funéraire totalisant 771 tombes et plus de 10 000 objets provenant de trois sites parmi les mieux documentés de la Péninsule (Veio, Pontecagnano et Verucchio) pour reconstruire un cadre de développement chrono-culturel qui embrasse ces deux périodes traditionnellement disjointes. Ces analyses chronologiques étaient un préalable nécessaire à l'étude de dynamiques culturelles plus complexes qui ont amené à cette époque, les élites (proto) -étrusques à s'insérer dans ce grand courant méditerranéen que fut le phénomène orientalisant, et à s'attacher dans leurs tombes des biens et matières provenant d'Orient. La mise à plat de la documentation, ainsi que la périodisation élaborée dans ce travail permettent désormais de suivre dans une séquence continue et plus longue l'adoption des différents éléments orientaux par les communautés étrusques. / The present investigation deals with Italic peoples and the early days of the Etruscan world. It focuses more particularly on a period from the Early Iron Age to the end of the orientalizing period (800-580 B.C.). This crucial time shows the transition from Villanovian culture to Etruscan culture. The traditional chronological cuts have hindered the diachronical analysis of the archaeological documentation and, therefore, the ongoing social mutation of the Etruscan society. ln this research, I have used three major and well known funerary contexts (of Veio, Pontecagnano and Verucchio), totalizing 771 tombs and more than 10 000 artefacts, in order to reshape a precise chrono-cultural sequence which embraces those two periods, traditionally studied as separated chronological phases. My chronological analysis was a necessary precursor to the study of more complex cultural dynamics that occurred at this time in the Mediterranean Basin: the Orientalizing Phenomenon in which (proto)-Etruscan elites played an active role in using, as new identification criteria in their tombs, goods and raw materials coming from the Orient. The blank creation of the archaeological documentation and the new periodization created in this thesis work now allows us to follow, through a continuous and a longer sequence the adoption, by the Etruscan communities, of various oriental elements.

This thesis will look at the depiction of the Achilles and Troilos death myth on the Attic Black-Figure “Tyrrhenian” Group and its possible influence in Etruria from the mid 6th century BC to the Hellenistic period. The appearance of this Attic-made export ware in Etruscan sites of the 6th century BC, distribution of extant group pots with known provenance along with the emulation of the “Tyrrhenian” neck-amphora style and narrative frieze content in mid to late 6th century BC Etruscan pottery supports evidence for the popularity of the group amongst the Etruscan population. I will approach my investigation in Chapter Three by first giving an overview of the construction and decoration of the Attic-made “Tyrrhenian” Group and listing the variety of traits that characterize this group as being a true case of Athenian export product to Etruria. In Chapter Four I will focus on the appearance of the Achilles and Troilos myth on pots of the “Tyrrhenian” Group and trace the development of the myth’s iconography in Greek art starting in the mid 7th century BC. In Chapter Five I will focus on the appearance of the myth in Etruscan art in the mid 6th century BC and its subsequent development in Etruscan mythology through the analysis of Etruscan-made specimens. I will also attempt to give a reasoning behind the Etruscans’ adaptation of the Greek myth into their corpus. / Thesis (Master, Classics) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-22 13:27:11.548

Master of Philosophy / The following paper will present a study of 76 impasto and bucchero ceramic artefacts that form part of the collection of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney. These artefacts have not been previously studied in any detail and while some have been published, publication was limited to a brief description. The paper is divided into three sections: impasto, Caeretan stamped ware and bucchero. A preliminary discussion of the ceramic type is followed by a catalogue. The catalogue provides a detailed description, any provenance and publication details, parallels and provides a date and possible geographical context of each vessel.

Master of Philosophy / The following paper will present a study of 76 impasto and bucchero ceramic artefacts that form part of the collection of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney. These artefacts have not been previously studied in any detail and while some have been published, publication was limited to a brief description. The paper is divided into three sections: impasto, Caeretan stamped ware and bucchero. A preliminary discussion of the ceramic type is followed by a catalogue. The catalogue provides a detailed description, any provenance and publication details, parallels and provides a date and possible geographical context of each vessel.

This thesis presents a research on Vanth and Charun type demon depicted on relief urns from northern Etruria. The research focuses on urns from the Hellenistic period in Etruria (from the end of the 4th till 1st century BC). These urns were made in workshops in three Etruscan cities, which are now called Volterra, Chiusi and Perugia. The urns along with the centers of their production are described in one of the introductory chapters. Subsequently, the thesis focuses on a female demon Vanth and a male demon Charun, identified by their names inscribed on various media. Based on these, basic characteristics of these demons are evaluated and used as a basis for identification of demons on the relief urns in the database. The database is the core of the thesis. Its items are then classified by the production centers and the type of scenes that are in the reliefs on the front of the urns. Description of the urns is supplemented by pictures labeled with the names of the demons identified for a better representation. The data followed in the database are summarized in two analytical tables attached to the thesis. The database is evaluated in the last chapter and the appearance of demons and the attributes they hold in their hands are paid attention to. They are often related to the involvement of Vanth...

This thesis examines Etruscan rock-cut tombs that are characteristic for inland southern Etruria and are dated from second quarter of the 6th century BC to the end of 3rd and beginning of the 2nd century BC. Thesis is focused on the architecture of the tombs, their typology, decoration, iconography and their architectural evolution. Main sites in Archaic period are necropoleis in San Giuliano, Blera, Tuscania and for Hellenistic period necropoleis in Norchia, Sovana and Castel d'Asso. Second part of thesis examines the potential of 3D recording, analysis, virtual reconstruction and virtual anastylosis for the study of the tomb façades through the case studies of the "Tomb of the Siren" from necropolis of Sovana and the "Doric Tombs" from necropolis of Norchia. Keywords Etruscans, Etruscan, rock-cut, rupestral, façade, necropolis, 3D modeling, multi-image photogrammetry, virtual reconstruction, virtual anastylosis

Die Neurone der Hirnrinde sind in Mikroschaltkreisen, Modulen und Arealen organisiert. In dieser Doktorarbeit habe ich die Neurobiologie und Hirnrindenstruktur der Etruskerspitzmaus - ein neues Modelltier für neurobiologische Forschung - und die modulare Struktur des entorhinalen Kortex der Ratte untersucht. Die geringe Größe des Gehirns der Etruskerspitzmaus bietet besondere Vorteile für das Verständnis kortikaler Aktivität von Zellgruppen. Die entorhinale Kortex enthält sowohl gut definierte funktionelle als auch anatomische Module und bietet daher eine einzigartige Gelegenheit für das Studium ihrer Wechselbeziehungen. Die Organisation der Hirnrinde der Etruskerspitzmaus reflektiert die Spezialisierung als schnelle, auf taktile Reize spezialisierte Jäger. Mehrere kortikale Regionen, die ein Drittel des kortikalen Volumens ausmachen, reagieren auf taktile Reize. Eine kortikale Hemisphäre enthält nur etwa eine Million Neuronen. Basierend auf der Zellarchitektur und histochemischen Färbungen haben wir 13 kortikale Regionen definiert - eine große Zahl angesichts der geringen Größe des Spitzmausgehirns. Pyramidenzellnester in Schicht 2 des medialen entorhinalen Kortex sind einfach zu identifizieren und eignen sich als Bezugssystem für die verschiedenen modulären Strukturen dieser Hirnregion. Diese Pyramidenzellen bündeln ihre Dendriten hin zu einem Punkt, der sich mit erhöhten Konzentrationen von präsynaptischen cholinergen Markern überschneidet. Cholinerge Transmission ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Theta-Rhythmus und unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, daß Pyramidenzellen im Vergleich zu Sternzellen doppelt so stark Theta-moduliert sind. Da fast alle Gitterzellen stark Theta-moduliert sind, ist anzunehmen dass Pyramidenzellen eine wichtige Rolle für die räumliche Navigation spielen. In dieser Arbeit wurden an der Hirnrinde der Etruskerspitzmaus sowie der entorhinalen Hirnrinde der Ratte modellhaft Struktur-Funktions-Beziehungen in der Großhirnrinde aufgeklärt. / Neurons of the cerebral cortex are collectively organized into microcircuits, modules and cortical areas. Here, I study the neurobiology and cortical structure of the Etruscan shrew - a new model animal for neurobiological research - and the modular structure of the entorhinal cortex of the rat. The small size of the Etruscan shrew''s brain offers particular advantages for understanding cortical activity at the multi-cell level, due to its small number of cortical neurons and its intrinsic advantages for optical imaging approaches. The entorhinal cortex contains well-defined functional and anatomical modules and provides a unique opportunity for studying their interrelation. The organization of the cerebral cortex of the Etruscan shrew reflects their behavioral specialization as fast touch-and-kill hunters. Several cortical areas comprising a third of the cortical volume respond to vibrissal touch. One cortical hemisphere contains only about 1 million neurons. Cytoarchitecture and histochemical staining revealed 13 cortical regions - a large number considering the small size of the shrew''s brain. Pyramidal cell clusters in layer 2 of medial entorhinal are reliably identifiable and thus provide common anatomical framework for entorhinal cortex modularity. These cells form geometrically arranged clusters and bundle their dendrites towards a common point overlapping with presynaptic markers of cholinergic inputs. Cholinergic drive is an important component of theta-rhythmicity which we found to be two-fold stronger in pyramidal than in stellate neurons. Since nearly all grid cells are strongly theta modulated, we suggest that pyramidal cells may play an important role in microcircuits for spatial navigation. In this work, we studied the areal architecture of the Etruscan shrew cortex and the modular architecture of the rat medial entorhinal cortex as contributions towards understanding structure-function relations in the cerebral cortex.

This dissertation presents a regional comparative study of the uses of Greek heroic stories as illustrated on funerary monuments of Apulia and Etruria in the fourth century BC. Founded on the grounds of contextual archaeology and reception theory, it approaches a group of Apulian red-figure vases, Etruscan sarcophagi and tomb-paintings from both regions as a means of investigating the cultural significance of the myths presented in the grave by different peoples in Italy. Moreover, this study emphasises the possible ways in which viewers engaged with the images depicted on these monuments by defining a cultural frame ('horizon of expectations') for their interpretation of the images. Further contributions include the development of a model for the interpretation of the myths depicted on Apulian red-figure vases and the prominence of the corpus of Etruscan mythological sarcophagi, a type of monument often neglected in Etruscan studies. At the end of the dissertation, it will become clear - it is expected - that there were regional preferences for particular myths and differences in both the media and the ways in which Greek myths were used and displayed during the funeral.

No description available.