According to information gathered at the moment of its discovery, the tomb consisted of a
dolio of
impasto covered with earth and a stone slab. An Attic
crater with
red figures, referable to the 'Pittore del Porco' (480-470 a.C.), served as
cinerary vessel; the main scene on it shows Theseus killing the Minotaur. Inside the vase, together with the charred remains of the dead, certainly a woman, many personal ornaments were found. Two
amber beads and a set of jewellery, made of gold leaf decorated in repoussé or pressed, including: a pair of earrings in form of a miniature case; a large pin with a pomegranate-shaped head; necklace pendants in form of
harpy, small crown, fir-cone, acorn, lotus flower and berry; eleven small
fibulae and six bird-shaped plaquettes, probably in origin appliques for fabrics. This set of objects confirms the dating of the cinerary urn to the first decades of the V
th century B.C..
Although the burial still follow
Iron Age practices, simply replacing the plain
olla with a more precious vessel, the wealth of grave goods proves the considerable economic prosperity reached, in this period, by the Etruscans settled in the plain of Lucca (
Chiarone,
Fossanera,
Tempagnano,
Romito di Pozzuolo). The demographic expansion, already under way at the end of the VII
th century B.C., reached indeed its climax exactly in the first half of the V
th century B.C.
bibliography:
- Mencacci P., Zecchini M., Lucca preistorica, Lucca 1976
- Cristofani M., L'oro degli etruschi, Novara 1985
- Ciampoltrini G., Aspetti dell'insediamento etrusco nella valle del Serchio: il V sec. a.C., in "Studi Etruschi" LIX, 1994
- Ciampoltrini G. (a cura di), gli Etruschi del Bientina. Storie di comunità rurali fra X e V secolo a.C., Buti 1999