Monuments And Death Ritual Commonalities Between The Etruscans And Romans

Funerary Monuments and Death Ritual Commonalities Between the Etruscans and Romans

Bordering just to the north of Rome in Etruria, the Etruscans were a religious group of people who had an extensive fascination with the afterlife and death ritual. Given their geographic location in relation to Rome, the Etruscans had a substantial cultural influence on the Romans from the very beginning of Roman civilization. The hills of Etruria had fame for the amount of valuable metals contained within them that would have made an up and coming civilization, Rome, envious. In one of their earliest acts of imperialism, the Romans moved north and set up trade routes with the Etruscans that also indirectly exchanged culture between the two. Possibly the most

The lid of the sarcophagus shows “a man and woman lying nearly facing each other on a bed with pillows and a large sheet wrapped about them.” The depiction of two spouses is a common theme throughout Etruscan sarcophagi, and can be seen in other pieces, such as the Sarcophagus of the Spouses in the National Etruscan Museum in Rome. Similarly, in the Roman sarcophagus we see two figures lying down on the lid joined by other various mythological figures. A clear difference between the two sarcophagi in the figures on the lid is the texture of the stone. In the Etruscan sarcophagus, the lid appears to be much more worn when compared to that of the Roman sarcophagus. The Etruscan sarcophagus is made out of an igneous rock, commonly found in the region of Etruria, where as the Roman sarcophagus is made out of a much more ornate and detailed marble. The figures on the lid of the Etruscan sarcophagus appear to be much more round and lack sharp edges along the clothing and body. When compared to the Roman sarcophagus lid, the Etruscan lid seems less detail intensive and much more average. The figures on the Roman sarcophagus lid are dressed in a similar way in that they are covered in a simplistic loose fitting cloth, similar to the blanket covering the

In the Etruscan sarcophagus, the sides are dedicated to depicting a pediment on both ends, each containing three female heads in rosettes, a chariot driven by a man of importance, given he is holding a pastoral staff, and two women riding in a cart with “A winged spirit of death waving two snakes at them”. The left side with the winged spirit of death potentially represents the idea of rebirth, as that is what the serpent commonly meant in mythology. The right side is a bit more problematic when trying to interpret, as all that is shown is a magistrate on a two horse chariot with another man. There are almost no themes to interpret other than the chariot, which was a common item in Etruria, as horses and equestrian arts were prevalent because of the Etruscans’ Greek influence. The front of the Etruscan sarcophagus, however, offers more to be interpreted. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston describes the front side as