Leiden University Student Repository

Steensma, Niels (2009)

Een gat in de kop. Over Etruskische canopen uit het gebied van Chiusi en funeraire rituelen ca. 670-580 v.Chr.

Bachelor thesis | Archeologie (BA)

This bachelor thesis concerns the Etruscan “canopic” urns and funerary rites. The canopic urn, an anthropomorphic ceramic cinerary urn which represents the deceased, was a special product from the Chiusi region. They were produced between c. 670 and 580 BC and have – with three exceptions – only been found within the area of the city of Chiusi and its territory (Chiana Valley, central Italy). The urns stood on miniature thrones or chairs and were placed with the grave set either in so-called tombe a ziro (shaft tombs cut out of the tufa containing a large dolium covered with stone slaps) or, from c. 650 BC onward, in small chamber tombs. Numerous canopic urns – especially the youngest type, the so-called tipo evoluto (end of the 7th – beginning of the 6th century BC), show a circular hole in the centre of the cranium. This study attempts to determine its function. In the course of time various hypotheses have been proposed, which are all taken into critical examination. The author...Show moreThis bachelor thesis concerns the Etruscan “canopic” urns and funerary rites. The canopic urn, an anthropomorphic ceramic cinerary urn which represents the deceased, was a special product from the Chiusi region. They were produced between c. 670 and 580 BC and have – with three exceptions – only been found within the area of the city of Chiusi and its territory (Chiana Valley, central Italy). The urns stood on miniature thrones or chairs and were placed with the grave set either in so-called tombe a ziro (shaft tombs cut out of the tufa containing a large dolium covered with stone slaps) or, from c. 650 BC onward, in small chamber tombs. Numerous canopic urns – especially the youngest type, the so-called tipo evoluto (end of the 7th – beginning of the 6th century BC), show a circular hole in the centre of the cranium. This study attempts to determine its function. In the course of time various hypotheses have been proposed, which are all taken into critical examination. The author argues that the cranial hole can be related to funerary rites, libation in particular.Show less

Author

Steensma, Niels

Faculty

Faculty of Archaeology

Supervisors

Meer, L.B. van der

ECTS Credits

10

Language

nl