Cippus
Etruscan tombstones are primarily referred to as Cippus ( Latin "pointed pile"; Plur. Cippi) , which are shaped differently depending on the place and time of origin (800-100 BC). Cippi were usually set up as a stele , column or sculpture in the drom of a grave or at the grave entrance, sometimes also used as a grave coronation (grave essay). The cippus also had a magical and religious significance.
Cippi had the shape of a cube, knob, onion, egg, ball or cylinder. There are connections between certain cippus shapes and the representation of Etruscan canopic jars : urns that were designed as a human upper body with indicated limbs and a head as a lid.
- In Cerveteri , the cippi of female and male burials were different. Male dead received a column ( phallus ), women small houses or temples.
- The so-called Pietrafetida monuments (6th – 5th centuries BC) from the area around Chiusi show a merging of the cinder and cippus . They contain the ashes of the dead in an opening in their base.
- In Orvieto there were two so-called warrior head cippi with images of human heads (late 6th century BC).
- In Perugia , fluted columns with acanthus buds were used .
- From the 4th century BC Cippi also have name inscriptions.
The so-called "Cippus Abellanus" (in the Oscar language ), like the " Cippus Perusinus ", is not a tombstone. The latter is an agreement between two families on the definition of property boundaries of around 125 words in 46 lines.
Carthaginian Cippi have a base in the form of the base of Egyptian steles, which are sometimes also referred to as Cippi ("Cippi Metternich" in the British Museum ). Punic Cippi were found in North Africa , but also on Sardinia ( Cagliari , Teti , Tharros ), Sicily ( Mozia ) and Spain ( Huelva and Castelldefels / Barcelona). The Cippi des Melqart found in Malta , which bear a Phoenician and a Greek inscription, were significant for science . They made it possible for the first time to understand the Phoenician alphabet.
literature
- Martin Blumhofer: Etruscan Cippi. Investigations using the example of Cerveteri . Böhlau, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-412-06993-0 (work on archeology).
- Jorma Kaimio: The south etruscan cippus inscriptions . University of Helsinki, Rome 2017. ISBN 978-88-7140-781-4 .