Nancy T. de Grummond

Grape Pips from Etruscan and Roman Cetamura del Chianti: On Stratigraphy, Literary Sources and Pruning Hooks

Recently an article appeared raising some issues about the interpretation of grape pips that were excavated at Cetamura del Chianti by the present writer (2012-14). This commentary makes suggestions concerning the arguments in that article with reference to 1) stratigraphy at the site; 2) literary sources on Etruscan viticulture; and 3) the use of the pruning hook by the Etruscans. The present article makes a contribution to the study of Etruscan viticulture by assembling an appendix on actual pruning hooks that have been discovered in Italy dating from the Late Bronze Age down to the second century B. C. E., as well as an appendix on representations of a youth holding the pruning hook in Etruscan art, mainly from the fourth and third centuries B. C. E.

Thunder versus Lightning in Etruria

Recent scholarship on the Etruscans has produced important new insights into their practices of divination of the future by means of thunder and lightning. Not much attention has yet been given to how radically different these two natural phenomena were from the point of view of the systems that framed them and accordingly how different the appropriate rituals were. There was a highly complex system of interpreting lightning, based on the idea that there were nine Etruscan gods who could cast a bolt, and that even when one god wanted to do so, it often involved negotiations with others. It was very important for a diviner to know from which section of the sky the lightning originated and to have a full knowledge of its physical details and meanings. Thunder, on the other hand, was only a sound, and it was difficult to tell where it might have originated. Because it did not cause damage, it was seemingly not as dire as lightning. There does not seem to be a specific statement on which Etruscan deities might cause thunder, and so the diviner did not address the issue of which gods needed to be appeased. Instead, as far as we now know, thunder was judged by the day on which it was heard, and divination was thus carried out through calendrical reference, which did not require the kind of detailed training implied by the surviving texts on lightning. Since lightning is a visible phenomenon, it is not surprising that there are numerous depictions of it recognized in Etruscan mythological art. But while such examples may be duly noted, it is here argued that some images previously interpreted as lightning bolts are actually representations of thunder. A close look shows that, like the disciplines, the depictions of lightning and thunder are quite different from one another.

Excavations at Cetamura del Chianti, 1987-1991

Recent excavations by Florida State University at the site of Cetamura in the Chianti region have yielded evidence that the site was in use in the Etruscan Archaic and Hellenistic periods as well as during the earlier Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. This report summarizes in a preliminary form the principal evidence in each zone of the site for habitation during these periods, based on field work done in 198788 and 1990-91. I