A “Greek-oriental” basin in Orvieto

Abstract

The article examines a bowl of the Phoenician-Cypriot type from Tomb K 136 at Crocifisso del Tufo (Orvieto), the location of which is still uncertain. It was discovered in 1878 by Riccardo Mancini on land owned by the Bracardi family. The bowl retains the morphological characteristics of the original Near Eastern “cosmopolitan” versions, probably adapted in line with the influences from East Greece that arrived in Etruria in the first half of the 6th century BC. However, the bowl is a unique piece in terms of its high level of quality compared to other examples of  this pottery class, owing to the unusual form of decoration  of the outer surface, and especially the painted decoration inside the bowl, in the Eastern Greek style.
Rather than a vessel designed for the purposes of funerary ritual, the K 136 bowl was possibly a prestige object decorated by a sophisticated artisan who had relocated to Etruria around the mid-6th century BC (perhaps based in Vulci). The vessel may have arrived in Orvieto as a result of a gift, or some other form of exchange between urban elites.