Varga Edith szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 79. (Budapest, 1993)
NIELSEN, MARJATTA: An Etruscan country woman from Terriccio
Siena, Val di Cornia towards Colline Métallifère, and from Morrona towards Pisa. Of the third-century find places nearest Terriccio are Belora and Vada, but this material has unfortunately been incorporated without proper identification in the Chiellini collection in Livorno. The lids are especially hard to identify. Only three of them can be dated to mid- and late 3rd century BC, and one of these is of alabaster. 26 Vada is otherwise better documented for its Roman finds, while much material from Belora, ranging from Villanova to the Roman Imperial period, has been dispersed, due to more or less controlled excavations and selling by local and foreign entrepreneurs in the first half of the 19th century. 27 In a record of Etruscan finds — e. g. of a gilded alabaster urn from Pàstina, 9 km north of Terriccio —and their departure from Italy, G. F. Gamurrini reveals that by 1868 the situation was even worse, for commerce in Etruscan antiquities increased with the advent of railroads. Scientific study was largely neglected at the expense of "a mute flock of collectors and speculators, who hide and seek, minding their steps, and are happy if a foreigner comes along, or they meet someone who travels to foreign countries". 28 The picture seems to fit also in the present case. New Darwinist ideas were also being applied to the cultural history of mankind, and it was 26 Nielsen, M., in Die Welt der Etrusker, Koll. (n. 3) pp. 206-207, nos. 3-4, with references. Chiellini's material from Belora comes from excavations from 1879 onwards. A fragmentary female lid of tufa (without inv. no.) is stylistically more or less contemporary with the Terriccio urn (mid-3rd century BC) ; slightly later is a male lid figure of tufa (without inv. no.) probably from Belora, and a third, a delicately carved but weathered female figure of alabaster (associated with the urn inv. no. 2057, but not belonging to it). The unpublished urns are kept in the Galleria dell'arte moderna at Villa Maria in Livorno, partly in magazine. I am indebted to dr. Vera Durbé who allowed me to study them. The Chiellini collection had been put together by excavations and acquisitions from ca. 1869 onwards. Further difficulties in identifying the provenances are due to the fact that Enrico Chiellini even acquired urns from Volterra (e. g. an archaic urn with reliefs on all four sides). The Chiellini collection was finally donated to the reluctant commune of Livorno after lengthy negotiations in 1896. Accordingly at least some archaeological material stayed in the harbour city, through which enormous quantities of Etruscan and other antiquities had been shipped abroad in the 18th and 19th centuries. See Ciampoltrini, G.-Cianferoni, G. C.-Romualdi, A., La raccolta archeologica e numismatica Enrico Chiellini, II Museo Civico Archeologico di Livorno ed i materiali dal Portus Pisanus, Rassegna di Archeológia 3 (1982-83) pp. 183-239, for the Belora finds esp. pp. 233-234. 27 Part of Giusto Cinci's excavation material from Belora in 1828-1830 ended up in the collection of the Museo Archeologico in Florence, but is difficult to distinguish from Volterran material : Fiumi, E., Materiali volterrani ncl Museo Archeologico di Firenze. La collezione Cinci, Studi Etruschi 25 (1957) p. 465 ; cf. Cinci, G., in Bulllnst 1828, p. 18 ; 1829, pp. 202-205. Other urns excavated about 1837 by Augusto Cinci came to the Museo Guarnacci in Volterra, while still other material is said to have been sold to a Russian princess, to Florence, via Livorno to the Berlin Museum, to Amsterdam, etc. Alessandro François conducted excavations there in 1849 : Mantovani, P., // Museo archeologico e numismatico di Livorno, Livorno 1892, pp. 93-99. Christian Appelius from Livorno excavated at Belora in 1842-43, finding among other objects a saddleroofed tufa urn, which was donated to the Antiquarische Gesellschaft in Zürich and now is kept in the Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich (inv. no. 2156). His other local finds are said to have been sold to France and to a Florentine antiquarian (C. Bursian, Zwei etruskische Aschencisten, in Anzeiger für Schweizerische Alterthumskunde 1, 1868-1871 (1872) pp. 26-38 ; the second urn is Chiusine, i. e. with an erroneous provenance). I have not been able to trace the other finds. Their description is too summary, and much must be due to rumours. The excavations at Belora have recently been resumed by the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana. 28 Delia cattiva fortuna dei monumenti antichi in Etruria, Nuova Antológia 8 (maggio 1868), p. 171 ; cited by Schlie in Bulllnst 1868, p. 132.
