Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:32:47.241Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Etruscan Lightning and Anatolian Images

The Use and Perception of Tridents in Etruria and the East*

from Part IV - Shared Practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2023

Elizabeth P. Baughan
Affiliation:
University of Richmond, Virginia
Lisa C. Pieraccini
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Get access

Summary

Tridents and bidents appear to have been used in early Italy as symbols of divinatory power associated with lightning and are known by the evidence of rare representations and actual metal objects placed in Italic rulers’ tombs of the eighth through the seventh centuries BCE (Golasecca and Etruria). Fragile or even deliberately blunted, these implements could really only be symbolic emblems, and two show evidence of intense destruction during the funerary ritual. A possibly analogous situation, with deeper roots in the Near East (especially Assyria, Urartu, and the Levant) may also have occurred in Anatolia, especially Phrygia (Gordion). A trident planted in the earth may have symbolized divination.

Type
Chapter
Information
Etruria and Anatolia
Material Connections and Artistic Exchange
, pp. 145 - 165
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Andrae, W. 1909. Der Anu-Adad Tempel in Assur. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.Google Scholar
Black, J., and Green, A. 1992. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary, with illustrations by T. Rickards. Austin: University of Texas and British Museum.Google Scholar
Blanck, H., and Proietti, G. 1986. La Tomba dei Rilievi di Cerveteri. Rome: De Luca.Google Scholar
Bruni, S. 1998. Pisa etrusca. Anatomia di una città scomparsa. Milan: Longanesi.Google Scholar
Cappelletti, M. 1992. Museo Claudio Faina di Orvieto. Ceramica etrusca figurata. Perugia: Electa.Google Scholar
Colonna, G. 2000. “Il santuario di Pyrgi dalle origini mitistoriche agli altorilievi frontonali delle Sette e di Leucotea,” Scienze dell’Antichità 10: 251336.Google Scholar
Cygielman, M., and Pagnini, L. 2002. “Presenze sarde a Vetulonia: alcune considerazioni,” in Etruria e Sardegna centro-settentrionale tra l’età del Bronzo Finale e l’arcaismo. Atti del XXI Convegno di Studi Etruschi ed Italici. Sassari-Alghero-Oristano-Torralba, 13–17 ottobre 1998, ed. Paoletti, O. and Tamagno Perna, L., 387410. Pisa: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali.Google Scholar
Cygielman, M., and Pagnini, L. 2006. Tomba del Tridente a Vetulonia. Pisa: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali.Google Scholar
De Marinis, R. C. 1988. “Liguri e Celto-Liguri,” in Italia omnia terrarium alumna, ed. Pugliese Carratelli, G., 157259. Milan: Scheiwiller.Google Scholar
De Marinis, R. C. and Gambari, F. M. 2005. “La cultura di Golasecca dal X agli inizi del VII secolo a.C.: cronologia relative e correlazioni con alter aree culturali,” in Oriente e Occidente: metodi e discipline a confronto. Riflessioni sulla cronologia dell’età del ferro in Italia, Atti dell’Incontro di studi, Roma, 30–31 ottobre 2003, ed. Bartoloni, G. and Delpino, F., 197–225. Pisa: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali.Google Scholar
Falchi, I. 1908. “Vetulonia – Nuove scoperte nella necropoli,” Notizie degli Scavi, 419437.Google Scholar
Feruglio, A. E. 1991. “Un carro da parata da Castel San Mariano di Corciano presso Perugia,” in Gens antiquissima Italiae. Antichità dall’Umbria a New York, ed. Bonfante, L., Sokolowski, T. W., and Carnieri, C., 131140. Milan: Electa.Google Scholar
Floriani, P., and Bruni, S. 2006. La tomba del principe: il tumulo etrusco di via San Jacopo. Pisa: ETS.Google Scholar
Furlani, G. 1931. “Il ‘Bidental’ etrusco e un’iscrizione di Tiglatpileser I,” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 6: 4548.Google Scholar
Gambari, F. M., and Colonna, G. 1988. “Il bicchiere con iscrizione arcaica da Castelletto Ticino e l’adozione della scrittura nell’Italia nord-occidentale,” Studi Etruschi 54 (1986): 119164.Google Scholar
Geppert, K. 2004. “Importfunde des späthethitischen Raumes in Mittelitalien und ihre Wirkung auf das einheimische Kunsthandwerk,” in Die Aussenwirkung des späthethitischen Kulturraumes. Güteraustausch – Kulturkontakt – Kulturtransfer, Akten der zweiten Forschungstagung des Graduiertenkollegs “Anatolien und seine Nachbarn” der Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (20. bis 22. November 2003), ed. Novák, M., Prayon, F., and Wittke, A. M., 63–83. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Leichty, E. 1970. The Omen Series Šumma Izbu. Texts from Cuneiform Sources, Vol. 4. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin.Google Scholar
Massa-Pairault, F. H. 1999. “Mito e miti nel territorio volsiniese,” Annali Faina 6: 77108.Google Scholar
Minto, A. 1921. Marsiliana d’Albegna; le scoperte archeologiche del Principe Don Tommaso Corsini. Florence: Istituto di Edizioni Artistiche.Google Scholar
Norman, C. R. 2009. “Warriors and Weavers: Sex and Gender in Daunian Stelae,” in Gender Identities in Italy in the First Millennium BC, ed. Lomas, K. and Herring, E., 3754. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (International series S1983).Google Scholar
Orville, R. E. 2011. “Lightning,” in Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, 2nd ed., ed. Schneider, S. H., Root, T. L., and Mastandrea, M. D.. New York: Oxford University Press, eISBN 9780195 313 864, s.v. “lightning,” consulted 10/13/2015 and 8/12/2016.Google Scholar
Pagnini, L. 2000. “281. Tridente,” in Principi etruschi tra Mediterraneo ed Europa (exhibition, Bologna, 2000–2001), ed. Bartoloni, G., Delpino, F., Morigi Govi, C., and Sassatelli, G., 242. Bologna: Marsilio.Google Scholar
Radner, K. 2013. “Tabal and Phrygia: Problem Neighbours in the West,” Assyrian Empire Builders. London: University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/tabalandphrygia/ (Consulted 14 September 2016).Google Scholar
Rakov, V., and Uman, M. 2003. Lightning: Physics and Effects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgway, B. S. 1990. “Birds, ‘Meniskoi,’ and Head Attributes in Archaic Greece,” American Journal of Archaeology 94: 583612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, C. B., and Darbyshire, G. (eds.) 2011. The New Chronology of Iron Age Gordion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Rossoni, G. 1997. “I tridenti metallici nel Vicino Oriente antico tra uso pratico e simbologia. Proposte di interpretazione di una particolare classe di materiali,” in Contributi e materiali di archeologia orientale (CMAO vol. 7 = Studi in memoria di Henri Frankfort [1897–1954]), 561590. Rome: Università degli Studi “La Sapienza.”Google Scholar
Sciacca, F. 2003. “Nota sul rhyton a protome di leone da Veio: confronti e produzione,” Archeologia Classica 54: 301319.Google Scholar
Sciacca, F. 2004. “Per una nuova interpretazione del tridente in bronzo dal Circolo del Tridente di Vetulonia,” Archeologia Classica 55: 269282.Google Scholar
Sorrentino, C. 2004. “Il materiale osteologico animale del tumulo di via San Jacopo,” in Archaeologica Pisana. Scritti per Orlando Pancrazi, ed. Bruni, S., Caruso, T., and Massa, M., 366369. Pisa: Giardini Editori.Google Scholar
Steingräber, S., Ridgway, D., and Ridgway, F. R. (eds.) 1986. Etruscan Painting. Catalogue Raisonné of Etruscan Wall Paintings. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Tabolli, J., and Turfa, J. M. 2015. “Un’olla e i suoi ‘Leoni Ruggenti’ da Falerii a Philadelphia,” in Nuovi studi sul bestiario fantastico di età orientalizzante nella penisola italiana, II, Aristonothos. Quaderni 5, ed. Biella, M. C. and Giovanelli, E., 143154. Trento: Tangram.Google Scholar
Turfa, J. M. 2012. Divining the Etruscan World. The Brontoscopic Calendar and Religious Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×