This paper examines the relationship between images of women on funerary monuments in Etruria and Anatolia, with particular focus on the so-called “female assembly scenes” on Chiusine cippi of the Late Archaic period. In these reliefs, groups of seated women drape and exchange textiles among each other. Although scholarly opinion differs on the meanings of these scenes, the visual focus on cloth as a component of social or religious ritual is paramount. The importance of the textile within the specific Etruscan context of these scenes is further emphasized when considered alongside contemporaneous reliefs in Anatolia associated with females, most notably those on the Polyxena sarcophagus from a tomb in the northern Troad. Through both visual analysis and attention to broader issues of gendered representation and identity, this chapter examines the importance of cultural context for interpreting female-focused narratives in both ancient Etruria and Anatolia.

This chapter combines all the settlement evidence to present five regions of contrast: South Etruria (Veii, Nepi, Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Tuscania, Bisenzio, Acquarossa, Orvieto, Vulci); the Albegna valley; Maremma (Populonia, Vetulonia, Roselle, Murlo, Volterra, Pisa,Val d’Arno, Fiesole); Chiusi; Perugia and Gubbio. The result is a tapestry of variation, showing that Etruscans cities operated differently in the different political and geogaphical contexts.