Das Isisgrab von Vulci

The Isis-Tomb of Vulci is one of the most conspicuous monuments of the Orientalizing Period in Etruria. Discovered in 1839, in the hayday of archaeological activity on ancient Etruscan territory, the enormously rich and well-preserved finds were fully recovered, while the structure itself was refilled with earth immediately thereafter. As a consequence, the sepulchre as such is since lost. However the finds have survived and conflued with several collections in Europe. The nucleus of objects, including the prominent Egyptian and Egyptianzing finds, which had inspired the name of the tomb, have entered the British Museum in 1850 and have been on display there ever since. Despite their general prominence as highlights of the Etruscan collection of that museum and, more generally, as prime examples of the late Orientalizing Period in Etruria, these objects have never been adequately studied. Based upon a thorough investigation of the history and definition of the tomb-group, which will be published in a separat volume, the present manuscript deals with both, the objects in the British Museum, which will be properly published for the first time, and the other objects from the Isis-Tomb, which have never reached the British Museum. The concluding chapter of the present manuscript is fully dedicated to the Isis-Tomb of Vulci and its significance for the cultural history of Etruria in the late seventh century BCE. This outstanding monument gives evidence of the most vivid cultural contacts between the Etruscans on the one side and various peoples of the Aegean and the East Mediterranean, among which Ionians, Phoenicians and Egyptians, on the other. It is, indeed, a markstone of Etruscan cultural history, and as such hardly rivalled by any other surviving monument.