Northern Etruscans

The Pomeranian culture, was an Iron Age culture with origins in parts of the area south of the Baltic Sea, from the 7th c. to the 3rd c. BC, which eventually covered most of today's Poland

People of the Pomeranian culture made these amazing bronze collars.

These collars are commonly thought of being jewellery but it is possible that they were a type of a neck armour. These are depiction of warriors from Tiryns Peloponnese (c. 1500-1200 BC). Bronze statuettes of warrior from Sardinia Italy (c. 1900 BC). Both wearing ring neck amour.

This type of armour was found in Italy (c. 2000-1600 BC).

From Greek age of Bronze.

Pomeranian culture is also known as face urn culture. Reason for that is that they put ashes of the deceased in urns with sculpted faces, possibly resembling the faces of the deceased.

Now interestingly, at the same time, or a bit earlier (they first appear during the 8th centuries BC. ) in Italy, Etruscans also made urns with faces.

I love the more stylised design of the older versions of these Etruscan face urns, like these 4.

One of the most striking examples, to me anyway, is this one. It could have been made in 1930s...

At the same time when both people in Etruria and in South Baltic made face urns, the people in both places also made house urns.

The House Urns culture was an early Iron Age culture of the 7th century BC in central Germany, in the Region between Harz Mountains and the junction of river Saale to river Elbe. It was the western periphery of the bronze and Iron Age Lusatian culture.

At the same time (actually slightly earlier) in Italy, we find Villanova culture, (Early Etruscan culture) which also made house shaped urns

The most elaborate house urns made in Italy come from the Etruscan city of Vulci and date to the 9th century BC. They are made of bronze.

One of my favourite Etruscan house urns is this one, today kept in Vatican museum. Some people will find symbols adorning this urn interesting. I particularly like this one:

Etruscans loved amber, and amber comes from South Baltic. So the trade connection between the two places definitively existed during the time when these two urn traditions developed in both Italy and South Baltic.

Villanovans, early Etruscans, were master amber carvers

What is interesting is that both urn traditions are developed earlier and to the much higher level in Etruria. This points to the corresponding North European traditions being cultural exports from Etruria.

Cultural exports brought along the amber road? The shortest route directly connects these two cultural areas.

These cultural traits are not present along the whole length of the Amber Road. Does this indicate the presence of the Etruscan settlers in the South Baltic area? Maybe to control the amber trade?

Latest Etruscan genetic data shows that they were a very mixed population...But "...the finding of the Central European lineage G2a-L497 (7.1%) at considerable frequency would rather support a Northern European origin of Etruscans"...

Interesting...

The Etruscan sun

This is Etruscan sun shaped dish from Cerveteri, Calabresi tomb, dated to mid 7th century BC (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican Museums, Rome). You can see the high resolution image of this object here.

It belongs to the "bucchero" (bukkero) type of ceramics which was produced in central Italy by the pre-Roman Etruscan population, who called themselves Raseni. Regarded as the "national" pottery of ancient Etruria, bucchero ware is distinguished by its black fabric as well as glossy, black surface achieved through the unique "reduction" method in which it was fired.

This is also one of the most important misunderstood objects that I have come across so far. 

Officially the animals represented on it are bulls and rams????

Actually the two animals at the bottom are two lions, you can clearly see that because they have manes. The animal at the top is a bull. The composition represents summer.  

Summer is the sunny, hot part of the year, which is what the blazing sun shape indicates.

The Summer starts on the 6th of May, Beltane, Jarilo day, which falls in the middle of Taurus zodiac sign. This is what the bull symbolizes. Autumn begins on the 2nd of August, Crom Dubh day, Lughnasadh, Perun day. This day falls in the middle of the Leo zodiac sign and this is what two facing lions symbolize. You can read more about this in my post "Two Crosses" and in my post "Ognjena Marija".

There are also two dogs etched on the sun disc. One dog is standing between the lions, to mark the "dog days", the hottest period of the summer which also falls in the middle of Leo zodiac sign. The other dog is licking bull's neck. The reason why dog is licking the bull's neck is because summer, represented by the bull, is "killed" by autumn, represented by the lion(s). This killing of summer happens during dog days. The dog is licking the bull's neck because the blood is gushing out of it. The bull's neck is symbolically slit when harvest begins just like the "necks" of wheat (wheat stalks) are slit by harvesters during harvest... I talked about the link between harvest and slaughtering in my post "Klas".

Now a question: where else have you seen a dog licking a bull's neck? Can you remember?

So to conclude. The meaning of this object is: The bull is killed by the lion, summer gets replaced by autumn. Harvest begins. Rejoice...

One more interesting thing:

The lions are eating people, which are etched disappearing into lions' mouths. Did Etruscans sacrifice people on the first day of Harvest?