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Cinerary urn, late 4th or early 3rd century B.C.
Etruscan
Alabaster; H. 17 in. (43.79 cm)
Purchase, 1896 (96.9.225a,b)

The most distinctive burial form developed by the Etruscans, and one that passed from them to the Greek and Roman world, was the convention of placing a reclining effigy of the deceased upon the lid of a sarcophagus or urn. On this typical example from Volterra, an ample Etruscan lady, holding her fan, reclines upon the lid. The front of the urn is decorated with a scene in high relief of Amazons fighting Greeks.


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  • Cinerary urn, late 4th or early 3rd century B.C.
    Etruscan
    Alabaster; H. 17 in. (43.79 cm)
    Purchase, 1896 (96.9.225a,b)