Bronze thymiaterion (incense burner)
Incense burners were popular items among the Etruscans, who often buried their dead with them. This example is typical of a type normally associated with Vulci, the site of extensive bronze-working activity throughout much of Etruscan history. A robust nude youth, a descendant of the Greek kouros type, stands on a triangular platform supported by a tripod with lion's-paw feet. The shaft rising from his head terminates in a plant-like form that originally supported a small bowl for the incense.
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