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Bronze cinerary urn with lid

ca. 500 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 170
Large hammered-bronze urns, often with solid-cast figures on the lid, were frequently used for cremated remains in Etruscan dominated Campania. Several examples have been found at Capua, that region's major city, and they were likely produced there from the late sixth to the mid-fifth century B.C. The statuettes added to the lid of this elaborately incised urn show a large nude diskos thrower surrounded by four Scythian archers mounted on rearing horses.
On the underside of the urn a two-letter inscription is engraved on the attached foot ring. It comprises two Etruscan characters: a khi (which looks like a V with a line in the center), and a V. These two characters probably indicate the number 55. The khi is in a late Etruscan letter form that is appropriate for the urn's date. The significance of the numeral remains unclear.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bronze cinerary urn with lid
  • Period: Archaic
  • Date: ca. 500 BCE
  • Culture: Etruscan, Campanian
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: 19 1/16 in. × 16 in. (48.5 cm)
  • Classification: Bronzes
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1940
  • Object Number: 40.11.3a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art

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Glass cinerary urn with lid, Glass, Roman
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mid-1st century CE
Bronze horse, Bronze, South Italian
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ca. 570–560 BCE
Terracotta stamnoid cinerary urn with lid, Terracotta, Etruscan
Terracotta stamnoid cinerary urn with lid
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ca. 650–600 BCE

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