The Late etruscan votive heads from Tessennano. A study of production, distribution and sociohistorical context

Sammanfattning: The Late etruscan terracotta votive heads from Tessennano were found near a rural sanctuary about a hundred km to the North of Rome in 1956. Whereas the facial fronts are serially produced with moulds, the backs are handmade. By using not only the moulded and the handmade features but the raw material (clay and temper) as well, it has been possible to make suggestions as to how, when and where they were produced. The study also considers the identity of the venerants who donated the heads to the sanctuary. In order to study the ancient use of moulds, a replication of the serial production was carried out. With modern moulds, produced by one of the ancient heads of good quality, two hundred heads were produed. The wear of the ancient moulds could be discerned by comparing casts of good quality with bad ones. These were in their turn compared with the wear of the modern moulds. Thereby, the approximate minimum number (several thousands) of casts that were made by the ancient moulds before they were used for making the preserved heads could be established. The dating of the heads are based mainly on stylistic comparisons with Greek sculpture whose datings are known from literary sources. However, the reclining lid statues on some terracotta sarcophagi from Tuscania as well as other finds from the tombs in which the sarcophagi were found provided valuable information for the chronology as well. The heads of these lid statues are made with moulds identical or related with those that were used for the heads from Tessennano. The votive heads have been dated from c.300 B.C. to the early first century B.C. Votive heads made with identical or related moulds have been found in Tarquinia, Vulci, Saturnia and Pitigliano. Samples of raw clay were collected at all locations where such heads have been found and around Tuscania as well. The clays were compared with samples of the terracottas using petrographic microscopy by means of thin sections and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Comparative studies of the raw material as well as of the handmade backs suggest that the heads were produced at several locations. However, a large part could be attributed to the same workshops at Tuscania who made the terracotta sarcophagi as well. Three main ways of distributing the types to vaious locations are considered: craft circulation, mould circulation and product circulation. No evidence of craft circulation could be found. There are some indications of a coroplast (clay sculptor) working at Tarquinia and Vulci in the first half of the second century B.C. The evidence of mould circulation is confined to the late third and first half of the second century. Product circulation seems to have been the most frequent way of distribution. Various kinds of evidence (topographical, archaeological and iconographical) suggests that the venerants were Roman colonists rather than local inhabitants.