SPOLIA IN S. MARIA MAGGIORE, CERVETERI Though we know Cerveteri as a great Etruscan centre, it had a subsequent existence as a Roman centre and indeed its very name is Roman: the Etruscans knew it as Cisra. Conquered by the Romans in c. 300 BCE, the whole plateau of Caere was inhabited and only began to decline toward the end of the C1 BCE. In the Middle Ages the inhabitants moved into the hills to Ceri (Caere Nova) and only reoccupied Caere Vetus, Cerveteri, in the C11, and only part of the plateau. The ruins of the much larger ancient city were scattered all around. The main nucleus of the new settlement was around the acropolis: the castle and the baronial palace faced each other across the main piazza, and the mother church, S. Maria Maggiore, is still adjacent to today's palazzo Ruspoli. Here we see the dark interior of the old church, full of spolia columns from the Roman settlement that replaced the Etruscan city.

For #SpoliaSunday we're in #Cerveteri, on the huge plain of ancient #Etruscan #Cisra and #Roman #Caere. A corner of the plain was reoccupied in the C10-C11 and its main church was made of local #tufo and #spolia from the Roman city. #AncientBluesky 🏺

TERRACOTTA CINERARY URN LID, 530-520 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE CERITE This lid was found in fragments in a tomb in via delle Serpi in the huge Cerveteri necropolis of the Banditaccia, and pieced back together, much like its more famous colleagues, the Sarcophagi of the Spouses in the Louvre and the Villa Giulia. This couple, a man reclining behind and his wife in front, are attending a banquet, both a celebration of life and of the deceased. Traces of paint can still be detected. The husband is stretching out his hand to receive an unguent being poured by his wife, though her arm is missing from above the elbow. The man has a bare torso but the woman is elegantly dressed in a peplos. The pouring of unguent not only imitates the use of perfumed oils during real banquets, but implies the use of unguents in the preparation of the body for cremation and possibly evokes Dionysiac rituals relating to death.

#SarcophagusSaturday leads us to #Cerveteri, ancient #Etruscan #Caere, where a couple of banqueters affectionately snuggled together on a #sarcophagus lid evoke the reassurance of reunion in the #afterlife. A powerful #Greek influence is visible, even in the enigmatic smiles.