Posted on 10/19/2011 9:01:38 AM PDT by decimon
An archaeological excavation at Poggio Colla, the site of a 2,700-year-old Etruscan settlement in Italy's Mugello Valley, has turned up a surprising and unique find: two images of a woman giving birth to a child.
Researchers from the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, which oversees the Poggio Colla excavation site some 20 miles northeast of Florence, discovered the images on a small fragment from a ceramic vessel that is more than 2,600 years old.
The images show the head and shoulders of a baby emerging from a mother represented with her knees raised and her face shown in profile, one arm raised, and a long ponytail running down her back.
The excavation is a project of Southern Methodist University, Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn., and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, in collaboration with The Open University in Milton Keynes, England.
The identification of the scene was made by Phil Perkins, an authority on Etruscan bucchero and professor of archaeology at The Open University.
"We were astounded to see this intimate scene; it must be the earliest representation of childbirth in Western art," said Perkins. "Etruscan women are usually represented feasting or participating in rituals, or they are goddesses. Now we have to solve the mystery of who she is and who her child is."
The Etruscans were the first settlers of Italy, long before the Roman Empire. They built the first cities, were a conduit for the introduction of Greek culture to the Romans, and were known for their art, agriculture, fine metalworking and commerce. They occupied Italy for the first millennium B.C., but were conquered by the Romans and eventually became absorbed into their empire.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.smu.edu ...
e-truscan ping.
I guess it must be an invasion of privacy to actually show the image. Cool story otherwise but it’s hard to understand a story about an image that does not contain the image.
Thanks.
If that’s how Etruscan women looked then it’s no wonder they are no more.
DNA tests on their Italian descendants show the 'tuscii' came from Turkey
Interesting. Vergil says, “I told you so!”
How'd they give birth thru those Etruscan Tubez
DNA tests on their Italian descendants show the 'tuscii' came from Turkey
Then that baby resulted from a turkey baster, so to speak.
So then....does this mean that Virgil's Aneid is NOT just another mythical tale?
Failopian. ;-)
Am I paying for this?
That is correct. Virgil’s epic centered around the survivors of Troy migrating to the Italian penninsula and eventually founding Rome.
Somebody’s got one heck of an imagination.
;’)
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Thanks decimon. |
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...yep; and what they’re imagining is not what I imagine I’m seeing.
And posted on a ‘family friendly’ site, no less. *<];-’)
LOL you win!
I think these researchers have it wrong. It looks like a two headed ancient alien to me.
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