LA TOMBA DI UN ARISTOCRATICO NAUKLEROS DALL’AGRO VEIENTANO IL KANTHAROS CON SCENA DI NAVIGAZIONE DI VIA A. D’AVACK

Knowledge of the economy and the social structure of Veii and its territory in the Orientalizing period has been enriched as a result of an extensive excavation in the necropolis of Via A. D’Avack (Rome, Municipio XX) discovered in 2008 along the ancient via Veientana. The cemetery constitutes an interesting new study case that has afforded us the possibility to investigate a group of 8 aristocratic chamber tombs (7th century BC.) and significant traces of agricultural landscape. Among these, tomb 3 belongs to a prominent person whose grave goods define the image of a rich landowner who is at the same time engaged in sea trade. The naukleros in his underworld journey was accompanied by a rich banquet set as used in aristocratic circles. The ceremonial kantharos displaying engraved decoration shows the most complex navigation scene known to us so far in the art of Etruria.