Archaeological Museum of Bologna

Over the centuries it became customary in various ways in Chiusi and its hinterland to give the cinerary urn a human form, almost as if restoring to the deceased the body destroyed by the pyre. Typical Chiusi area ossuaries with a human shape are called “canopic” , because of their resemblance to Egyptian human-headed jars of the same name; they signify tombs of the middle and upper-middle classes in the period from 680–70 to 580 BC.

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In the more advanced phase of production, of which this item is an example, the head is die cast and has a natural appearance, but it is not a portrait, more an idealized depiction of the deceased.

Provenance: From Sarteano (Chiusi), Solaia necropolis
Datation: Late 9th–early 6th century BC
Material: Terracotta
Dimensions: height cm 57,5
Inventory #: IT 1018