Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Moscow
A huge number of realistic human images remained from the artistic heritage of antiquity, including those from the Etruscans (Central Italy, Tuscany, VIII–II centuries BC). Realistic individual human images are portrayed in Etruscan funerary and votive sculpture and coroplastics. This work is aimed at studying the possibilities of providing anthropological description of appearance and characteristics of the physical type based on the Etruscan funerary wall paintings (frescoes from 30 tombs). The range of dating of wall paintings is between 6th and 2nd centuries BC. A total of 142 male and 49 female images were examined. In this study, Etruscan wall paintings were studied from an anthropological point of view for evaluation of the physical type of the Etruscans, in particular, the morphology of the facial soft tissues, the beard, mustache and head hair characteristics and pigmentation. To describe the morphological features of a person, a scoring system for the degree of a trait development was applied [Perevozchicov et al., 2012], adapted for this sample. The frequency of occurrence (in percent) of the observed variations was calculated. Due to the quality and specificity of the images, anthropological descriptive program included only limited number of features. In most cases, faces in frescoes are depicted in the profile, which allowed to describe only six morphological features of the face: the profile of the dorsum of the nose, the profile of the upper lip, the height of the nasal bridge, the height of the upper lip, the height and shape of the chin. How close the morphology of the face, depicted on the frescos, correlates with the morphological diversity of the group, will be possible to determine only by comparison with the sculptural (three-dimensional) reproduction of Etruscan faces. The image of the skin and hair color is not related to the plot, but is connected with the sex of a person depicted: women in frescoes were depicted mostly with very light skin and often with light or red hair, men - with a skin of brown shades. The image of pigmentation on frescos (skin color, hair color) should be carefully examined, since there is no evidence of Etruscan pigmentation, and despite the canon, they can indeed reflect the distribution of different variants in the group. The generalization of what has been seen in Etruscan funeral painting from the point of view of anthropology suggests that we are presented with a group with pronounced intra-group differences in skin color and hair, predominantly wavy not light hair, with strong beard development in men, with a predominantly straight nose of large sizes, with medium or high nasal bridge. The extent to which these images reflect the actual distribution of anthropological traits in this group requires further consideration and discussion.
anthropology, Etruscans, ancient human images, Etruscan wall painting, physical type of Etruscans, anthropology of Etruscans, antique portrait
Цит.: Shpak L.Y. On the physical type of Etruscans. Part 1. Descriptive traits of appearance (face) on the materials of Etruscan painting // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2017; 3/2017; с. 114-122
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