Rare Villanovan funeral urn made in incised impasto with geometrical patterns on the top half and the svastika shapes on the body of the urn. There is one handle. This is an exceptional piece, probably designed for a child.
The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy. The Villanovans introduced iron-working to the Italian peninsula; they practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape.
The name Villanovan comes from the type-site, that of the first archaeological finds relating to this advanced culture, remnants of a cemetery found near Villanova. Typial sgraffito decorations of swastikas, squares and other geometrical forms were scratched into the pottery with comb-like tools. Urns were accompanied by simple bronze fibulae, razors and rings.
Villanovan art, 9th century BC
Sold with a thermoluminescence.
Height - 28 cms
In very good condition
