Naturally, examination of ritual material dominates scholarship of the Etruscan culture, given the relatively small number of residential, or otherwise non-ritual, sites. In van der Meer's Etrusco Ritu, he organizes the material into three main chapters of family rituals, funerary rituals and public rituals. While these categories are not mutually exclusive in general, he makes a distinction between family rituals, which are usually practised once in a person's lifetime, and public rituals that are usually repeated (14).
Preliminary chapters set the scene by detailing definitions and views of rites and rituals with reference to ancient and modern analogies, as well as surveying recent scholarship on Etruscan rituals. More specifically, in ch. 3, M. includes a welcome description of some of the well-known anthropological and archaeological definitions of ritual. After much discussion of the strengths and shortcomings of the pedigree of definitions related to ‘ritual’, he states simply ‘rites are here intended as single activities and rituals as a series of rites’ (13). He then clarifies his goals by questioning ‘can we recognize and reconstruct private rituals, especially rites of passage, funerary, which are both private and public, and public ones in Etruscan material culture, inscriptions, and Greek and Roman literature’ (13). The appendices include a discussion of Livy's description of the evocatio of Juno after the Roman victory at Veii in 396 b.c. and a translation of the Iguvine Tablets (139–43).
Many of the subsections are extremely short, for instance the discussions on birth and perinatal rites are each less than a page long. Throughout the chapters, the author acknowledges other scholarly interpretations. For example, in the wedding section, M. admits that even the identification of the sex of the individuals sculpted in low relief on a cippus from Poggio Gaiella has been interpreted differently with contrasting conclusions by J.-R. Jannot (15–19). It is also significant to note that not all of the objects referred to in the discussions are included in the figures; at times, this can hamper the reader's ability to judge the analysis. In numerous instances, excerpts of Latin descriptions of Roman rituals are used to find meaning in Etruscan iconography of much earlier date, suggesting long-term continuity of practice between the two cultures — at least according to the author.
In the chapter on family rituals, M. discusses six areas related to important once-in-a-lifetime events as mentioned above: weddings, births, transition to adulthood, immersion and healing, perinatal rites and adoption, along with two additional categories of divination and consecration. With the aid of a sarcophagus lid from Volterra and two bronze mirrors, an insightful discussion of the Etruscan origins of bullae is created in the transition to adulthood section. In the next section on immersion and healing, one example of a terracotta baby votive offering from Peciano with sculpted elements of a bulla and a fibula, is interpreted as an indication that the donor intended the living counterpart of the votive to have a career as a haruspex due to the incorporation of the latter symbol (34–5). This will seem something of a stretch of the imagination to many readers.
The funerary rituals chapter includes a general overview of funerary practices organized by time period, which acts as a useful reference for any reader who is new to the field. However, M. also ascribes sex to cremation burials according to grave goods: for example, razors equal a male burial and spools equal a female burial (47, 48). As consolation, he offers that ‘the material categories cannot always be used to define the sex of the deceased if male artefacts occur with female, and female with male attributes’ (49), but makes no acknowledgement of the cognitive leap based on the traditional dichotomy of grave goods, which focuses on the narrowest understanding of potential intentions behind donations of grave goods.
The public rituals chapter includes a number of key items: the Tabula Capuana, Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis and information concerning Libri Rituales, as well as discussions of the following rituals: foundations of planned cities, pilgrimages and processions, games, time marking, initiation and apotropaic rites. The discussion of processions for Iuno at Falerii Veteres is based on textual evidence (104–10). This discussion could benefit greatly from incorporation of archaeological evidence of the ritual processions of this cult at Falerii Novi (S. Keay et al., PBSR 68 (2000), 1-93).
In the final section, M. concludes that ritual did not consume Etruscan life, and is characterized as ‘highly incidental’ with sometimes daily, monthly or annual occasions (133). I would argue that much of our evidence relates specifically to the heightened occasions of élite Etruscan rituals: inscriptions, votive objects, grave goods, sculpted sarcophagi (all of non-perishable materials) and tomb paintings. Consequently our interpretations of important rituals based on materials involved in important rituals are a self-fulfilling prophecy by virtue of the nature of archaeologically recoverable materials. The frequency, consistency over time and space, or even the perceived importance of particular rituals for Etruscans remains difficult to reconstruct.
This book is a valuable and important contribution to Etruscan studies. It combines different types of evidence to produce new and often alternative interpretations of Etruscan material culture. The larger task of investigating the origins and continuity of Etruscan rituals is stimulating. This book serves to remind us that scholarship on ancient religion and ritual must continue to pursue questions and also acknowledge our limitations in pursuit of progress in what is a marvellously enigmatic field.
