UNA NUOVA TOMBA “DEL TRIPODE” DA ZAMBRA? NOTE ARCHIVISTICHE SU UN CONTESTO PERDUTO DELLE NECROPOLI CERETANE

Abstract

This work mainly aims to give news of a context investigated in 1841 in the Zambra estate, near the
Etruscan city of Caere, by Teresa Caetani, Duchess of Semoneta, the documentation of which has
recently been found and analyzed. The main peculiarity of the funeral equipment discovered at the
time is the presence of some bronze fragments that can probably be interpreted as the remains of a
tripod of a particular rare and elitist category, the so-called «rod tripods». The article then discusses
the possibility of identifying these fragments with some currently preserved in Copenhagen, to
which the descriptions would appear to correspond and which find an exceptional comparison with
another specimen found in Falerii. Although they are different from all other currently known tripods,
they resemble each other to the point that it is possible to speak of «twin tripods» and the last
part of the work focuses on the meaning to be attributed to the bond that is created between these
two exceptional objects.

Keywords: Cerveteri; Tripods; Bronzes; Archaic period; Zambra; Archival studies; Caetani Family;
Aristocratic gift-exchange.