A sixth century B.C. ivory Etruscan sella curulis, the folding seat magistrates sat in throughout the train of their official duties, is newly restored and is again on show on the Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna, northern Italy. The brand new restoration repaired errors made in two earlier interventions, eradicating glue that compromised the traditional ivory and placing the fragments again collectively in a extra believable configuration.
The traditional metropolis of Felsina was based by Etruscans within the sixth century B.C. on the web site of the trendy metropolis of Bologna. Pliny the Elder wrote in his Pure Historical past that it was the “princeps Etruriae,” the first metropolis of Etruria in its heyday. Etruscan Felsina was conquered by the Celtic Boii tribe in 390 B.C. They renamed it Bononia after themselves and the title caught, even after the Boii have been soundly defeated by Rome in 193 B.C.
The stool was found in 1887 on the grounds of the Giardino Margherita park in downtown Bologna. Earlier than the park was inaugurated in 1879, archaeological excavations uncovered a big Etruscan necropolis of 172 tombs. Throughout building of recent pavilions for the 1888 Emilian Exhibition, tomb 173 was discovered, containing a wealthy complement of grave items together with Greek vases of various varieties, jewellery and enormous fragments of an ivory curule seat.
It consists of two pairs of legs crossed in an x form, joined by metallic pins and aspect crosspieces. The seat was mounted to the crosspieces, and was probably product of leather-based. Small seats or stools product of wooden are well-represented in Etruscan archaeology, however the ivory is exceptionally uncommon and the workmanship of the very best high quality. It suggests the chair was positioned within the tomb of a Justice of the Peace.
The whole stool was coated in labored ivory slabs, a alternative that makes it an object out of scale by the same old requirements of northern Etruria. Ivory was a luxurious good, typically imported from Africa or Asia, used for small cult objects or private ornaments. To make use of it for a bit of furnishings, and furthermore for on a regular basis use, suggests the distinctive rank of the deceased.
The speculation superior by students is that the proprietor of the tomb might have been a high-ranking Justice of the Peace of the Felsine Etruscan group, whose authority was additionally manifested via materials symbols corresponding to this. Mediterranean affect, maybe Greek or Anatolian, within the alternative of type and supplies is just not dominated out.
The stool is in a show case with the opposite grave items present in tomb 173. An revolutionary interactive touchscreen subsequent to the show offers guests an outline of the thing and restoration in three modules: a video story of the restoration course of, a digital tour of the tomb, and the graves items in 3D that viewers can rotate and flip.
