Sacred consumptionscapes in northern Etruria (7th-5th centuries BCE). Consumption and re-semantization of pottery in sanctuaries

This article discusses 7th-5th centuries BCE sanctuaries in northern Etruria (especially in the Mugello, Casentino and Arno Valley) as contexts for the ‘re-semantization’ of objects, symbols and ‘things’. For this purpose, I examine three examples of non-local goods that were imported and then consumed in North Etruscan sanctuaries: (1) Greek imported pottery; (2) jugs with geometric decorations from Etruria Padana; and (3) the motif of crouching female figures that I believe originates in southern Etruria.
I argue that the three case studies examined here focus on valuable, scarce goods and show changes of material, meaning, and function, through their transfer to new sacred consumption contexts. In this sense, Greek drinking cups, oinochoai from the Po Valley, and a South Etruscan motif played new exclusive roles as prestigious media, cult instruments and signs in specific North Etruscan sanctuaries, thus creating new shared common consumption patterns and sacred ‘consumptionscapes’.