Antiquities Circle Lecture - The Etruscans

My name is Brittany Bevel. I'm the education curator for the Tampa Museum of Art and it is my pleasure to welcome you all for this virtual Antiquities Circle lecture on the Etruscans. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Antiquities Circle members for their continued support of the museum and of programs associated with our Classical Antiquities collection. The Antiquities Circle is a membership add-on at the museum and if you're interested in joining or learning more, I'll be sending links for more information about the program in the chat function. You can also find more information by visiting tampamuseum.org. I am so excited to introduce today's speaker. The Tampa Museum of Art has appointed Dr. Branko van Oppen as Consulting Curator of Ancient Art. During the pandemic, Dr. van Oppen will join the museum from the Netherlands where he currently resides. He is an ancient historian specializing in queenship during the period from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. He received his PhD from the City University of New York and recently has worked at the Allard Pearson Museum which holds the archaeological collection of the University of Amsterdam. With that, I'd like to invite Branko to turn on his camera and begin the presentation for this afternoon. Thank you, Brittany, for that introduction and hello to all and thank you for joining today's Antiquities Circle lecture. In the webinar today, I would like to pitch a proposal for an exhibition. I have done so in previous lectures and I would like to do that again today, this time about the Etruscans. Using first the TMA collection as a starting point and additionally, I will present a concept with selected objects from museums for a more prominent exhibition project. Before I start, I would like to thank the TMA for all their support and assistance providing information and images over the past weeks and months while I am working from home across the Atlantic, six time zones away. As Brittany has already mentioned, feel free to leave comments, raise hands to the chat or if you're on Facebook, leave a comment there. We are always very interested to hear what you think and there is room for questions also after this chat. So with that said, I would like us to begin. The Etruscans are a fascinating ancient people about whom much remains a mystery. They inhabited an area of northern Italy, approximately present-day Tuscany and beyond, immediately above Laetium of which Rome became the capital in antiquity. It is only through their often violent contact with the Romans that we know something about the Etruscan history. They have left no historical accounts of their own, or if they, we know that they did, but they have not survived to our time. Their written language can be deciphered and partially understood, but its linguistic origins have yet to be ascertained and it is certainly that it is not an Indo-European language like English or Latin or Greek. Etruscan culture was also influenced by different cultures that surround the area. Central European and Celtic culture, for instance, Greek culture, particularly Corinthian and Athenian, as well as the Punic and Phoenician cultures from Carthage and the Near East. The Etruscan culture emerged from an Iron Age culture that is called Villanovan, which reached its height from the 9th through the 7th centuries BCE. Etruscan civilization on its own reached its height in the second quarter of the first millennium, that is to say from the 7th through the 5th century, after which it was gradually subsumed by the Roman sphere of influence, which was a long process of acculturation spanning from the 5th through the 1st centuries BCE. Gaining their wealth through copper and iron trade and joined into a federation of city-states, the Etruscan culture is best known from tombs and temples. Much of the preserved Etruscan material culture is therefore of a punerary or religious nature. Some salient insight can be gleaned from archaeological remains, in combination with Greek and Latin historiography. The Etruscan pantheon included gods of the sun and moon, land and sea, love and war, birth and death. Apart from their indigenous deities, some of their gods and heroic figures were adapted from Greek and Roman myth and religion. Other figures reveal influence from Central European, Punic and even Egyptian religion. An important role was conferred on priests who, through divinization such as inspecting animal entrails, interpreted the will of the gods. The Etruscan aristocracy participated in an elite culture of exchange, revolving around sophisticated wine consumption and gift-giving, reaching from Petruria to Magna Graecia in southern Italy. Their wealth was flaunted in rich jewelry worn by Etruscan women and the beautifully decorated mirrors with which they adjusted their appearance. Etruscan military power is reflected in their warriors' impressive armor. Etruscan artwork consists of large and small-scale bronze and terracotta statues, architecture and its decorative elements such as antifixes, metalware such as what you see here, a drum-shaped cosmetic box or candle holders and incense burners, and ceramic vessels, for instance, in the so-called Buccaro technique, specifically Etruscan ware that imitates metal vessels. Aristocratic family tombs house anthropomorphe sarcophagi, or cinerary urns, which often place emphasis on married couples, such as this beautiful example from the Louvre that you see on this image. Disparity may be understood in such a way that the position of noble women was more prominent than that of their Greek or Roman counterparts. Rich grave goods attest once more to the wealth of the Etruscan elite. The walls of the Etruscan tombs, particularly at Starquinia, were embellished with colorful frescoes, paintings that depict scenes of mythology and funerary banquets such as here in the background, as well as occasionally scenes of hunting, athletics and everyday life. The importance of aristocratic funerary architecture and its decoration indicates that the Etruscan elites placed great emphasis on commemorating their dead, and it also illustrates their belief in the afterlife. Now before I move on at this point, are there perhaps questions that I could address? If not, then so far. Excellent, then let's move on the proposal of an exhibition based on the TMA Etruscan collection. Because the Antiquities Collection of the Tampa Museum of Arts contains a respectable assortment of about 55 Etruscan objects, covering a period of about 500 years, from 750 to about 250 BCE. Now notably, 18 items derive from the Richard and Mary Perry bequest. Six are part of the acquisition of the Joseph Beach Noble Collection, another six were given by Mr. and Mrs. Moody, and six more are the bequest of Charlotte Dunwoody. So some of the very prominent friends of the museum in the past have donated or have bequested their objects to this collection. These objects include about 15 bronze figurines, a dozen items of jewelry and a mirror, a cinerary urn, and additionally various types of vessels. You see a collection of Etruscan pottery over here. Together, these objects illustrate aspects of four main themes. There's myth and religion, jewelry, pottery, everyday human animal life, as well as death that makes four. Accompanied by colorful and illustrative images, these 55 objects would suffice for a focused display on the TMA's Etruscan collection in one of the museum's galleries. Now what I would like to do is give you a quick illustration of some of the examples of the objects in the collection and what kinds of themes the museum could illustrate with these artifacts in the Etruscan collection. What you see here, for instance, are some figures representing deities and mythological beings from Etruscan religion. From left to right, at the top, you see Turan, Amins, Tuns, and Aplu, who you might compare to the Greek Aphrodite, Eros, Hermes, and Apollo, or the Roman Venus, Amor, and Mercury. Now Apollo is a Greek deity who did not have an originally Roman or Etruscan equivalent. Both the Romans and the Etruscans adopted Apollo wholesale. The Etruscan goddess of love, Turan, is here shown holding a dove in one hand and a pomegranate in the other, and these are attributes that are not immediately associated with either Aphrodite or with Venus. At the bottom row, you see a scarab, that is an object from Egyptian religion, and a few other objects with aspects of Etruscan religion. This slide shows some of the two dozen objects that illustrate aspects of human and animal life as well as death. The two women with the entwined arms originally served as a handle for a bronze cosmetic box. The wine jug in the bottom row is decorated with dancing women, panthers, and sirens. The plates with the wave-shaped patterns are a produce of chyra, that is present-day cerveterie, that were very popular for everyday use. Many museums in the world have an example. If they have an ancient collection, it is very, very common. Next, a lovely sculptural fragment of a young woman that originally graced an architectural structure, quite likely a temple. While the terracotta statuette was made in Etruria, it is inspired by a Greek marble structural type that is called kore, that is a Greek word that means girl or maiden, an unmarried young woman. Terracotta figurines such as this of young women were a feature of a façade of a temple at Kairi that was predominantly decorated with warriors and amazons and a row of kneeling maidens. You see in the background a little line drawing of that temple façade. On the top, the horsemen are the amazons and the horsemen warriors, and then on the horizontal row, you see the kneeling maidens, and it is assumed that this example belongs to that very same group. What exactly the kneeling girls are supposed to signify is unclear. Perhaps they were good charm figures that ward off evil, that means that they have an apotropaic function. It has also been speculated that they might represent winds or something else that is unfortunately not very well understood. But I'd like to emphasize that this lovely statuette is part of the Peri Bequest to the TMA. This next object is probably my personal favorite, of course that's also why it was the poster image for this lecture. It belongs to the Moody Bequest. It's called a cinerarium, that means an urn or an ash box in which the cremated remains of a deceased person were kept in the family tomb. On the lid you see lying a woman in a heavy pleated dress, a costume that is quite common in the ancient world, in Greece, in Rome, and among the Etrurians. She's lying on a cushion of a couch. At the top frame of the box, not very easily to see, but her name is written from right to left in painted letters of the Etruscan alphabets. If you look closely you might see some red paint and that is her name, and that spells in Etruscan Larthi Kallunai Faisasa. In other words she is called Larthi, she is of the family called Kallun and she was the wife of Faisa. All of these names, Larthi or the male equivalent Larth, Kallun and Faisa, are well attested in other Etruscan documents. The mold made relief on the front of this terracotta box curiously depicts a battle scene of five fighting warriors. And I say curious because it is not immediately apparent why a woman's ashes would be kept in a box decorated with such a masculine theme. Now if you look closely at this photo from the Cortona Museum in Arezzo in Tuscany, you will perhaps notice that the top row of cinerary urns all have very similar scenes, yet the reclining figures on the lid are men and women, boys and girls indiscriminately. These photos, by the way, also give you a good impression of the mass production of these ceramic boxes. One more slide will have to suffice today to show you a selection of cups and vases, the image of course I showed before. The TMA's Etruscan collection includes about two dozen vessels, including two amphoras, that means storage vessels, four ornocoe, wine jugs, and two ariballoi, usually round oil containers, and a handful of cups, including three cantharoi, as well as three urns. They are examples of local ware as well as international manufacture. The two round dishes with satyrs in the central tondo are examples of Feliscan ware, and Feliscan is a language and a peoples that live in the region between Lazio and Eritrea, but the dishes themselves are indistinguishable from Attic red figure ceramics. So this may be an appropriate time to pause for some questions. If there are, I think there is a Q&A. Yes, Dr. Pages would like to know, are there any theories about why we don't have better historical records about the Etruscans? That they were lost is the best answer, which means that there were records in the past, and during the acculturation process some of it may have already gotten lost. We do know that Emperor Claudius, before he became emperor, was actually an expert in Etruscan history, which means that in the first century of the Common Era there was still a good library of historical documents about the Etruscans, but sometime in later antiquity, certainly in the Middle Ages, interest in the Etruscans waned. Probably no one could read the Etruscan language anymore, and if you remember that documents have to be hand copied in order to survive and be transmitted, you can imagine that not everything can be kept. Sometimes it might be burned accidentally, but often documents will deteriorate over time and will have to be copied by hand in order to preserve them. So that's the best what we can do in terms of explaining why so little is known about the Etruscans, but I might also add that actually, apart from the Greeks and the Romans, there is so much we do not know of ancient peoples. Brittany, did another question come up? It did. The head of the lady on the TMA piece looks to be a different style, is it? Can we scroll back? The piece being the Cinerarium? Marion, you didn't specify, but if you, yes, she says yes. It's very likely that these boxes were made of molds, and if you examine them, you will find that, for instance, the fighting warriors reappear on other boxes, and it's the exact same identical scene, meaning that they used the same mold for that. But the background, the friezes, the column, and the little patterns around it might be different, meaning that the artisans in workshops had different molds available with which they could create variations. There's a sort of basic shape, but then you can change the decoration, you can change the scenery, and the same with the lid, that you have a basic body, and you have a mold for that, and you might have a few molds for the head, but you can also sort of add details while the clay is still wet, and that might be why the head is a little sharper, either the mold for the head was fresher than that of the body, or that the artist added some detail with a sharp stylus or other sharp object. That seems to be it for the moment. All right, excellent, so then let's move on to a more ambitious idea of an exhibition in collaboration with some other museums, because if you want to give a more comprehensive overview of Etruscan culture, the TMA collection would not be sufficient for that. You would need a few other museum collections to do such a thing. Such a presentation would allow for a touring exhibition to a few other partner institutions, and what I will do here in a few minutes is suggest exactly that, but if you stay within the same geographic, chronological, and cultural scope, such an arrangement would also substantially broaden the thematic scope of the exhibition, increase the artistic quality of the selected objects on display, and I would say raise the level of interest for the museum visitors both at Tampa and elsewhere. This arrangement allows for a much broader presentation of Etruscan pottery, both of local manufacture and of imported produce, a wider range of metalware, a parade of military artifacts, and a wealth of jewelry, a fuller scope of religious themes, including mythological creatures, divinities, and ritual scenes, more human and animal figures, including an array of human heads, as well as a more in-depth display of sepulchral and funerary aspects. The objects illustrated in this proposal, selected from a choice of collections, show in what artistic delights the museum visitor would be able to revel at the Tampa Museum and the other possible venues. The region of Etruria, present-day Tuscany, was rich in metal resources, especially copper, iron, lead, and silver. Their cast bronze sculptures are particularly famous and were highly desired in antiquity. It is indeed remarkable how much has survived, because bronze and other metals are easily reusable by simply melting down objects. Here you see a selection of Etruscan artifacts from various museum collections, including mirrors, vessels, incense burners, and candle holders. These are some of the more typical Etruscan metalware objects that survived. Brittany, tell me, is that a question for me that I can answer in between? Yes, Bill Zawadzki asked, aren't there some attic vases from the noble collection that were found in Etruscan tombs? Yes, exactly. So this is why, if you want to show Etruscan pottery, you also have to show that some, in fact many, attic vases are found in Italy, in southern Italy, but also in Etruria. So certainly this is why I mentioned that Etruscan pottery includes local manufacture, as well as imported produce. So this slide is for the boys out there, some military artifacts such as helmets, shields, breastplates, greaves, and spear points. Also some bronze and terracotta figurines showing how Etruscan warriors would have looked. Like any other ancient civilization, the army was an important feature of Etruscan society. Campaigns into neighboring regions offered the possibility of additional territory, plunder, and war captives for ransom and for slavery. Military victories were a source of prestige as well as wealth, and most of these military artifacts have been preserved in Etruscan tombs. In my opinion, these human figures are a lot more delightful. They illustrate aspects such as dress, beauty ideals, male nudity, as well as funerary sculpture. They also demonstrate far-reaching influences from elsewhere, not only in Italy and Greece, but even Egypt and Assyria. Also note all the way in the bottom right the anatomical figure with exposed internal organs, which may perhaps have been a votive for stomach ailments. This slide here shows a selection of heads of men and women, as well as mythic creatures such as the gorgon and satyrs. It is difficult to see here, but the bust of a woman on the center left is a stone sculpture with original paint remaining, including red, yellow, faded black, and bluish-purple on the tunic. The terracotta head in the upper left also preserves ample original paint with white for the skin, red for the hair, and gilding on the crown. Vessels were created in shapes of heads too, as you can see here, just as they were in ancient Greece. Some of these vases portray black Africans, and they raise the question if they reflect ethnic uttering. Are they made with genuine respect, or are they examples of stereotypical prejudices based on racism? From human heads, it is perhaps a logical step to jewelry. This selection amply demonstrates the precious jewelry with which the Etruscan elite flaunted their wealth. I imagine the slide speaks for itself, but I would like to draw particular attention to the signet ring in the lower left. The bezel is incised with a winged sphinx in the middle, wearing a cap associated with Etruscan and Roman priests. Above and below are stylized bird-like figures with open wings, and the hull is contained within a rope-like border that resembles a cartouche, that is, the device in which the throne names of Egyptian pharaohs were written. So the whole signet, in fact, displays an Egyptian influence. We could go on, of course, but one more slide will have to suffice for today. In the left column, top to bottom, you can see a satyr, a centaur, and two conjoined winged sphinxes. These are mythic creatures known particularly from Greek religion, although the sphinx also derives from Egypt. These are figures that the Etruscans knew, but what we do not know is what they were called in Etruscan. The ringed figures in the upper center are the sun god Ussil and a divine attendant called Lhasa. Below them, in the middle, are the supreme gods Tin and Merva, that is, the Etruscan version of Minerva. And bottom are perhaps Meampe, a goddess of fertility and victory, a bit like Nike or Victoria, but also a goddess of fertility, hence the little children around her. And next to her is Hercule, the Etruscan version of Hercules. Then in the column on the right is a youth carrying a sacrificial pig, a young priest pouring a libation offer, and a sacrificial scene. I see that this is a good time to ask questions, both on Zoom or perhaps on Facebook, that I can answer. On Zoom, we did have a comment from Michelle Kidwell Gilbert. I believe the Met's great Euphronius crater was also found in an Etruscan tomb, albeit in many places. Yeah, correct. So thanks for that. But it is precisely because these Etruscan tombs were so well preserved that from the 18th, 19th century, when these tombs were reopened, all these artifacts came back that have not survived or have not survived as well in the Greek world. And there are demonstrations of the very intense trade networks and gift exchange networks between at least southern Italy and northern Italy, but probably even directly to the Greek world. Anything else? Not so far. All right. The main purpose of the first option that I present today is a proposal focused on the Etruscan objects of the TMA's Antiquities Collection in its entirety, in a single gallery, without further recontextualization beyond, of course, up-to-date labels and accompanying texts. Another Q&A popped up? It did. Suzanne Williamson asked, would TMA be able to do any research with this exhibit that could add to knowledge of our objects and the Etruscans? You're jumping ahead. I will get back to that in a couple of minutes. Thanks, Suzanne. If you do this single comprised gallery, there might not be much reason to do renewed research. But when you do the second, more comprehensive option, proposing a partnership with some national or North American institutions, then yes, I think doing some research, inviting specialists would be a great idea. It would also allow the museum visitors to better place the objects of the TMA's collection within their cultural context. The TMA collection is certainly respectable, but of course it cannot be comprehensive. The idea would not only be to pair the TMA's Etruscan objects with collections from other museums, but also to send off that exhibition to selected other venues. The chief aim of this second option is to gather some of the most attractive Etruscan objects from national or North American collections. The exhibition may further occasion questions about the significance of cultural exchange for ancient aristocratic communities, the diversity of interactions between Etruscans and other italic and Greek communities, the trade connections with Central Europe, Carthage and Egypt, the martial nature of Etruscan society and the position of women, as well as reflections about the physical manifestation of sepulchral and funerary art and their importance for beliefs in the afterlife. Despite the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, objects cannot really express complexities such as ethnicity and cultural identity. Yet in the case of the Etruscans, the origins, language, culture and ethnicity remain fascinating enigmas for which even seasoned specialists have no convincing answers. Exactly because of these mysteries, the proposed exhibition will allow the TMA to engage the visitors in a dialogue and reconsider some of these issues which in fact also continue to reverberate to the present day. Brittany, what's the question? Oh, it's the same one from before, I just hadn't dismissed it yet. All right, very good. So the first focused option to display the entire Etruscan collection of the TMA in one museum gallery has many benefits and I think that it hardly requires much explanation. These objects have not been presented as an ensemble together. They include big quests of some of the most important past and even a few present supporters of the museum. The presentation will require only a minimum of cost, research, planning and effort, and yet it will allow the museum visitor to appreciate the charm of Etruscan art and culture as distinct from, yet evidently related to, Greek and Roman antiquity. I feel that demonstrating that the museum has an Etruscan collection, that it is not an extension of the Greek and Roman collection but a separate entity in that collection, would be very beneficial. The show could easily be slotted into planning after the upcoming renovation projects have finished. But should the preference be felt for the second option, should that become realistic, the first option may not have to be discounted. If the touring exhibition were to be scheduled, the TMA's Etruscan objects would be off-site for maybe a year or two. The first option might thus be a nice goodbye presentation. While the second could be considered a kind of welcome back occasion for the more comprehensive exhibition. In other words, one need not have to choose, both options could be planned to take place. The more comprehensive approach naturally has many more attractive features that the first option does not have, and the strengths of this option would seem self-evident from what I have just mentioned before. But there are also some weaknesses and pitfalls to consider. There are certainly two collections from which loans will not pose any difficulties. I'm thinking here about the Hearst Museum in Berkeley and the Filth Museum in Chicago. But some of the important items that are necessary for supplementing the exhibition will have to be requested from prominent institutions that may not be so willing to see their objects leave for two years and travel to other venues. It is suggested therefore to choose as collaborating partners two outstanding institutions willing to participate in terms of research, as well as both lender and venue. For this I have in mind the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and either the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum or the Walters Museum in Baltimore. This partnership will then offer the opportunity to present the exhibition to two more venues with a small or with no Etruscan collection at all, such as the Toledo Museum of Art or the Vincent Price Museum in Santa Monica. Let me stress that the TMA or I personally have not been in touch with any of the museums that I have just mentioned. Another major weakness in the present proposal is the absence of objects from Italian collections, such as most obviously the Vatican Museums or the Villa Giulia in Rome. And treating Italian collections would involve a significant investment of both logistical and diplomatic resources and will further increase the expenses. The proposal that I am presenting here is based on the assumption that North American collections will suffice for the purpose of the present project. According to Florida demographic statistics, about five to six percent of the population of the larger Tampa Bay area is of Italian or partially Italian descent. The exhibition then would provide a perfect opportunity for the TMA to strengthen its ties with the local Italian community to demonstrate continued interest in ancient Italian and pre-Roman art and culture for scheduling Tuscany-inspired events at Gasparilla Plaza. The museum could consider collaborations with the Italian Club for instance, or even Little Italy in St. Pete, among others. Indeed, this exhibition is a seamless fit for encouraging tourism to Tuscany, to its archaeological sites, its capital Florence, as well as Pisa and Siena, not to mention the Tuscan vineyards that produce Chianti and Montepulciani wines, among others. Finally, it has to be acknowledged that the current proposal does not aim to present Etruscan art and culture in an innovative design. That is not to say that multimedia applications cannot be developed or that dialogues about issues relevant for contemporary society are to be shown. What I mean to say is that the proposal is in essence a traditional archaeological and art historical project, intending to contextualize the Etruscans in their broader historical and cultural horizon, according to the most recent scholarship. And unless I am mistaken, there has not been an exhibition of this nature about the Etruscans in the entire North America since 2012. And again, to the best of my knowledge, there are about eight museums with relevant Etruscan collections in North America. Of these, the Field Museum in Chicago would be the most obvious institution for supplementing the exhibition with loans, not only because the museum has a relatively substantial collection of nearly 500 highly interesting objects, but also because none are on display. Moreover, the field objects derive either from archaeological excavations or were acquired early in the 20th century, and therefore that avoids issues of provenance. It would have two or three partners, exporters and vendors, for the exhibition, not only for sharing the financial burden with other organizations and institutions, but also to ensure the development of an equitable exhibition partnership. The museum in Philadelphia has a collection of 2,000 Etruscan objects, but naturally their most important pieces are on display in the permanent presentation. The same reasoning will apply to the Etruscan collections at other prominent museums, such as the Getty Villa in Malibu or the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some of these organizations and institutions may eventually become recurrent or long-term partners in a more or less formal consortium for future projects. In my opinion, again, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston would be an ideal partner, not only because of the exceptional quality of their Etruscan collection, but also only just about a dozen objects are on permanent display, leaving over 500 items available for the exhibition, Should the Boston MFA show interest in the proposed exhibition, it would also offer me the exceptional opportunity to work again with the museum's curator, Laure Marrest. The Boston MFA and the TMA could jointly edit an accompanying catalog consisting of invited contributions, for instance by some of these experts mentioned in this list. In addition to a brief catalog of entries for the traveling objects in the exhibition. So before I wrap up my talk, perhaps there are questions that I can address. Is there anything on Facebook? We just had a couple pop up in Zoom. So do you know if there are any teachings about Etruscan history in high school? What questions do you think these objects might present to our young people? What elements and characteristics of the objects would appeal to them? Well, this is interesting. I think that the Etruscans are often neglected in high school. And so if you have a presentation such as this, it would be wise to create a kind of brochure for high school visitors, whether they come with their teacher or in another context. But objects will be interesting. I think the human figures, I think the gods. I made a joke, of course, about the military artifacts, that's typical for boys. I don't mean to be prejudiced, of course, it was meant as a joke, but I'm sure that for many young boys, these military objects are very fascinating. The jewelry is tremendous. But I think a lot of it speaks to people because it's very immediate, recognizable to some extent. Yeah, they have. So another question from Penny Liu, and I apologize, I am probably going to not pronounce these names correctly, but you showed briefly the painting by Henri La Brouste of Etruscan tombs. I was delighted to discover Alma Tatum's video showing the Parthenon Priest of Friends. Has there ever been an exhibit of 18th, 19th century historical paintings dealing with Greek, Roman, Etruscan themes? I'm sure there has been, certainly in terms of more specific, rather than antiquity in general. But it is an absolutely lovely topic, of course, in the 19th century, particularly people like Tadema had almost an obsession with antiquity, not just Greek and Rome, but Egyptian, Etruscan, part of the grand tour for budding artists to visit these sites and be inspired. These are certainly lovely occasions to think of, but I'm not familiar with any recent exhibitions in North America. And then one last question from the chat, from Barbara Stubbs. We learn about the Etruscan culture from what remains of temples and tombs. What do you think would remain from our current culture for future generations to study? Yeah, that's a question that archaeologists have, because a lot of what we do now is so, yeah, it's digital, so that gets lost. Once technology changes, a lot of our material, like our writing material is perishable. Back in antiquity, things were written in stone. Now that's permeable, that survives. So unfortunately, probably plastic will survive. Many of the things that we cherish now, we do not save beyond our life. And so probably less will survive, the buildings, or at least parts of buildings will survive. But a lot of it will get lost. But in antiquity too, of course, more has been lost than has survived. And then just one last comment. So far on Facebook, we've had a couple of comments, and they both would like to thank you for your presentation. Well, my pleasure. I would like to wrap it up, and then we can address any further questions that might come up. In my talk, I have pitched an exhibition proposal. Like I said, I've done so in previous Antiquities Circle lectures. And this one actually consists of two concepts, one of a focused presentation of the entire Etruscan collection of the TMA, and the other, a touring exhibition project in partnership with several North American museums. The Etruscans remain fascinating because of their beautiful works of art and their mysterious origins, but they also continue to be relevant for contemporary society as an example of an ancient people deeply influenced by other cultures with whom they were interconnected through various networks. I would like to close by reiterating what I have said in previous lectures, which is that the ancient world in general continues to inspire and educate us about art and religion, cultural exchange, and ethnic diversity, and many other subjects. The beautiful artifacts on display in the Tampa Museum of Art can thus teach us lessons that remain profoundly relevant today. So please continue to patronage the TMA, to wander around the museum, and to wonder about the ancient, modern, and contemporary art on display. Feel free to connect in your own personal way with the objects, either in the introductory gallery of the TMA's permanent collection of antiquities, or the ongoing Her Story exhibition that focuses on ancient heroines and everyday women. I thank you for your attention. It has been a great pleasure again to propose this exhibition concept, and I hope that one day we may soon meet each other in person. If you have questions, I think there's about 10 minutes left for that. I would personally be very interested in your thoughts, if you believe this exhibition proposal is feasible, if you would be interested in visiting such an exhibition, and if you have any suggestions for improvements. Bronco, perhaps while people are typing, one question I had for you. I know in the past you and Joanna have talked about collectors from the collection in the museum, and I'm curious, you mentioned four prominent collectors for this particular exhibition, and I know there are others within the larger classical antiquity collection. So what does it mean for the museum to have so many passionate collectors of classical antiquity in the area? It means that it is essential to maintain as a museum a relationship with these people who are passionate, who collect for their own personal motives, and to show them that we as a museum are interested in the same subjects. I'm not sure if that fully addresses the issue or answers your question, but it's certainly something that I think a concept like this would help. Same with, for instance, the idea that I gave to have an exhibition about Knossos, to illustrate that the museum is interested in many other aspects of antiquity, and it does not even need to be Mediterranean antiquity. That happens to be what I'm specialized in, but certainly the Etruscans or the Egyptians are very fascinating, and the museum would be very interested in enlarging its collection, and it is through the passion and the support in many different ways from the friends of the museum, collectors in the area, that the museum is able to enlarge that collection. And Bill Zawadzki adds to that, that the museum's Magna Graecia show demonstrates that significant loans, primarily from Italy, are possible if a significant budget is available. Exactly. Money is, of course, always an issue, even for the Getty or for the Metropolitan Museum, even for the big guys, money is always an issue. But that doesn't mean that there is not a lot that a smaller museum or a medium-sized museum can do, and this is why people like Bill Zawadzki and previous sponsors of the museum are so important. There were one or two objects from Bill Zawadzki in the presentation today. Following up on the question that Barbara Stubbs posed, we had a comment from Facebook that Quartz is now collecting our memories, latest in memory chips, so perhaps there's some extension of what will be left behind through new media. There are, yeah, exactly, there are attempts to save our memory for the future, because if we don't do it now it won't happen by itself. And then my last question, just in case, give people another moment to type if that's what they're doing. In this presentation you presented a display of all of the Etruscan works together. I'm curious if in your research into the objects at TMA, if you've gotten an idea of how the Etruscan objects have been displayed in the past. No, at the museum I imagine that that is the question. So no, I imagine that they have mostly been shown as an extension of Greek and Roman culture, and so if you want to show a statue of Venus or Aphrodite, then you put Turan right next to it, implying that they are identical or at least very similar. And an exhibition focused on the Etruscans can emphasize these interconnections certainly, but can also draw out the differences. Thank you. The one last comment it looks like we have is thank you from Brad Arthur, thank you very much for an excellent presentation. Well, it's my pleasure. I see a lot of chat and Q&A pass by, but it's impossible to read everything, sorry folks. But are there two more questions left, Brittany? No, more thank you comments. All right, terrific. Well, thank you all for attending and for your input. It's really a great pleasure to see so many people interested. And to follow up on your request for feedback on the feasibility of this exhibition, all of you who attended today's presentation will receive a link to a survey, and we would greatly appreciate if you could fill that out and give us some more input. Absolutely. With that, thank you so much everybody for attending this afternoon's Antiquity Circle Lecture on the Etruscans. If you want to review any of the material, we did broadcast live on Facebook. So if you visit the museum's Facebook page, you can watch a recording of the lecture. With that, I hope everybody has a wonderful rest of your weekend and a good week ahead. Thank you all again. Thank you, Bronco. My pleasure.