tazza

This is an Etruscan tazza, a type of shallow drinking cup or offering bowl, typical of the refined tableware produced in central Italy before the rise of Rome. The vessel rises on a raised foot, with a distinct funnel-shaped neck and a single, elegant handle that arches high above the rim, splitting into two lobes with a small projecting tongue at the top.

The decoration is restrained and geometric: a band of standing triangles, incised as single grooves, runs around the widest part of the bowl. Between the points of these triangles, small impressed circles have been stamped into the clay. On the inside of the handle, near the rim, are a few horizontal incised lines. It is a modest but deliberate piece of craftsmanship, the sort of object that might have been used in a villa for daily drinking or poured as a libation, its quiet precision speaking to Etruscan taste for order and form.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.