Femmes et pouvoir en étruire entre sources littéraires et documentation archéologique

The paper aims to provide a synthetic framework and some reflections on the female condition in Etruria with particular regard to the relationship between women and power. The studies of the last thirty years, analyzing the literary and archaeological sources, have outlined an increasingly realistic profile of the Etruscan woman who, despite the differences due to chronologies and sites, undoubtedly appears connoted according to cultural and social models not shared by the contemporary civilizations. Analyzing literary, epigraphic and archaeological testimonies, we will highlight some of those aspects that make it possible to exploit the peculiarities of the woman condition in Etruria. We will pay particular attention to the data from the necropoleis of Bologna dating from the second half of the 6th and the middle of the 4th century BC, object of study of the Chair of Etruscology of the University of Bologna for years. The analysis of the funerary goods and the exegesis of the extraordinary iconographic heritage of the stelai, the most peculiar and compact corpus of funerary monuments of Etruscan Bologna, offer an exceptional sample of research stimulating some reflections on the female world.