furnace, and shows a marked tendency
to imitate metal.

To this period also belongs the famous Polledrara tomb or Grotto d'lside
at Vulci, the contents of which are now in the British Museum and
include some remarkable specimens of pottery. It dates from about
620-610 B.C. The most remarkable of the vases is a _hydria_, of
reddish-brown clay covered with a lustrous black slip on which have been
painted designs in red, blue and a yellowish white. The colours have
unfortunately now almost disappeared, and it is doubtful if they had
been fired. The principal subject is from the story of Theseus and
Ariadne. This tomb also contained a large wheel-made _pithos_ of red
_impasto_ ware with designs painted in polychrome. In the
Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri (about 650 B.C.) large cauldrons of
red glossy ware were found, with gryphons' heads projecting all round,
to which chains were attached. A similar cauldron from Falerii on a high
open-work stand is now in the British Museum.

We now come to the _bucchero_ ware, which is characteristic of the later
portion of this period, though the earliest examples go back to the end
of the 7th century. Its main feature is the black paste of which it is
composed, covered with a more or less shining black slip. Modern
experiments seem to indicate that the clay was smoked or fumigated in a
closed chamber after baking, becoming thereby blackened throughout, and
the surface was then polished with wax and resin. Analyses of the ware
have proved that it contains carbon and that it had been lightly fired.
The oldest _bucchero_ vases are small and hand-made, sometimes with
incised geometrical patterns engraved with a sharp tool like metal-work.
Oriental influence then appears in a series of chalice-shaped cups found
at Cervetri with friezes of animals. From about 560 B.C. onwards the
vases are all wheel-made, with ornaments in relief either stamped from a
cylinder or composed of separate medallions attached to the vase. The
subjects range from animals or monsters to winged deities or suppliants
making offerings (fig. 34); in other cases we find meaningless groups of
figures or plant forms. These types are found chiefly in southern
Etruria, but at Chiusi (_Clusium_) a more elaborate variety found favour
from about 500 to 300 B.C. The shapes are very varied and the ornament
covers the vase from top to bottom, the covers of the vases being also
frequently modelled in various forms. The figures a