Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 55.djvu/39

Rh betrays much the same grade of skill in manufacture as the one from Watsch. Its flat development is shown by the accompanying cut. The scenes represented are not dissimilar. The boxers armed with the cestus, the chariots, and horses closely resemble one another. No doubt of a close intercourse between the two regions of Bologna and Austria possibly exist. The influence of the second or native element in prehistoric Italian civilization appears most clearly in the Etruscan period. Etruria, lying south of the Apennines, was more essentially Italian, as we might expect, than the region about Bologna, where the Umbro-Hallstatt or continental culture flourished. It is easy to note the superiority in the former case. It is most clearly indicated in the pottery. Here we find an art which is truly indigenous to the climate and soil of the Mediterranean.

Popularly, the word "Etruscan" at once suggests the ceramic art; the progress effected in a short was certainly startling To give an idea of the sudden change, we have reproduced upon page 30 illustrations of typical bits of Italian pottery. The first vase, prior to the full Etruscan culture, shows its crudity at once, both in its defects of form and the plainness and simplicity of its ornamentation. Such a vessel might have been made in Mexico or even by our own Pueblo Indians In a century or two some teacher made it possible to produce the sample depicted in the next cut. Perfect in form, superb in grace of