GIFT GIVING

GIFT GIVING: translation

The ritual of gift giving was particularly important in the Orientalizing period, when many personal objects were inscribed with the name of the owner or the act of donation to a god. A good example of the first is the mi larthia inscription (675 to 650 BC) on a silver cup from the Regolini Galassi tomb at Caere. A good example of the second is the mini muluvanice marmarce: apuniie venala inscription on a bucchero jug from the Portonaccio sanctuary at Veii, where Mamarce Apuniie dedicates the jug to Venai. Another clear indication of the practice of gift giving is a group of distinctive plaques, often of ivory, sometimes depicting lions, that carry the name of the owner (e.g., mi avil at Murlo and araz silqetanas spurinas at Sant’Omobono in Rome) and have been interpreted as matching the plaque of a partner, presumably in a distant community.

See also NETWORKS; BIOGRAPHIES OF OBJECTS; POSTCOLONIAL THEORY; TRADE.