Tomba del Tuffatore

I was quite struck by the Tomb of the Diver cover slab fresco from one of our recent readings, so for my blog post this week I wanted to investigate the work in a more independent context in order to explore its importance more in-depth. What I found most striking about the fresco at first glance was the eternality of its theme and consequent mode of expression. Here I was, looking at the fresco nearly 2,500 years later, and still able to immediately identify exactly what the artist was depicting. Not only that, but diving as a motif is still very applicable to my daily life as a member of the swim/dive team. Even the swan dive technique remains the same, although the diver’s toes should be more pointed than flexed.

Turning now to the history and importance of this archaeological site; the Tomb of the Diver (Tomba del Tuffatore) was built around 470 BCE in southern Italy. The necropolis the tomb is situated within is just 1.5 km south of the Greek city of Paestum in Magna Graecia. This geographical context is an important part of conceptualizing the tomb as an artifact of converging cultures: Greek and Etruscan. Paestum would have been a liminal sort of city, right on the border of Greek and Etruscan zones of influence at the nearby River Sele. Greek wall paintings in other types of buildings were common but most have not survived, while Etruscan/other regional Italic societies have left behind many well-preserved tomb paintings.  Obviously, cross-cultural contact with their Etsrucan neighbors inspired the Greeks to adopt the Etruscan practices of tomb paintings and human depictions, with this unique artifact reflecting this immersion of cultures as manifested in funerary art. Shockingly underscored by Neer, this tomb is actually the “only example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating from the Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods to survive in its entirety. Among the thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BCE), this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human subjects.” (Holloway, 365)

Researching this site reminded me of our class discussion from Monday on archaeology as a convergence of the studies of both science and the humanities following from Andrew Pickering’s article, “Material Culture and the Dance of Agency.” As Pickering highlights in his writings, there are issues in applying scientific standards to archaeology. From a more scientific perspective that focuses on data analysis from sample sizes, a lack of other Greek paintings with figured scenes on tombs from this time period could easily dismiss this site as an irrelevant anomaly in greater regional trends of funerary art. A statistical or scientific analysis that focuses only on the of amount of material culture produced or how much of its survives eschews the cultural significance and subsequent historical/archaeological implications of the site. Yet within its proper context of cross-cultural exchange between Greek and Etruscans, the site takes on major importance in its uniqueness and individuality. By switching the lens with which we interpret the site from scientific to humanistic, and engaging in reciprocal entwinement of the archaeological “dance of agency” as Pickering would have us do, a statistically insignificant site becomes an exceptional one.

References:

Pickering, A. (2010-09-02). Material Culture and the Dance of Agency. In  (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Oxford University Press.

R. Ross Holloway. The Tomb of the Diver, in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 110, n. 3, July 2006 (pp. 365–388).