"Un frammento in impasto inciso con scena nautica da Montalcino"

This paper presents the analysis of an incised impasto fragment, probably coming from the territory of Montalcino (Castelnuovo dell’Abate) and characterized by a figurative scene. A warship, a bird, a goat, or ram and, probably, a siren appear in the central decorative scene. Despite a clear inability in the incisions, this ‘new’ document enriches the record of late Orientalising – or early Archaic – impasto productions. Considering the fragmentary nature of this fragment and the lack of a precise context of provenance, the exegesis of the figurative scene is complex. The association of a shipwreck scene with the siren (?) and the ram perhaps refers to the Odysseus nostos, in the more general context of well-known motives, which recur, for example, on the white-on-red impasto amphora, eponym of the Siren-Assurattasche Painter from tomb 17 of the Banditaccia necropolis.