The oldest _bucchero_ vases go back to the tombs _a fossa_ of the end of the seventh century. They are small and hand-made, ornamented, if at all, with geometric patterns, incised. The engraving was done by a sort of toothed wheel or a sharp tool; more rarely, hollowed out in grooves. Obviously the process is an imitation of metal engraving. Oriental influence soon appears, first of all in the chalice-shaped cups found at Cervetri, the surface of which is covered with figures of lions, deer, etc., in Oriental style. Both form and decoration are derived from metallic prototypes. The projecting Gryphons’ heads mentioned above are also typical of this class. In tombs of 560-500 B.C., along with Corinthian vases, a different type occurs, the vases being wheel-made, of light and elegant forms—cups, chalices, pyxides, amphorae, and jugs.[2300] The ornament is in the form of reliefs, either stamped from a cylinder on a narrow band, as in the red ware from Caere (see p. 292), or composed of a series of medallions separately modelled or made from moulds and stuck on. This, again, is an imitation of metal. Examples of these types are given in Plate LVII. figs. 1-3, 5. The subjects are not very varied. They range from animals such as stags and lions, or monsters such as Sphinxes and Centaurs, to winged deities, suppliants with offerings before deities, and other mythological figures—Chimaera, the Asiatic Artemis, or the Minotaur. Egyptian masks are also common. Episodes of hunts or banquets occur,[2301] and also groups of figures in meaningless juxtaposition. Some vases have only curvilinear patterns, such as palmettes, all of a vegetable rather than a geometrical type. In this group the general tendency is rather Hellenic than Oriental, especially towards Ionian art.[2302] This is only a temporary phase, and is practically confined to Cervetri, Veii, and Corneto—_i.e._ the maritime region in which the Corinthian vases are found. ------------------------------------------------------ PLATE LVII [Illustration: ETRUSCAN BLACK WARE: HUT-URN AND BUCCHERO (BRITISH MUSEUM). ] ------------------------------------------------------