Vatican Museums

In the form of a slightly elongated hemisphere, this item is made of a single beaten sheet of metal. The five lion protomes, facing outwards, are fixed with hammered nails, and have embossed and engraved details. It rests on a high iron tripod with hooks, a good part of which is conserved.
This lebes, along with its twin in the same tomb, is similar to specimens found in Vetulonia (Circle of Lebetes) and Palestrina (Barberini Tomb). It is a type of vessel rather widespread in Etruria, connected to the aristocratic practice of the banquet, and whose precedents should however be sought in the east – northern Syria, Urartu – where the prototypes originated that subsequently spread to the west, due also to Greek mediation. It is hypothesised that these specimens from Cerveteri were produced locally.