Subgeometric Plate

From the Getty Museum record

A band of stylized birds, generally referred to as herons, decorates the underside of this Etruscan plate. The greatly elongated, silhouetted bodies of the birds completely fill the space. The small pair of holes just below the rim is a frequent feature of Etruscan plates in this period; they may have been used to hang the vessels when not in use. The plate's shape appears to be an adaptation of Phoenician plates, also decorated with concentric circles, that were imported to Italy. The Etruscan potter created a new class of pottery by merging this Phoenician shape with a Greek decorative syntax and an Etruscan motif. Typical of a style scholars call sub-Geometric, this plate and its mate retained the primarily linear decoration of the earlier Geometric period at a time when other artists were producing works in the new Orientalizing style.