The so-called ‘net lekythoi’ are distinguished by the typical net pattern that decorates the body of the vases and constitute one of the most popular magnogreca pottery productions of the 4th century B.C. The class imitated the contemporary Hellenic prototypes and was produced in the Greek poleis of Southern Italy. The ‘net lekythoi’ soon spread far from the productive area and reached both the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts. With regard to the Etruscan evidence, in the central and northern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea the ‘net lekythoi’ are occasionally attested; their distribution seems to have followed a maritime route that involved some important coastal ‘ports of trade’, such as Tarquinia, Aleria, Populonia and Genoa. In this framework, the net-lekythoi circulation is probably to be associated with a major trade route from the Campania region and Southern Etruria to the northern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western emporia of the Mediterranean Sea, as far as Gallia and the Iberian Peninsula, within a system defined as the facies of ports.
