Impasto pottery was a local pottery produced in Italy during the Villanovan early Iron Age in the Etruria region. Although it varied between each production centre, it was generally a coarse, grey pottery with a burnished (polished) surface. In the early period it was by hand, but later was thrown on a potter's wheel. In the archaic period this grey impasto pottery developed into the finely burnished black Etruscan 'bucchero' pottery.

This shape of this shallow bowl (phiale) with vertical fluting was inspired by metal bowls of the same shape, which were used for making offerings. The earliest metal bowls were imported from Assyria or Phoenicia, where this shape had been customary since 2000 BC, and were imitated by Etruscan potters. Pottery vessels of this type are found in princely Etruscan tombs from about 750 BC.