A Foreign Motif in Etruscan Jewellery

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to document and discuss some less well known pieces of Etruscan jewellery decorated in the granulated style of the Orientalising period, with special reference to a curious motif occurring on jewels from Praeneste and elsewhere. Although the origin of the motif remains obscure it is almost certainly foreign and is very likely of Phoenician origin. Study of it appears to indicate the impact on Etruscan art of a very highly specialised iconography of which a single Oriental specimen survives.The motif is found in its simplest—and probably most degenerate—form on pendants embossed with female daemon heads, ending below in a rounded striated boss which resembles a fan-palmette or scallop shell attached below the woman's face. Praeneste jewellery is particularly rich in these. The necklace 1449 of Marshall's Catalogue (Marshall, 1911) has nine stumpy pendants in this form, each consisting of two embossed plaques soldered back to back. The curling side-locks of the fat-faced women are clearly seen. This necklace comes from Praeneste as does necklace 1453 of Marshall's Catalogue (at present mounted with a glass face bead of Phoenician type) where the details of the ‘palmette’ have been picked out in fine granules. Hathoric curled locks are clearly shown on either side of the head, and a ribbed collar separates the head from the shell-like ornament below.