Ancient Carved Ambers in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Ancient Carved Ambers in the J. Paul Getty Museum Faya Causey With technical analysis by Jeff Maish, Herant Khanjian, and Michael R. Schilling THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES

This catalogue was first published in 2012 at http: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data //museumcatalogues.getty.edu/amber. The present online version Names: Causey, Faya, author. | Maish, Jeffrey, contributor. | was migrated in 2019 to https://www.getty.edu/publications Khanjian, Herant, contributor. | Schilling, Michael (Michael Roy), /ambers; it features zoomable high-resolution photography; free contributor. | J. Paul Getty Museum, issuing body. PDF, EPUB, and MOBI downloads; and JPG downloads of the Title: Ancient carved ambers in the J. Paul Getty Museum / Faya catalogue images. Causey ; with technical analysis by Jeff Maish, Herant Khanjian, © 2012, 2019 J. Paul Getty Trust and Michael Schilling. Description: Los Angeles : The J. Paul Getty Museum, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “This catalogue provides a general introduction to amber in the ancient world Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a followed by detailed catalogue entries for fifty-six Etruscan, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a Greek, and Italic carved ambers from the J. Paul Getty Museum. copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4 The volume concludes with technical notes about scientific .0/. Figures 3, 9–17, 22–24, 28, 32, 33, 36, 38, 40, 51, and 54 are investigations of these objects and Baltic amber”—Provided by reproduced with the permission of the rights holders publisher. acknowledged in captions and are expressly excluded from the CC Identifiers: LCCN 2019016671 (print) | LCCN 2019981057 (ebook) | BY license covering the rest of this publication. These images may ISBN 9781606066348 (paperback) | ISBN 9781606066355 (epub) not be reproduced, copied, transmitted, or manipulated without | ISBN 9781606060513 (ebook other) consent from the owners, who reserve all rights. Subjects: LCSH: J. Paul Getty Museum—Catalogs. | Amber art objects—Catalogs. | Art objects, Ancient—Catalogs. | Art First edition 2012 objects, Etruscan—Catalogs. | Art objects—California—Los Paperback and ebook editions 2019 Angeles—Catalogs. | LCGFT: Collection catalogs. https://www.github.com/gettypubs/ambers Classification: LCC NK6000 .J3 2019 (print) | LCC NK6000 (ebook) | DDC 709.0109794/94—dc23 Published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016671 Getty Publications LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019981057 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500 Los Angeles, California 90040-1682 Front cover: Pendant: Divinity Holding Hares (detail, 77.AO.82, cat. www.getty.edu/publications no. 4). First edition: Every effort has been made to contact the owners and Marina Belozerskaya and Ruth Evans Lane, Project Editors photographers of objects reproduced here whose names do not Brenda Podemski and Roger Howard,Software Architects appear in the captions. Anyone having further information Elizabeth Zozom and Elizabeth Kahn, Production concerning copyright holders is asked to contact Getty Publications Kurt Hauser, Cover Design so this information can be included in future printings. 2019 editions: URLs cited throughout this catalogue were accessed prior to first Zoe Goldman,Project Editor publication in 2012; during preparation of the present editions in Greg Albers, Digital Manager 2019, some electronic content was found to be no longer available. Maribel Hidalgo Urbaneja, Digital Assistant Where URLs are no longer valid, the author’s original citations have Suzanne Watson,Production been retained, but hyperlinks have been disabled in the online and ebook editions. Distributed in the United States and Canada by the University of Chicago Press Distributed outside the United States and Canada by Yale University Press, London

Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Amber and the Ancient World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Jewelry: Never Just Jewelry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Amber Magic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 What Is Amber? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Where Is Amber Found? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Properties of Amber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Ancient Names for Amber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Color and Other Optical Characteristics: Ancient Perception and Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Ancient Literary Sources on the Origins of Amber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Amber and Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Ancient Transport of Amber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Literary Sources on the Use of Amber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Early Iron Age and the Orientalizing Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Archaic and Afterward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 The Working of Amber: Ancient Evidence and Modern Analysis . . . . . . . . . . 78 The Production of Ancient Figured Amber Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Catalogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Orientalizing Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 1. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

2. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) with Bird . . . . . . . . . 102 3. Pendant: Addorsed Females . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 4. Pendant: Divinity Holding Hares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 5. Pendant: Lion with Swan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 6. Pendant: Paired Lions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Ship with Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 7. Pendant: Ship with Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Korai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 8. Pendant: Standing Female Figure (Kore) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 9. Pendant: Head Fragment from a Standing Female Figure (Kore) . . . . 145 Human Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 10. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 11. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 12. Pendant: Satyr Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 13. Pendant: Satyr Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 14. Pendant: Female Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 15. Pendant: Winged Female Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 16. Pendant: Winged Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 17. Pendant: Female Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 18. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 19. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 20. Pendant: Female Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 21. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 22. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 23. Pendant: Winged Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 24. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 25. Pendant: Female Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 26. Pendant: Female Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

27. Roundel: Animal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 28. Plaque: Addorsed Sphinxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 29. Pendant: Hippocamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 30. Pendant: Cowrie Shell / Hare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 31. Pendant: Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 32. Pendant: Female Animal (Lioness?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Lions’ Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 33. Pendant: Lion’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 34. Spout or Finial: Lion’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 35. Pendant: Lion’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 36. Pendant: Lion’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Boars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 37. Pendant: Foreparts of a Recumbent Boar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 38. Plaque: Addorsed Lions’ Heads with Boar in Relief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Rams’ Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 39. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 40. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 41. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 42. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 43. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 44. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 45. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 46. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 47. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 48. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 49. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 50. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 51. Pendant: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 52. Finial(?): Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 53. Spout or Finial: Ram’s Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Other Animal Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 54. Pendant: Bovine Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 55. Pendant: Horse’s Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 56. Pendant: Asinine Head in Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 57. Statuette: Seated Divinity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum—Jeff Maish,Herant Khanjian,and Michael R. Schilling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Introduction

Amber and the Ancient World The J. Paul Getty Museum collection of amber antiquities The ambers were acquired by their donors on the was formed between 1971 and 1984. Apart from the international art market. The loss of any artifact’s context RomanHead of Medusa(figure 1), which Mr. Getty is immeasurable, and any attempt to discuss ambers acquired as part of a larger purchase of antiquities in without their original context is, to borrow an analogy 1971, all the other ancient amber objects were acquired as from Thorkild Jacobsen, “not unlike entering the world of gifts. The collection is made up primarily of pre-Roman poetry.” Poetry plays a part in locating the cultural material, but also includes a small number of Roman- ambients in which the ambers of this catalogue once period carvings, of which the Head of Medusa is the most performed. In addition to ancient literary sources, the important. The pre-Roman material includes a variety of work here is examined via a large interdisciplinary jewelry elements that date from the seventh to the fourth toolkit, including art history, archaeology, philology, centuries B.C.: fifty-six figured works and approximately pharmacology, anthropology, ethnology, and the history of twelve hundred nonfigured beads, fibulae, and pendants. medicine, religion, and magic. This volume examines the fifty-six objects of pre-Roman At a critical moment in writing this introduction, I read date representing humans, animals, and fantastic two of Roger Moorey’s final contributions, his 2001 creatures, plus a modern imitation. The Getty’s Schweich Lectures, published as Idols of the People: nonfigured pre-Roman objects and the Roman works are Miniature Images of Clay in the Ancient Near East (2003), not included in this catalogue. and his Catalogue of the Ancient Near Eastern Terracottas in the Ashmolean (2004). Both were important to the final shaping of my text. (It is from the latter publication that I borrowed Jacobsen’s quotation.) Certain of Moorey’s observations played critical roles; among them is his cautionary note in the Catalogue: “Even if it may be possible to identify who or what is represented, whether it be natural or supernatural, that does not in itself resolve the question of what activity the terracotta was involved in.”1 Indeed, in what “activity” were these carved ambers involved? This catalogue attempts to address this question. Keeping in mind the challenges presented when working with decontextualized artifacts, I make comparisons to scientifically excavated parallels, to documented works in museums, and, with extra care, to unprovenanced material in other collections, public and private. The evidence suggests that amber was dedicated primarily to female divinities, and that most pre-Roman Figure 1 Head of Medusa, Roman, 1st–2nd century A.D. Amber, H: 5.8 cm amber objects were buried with women and children. (23⁄10 in.), W: 5.8 cm (23⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 71.AO.355. Individually and as a whole, the Getty Museum’s amber objects are important witnesses to the larger social picture of the people who valued the material.2 2

My interest was first sparked by the peculiar nature of the of other contemporary visual arts media. There are many carved amber on display in the British Museum and by reasons for this lag, including the nature of the material itself. Donald Strong’s masterful 1966 catalogue of the material.3 Only a small number of carved amber objects are on display in Strong duly noted the magical aspects of the subjects of public collections; relatively few are published or even Italian Iron Age ambers, and I took as a challenge one illustrated; and too few come from controlled contexts. Many comment: “Many of the more enigmatic subjects among important works are in private collections and remain these carvings probably have a meaning that is no longer unstudied. Moreover, under some burial conditions, and clear to us.”4 because of its chemical and physical structure, amber often suffers over time. Poorly conserved pieces are friable, difficult to NOTES conserve and sometimes even to study; they can be handled only with great care and therefore are notoriously difficult to 1. Moorey 2004, p. 9. photograph, illustrate, or display. Much more remains to be learned about amber objects from a uniform application of 2. White 1992, p. 560: “We have seen in the ethnographic record scientific techniques, such as neutron activation analysis, that material forms of representation are frequently about infrared spectrometry, isotope C12/C13 determination, and political authority and social distinctions. Personal ornaments, pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PYMS), as recent research has constructed of the rare, the sacred, the exotic, or the labor/skill demonstrated. For the various methods of analysis, see the intensive, are universally employed, indeed essential to addendumto this catalogue by Jeff Maish, Herant Khanjian, and distinguish people and peoples from each other.” White’s work Michael Schilling; also Barfod 2005; Langenheim 2003; Serpico on Paleolithic technology, the origins of material representation 2000; Ross 1998; and Barfod 1996. C. W. Beck’s lifetime of work in Europe, and the aesthetics of Paleolithic adornment have on amber is indicated in the bibliographies of these informed this study more than any specific reference might publications. indicate. Throughout his work, White underlines the variety, To date, only a very small percentage of pre-Roman ancient richness, and interpretive complexity of the known corpus of objects have been analyzed. Several key projects specifically prehistoric representations. It is through his work that I began related to the study of amber in pre-Roman Italy were to understand the nonverbal aspects of adornment and to completed in recent years, including the cataloguing of amber consider systems of personal ornamentation. See R. White, in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (D’Ercole 2008), and that in “Systems of Personal Ornamentation in the Early Upper the National Museum, Belgrade, and in Serbia and Montenegro Paleolithic: Methodological Challenges and New Observations,” (Palavestra and Krstić 2006). In addition, two recent exhibitions in Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and of amber from the Italian peninsula, the 2007 Ambre: Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans, ed. P. Mellars et al. (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 287–302; Trasparenze dall’antico, in Naples, and the 2005 Magie d’ambra: and R. White, Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind Amuleti et gioielli della Basilicata antica, in Potenza, have added (New York, 2003), p. 58, where he cites the innovative G. H. much to the picture of amber consumption, especially for pre- Luquet, L’art et la religion des hommes fossiles (Paris, 1926). In the Roman Italy. In 2002, Michael Schilling and Jeffrey Maish of the 2007 article, White publishes the earliest known amber pendant Getty Conservation Institute identified thirty-five ambers in the (the amber is almost certainly from Pyrenean foreland sources), Getty collection as Baltic amber (see the addendum to this from the Archaic Aurignacian level 4c6 at Isturitz, France. catalogue). 3. The watershed British Museum catalogue of carved amber by 4. Strong 1966, p. 11. Strong also comments: “Etruscan necklaces Strong was published in 1966 (Strong 1966). Since that time, include a wide range of amulets of local and foreign derivation there has been considerable research on amber in the ancient and the whole series of ‘Italic’ carvings consist largely of world and related subjects, and a significant number of amber- pendants worn in life as charms and in death with some specific studies have been published during the last several apotropaic purpose. The big necklaces combined several well- years. These range in type from exhibition and collection known symbols of fertility, among them the ram’s head, the catalogues, excavation reports, and in-depth studies of frog, and the cowrie shell. The bulla which is common in amber individual works to broader sociocultural assessments. Still, was one of the best-known forms of amulet in ancient Italy.” many finds and investigations (including excavation reports) (For the bulla, see n. 152.) await publication, and the study of amber objects is behind that Amber and the Ancient World 3

Jewelry: Never Just Jewelry The fifty-six pre-Roman amber objects in this catalogue actions often lack, or carry messages too dangerous or can be considered collectively as jewelry. However, in the controversial to put into words. In life, in funeral rituals, ancient world, as now, jewelry was never just jewelry. and in the grave, the decoration of the body with amber Today, throughout the world, jewelers, artisans, and jewelry and other body ornaments would have had a merchants make or sell religious symbols, good-luck social function, solidifying a group’s belief systems and charms, evil eyes, birthstones, tiaras, mourning pins, reiterating ideas about the afterworld. Perhaps more than wedding rings, and wristwatches. Jewelry can signal any other aspect of the archaeological record, body allegiance to another person, provide guidance, serve a ornamentation is a point of access into the social world of talismanic function, ward away danger, or link the the past. Ethnographers see body ornamentation as wearer to a system of orientation—as does a watch set to affirming the social construct and structure and, when Greenwich Mean Time—or to ritual observances. worn by the political elite, as guaranteeing group beliefs. Birthstones and zodiacal images can connect wearers to Interpretations of the meanings of body ornamentation their planets and astrological signs. Certain items of imagery must consider how “artistic” languages work to jewelry serve as official insignia: for example, the crown create expressive effects that are dependent upon the jewels of a sovereign or the ring of the Pontifex Maximus. setting. A cross or other religious symbol can demonstrate faith or an aspect of belief. Not only goldsmiths make jewelry; so Jewelry is made to be worn; it is often bestowed or given also do healers and other practitioners with varying levels as a gift at significant threshold dates; and it is regularly of skill. In the West today, most jewelry is made for the imbued with or accrues sentimental or status value living; in other parts of the world, objects of adornment because of the giver or a previous wearer or donor. In may be particular to the rituals of death and intended as antiquity, jewelry also was given to the gods (figure 2). permanent accompaniments for the deceased’s remains. Dedications might be made at the transition to Much jewelry, especially if figured, belongs to a womanhood, following a successful birth, or in phenomenology of images, and it functions in ritual ways. thanksgiving. Jewelry of gold, amber, ivory, or other It is part of a social flow of information and can establish, precious materials might be placed on cult statues to form modify, and comment on major social categories, such as part of the statue’s kosmos, or embellishment. In notable age, sex, and status, since it has value, carries meaning, cases, such embellishment was later renewed and the old and suggests communication within groups, regions, and material buried as deposits in sanctuaries.5 often larger geographical areas. Underlying my discussion of ancient carved amber is the belief that jewelry (adornment and body ornamentation) is value-laden and that its form and material qualities (the ancient use of rare and exotic materials reflects labor, skill, and knowledge-intensive production) are powerful indicators of social identity. Permanent ornaments can endure beyond one human life and can connect their wearers to ancestors, thus playing a crucial role in social continuity—especially when we consider that such objects are imbued with an optical authority that words and 4

object of adornment, too, are problematic. One of the more accurate terms, amulet (figure 3), is also loaded, as it is situated on a much-discussed crossroads among magic, medicine, ritual, and religion. Amulet is a modern word, derived from the Latin amuletum, used to describe a powerful or protective personal object worn or carried on the person. “Because of its shape, the material from which it is made, or even just its color,” an amulet “is believed to endow its wearer by magical means with certain powers and capabilities.”7 Figure 2 Ring dedicated to Hera, Greek, ca. 575 B.C. Gilded silver, Diam. (outer): 2.2 cm (7⁄8 in.), Diam. (inner): 1.8 cm (11⁄16 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum,85.AM.264. Jewelry is one of the most powerful and pervasive forms in which humans construct and represent beliefs, values, and social identity. When made by artists or artisans of the highest skill, lifelike images can carry magical and dynamic religious properties and can even be highly charged ritual objects in their own right. Tiny carved amber images buried with people considered to be members of religious-political elites may well have played such a role. Figure 3 Amber necklaces and gold ornaments from the young girl’s Tomb The nature and role of amber-workers—jewelers, 102, Braida di Serra di Vaglio, Italy, ca. 500 B.C. The sphinx pendant, the pharmacists, priests, “wise women,” and magicians—are largest amber pendant, has H: 4.6 cm (13⁄4 in.), L: 8.3 cm (31⁄4 in.), W: 1.5 cm (5⁄8 in.). Approximate total length of strings of amber: 240 cm (941⁄2 in.). critical to reading body ornaments. Not only the materials Potenza, Museo Archeologico Nazionale “Dinu Adamesteanu.” By permission and subjects, but also the technology of jewelry-making, of il Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali—Direzione Regionale per i were integral to its effect. If the materials were precious Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Basilicata—Soprintendenza per i Beni and the making mythic or magical, the results were Archeologici della Basilicata / IKONA. appropriate for the elite, including the gods. The concept NOTES of “maker” also includes supernatural entities, such as magician-gods and other mythic artisans. In the Greek- 5. Paraphrased from D. Williams and J. Ogden, Greek Gold: Jewelry speaking world, the Iliad describes Hephaistos at work in of the Classical World (London, 1994), pp. 31–32. his marine grotto, making arms, armor, and jewelry: elegant brooches, pins, bracelets, and necklaces. The god 6. Many figured ambers might have been brought to an ancient crafted Harmonia’s necklace and Pandora’s crown. Greek-speaking viewer’s mind by the words daidalon, kosmos, Daidalos put his hand to all sorts of creations and gave his andagalma,specifically the daidalon worn by Odysseus: a gold name to one of the most famous of all Greek objects of brooch animated with the image of a hound holding a dappled adornment: Odysseus’s brooch.6 fawn in its forepaws, the fawn struggling to flee (Odyssey 19.225–31). Sarah Morris first brought this example to my This said, there is a problem with the language. The attention. See S. P. Morris, Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art modern wordjewelryis, in the end, limiting and fails to (Princeton, 1992), esp. pp. 27–29. See also Steiner 2001, pp. encompass the full significance of the carved ambers. The 20–21; and F. Frontisi-Ducroux, Dédale: Mythologie de l’artisan en termsornamentandbody ornamentation,adornmentand Grèce ancienne (Paris, 2000). Jewelry 5

What M. J. Bennett (Langdon 1993, pp. 78–80) writes about Galen, for example, sanctions the use of incantations by Greek Geometric plate fibulae might be applicable to other doctors (Dickie 2001, p. 25, and passim). contemporary and later precious figured ornaments in the Other works invaluable for framing this discussion of amulets Greek-speaking world. Objects with complex imagery might and amber areThesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum, vol. 3, reflect “the ordering of the world (kosmos).… Considering that s.v. “magic rituals”; R. Gordon, “Innovation and Authority in kosmos meant ‘the universe,’ ‘order,’ ‘good behavior,’ as well Graeco-Egyptian Magic,” in Kykeon: Studies in Honour of H. S. as ‘a piece of jewelry,’ the fibula was not a mere fashion Versnel, ed. H. F. J. Horstmannshoff et al. (Leiden, Boston, and accessory, but rather a sophisticated ontological statement.” G. Cologne, 2002), pp. 69–112; S. Marchesini, “Magie in Etrurien in F. Pinney, Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece orientalisierender Zeit,” in Prayon and Röllig 2000, pp. 305–13; (Chicago, 2002), p. 53, with reference to Hesiod’s Theogony W. Rollig, “Aspekte zum Thema ‘Mythologie und Religion,’” in 581–84, writes: “The vocabulary of kosmos makes ample use of Prayon and Röllig 2000, pp. 302–4; Oxford Companion to words for splendor and light: lampein, phaeinos, aglaos, Classical Civilization, ed. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth sigaloeis.” The point is glamour in the form of radiance, light (Oxford and New York, 1998), s.v. “magic” (H. S. Versnel), p. emanating from shimmering cloth and gleaming metals. 441; P. Schäfer and H. G. Kippenberg, Envisioning Magic: A Agalmaoccupied distinct but related semantic areas in Greek, Princeton Seminar and Symposium (Princeton, 1997); Meyer and asKeesling 2003, p. 10, describes: “It could designate any Mirecki 1995; Pinch 1994, pp. 104–19; Andrews 1994; Wilkinson pleasing ornament, or a pleasing ornament dedicated to the 1994; Ritner 1993; Faraone 1992; Faraone 1991; and esp. gods. In the fifth century, Herodotus used agalma to refer Kotansky 1991; Gager 1992, pp. 218–42; H. Philipp, Mira et specifically to statues, the agalmata par excellence displayed in magica: Gemmen im Ägyptischen Museum der Staatlichen the sanctuaries of his time.” M. C. Stieber, The Poetics of Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin-Charlottenburg (Mainz, 1986); Appearance in the Attic Korai (Austin, TX, 2004), is illuminating as Bonner 1950; and S. Seligman, Die magischen Heil- und she probes agalma for the sculptures and their accoutrements Schutzmittel aus der unbelebten Natur mit besonderer in her discussion of the kore as an agalma for the goddess and Berücksichtung der Mittel gegen den bösen Blick: Ein Geschichte the korai as agalmata in and of themselves. She reminds us des Amulettwesens (Stuttgart, 1927). In Egypt, an amulet could that the term is used of real women in literature (Helen of Troy at the very least, as Andrews 1994, p. 6, summarizes, and Iphigenia in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon 7.41 and 208, afford some kind of magical protection, a concept confirmed respectively). by the fact that three of the four Egyptian words translate as 7. Andrews 1994, p. 6. The literature on amulets, amuletic “amulet,” namely mkt (meket), nht (nehet) and s3 (sa) come practice, magic, and ritual practice in the ancient world is vast. primarily from verbs meaning “to guard” or “to protect.” The The termmagicis used here in its broadest and most positive fourth, wd3 (wedja), has the same sound as the word sense. Although M. Dickie and others argue that magic did not meaning “well-being.” For the ancient Egyptian, amulets and exist as a separate category of thought in Greece before the jewelry [that] incorporate amuletic forms were an essential fifth century B.C., practices later subsumed under the term did, adornment, especially as part of the funerary equipment for especially the use of amulets. The use of amulets implies a the dead, but also in the costume of the living. Moreover, continuing relationship between the object and the wearer, many of the amulets and pieces of amuletic jewelry worn in continuing enactment, and the role of at least one kind of life for their magical properties could be taken to the tomb practitioner. Dickie 2001, p. 130, concludes that the existence for use in the life after death. Funerary amulets, however, and wide use of amulets in Rome by the Late Republic “leads and prescribed funerary jewelry which was purely amuletic in us back into a hidden world of experts in the rituals of the function, were made expressly for setting on the wrapped manufacture and application of amulets, not to speak of those mummy on the day of the burial to provide aid and who sold them.” Pliny uses three words to describe amber protection on the fraught journey to the Other world and items used in medicine, protection, and healing: amuletum, ease in the Afterlife. monile (for a necklace), and alligatum, when citing Callistratus. In the ancient Near East, the great variety of human problems Greek terms for amulet include periamma and periapta. handled by recourse to amulets is already well documented in Following Kotansky 1991, n. 5, I use amulet to encompass the the Early Dynastic period. See B. L. Goff, Symbols of Prehistoric modern English talisman and also phylaktērion. The Greek Mesopotamia(New Haven and London, 1963), esp. chap. 9, recipes in the Papyri Graecae Magicae use the latter term. “The Role of Amulets in Mesopotamian Ritual Texts,” pp. In early Greece, as elsewhere earlier in the Mediterranean 162–211. The role of magic as described in Assyro-Babylonian world, an amulet was applied in conjunction with an elite literature is relevant: magic was prescribed and overtly incantation, as Kotansky (ibid.) describes. Incantations practiced for the benefit of king, court, and important required the participation of skilled practitioners and receptive individuals; it was not marginal and clandestine; and only participants. Socrates, in Plato’s Republic, lists amulets and noxious witchcraft was forbidden and prosecuted. See E. incantations as among the techniques used to heal the sick, a Reiner, Astral Magic in Babylonia (Chicago, 1995). tradition that continued at least into the Late Antique period. 6 INTRODUCTION

Keeping in mind the cultural variants of death and burial rituals in the places and periods under consideration here, there may have been a considerable lag between death and the readying of the corpse, including cremation, excarnation, or other preparations before burial rituals. The production of sumptuary and ritualistic objects suggests the existence of specialists (religious-ceremonial or political-ceremonial) who themselves may have used insignia associated with their positions. Jewelry 7

Amber Magic? Whilemagicis probably the one word broad enough to of wear (figure 4). Unfortunately, we can only speculate as describe the ancient use of amulets, the modern public to whether the ambers were actually possessions of the finds the term difficult. As H. S. Versnel puts it, “One people with whom they were buried, how the objects problem is that you cannot talk about magic without were acquired, and in which cultic or other activity they using the term magic.”8 played a part. There is no written source until Pliny the But even if it were possible to draw precise lines of Elder, around A.D. 79, to tell us how amber was used in life (in a religious, medical, magical, or other context).13 demarcation between the ancient use of amber for Only a few fragments of information from early Christian adornment and its role in healing, between its reputation sources add to the Roman picture. All evidence before for warding off danger and its connection to certain Pliny is archaeological and extrapolated from earlier divinities and cults, such categorizations would run sources—from Egypt, the Aegean, the ancient Near East, counter to an understanding of amber in its wider and northern Europe. In Egypt, and to a lesser extent in context. Amber’s beauty and rarity were evident to an the ancient Near East, much more is known about how ancient observer, but its magnetic properties; distinctive, amuletic jewelry was produced, and by whom and for glowing, sunlike color and liquid appearance; inclusions whom it was produced. In both regions, we find instances and luster; and exotic origins were mysterious and awe- of amulets specifically designed for funerary use and of inspiring. Amber’s fascination and associative value previously owned amulets continuing their usefulness in prompted a wide range of overlapping uses.9 Pliny the Elder, for instance, put together an impressive list of uses the tomb. for amber, including as a medicine for throat problems and as a charm for protecting babies.10 Diodorus Siculus noted amber’s role in mourning rituals, and Pausanias guided visitors to an amber statue of Augustus at Olympia. The main sources of amber in antiquity were at the edges of the known world, and those distant lands generated further rich lore. Myths and realities of amber’s nature and power influenced the desire to acquire it. As the historian Joan Evans has observed, “Rarity, strangeness, and beauty have in them an inexplicable element and the inexplicable is always potentially magical.”11 Beliefs about amber’s mysterious origins and unique physical and optical properties affected the ways it was used in antiquity and the forms and subjects into which it was carved.12 Excavations during the last half century, especially in Italy, have greatly improved our understanding of how amber functioned in funerary contexts. The emerging Figure 4 Female Head in Profile pendant, Italic, 500–480 B.C. Amber, H: 4.4 picture is also enhancing our understanding of how cm (17⁄10 in.), W: 3.8 cm (11⁄2 in.), D: 1.6 cm (3⁄5 in). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty amber objects were used before their burial. A number of Museum, 77.AO.81.30. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 25. amber pendants, including the Getty objects, show signs 8

We might also ask how amber pendants in the form of into the world of the living could serve a similar function age-old subjects (goddesses [figure 5], animals, or solar in smoothing the transition into the afterworld, or world and lunar symbols) relate to older traditions. In the of the dead. Many images allude to a journey (figure 6) ancient Near East, Kim Benzel reminds us, symbolic that the deceased’s shade, or soul, takes after death, and jewelry pendants signified emblematic forms of major these pieces are difficult to see as intended for the living: deities from as early as the third millennium B.C.: these must have been gifts or commissions specifically for the dead. The ambers that show wear do not indicate who Symbols of divinities have a long tradition of used them. While there is no direct evidence as to representation in various media throughout the whether the amulets found in burials were owned by the ancient Near East. They were certainly meant to be deceased during their lives, it is tempting to assume that apotropaic, but likely had far greater efficacy than the this could have been the case. Were they purchases, part purely protective. An emblem was considered one of a dowry, heirlooms, or other kinds of gifts? Ambers mode of presencing a deity.… The power embodied in were made, at some point, for someone, whether bought [such] ornaments thus would have been analogous to on the open market or commissioned to order. Inscribed the power embedded in a cult statue—which is Greek magical amulets (lamellae) “that had been perhaps why in the later religions, along with idol commissioned for specific purposes (or most feared worship, jewels were banned.14 dangers) came to represent for their wearer a multivalent protection, a sine qua non for every activity in life. And in the face of the liminal dangers of the afterlife passage … this same amulet that had come to protect all aspects of life would now be considered crucial in death, the apotropaic token of the soul.”16 Figure 6 Ship with Figures pendant, Etruscan, 600–575 B.C. Amber, L: 12 cm (47⁄10 in.), W: 3.5 cm (13⁄8 in.), D: 1 cm (3⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 76.AO.76. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 7. The wear on many objects is undeniable. Some amber pendants are both worn and “old-fashioned” for the context in which they were found, and they cause us to remember that in antiquity there was a well-established tradition of gift giving during life and at the grave.17 Figure 5 Addorsed Females pendant, Etruscan, 600–550 B.C. Amber, H: 4.0 cm (13⁄5 in.), W: 10.2 cm (4 in.), D: 1.3 cm (1⁄2 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Figured ambers, including those in the Getty collection, Museum, 77.AO.81.1. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 3. may have been worn regularly in life for permanent protection or benefit; others, on a temporary basis or in The subjects of the Getty pre-Roman figured ambers vary, crises, such as childbirth, illness, or a dangerous journey. but without exception, they incorporate a protective as Others may have been grave gifts or offerings to well as a fertility or regenerative aspect.15 It is easy to see divinities, perhaps to propitiate underworld deities. In that the same amulet that had helped to ensure safe entry Amber Magic? 9

some cases, deceased girls may have been adorned as incorporate elements relating, for instance, to Dionysos or brides—a common aspect of funerary ritual. Artemis, but as such, they occupy a hazy territory between identifiable religious practices and what Einar How these objects might have functioned in reference to Thomassen calls “the appropriation of ritual power for clanship or other social identities, during either life or the personal ends.”18 The use of these amulets may have been rituals surrounding death, should also be considered. dictated to some extent by skilled practitioners, but it is Among certain populations, there might have been a likely that the original, specific use of a protective amulet generally accepted role for amber, in the range of subjects often would have eroded into a more generalized into which it was formed and/or the objects it portafortuna, or good-luck, role over time.19 The generally embellished. Some subjects might have been pertinent to feared evil eye might have been warded off with any clans or larger communities, in the way that shield amber amulet.20 emblazons might be. Some imagery might have been special to family groups, who may have traced their Worked amber and amber jewelry were well in evidence origins, names, or even good fortune to a particular deity, in northern Europe from the fourth millennium B.C. animal, totem, or myth. If an elite person whose family’s onward. The earliest evidence for worked amber in Italy founder was a divinity or Homeric hero was buried with a is from the Bronze Age. We do not know where the amber ring with an engraved gem representing, say, Herakles found in graves dating to circa 1500 B.C. in Basilicata (figure 7), Odysseus, or Athena, might the same have been (near Melfi and Matera) was carved. In the later Bronze done with figured ambers? Age, Adriatic Frattesina, a typical emporium of the protohistoric era, was a place of manufacture. Already by this time, variety in style, subject, technique, and function was evident. Some of these early ambers are the work of highly skilled artisans; others are rudimentary in manufacture and indicate work by other kinds of amber- workers/amulet-makers, perhaps even priestesses, physicians, or “wise women.” It is tempting to think of multiple ritual specialists involved in amber-working and amuletmaking, though perhaps in not so pronounced a fashion as in contemporary Egypt—although there is evidence for widespread amuletic usage in Italy even into modern times. We might well envision a scenario that includes simple gem cutters, sculptors, multiple ritual specialists—from healers to hacks—those with fixed locations in urban settings, and itinerants. Such a variety of practitioners offering objects and ritual expertise is likely, especially for amulets in a material as inherently magical as amber.21 NOTES 8. Reference from E. Thomassen, “Is Magic a Subclass of Ritual?” in Jordan et al. 1999, pp. 55–66. Figure 7 Engraved Scarab with Nike Crowning Herakles, Etruscan, 400–380 9. Strong 1966, pp. 10–11, considers the amuletic and the magical B.C. Banded agate, H: 1.8 cm (3⁄4 in.), W: 1.4 cm (9⁄16 in.), D: 0.9 cm (3⁄8 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.AN.123. aspects of amber separately from its medical uses. He distinguishes between early Greek and later (presumably Classical) Greek attitudes: “In early Greece the amuletic values The extent to which some of these ornament-amulets had of amber seem to have been recognized.… But in the Greek a role in established cult or folk religion is difficult to world generally the principal attraction of amber was its ascertain, but it should not be either exaggerated or decorative qualities.” Strong also differentiates Italic Iron Age denied. The diversity of subjects that appear in figured usage from the Greek: in that period, the “amber carvings … amber over time suggests that the material was used underline the magical aspects of the use of amber.” within many different symbol systems, but always for its Waarsenburg 1995, p. 456, successfully undertakes a religious protective or regenerative aspects. Some pieces do interpretation in his study of the seventh-century B.C. Tomb VI 10 INTRODUCTION

at Satricum, countering the “viewpoint that Oriental or n. 194 for further discussion of ducks in amber.) Such objects Orientalising figurative amulets had only a very generic support the hypothesis that amber was traded with the south apotropaic function in Italy … and [that] they would not have in both finished and unfinished forms. H. Hughes-Brock, been understood by the native population. Related to this “Mycenaean Beads: Gender and Social Contexts,” Oxford viewpoint is an explicit reluctance against any interpretation Journal of Archaeology 18, no. 3 (August 1999): 293, suggests, which takes nonmaterial, sc. religious, aspects into account. “Some imports probably arrived with the specialist processes Even the symbol of the nude female is frequently denied a already completed nearer the source, e.g., preliminary removal specific meaning.” D’Ercole 1995, p. 268, n. 19, suggests that of the crust of Baltic amber.” Why not finished objects? beliefs surrounding amber, other than fashion or taste, might 13. S. Eitrem, Opferritus und Voropfer der Griechen und Röme (1915; explain the long-continuing repetition of subjects among repr., Hildesheim and New York, 1977), p. 194, discusses the certain groups of figured ambers. Mastrocinque 1991, p. 78, n. amuletic virtues of amber in Rome. 247, notes the supranormal aspects of figured amber, drawing attention to the relationship of the subject and the animating, 14. K. Benzel, in Beyond Babylon 2008, p. 25, with reference to pp. electrical properties of amber. The amuletic, magical, or 350–52 in the same catalogue. Benzel cites J. Spacy, “Emblems apotropaic properties of pre-Roman amber objects are noted in Rituals in the Old Babylonian Period,” in Ritual and Sacrifice in by S. Bianco, A. Mastrocinque, A. Russo, and M. Tagliente in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the International Conference Magie d’ambra 2005, passim; Haynes 2000, pp. 45, 100 ; A. Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 17–20 April 1991, Russo in Treasures 1998, p. 22 ; Bottini 1993, p. 65; Negroni Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 55, ed. J. Quaegebeur (Leuven, Catacchio 1989, p. 659 (and elsewhere); Fuscagni 1982, p. 110; 1993), pp. 411–20; Z. Bahrani, “The Babylonian Visual Image,” Hölbl 1979, vol. 1, pp. 229ff., who (as quoted by Waarsenburg in The Babylonian World, ed. G. Leick (New York and London, 1995) sees “all amulets [as having] had a similar, not exactly 2003), pp. 155–70; and Z. Bahrani, The Graven Image: defined magic power; possibly they served against natural Representation in Babylonia and Assyria (Philadelphia, 2003), p. dangers such as animal bites, or against supranatural dangers 127. See also H. Wildberger, Isaiah 1–12: A Commentary, trans. such as the evil eye”; La Genière 1961; Richter 1940, pp. 86, 88; T. H. Trapp (1991; repr., Minneapolis, 2002). andRE, vol. 3, part 1, esp. cols. 301–3, s.v. “Bernstein” (by Blümner). For the Mycenaean period, see Bouzek 1993, p, 141, 15. Amber itself, and most of the subjects of figured amber, have “who rightly insists first on the quasimagical properties of fertility aspects. Modern Westerners tend to discuss the fertility amber (not just the prestige),” as A. Sherratt notes in “Electric and fecundity beliefs and rites of earlier peoples in the context Gold: Reopening the Amber Route,” Archaeology 69 (1995): of an increase of humans, hunt animals, edible botanics, 200–203, his review of Beck and Bouzek 1993. Compare, agricultural products, and domesticated crops, which limits our however, the more cautious opinion of Hughes-Brock 1985, p. understanding of fertility imagery, both its making and its use. 259: “Most amber is in ordinary bead form; since it is That fertility magic was used to control reproduction (via, e.g., consistently found alongside standard beads of other birth spacing) as well as spur procreation was first brought to materials, we cannot prove that the Mycenaeans thought of it my attention by R. White (public lecture 1999). See White 2003 as having any special amuletic value.” (in n. 2, above), p. 58, where he cites G. H. Luquet, L’art néo- calédonien: Documents recueillis par Marius Archambault (Paris, 10. Eichholz 1962 is the edition used throughout this text. 1926), and P. Ucko and A. Rosenfeld, Paleolithic Cave Art 11. J. Evans, Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, (London, 1967). Luquet was among the first to raise doubts Particularly in England (Oxford, 1922), p. 13. about the idea that Paleolithic peoples were motivated to increase human fecundity through magical acts. Ucko and 12. The subjects and forms of many pre-Roman figured ambers Rosenfeld were among the first to write that hunters and have precedents thousands of years older. The earliest gatherers are generally more interested in limiting population surviving animal and human subjects in amber from northern growth than in increasing it. Compare the discussion by J. Europe are dated to the eighth millennium; see, for example, Assante, “From Whores to Hierodules,” in Ancient Art and Its M. Iršenas, “Stone Age Figurines from the Baltic Area,” in Historiography, ed. A. A. Donohue and M. D. Fullerton Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference: (Cambridge, 2003), p. 26, where she contrasts “Yahweh’s Baltic Amber in the Natural Sciences, Archaeology and Applied Art, command to be fruitful and multiply, and the Bible’s emphasis ed. A. Butrimas (Vilnius, 2001), pp. 77–86; M. Ots, “Stone Age on progeny in general,” with the Mesopotamian “gods of Amber Finds in Estonia,” in Beck et al. 2003, pp. 96–107; M. prebiblical flood myths who did not destroy mankind because Irinas, “Elk Figurines in the Stone Age Art of the Baltic Area,” in they sinned but because they overpopulated and made too Prehistoric Art in the Baltic Region, ed. A. Butrimas (Vilnius, much noise.” Assante cites A. Kilmer, “The Mesopotamian 2000), pp. 93–105; and I. Loze, “Prehistoric Amber Ornaments Concept of Overpopulation and Its Solution as Reflected in the in the Baltic Region,” in Baltica 2000, pp. 18–19. An amber duck Mythology,” Orientalia, n.s., 41 (1972): 160–77. found in a Danish Paleolithic context of 6800–4000 B.C. is the 16. D. Frankfurter, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1995.04.12 (review of earliest example of a pendant type popular in Greece and Italy Kotansky 1994). in the seventh century B.C. and first known in the eighth. (See Amber Magic? 11

17. The literature on gifts and gift giving in the ancient world is 18. Thomassen 1999 (n. 8, above), p. 65. extensive. Although previous ownership of excavated objects is 19. CompareFaraone 1992, p. 37: “There is a tendency for all ordinarily difficult to establish, two Etruscan finds and one protective images, regardless of their ‘original’ purpose or the Etrusco-Campanian find might be seen as exempla of specific crisis that led to their manufacture, to assume a wider presentation, parting, and exchange articulated around and wider role in the protection of a place, until they achieve a banquets. Were these items exchanged among guests/friends? status as some vague ‘all-purpose’ phylactery against any and Were they components of a dowry or bride wealth, ransom or all forms of evil.” prizes, or funerary tributes? Haynes 2000, p. 69, cites the silver vessels deposited circa 660 B.C. with an aristocratic lady in the 20. Seen. 152. Regolini-Galassi Tomb at Cerveteri, inscribed with a male name in the genitive, and suggests that these luxury objects were the 21. The scenario of multiple ritual specialists recorded by the property of her husband. The seventh-century gold fibula, with tenth-century A.D. compiler Ibn al-Nadim, who pronounced its inscription in granulation, from Casteluccio-La Foce (Siena), Egypt “the Babylon of the magicians,” might provide a later in the Louvre (Bj 816), is a gift-ornament that recalls the fibulae model for pragmatic ritual expertise at all levels and the range of the peplos offered to Penelope (Odyssey 18.292–95). For the of activities of itinerant artisans and healers in pre-Roman Italy. Louvre pin, see Cristofani, in Cristofani and Martelli 1983, no. He records, “A person who has seen this state of affairs has 103; and Haynes 2000, p. 6809, fig. 47. The inscription on an told me that there still remain men and women magicians and Etrusco-Campanian bronzelebesfound in Tomb 106 at Braida that all of the exorcists and magicians assert that they have di Vaglio, which belonged to a woman of about sixty (the tomb seals, charms of paper … and other things used for their arts”: also included two amber figured pendants, a satyr’s head and Ibn al-Nadim, Kitāb al-Fihrist, trans. Bayard Dodge, The Fihrist of a Cypriote-type Herakles), is another important example; for al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture (New York, the inscription, see M. Torelli with L. Agostiniani, in Bottini and 1970), p. 726 (quoted in D. Frankfurter, “Ritual Expertise in Setari 2003, p. 63, and appendix I, pp. 113–17. These Roman Egypt and the Problem of the Category ‘Magician,’” in inscriptions are further evidence of networked elites taking Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, ed. P. advantage of their literacy. Schäfer and H. G. Kippenberg [Princeton, 1997], p. 30). 12 INTRODUCTION

What Is Amber? Figure 8 Sources of amber in the ancient world. Map by David Fuller. It is important to say that amber is much studied but still It is clear that the amber is not derived from the not fully understood. The problems begin with the names modern species of Pinus, but there are mixed signals by which the material is known: amber, Baltic amber, from suggestions of either an araucarian Agathis-like fossil resin, succinite, and resinite. Although all these or a pinaceous Pseudolarix-like resin producing terms have been used to describe the material discussed tree.… Although the evidence appears to lean more in this catalogue, they have confused as much as they toward a pinaceous source, an extinct ancestral tree have clarified. It is generally accepted that amber is is probably the only solution.23 derived from resin-bearing trees that once clustered in dense, now extinct forests.22 Despite decades of study, Geologically, amber has been documented throughout the there is no definite conclusion about the botanical source world (figure 8), with most deposits found in Tertiary- of the vast deposits of Baltic amber, as Jean H. period sediments dating to the Eocene, a few to the Langenheim recently summarized in her compendium on Oligocene and Miocene, and fewer still to later in the plant resins: Tertiary. Amber is formed from resin exuded from tree bark (figure 9), although it is also produced in the heartwood. Resin protects trees by blocking gaps in the 13

bark. Once resin covers a gash or break caused by chewing insects, it hardens and forms a seal. Resin’s antiseptic properties protect the tree from disease, and its stickiness can gum up the jaws of gnawing and burrowing insects.24 In the primordial “amber forest,” resin oozed down trunks and branches and formed into blobs, sheets, and stalactites, sometimes dripping onto the forest floor. On some trees, exuded resin flowed over previous flows, creating layers. The sticky substance collected detritus and soil and sometimes entrapped flying and crawling creatures (figure 10). Eventually, after the trees fell, the resin-coated logs were carried by rivers and tides to deltas in coastal regions, where they were buried over time in sedimentary deposits. Most amber did not originate in the place where it was found; often, it was deposited and found at a distance from where the resin-producing trees Figure 10 Damselfly in Dominican amber, L: 4.6 cm (14⁄ in.). Private 5 grew. Most known accumulations of amber are collection. Photo: D. Grimaldi / American Museum of Natural History. redepositions, the result of geological activity.25 Chemically, the resin that became amber originally contained liquids (volatiles) such as oils, acids, and alcohols, including aromatic compounds (terpenes) that produce amber’s distinctive resinous smell.26 Over time, the liquids dissipated and evaporated from the resin, which began to harden as the organic molecules joined to form much larger ones called polymers. Under the right conditions, the hardened resin continued to polymerize and lose volatiles, eventually forming amber, an inert solid that, when completely polymerized, has no volatiles.27 Most important, the resins that became amber were buried in virtually oxygen-free sediments. How long does it take for buried resin to become amber? The amberization process is a continuum extending from freshly hardened resins to rocklike ones, and, as David Grimaldi points out, “No single feature identifies at what age along that continuum the substance becomes amber.”28Langenheim explains: “With increasing age, the maturity of any given resin will increase, but the rate at which it occurs depends on the prevailing geologic conditions as well as the composition of the resin.… Changes appear to be a response primarily to geothermal stress since chemical change in the resin accelerates at higher temperatures.”29 While some experts maintain that only material that is several million years old or older is sufficiently cross- Figure 9 Amber formed on trees. In Tractatus De lapidus, Ortus sanitatis linked and polymerized to be classified as amber, others (Mainz: Jacob Meydenbach, June 23, 1491), sequence 776. Folio: 30.2 x 20.6 cm opt for a date as recent as forty thousand years before the (117⁄ x 81⁄ in.). Handcolored woodcut. Courtesy of the Boston Medical 30 8 8 present. Much depends on the soil conditions of the Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine. resin’s burial. In its final form, amber is much more stable than the original substance. Amber is organic, like petrified wood or dinosaur bones, but, unlike those substances, it retains its chemical composition over time, 14 INTRODUCTION

and that is why some experts resist calling it a fossil resin NOTES (a nevertheless useful term).31 Amber can also preserve plant matter (figure 11), bacteria, fungi, worms, snails, 22. Recent sources consulted include E. Trevisani, “Che cosa è insects, spiders, and (more rarely) small vertebrates. l’ambra,” in Magie d’ambra 2005, pp. 14–17; E. Ragazzi, L’ambra, Some pieces of amber contain water droplets and farmaco solare: Gli usi nella medicina del passato (Padua, 2005); bubbles, products of the chemical breakdown of organic Langenheim 2003;Weitshaft and Wichard 2002; Pontin and Celi matter. It is not entirely understood how resins preserve 2000; Poinar and Poinar 1999; Ross 1998; Bernstein 1996; Grimaldi 1996; Å. Dahlström and L. Brost, The Amber Book organic matter, but presumably the chemical features of (Tucson, AZ, 1996); Anderson and Crelling 1995; B. Kosmowska- amber that preserve it over millennia also preserve flora Ceranowicz and T. Konart, Tajemnice bursztynu (Secrets of and fauna inside it.32 It must be that amber’s “amazing Amber)(Warsaw, 1989); Beck and Bouzek 1993; and J. Barfod, F. life-like fidelity of preservation … occurs through rapid Jacobs, and S. Ritzkowski, Bernstein: Schätze in Niedersachsen and thorough fixation and inert dehydration as well as (Seelze, 1989). The late C. W. Beck’s lifetime of work on amber other natural embalming properties of the resin that are analysis is critical to any study of the material. still not understood.”33 The highly complex process that results in amber formation gave rise to a wealth of 23. Langenheim 2003, p. 169. speculation about its nature and origins. Whence came a 24. Ross 1998, p. 2. substance that carried within it the flora and fauna of 25. Nicholson and Shaw 2000, p. 451, with reference to Beck and another place and time, one with traces of the earth and Shennan 1991, pp. 16–17. sea, one that seemed even to hold the light of the sun? 26. Ross 1998, p. 3: “The polymers are cyclic hydrocarbons called terpenes.… Amber generally consists of around 79% carbon, 10% hydrogen, and 11% oxygen, with a trace of sulphur.” 27. Ross 1998, p. 3. 28. Grimaldi 1996, p. 16. 29. Langenheim 2003, pp. 144–45. 30. Langenheim 2003, p. 146, following Anderson and Crelling 1995. 31. Ross 1998, p. 3, in describing the amberization process, points to the critical element of the kinds of sediments in which the resin was deposited: “but what is not so clear is the effect of water and sediment chemistry on the resin.” In the ancient world, amber does not seem to have been considered a fossil like other records of preserved life—petrified wood, skeletal material, and creatures in limestone. See A. Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton, 2000). 32. Ross 1998, p. 12. 33. Langenheim 2003, p. 150. Figure 11 Cone in Baltic amber, L: 15.2 cm (6 in.). Private collection. Photo: D. Grimaldi / American Museum of Natural History. What Is Amber? 15

Where Is Amber Found? Deposits of amber occur throughout both the Old and the New Worlds, and many varieties are recognized. Of the many kinds of amber found in the Old World, the most plentiful today, as in antiquity, is Baltic amber (figure 12), or succinite (so called because it has a high concentration of succinic acid). This early Tertiary (Upper Eocene–Lower Oligocene) amber comes mainly from around the shores of the Baltic Sea, from today’s Lithuania, Latvia, Russia (Kaliningrad), Poland, southern Sweden, northern Germany, and Denmark. The richest deposits are on and around the Samland peninsula, a large, fan-shaped area that corresponds to the delta region of a river that once drained an ancient landmass that geologists call Fennoscandia. This ancient continent now lies beneath the Baltic Sea and the surrounding land. Although this area has the largest concentration of amber in the world, it is a secondary deposition. Amazingly, the fossil resin “was apparently eroded from marine sediments near sea level, carried ashore during storms, and subsequently carried by water and glaciers to secondary deposits across Figure 12 Baltic amber, L: 2.2 cm (7⁄8 in.). Private collection. Photograph © much of northern and eastern Europe” over a period of Lee B. Ewing. approximately twenty million years.34 In antiquity, most amber from the Baltic shore was harvested from shallow Other kinds of amber used by ancient Mediterranean waters and beaches where it had washed up (once again, peoples have been identified with sources in today’s Sicily,36 Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.37 In addition to millennia later), especially during autumn storms that agitated the seabeds. It was only in the early modern northern European sources, ancient accounts mention amber from Liguria, Scythia,38 Syria, India, Ethiopia, and period that amber began to be mined. With the introduction of industrial techniques, huge amounts have Numidia. However, of the varieties used in antiquity and been extracted since the nineteenth century. It is known today, only succinite, or Baltic amber, is found in estimated that up to a million pounds of amber a year was the large, relatively sturdy, jewelry-grade pieces such as dug from the blue earth layer of the Samland peninsula in were used for the sizable objects of antiquity, like the pre- the first decades of the twentieth century.35 Roman pendants of this catalogue, or for the complex carvings, vessels, and containers of Roman date. Small pieces of amber and the wastage of larger compositions could have been used for tiny carvings and other purposes. Non-jewelry-grade amber would also have been employed in inlay, incense and perfume, pharmaceuticals, and varnish, as is still the case in the modern period. Burmite (found in Burma, now Myanmar) and some amber from China, types also found in large, high-grade 16

pieces, have long histories of artistic and other uses in Anthropological Association 1 (1907): 3. On amber from Asia.39 Myanmar, seeLangenheim 2003, p. 279: “Amber was collected from shallow mines in the Nagtoimow Hills in northern Burma NOTES and the major portion was sent to trade centers such as Mandalay and Mogaung … and then brought by traders to 34. Langenheim 2003, p. 164. Yunnan province in China where it was used by Chinese craftsmen from as early as the first Han dynasty (206 B.C. to 35. For the modern mining of Baltic amber, see the overview in A.D. 8).” Langenheim draws from H. L. Chibber, The Mineral Rice 2006, chap. 3. Resources of Burma (London, 1934). See also D. A. Grimaldi, M. 36. On Sicilian amber, see Trevisani in Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 16; S. Engel, and P. C. Nascimbene, “Fossiliferous Cretaceous Schwarzenberg 2002;Grimaldi 1996, p. 42; C. W. Beck and H. Amber from Myanmar (Burma): Its Rediscovery, Biotic Harnett, “Sicilian Amber,” in Beck and Bouzek 1993, pp. 36–47; Diversity, and Paleontological Significance,” Novitates 3361 Strong 1966, pp. 1–2, 4; and Buffum 1900. Pliny and the sources (March 26, 2002): 1–7; V. V. Zherikhin and A. J. Ross, “A Review he consulted, including Theophrastus, discuss amber from of the History, Geology, and Age of Burmese Amber Liguria. Ligurian deposits may indeed have been known in (Burmite),” Geology Bulletin 56, no. 1 (2000): 1–3; V. V. Zherikhin antiquity. Larger deposits may have been exhausted in and A. J. Ross, “The History, Geology, Age and Fauna (Mainly antiquity. The ancient boundaries of Liguria include areas Insects) of Burmese Amber, Myanmar,” in Bulletin of the where non-jewelry-grade amber is known, as Trevisani maps. If Natural History Museum, ed. A. J. Ross (London, 2000); Ross it was dug up rather than originating in an oceanic or riverine 1998, p. 15; Bernstein 1996; Grimaldi 1996, pp. 40–42, 194–208; source, it may not have had the same value. Moreover, the and S. S. Savkevich and T. N. Sokolova, “Amber-like Fossil proximity of the material to its consumption point might have Resins of Asia and the Problems of Their Identification in undermined its value. See n. 110 for more on amber’s value. Archaeological Contexts,” in Beck and Bouzek 1993, pp. 48–50. In the annals of the Han and later dynasties, amber is 37. In addition to the sources listed in n. 36, above, see J. M. Todd, mentioned repeatedly as one of the notable products of “The Continuity of Amber Artifacts in Ancient Palestine: From Roman Syria; see F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient: the Bronze Age to the Byzantine,” in Beck and Bouzek 1993, pp. Researches into Their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as 236–46, and J. M. Todd, “Baltic Amber in the Ancient Near East: Represented in Old Chinese Records (Shanghai and Hong Kong, A Preliminary Investigation,” Journal of Baltic Studies 16, no. 3 1885), pp. 35–96. (1985): 292–302. On Lebanese amber, see G. O. Poinar, Jr., and Pliny (Natural History 37.11) cites authors who attest to amber R. Milki, Lebanese Amber: The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized from Syria and India as well as to other sources east and south Resin (Corvallis, OR, 2001), p. 15, who describe a few fist-sized of Italy. Poinar and Milki, 2001 (n. 37, above), p. 77, suggest pieces of “quite durable” Lebanese amber found in modern that many “nineteenth and twentieth century reports of amber times, although generally Lebanese amber is collected in small, finds in western Syria probably referred to localities within the highly fractured pieces less than a centimeter in diameter. See confines of present-day Lebanon, since the latter had been a also Grimaldi 1996, pp. 35–36. republic within the borders of Syria for a number of years.” For 38. On Scythian amber, see E. H. G. Minns, Greeks and Scythians: A amber from the ancient Near East, see M. Heltzer, “On the Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of Origin of the Near Eastern Archaeological Amber,” in the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus (1913; repr., New Languages and Cultures in Contact, Orientalia Lovaniensia York, 1971), pp. 7, 440, with reference to Pliny, Natural History Analecta 96, ed. K. van Lerberghe and G. Voet (Leuven, 1999), 33.161, 37.33, 37.40, 37.64, 37.65, and 37.119. pp. 169–76; S. M. Chiodi, “L’ambra nei testi mesopotamici,” Protostoria e storia del ‘Venetorum Angulus’: Atti del XX Convegno 39. The geological source of Ming- and Ching-dynasty amber di studi etruschi ed italici, Portogruaro, Quarto d’Altino, Este, Adria, carvings is not assured. The amber might have come from 16–19 ottobre 1996 (Pisa and Rome, 1999); and J. Oppert, Myanmar (Burma) or possibly from European, “Syrian,” or “L’Ambre jaune chez les Assyriens,” Recueil de travaux relatifs à Chinese sources. “China does have some large natural deposits la philologie et à l’archéologie à égyptiennes et assyriennes 21 of amber in Fushun, but these appear not to have been (1880): 331ff. exploited” (Grimaldi 1996, p. 194). See also B. Laufer, “Historical Jottings on Amber in Asia,” Memoirs of the American Where Is Amber Found? 17

The Properties of Amber Amber is a light material, with a specific gravity ranging from 1.04 to 1.10, only slightly heavier than that of water (1.00). Amber may be transparent or cloudy, depending on the presence and number of air bubbles (figure 13). It frequently contains large numbers of microscopic air bubbles, allowing it to float and to be easily carried by rivers or the sea. White opaque Baltic amber may contain as many as 900,000 minuscule air bubbles per square millimeter and floats in fresh water. Clear Baltic amber sinks in fresh water but is buoyant in saltwater. Baltic amber has some distinguishing characteristics rarely found in other types of amber: it commonly contains tiny hairs that probably came from the male flowers of oak trees, and tiny pyrite crystals often fill cracks and inclusions. Another feature found in Baltic amber is the white coating partly surrounding some insect inclusions, formed from liquids that escaped from the decaying insects.40 Figure 13 Extinct termite, Mastotermes electrodominicus, in Dominican amber, L: 4.6 cm (14⁄5 in.). Photo: D. Grimaldi / American Museum of Natural History. Amber’s hardness varies from 2 to 3 on the Mohs scale (talc is 1 and diamond 10). This relative softness means that amber is easily worked. It has a melting-point range of 200 to 380°C, but it tends to burn rather than melt. Amber is amorphous in structure and, if broken, can produce a conchoidal, or shell-like, fracture. It is a poor conductor and thus feels warm to the touch in the cold, and cool in the heat. When friction is applied, amber becomes negatively charged and attracts lightweight 18

particles such as pieces of straw, fluff, or dried leaves. Its clear yellow to clear orange or red to opaque yellows, ability to produce static electricity has fascinated oranges, reds, and tans. Inclusions are common. observers from the earliest times. Amber’s magnetic property gave rise to the word electricity: amber (Greek, elektron) was used in the earliest experiments on electricity.41 Amber’s natural properties inspired myth and legend and dictated its usage. In antiquity, before the development of colorless clear glass that relies on a complex technique perfected in the Hellenistic period, the known clear materials were natural ones: water and some other liquids; ice; boiled honey and some oils; rock crystal; some precious stones; and amber.42Transparent amber is a natural magnifier, and, when formed into a regularly curved surface and given a high polish, it can act as a lens.43 A clear piece of Figure 14 Two typical pieces of Baltic amber. Pale yellow amber was amber with a convex surface can concentrate the sun’s preferred by the ancient Greeks and Etruscans. Opaque orange amber was rays. One ancient source suggests that such polished especially fashionable in Imperial Rome. L (orange amber): 9 cm (31⁄2 in.). L ambers were used as burning lenses. (yellow amber): 5 cm (2 in.). Private collection. Photograph © Lee B. Ewing. Once amber is cleaned of its outer layers and exposed to air, its appearance—its color, degree of transparency, and surface texture—eventually will change. As a result of the action of oxygen upon the organic material, amber will darken: a clear piece will become yellow; a honey-colored piece will become red, orange-red, or red-brown, and the surface progressively will become more opaque (figure 14).44 Oxidation commences quite quickly and starts at the surface, which is why some amber may appear opaque or dark on its surface and translucent at breaks or when subjected to transmitted light. However, the progress of oxidation is variable and depends on the time of exposure and other factors, such as the amount and duration of exposure to light. In archaeologically Figure 15 Female Head Pendants, from Tomb 740 B, Valle Pega, Spina, a recovered amber, the state of the material is dependent tomb dating to the end of the 5th century B.C. Amber, H: 4.8 cm (17⁄8 in.), W: upon burial conditions, and the degree of oxidation can 2.8 cm (11⁄8 in.), D: 1.2 cm (1⁄2 in.) and H: 4.5 cm (13⁄4 in.), W: 2.8 cm (11⁄8 in.), D: vary widely, as the Getty collection reveals. The 1.4 cm (1⁄2 in.). Ferrara, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 44877 and 44878. breakdown of the cortex causes cracking, fissuring, Ferrara, Museo Archeologico Nazionale / IKONA. flaking, chipping, and, eventually, fractures. Only a very few ancient pieces retain something of their original appearance, in each case because of the oxygen-free environment in which it was buried. For instance, two fifth-century B.C. female head pendants that were excavated at waterlogged Spina are remarkable for their clear, pale yellow color (figure 15).45 A large group of seventh-century B.C. amber-embellished objects from the cemeteries of Podere Lippi and Moroni-Semprini in Verucchio (Romagna) were preserved along with other perishable objects by the stable anaerobic conditions of the Verucchio tombs, which had been sealed with a mixture of water and clay (figure 16).46 Various colors Figure 16 Earrings, from Tomb 23, Podere Lippi, Verucchio. First half of the and degrees of transparency are in evidence, from pale, 7th century B.C. Amber and gold, Diam. (amber, max): 6 cm (23⁄8 in.). Verucchio, Museo Civico Archeologico, 8410-850. Verucchio, Museo Civico Archeologico / IKONA. Properties of Amber 19

Many pre-Roman figured ambers exploit the material’s like the principal astral bodies, or to capture the shimmer transparency, offering the possibility of reading through of light on water.51 the composition: the back is visible from the front and vice versa, albeit blurrily. This is a remarkable artistic conception, iconographically powerful and magical. Two extraordinary examples are the Getty Lion (see figure 54) and the British Museum Satyr and Maenad (figure 17).47 From its top, the underside of the lion can be discerned. In the multigroup composition of the London amber, the large snake on the reverse appears to join in reveling with the figures on the front. Figure 18 Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx pendant, Etruscan, 550–525 B.C. Amber, H: 3.2 cm (11⁄4 in.), W: 2.6 cm (1 in.), D (face): 1.2 cm (2⁄5 in.), D (back): 0.5 cm (1⁄5 in.), D (joined): 1.7 cm (7⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 10. NOTES 40. Ross 1998, p. 11. 41. For the basic properties of amber, see Ross 1998, p. 4. The Figure 17 Satyr and Maenad pendant, Etruscan or Etrusco-Campanian, late wordelectricity was coined by W. Gilbert, a physician at the 6th century B.C. Amber, H: 17.3 cm (64⁄5 in.), W: 9.5 cm (33⁄4 in.), D: 4.5 cm (13⁄4 court of Queen Elizabeth I, to describe this property in his 1600 in.). London, British Museum, 1865,0103.46. © The Trustees of the British bookOn the Magnet, Magnetic Bodies and That Great Magnet the Museum. Earth. A number of seventh-century Greek, Etruscan, and The early Greek philosopher Thales of Miletos is credited by Campanian objects include amber set into precious metal Diogenes Laertius as the first to recognize amber’s mounts or backed with silver or gold foil.48 Some are magnetism: “Arguing from the magnet and from amber, he internally lit by foil (or possibly tin) tubes. Amber’s glow, attributed a soul or life even to inanimate objects” (Diogenes Laertius 1.24, vol. 1, ed. and trans. R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical its brilliance and shine, would be immeasurably Library 184 [London, 1993]). E. R. Caley and J. C. Richards, enhanced in this way.49 Simply shaped amber pieces set Theophrastus on Stones (Columbus, 1956), p. 117, argue that into gold and silver are mirrorlike, emanating radiance this claim rests on shaky ground; that Thales was the first to and banishing darkness.50 Amber faces once mounted on mention the property can be inferred only indirectly from polished metal, the Getty Heads of a Female Divinity or Diogenes Laertius’s statement: “Aristotle and Hippias say that, Sphinx(figures 18 and 45) might even seem to issue light, judging by the behaviour of the lodestone and amber, he also attributed souls to lifeless things.” Caley and Richards consider 20 INTRODUCTION

the possibility “that it was Hippias who said that Thales techniques necessary to make a clear magnifying or burning understood the attractive property of amber, but there is no lens from amber apparently were available by the first century way of confirming such an inference because the works of A.D. The carving and polishing tools and technology were age- Hippias are not extant.” Plato (Timaeus 80c) alludes to amber’s old, and as for the clarification process, Pliny relates a magnetism but denies that it is a real power of attraction. technique for “dressing” amber by boiling it in the fat of a Aristotle does not mention amber in the relevant section of On suckling pig, a necessary step in making imitation transparent the Soul (De Anima 1.2.405A). Thus, following Caley and gemstones from amber, which Pliny also describes. A section Richards, Theophrastus is the earliest extant account. If Thales of an entry (Hualê) in the Byzantine Suda may not refer to a did describe amber’s static electricity, he may have done so glass lens, but rather to an amber one: “[A glass] is a round- based on his observation of wool production, which used shaped device of amber glass, contrived for the following amber implements: distaff, spindle, and whorls. I owe this purpose: when they have soaked it in oil and heated it in the observation to Schwarzenberg 2002, who calls attention not sun they introduce a wick and kindle [fire]. So the old man is only to the famous wool of Miletos, but also to the number of saying, in conversation with Socrates: if I were to start a fire extant seventh-century spinning tools. Pliny notes that Syrian with the amber and introduce fire to the tablet of the letter, I women used amber whorls in weaving and that amber picks could make the letters of the lawsuit disappear.” See “Ὑάλη,” up the “fringes of garments,” and also comments on amber’s trans. David Whitehead, March 19, 2006, Suda On Line, electrostatic property. But, unlike Plato, he thinks its magnetic www.stoa.org/sol-entries/upsilon/6 (accessed November 27, property is like that of iron. Plutarch (Platonic Questions 7.7) 2009). explains that “the hot exhalation released by rubbing amber Processed (boiled, molded, and then ground) amber lenses are acts in the same ways as the emanations from the magnet. described by the end of the seventeenth century. In 1691, C. That is, it displaces air, forming a vacuum in front of the Porshin of Königsberg invented an amber burning glass, which attracted object and driving air to the rear of it”: De Lapidibus, was said to be better than the glass kind; he also used amber ed. and trans. D. E. Eichholz (Oxford, 1965), p. 200, n.b. to make spectacles. See O. Faber, L. B. Frandsen, and M. Ploug, 42. Clear colorless glass (with antimony used as the decolorizing Amber(Copenhagen, 2000), p. 101. For illustrations of amber agent) is documented in the eighth century B.C. in western lenses of the early modern period, see Bernstein 1996. Asia and again in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. in Greece. 44. SeeRoss 1998, pp. 18–19; and Strong 1966, p. 14 (with In Egypt, the use of manganese as a decolorizing agent reference to M. Bauer, Precious Stones [London, 1904], p. 537). became common in the first century B.C.; see E. M. Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.–A.D. 45. Ferrara, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 44877–78, from Tomb 50: Ernesto Wolf Collection (Ostfildern, Germany, 1994), p. 20. 740 B at Spina: C. C. Cassai, “Ornamenti femminile nelle tombe 43. For an excellent overview of lenses and their ancient di Spina,” in Due donne 1993, pp. 42–47; Spina: Storia di una città employment, seePlantzos 1999, pp. 39–41, 110; and Plantzos tra greci e etruschi, exh. cat. (Ferrara, 1993); and Negroni 1997, pp. 451–64. According to Plantzos 1999, p. 41, “The Catacchio 1989, fig. 470. discovery of crystals that could have served as magnifying 46. For splendid photographs of the Verucchio material, see lenses has been reported from Bronze Age sites, and although Verucchio 1994. no similar objects can be dated to the Hellenistic period, some exist from Roman contexts.” He also points out that 47. Strong 1966, pp. 61–62, pl. XV. “developments in optics already in the Classical period suggest 48. SeePlantzos 1999, p. 41, on the importance of color to ancient the possibility of magnifying lenses.” Various ancient authors gemologists; he remarks that the “contrast of the translucent describe the magnification of objects: Aristotle (Posterior stone against the golden background of the ring was thought Analytics 1.31) and Theophrastus (On Fire 73) observe “that to be a merit of the jewel.” “A gold tube lining the perforation convex pieces of glass can concentrate the sunrays, and light of a transparent or translucent material such as amber or rock fire … and an earlier reference in Aristophanes (Clouds 766–75) crystal has a marked effect on the brightness and thus indicates how well observed [this] was.” “For a lens to be able appearance of the bead and is, in effect, a form of foiling”: J. to contract light, a piece of glass with [a] regularly curved Ogden, “The Jewelry of Dark Age Greece: Construction and surface and a minimum diameter of around four centimeters Cultural Connections,” in The Art of the Greek Goldsmith, ed. D. was needed. Such a lens will have a short focus (between six Williams (London, 1998), pp. 16–17, also nn. 19–21 (in reference and nine millimeters) and will therefore be quite useless as a to objects from Lefkandi, the Tomb 2 jewelry from Tekke, the general eye aid, but quite appropriate for a magnifying glass” Elgin group, and an eighth-century tomb from Salamis). (ibid.). Although no ancient literary source mentions amber’s natural magnifying property, it is difficult to imagine that it 49. Agalmais a Greek word used to describe the quality of went unnoticed. Many bulla-shaped amber pendants (of as brilliance; it is perhaps related etymologically to aglaos early as seventh-century date) have regularly curved surfaces (shining). See Stewart 1997, p. 65. On agalma and agalmata, and are the right size to use as magnifiers, especially if the seen. 6. resin were clear. (On amber bullae, see n. 152.) The various Properties of Amber 21

50. The three gold pendants inlaid with amber from the Regolini- A. Kozloff, “Mirror, Mirror,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Galassi Tomb are superb examples of this mirrorlike quality Art 71, no. 8 (1984): 271–76. For mirrors in the history of art, see (Vatican, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco 691, from the Sorbo Source 4, nos. 2–3 (1985); L. O. K. Congdon, Caryatid Mirrors of Necropolis, Cerveteri): Cristofani and Martelli 1983, p. 262, no. Ancient Greece (Mainz, 1981); G. F. Hartlaub, Zauber des Spiegels: 31; and L. Pareti, La tomba Regolini-Galassi del Museo gregoriano Geschichte und Bedeutung des Spiegels in der Kunst (Munich, etrusco e la civiltà dell’Italia centrale nel secolo VII a.c. (Vatican 1951); and H. Schwarz, “The Mirror in Art,” Art Quarterly 13 City, 1947). The ivory handle of an Orientalizing ceremonial axe (1952): 96–118. G. Robins’s comments have relevance beyond was inlaid with amber rectangles, circles, and triangles Egypt (Robins in Kampen 1996, p. 32): “Mirrors, therefore, were mounted on tinfoil, making them appear like tiny mirrors not simply items in which one could see one’s reflection, but (Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 70787): Bartoloni et were overlaid with symbolism relating to fertility and also al. 2000, p. 238, no. 268, where M. C. Bettini calls attention to health, and were surely believed to protect the user in this life. the technique and notes parallels from Casale Marittimo and However, like the fertility figurine, they usually had a funerary Verucchio. function, too. Many mirrors have been found in burials, and it How an amber “mirror,” however tiny, worked for the living or can be deduced that their positive symbolism would also have for the dead is worth reflection. That all documented mirrors been regarded as helping the deceased to achieve rebirth into from Etruria, and most from the rest of the circum- the afterlife.” The mirror was a type of object closely equated Mediterranean, come from graves (many with evidence of use with the disk of the sun as well as with that of the moon, but its wear) is critical to their interpretation. J. Lerner, “Horizontal- distinctive Egyptian form is most like that of the visible sun. See Handled Mirrors: East and West,” Metropolitan Museum Journal n. 161 on the connection of mirrors and the sun and the 31 (1996): n. 3, compares the ancient disk mirror-fibula to the possibility of drawing down the power of the sun. large amber-decorated fibulae found in Etruscan tombs (with 51. Winter 1994, p. 123. Here and in later studies, I. J. Winter reference to the “Morgan Amber” in New York [see figure 24]; describes “the quality of intense light, or radiance, emanating she acknowledges J. Mertens for the observation). On from a particular work” as “one of the most positive attributes reflection and mirror symbolism, see G. Robins, “Dress, in descriptions of what we would call Mesopotamian ‘art.’” She Undress, and the Representation of Fertility and Potency in underlines that it is “the combination of light-plus-sheen New Kingdom Egyptian Art,” in Kampen 1996, pp. 32–33; A. yielding a kind of lustrousness” that was particularly positive, Stewart, “Reflections,” in Kampen 1996, pp. 136–54; J. Neils, auspicious, and sacral, not only in Mesopotamia, but also in “Reflections of Immortality: The Myth of Jason on Etruscan other cultures. This is borne out by many of the forms and Mirrors,” in De Puma and Small 1994, pp. 190–95; Pinch 1994; subjects of amber and amber-enhanced objects of ancient G. Pinch, Votive Offerings to Hathor (Oxford, 1994), pp. 235–38; Greece and Italy. 22 INTRODUCTION

Ancient Names for Amber The words used for amber in antiquity often suggest not Brilliance in amber, ice, rock crystal, or any stone was only the qualities for which it was valued, but also possible only because of its transparency. The ancients theories of its origin and the uses to which it was put. believed that transparency was possible because light was Today, although amber is still widely sought out for let through a material: thus transparent materials had jewelry, magic, and medicine, its floral and faunal performative powers.57 The brilliance of amber, inclusions may be its greatest attraction (as reflected in enhanced by the rich connotations of its names, ensured the title of the 1996 exhibition and book Amber: Window it a place in ancient literature alongside other rare, to the Past [Grimaldi 1996]). There is scarce textual prized, and luminous materials—sight-arresting materials evidence before Roman times to indicate an ancient such as gold, silver, and ivory, whose magnificence often fascination with the creature and plant remains interred was associated with something beyond the merely within amber; however, its use in burials may be human, with the heroic or divine.58 This association is evidence enough. evident from the first extant occurrences of elektron, in Homer’sOdyssey.59When Telemachus visits Menelaus’s The standard Greek word for amber was elektron.52 The palace in Book 4, he is awestruck: “Mark the flashing of derivation of this word is uncertain, although scholars bronze throughout the echoing halls, and the flashing of have suggested that it might have connections with helko, gold, of amber, of silver, and of ivory. Of such sort, meaning “to draw or attract,” or with aleko, meaning “to methinks, is the court of Olympian Zeus within, such ward off evil.”53 The word is certainly associated with 60 54 untold wealth is here; amazement holds me as I look.” elektor, used in the Iliad to mean “the beaming sun,” and is most likely derived from an Indo-European verb It is the flashing of the jewels, more so than the jewels with the root meanings “brilliant” or “to shine.” This themselves, that puts Telemachus in mind of Zeus; the quality of beaming, or reflecting the sun, is also suggested word he uses is steroph—the flash of a lightning bolt. by the Germanic word for amber, glaes or glese, recorded Telemachus’s association of the brightness, the shine, the in some ancient Latin sources as glaesum, the same word brilliance of Menelaus’s palace with divinity seems almost used for glass in this period.55 The Indo-Germanic root for instinctive. this word, ghel, means “lustrous, shimmering, or bright” and gives us words such as glisten, glitter, glow, and Elektron occurs two other times in the Odyssey: once in yellow in English. The current German word for amber, Book 15, when the swineherd Eumaeus, telling the story going back to thirteenth-century Middle Low German, is of his kidnapping to Odysseus, remembers the cunning similarly evocative: Bernstein means “burning stone.”56 Phoenician mariner who turned up at his ancestral home with an eye-catching golden necklace strung with amber When Pliny the Elder or one of his contemporaries pieces.61 In addition, in Book 18, when the suitors vie with admired a valuable piece of amber, the first thing to strike one another in the extravagance of their gifts to Penelope, their eyes would have been the suggestion of fire (imagine Eurymachus’s contribution is “a richly crafted necklace of igneam) or the material’s gentle glow (mollis fulgor). The gold adorned with sun-bright amber” (figure 19).62 amber’s color was certainly evocative—of wine, honey, Another early occurrence of elektron is in the Pseudo- wax, embers, or fire—but was of secondary importance to Hesiodic Shield of Herakles. In this passage, as in Homer’s its shine. This glow had been the defining characteristic of description of Menelaus’s palace, amber takes its place in amber for centuries. a list of rare and precious materials, to dazzling effect: “He took his glittering shield in his hands, nor had anyone ever broken it or damaged it with a blow; it was a marvel 23

to see. The whole orb glowed with enamel, white ivory, Theophrastus’s late-fourth-century B.C. lapidary, where he and amber, and it shone with gleaming gold.”63 notes similarities between lyngourion and elektron but does not consider them the same material.65 He seems to have had direct knowledge of some amber, which was dug up in Liguria and which he apparently considered a nonorganic substance. Theophrastus’s lyngourion is as hard as amber, which he includes among stones possessing a power of attraction, and possesses the same powers of magnetism, but, according to him, it has a different origin: it is the hardened urine of wild lynxes, which “is discovered only when experienced searchers dig it up” (figure 20).66 This origin story is doubtless the result of a fanciful attempt to explain the etymology of the word (lyngourion = lynx urine), a story that would have been additionally convincing because of the substance’s color. Figure 19 Necklace with a pendant scarab, Italic or Etruscan and Greek, 550–400 B.C. Amber, gold, and carnelian. L: 39.5 cm (159⁄16 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 77.AO.77.1. Gift of Gordon McLendon. In each of these passages referring to the use of amber— the ornamentation of a seemingly Olympian palace, necklaces intended for elite women, and the shield of a hero—amber is inextricably bound up with the light of the sun, and it is associated with gods, heroes, and a social elite. The reflection of sunlight, in the halls of a king or on the armor of a hero, was a powerful reminder of the heavens and the heavenly; brilliance and luster were primary qualities to be looked for in a precious material such as gold, ivory, silver, or amber. The brilliance of the amber and other materials in Herakles’ shield, combined with the perfect craftsmanship that it represented, called attention to its poikilia, the adornment and embellishment all fine works should display, and made it athauma idesthai, a “marvel to behold”—what Raymond Prier has defined as “an intermediation between the polarities of men and gods, visually linguistic symbols of power.”64 Figure 20 Lynx urine hardens into a stone. In Bestiarius GKS 1633 4º, 6r, Although the most common, elektron was not the only English, 15th century. Parchment, H: 21 cm (81⁄4 in.), W: 13.5 cm (53⁄10 in.). Greek name for amber. It is likely that the substance Courtesy of The Royal Library of Denmark. referred to as lyngourion (there are other variants of the spelling—liggourion, for example) was a form of amber. It was probably another attempt at etymology that Its derivation and its relationship to amber (elektron) persuaded Strabo that excessive quantities of amber were much discussed in antiquity and continue to be could be found in Liguria.67 Strabo makes no distinction debated today. The earliest evidence for lyngourion is in betweenlyngourionandelektron, using the terms 24 INTRODUCTION

interchangeably. Pliny the Elder is as unimpressed with and reviewed in Hughes-Brock 1993 and Fuscagni 1982. See Strabo’s talk of Liguria as he is with the lynx-urine story. also C. L. Connor, The Color of Ivory: Polychromy on Byzantine Pliny lists a variety of sources containing variations on Ivories (Princeton, 1998), p. 106, nn. 9–10; and H. G. Liddell, R. one or both of these themes, but his final word on Scott, and H. Stuart-Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. lyngourion is that “the whole story is false, and no (Oxford, 1968), s.v. “elektron” (in Greek), p. 768. gemstone bearing this name has been known in our Gold and silver alloys have been known as long as the time.” Although Pliny may have been justified in his individual metals. Naturally occurring alloys likely were used skepticism (Liguria was no more a producer of amber alongside human-made ones. The electrum alloy is much than the lynx was of gemstones), lyngourion appears to be harder than either gold or silver. Pliny (Natural History 33.23.80) a term applied to highly transparent varieties of amber, says, “All gold contains silver in various proportions.… whileelektron was used more generally. Gemstones of Whenever the proportion is one-fifth, the ore is called lyngourion are first attested in third-century inventories electrum.” J. Ogden, “Metals,” in Nicholson and Shaw 2000, pp. of the Asklepieion on the south slope of the Acropolis and 162–64, discusses the makeup of gold alloys in Egypt over time in the shrines of Artemis and Eileithyia (goddesses and the range of color in surviving objects made from gold- associated with childbirth, light, and the moon) at Delos.68 silver alloys. Traditionally, an alloy with more than 75 percent gold present is described as gold. If it is a gold-silver alloy with Several other terms for amber occur in Pliny the Elder’s less than 75 percent gold, it is electrum, and, according to Stos- treatise: he cites Philemon as referring to a white, waxen Gale and Gale’s more recent nomenclature (Z. Stos-Gale and N. form of amber from Scythia as electrum, and a tawny H. Gale, “Sources of Galena, Lead and Silver in Predynastic variety (from another part of Scythia) as sualiternicum. Egypt,” Revue d’Archéométrie 3, suppl. [1981]: 285–96), “gold- Pliny also attributes to his contemporary Xenocrates of silver alloys with 5–50 percent gold should be termed aurian Aphrodisias the claim that sucinum and thium are the silver (those with less than 5 percent gold are simply termed Italian words for amber, and sacrium the Scythian word. silver with low gold).” They go on to state: “The traditional Nicias, Pliny tells us, says that the Egyptians called amber division between electrum and gold at 75 percent gold level falls most inconveniently at just about the median composition sacal (perhaps meaning simply “rock”), and that the for much Egyptian gold-work. Also the variable copper Syrian word was harpax(because of its magnetic presence will have a major effect on colour” (ibid.). Compare qualities; the Greek harpax means “a thief” or “one who Evely 2000, p. 401: “Electrum is a light-coloured alloy, though snatches”).69 Pliny also singles out Callistratus as the first the precise percentage of silver required to constitute it varies to distinguish chryselectrum, or “gold amber.”70 according to authorities: as low as 8–10% or over 20% or even Dioscorides, in his A.D. first-century Materia Medica, over 40%.… The commonest natural impurity of any degree is describes two types of amber: elektron chrysophoron silver: anything up to 50% being called gold, thereafter the (golden amber) and elektron pteruyophoron (“because it alloy is seen as basically a silver. It is largely a matter of draws feathers to it”); and he uses the word aigeiros, semantics how such mixtures are termed, there being no hard which means “poplar,” as a synonym for amber.71 The and fast definition.… Pure gold probably never occurs poplar is associated not only with Herakles (the hero naturally.… It is rare to find 98–99% purity.” See also J. F. Healy, brought back poplar branches from the underworld), but Mining and Metallurgy in the Greek and Roman World (London, also with the tale of Phaethon—the most prevalent myth 1978), pp. 201ff. about the origin of amber (see “Ancient Literary Sources Neb hedj, or “white gold,” was long known in Egypt; its dual on the Origins of Amber,” below). Some authors, such as nature “meant that it was used sometimes with the Pliny, use more than one term for the material, depending significance of gold and at other times as if it were identical on the context. with silver,” which early on was associated with the moon (Wilkinson 1994, p. 84). For discussion of early electrum usage NOTES in Mesopotamia, see P. R. S. Moorey, “The Archaeological Evidence for Metallurgy and Related Technologies in 52. The wordelektron was also used in antiquity to describe the Mesopotamia, ca. 5500–2100,” Iraq 44, pt. 1 (Spring 1982): alloy of silver and gold (modern electrum). Both the fossil resin 13–38; and P. R. S. Moorey, Materials and Manufacture in Ancient and the alloy are found in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae, but the Mesopotamia: The Evidence of Archaeology and Art, BAR earliest surviving source to discuss both materials is International Series 237 (Oxford, 1985). Herodotus. Independently, Hughes-Brock 1993, p. 224, For other sources on amber’s ancient names, see postulated that elektron was originally used for the resin and Schwarzenberg 2002; J. Puhvel, “On Terms for Amber,” in then transferred to the metal because the two materials Studia Celtica et Indogermanica: Festschrift für Wolfgang Meid shared certain optical properties. Much has been written on zum 70. Geburtstag, eds. P. Anreiter and E. Jerem (Budapest, the relationship of resin and metal; these references are noted 1999), pp. 347–50; G. M. Catarsi, “Ambra: Mito e realtà,” Padusa Ancient Names for Amber 25

31 (1997): 167–81; Hughes-Brock 1985, esp. nn. 28–33; G. printing, with bibl. added [Princeton, 1999]). Compare also the Bonfante, “The Word for Amber in Baltic, Latin, Germanic, and biblical Ezekiel’s vision, in which the metaphor for brightness is Greek,” Journal of Baltic Studies 16, no. 3 (Fall 1985): 316–19; M. amber: “Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of E. Huld, “Greek Amber,” in From the Realm of the Ancestors: An fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas, ed. J. Marler from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, (Manchester, CT, 1997), pp. 135–39; A. Grilli, “Eridano, Elettridi e as the colour of amber” (Ezekiel 8:2). Brilliant amber is via dell’ambra,” in Studi e ricerche sulla problematica dell’ambra employed metaphorically by the second-century A.D. satirist I (Rome, 1975), pp. 279–91; A. Grilli, “La documentazione sulla Lucian of Samosata, alluding to a desirable one’s appearance: provenienza dell’ambra in Plinio,” in Acme (Annali della Facolta “Her entire body devoid of the least hair … has more brilliance di lettere e filosofia dell’Universita degli Studi di Milano) 36, no. 1 than amber or glass from Sidon.” See Different Desires: A (1983): 5–17; and works by J. M. Riddle, including “Pomum Dialogue Comparing Male and Female Love Attributed to Lucian of ambrae:Amber and Ambergris in Plague Remedies,” in Quid Samosata, trans. A. Kallimachos (© 2000), Diotima: Materials for Pro Quo: Studies in the History of Drugs (Hampshire, UK, 1992), the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World, http:// pp. 3–17, 111–12, and “Amber in Ancient Pharmacy: The www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/lucian.shtml (accessed Transmission of Information about a Single Drug,” in October 10, 2009). Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine (Austin, TX, 1985). F. Barry, “Painting in Stone: The Symbolic Identity of Coloured 53. Huld 1997 (n. 52, above), p. 135. See n. 69 for other ancient and Marbles from Antiquity until the Age of Enlightenment,” Ph.D. modern names based on amber’s magnetic properties. diss. (Columbia University, 2005), analyzes the history of the 54. Iliad 6.513, 19.398. appreciation of luster and brilliance in marble and other stones. As noted in n. 51, I. J. Winter (in Winter 1994 and Winter 55. Tacitus, Germania 45. 1999) has written extensively on the subject of shine, light, and brilliance as positive attributes of physical matter in 56. Another old German word for amber is the Oberdeutsch Mesopotamia. She underlines (Winter 1994, p. 123) the Agtstein (from aieten, “to burn”). See Blüemner, RE, vol. 3, part importance of light and “light bearing,” and notes that the 1, s.v. “Bernstein”; and J. Barfod, “Von der Heilkraft des quality of emanated light is of the highest value: “In all cases, it Bernsteins,” in Barfod et al. 1989, pp. 84–87. is apparently the combination of light-plus-sheen yielding a 57. E. Schwarzenberg, Crystal (private publication, 2006), p. 36: kind of lustrousness that is seen as particularly positive and “Even after Aristotle had taught Greece to conceive of auspicious, so that persons and things that are holy, ritually diaphaneity as light in potential, and of light as the presence of pure, joyous or beautiful are generally described in terms of fire in the transparent [Aristotle, De Anima 2.7], diaphanous light.” In Sumerian, the word for “pure” carries the physical bodies were not thought of as passive, as just allowing light’s manifestation of “shine.” B. André-Salvini, “L’idéologie des passage, but as contributing actively to its propagation.” pierres en Mésopotamie,” in Caubet 1999, illuminates how in Egypt, brightness was immediately associated with the 58. In early Greece, as earlier in Egypt and the Near East, gods and brightness of the sun, and thus with life. Wilkinson 1992, n. 2, some heroic figures are described with adjectives translated as sums up: “The shining appearance which associated precious “bright,” “golden,” “shining,” “luminous,” and “glistening.” E. metals with the celestial bodies was a quality which may well Parisinou, Light of the Gods: The Role of Light in Archaic and have been seen as symbolic in other areas such as the high Classical Greek Cult (London, 2000); and W. D. Furley, Studies in polish given to some stone statues and the varnish given to the Use of Fire in Ancient Greek Religion (New York, 1981) provide wooden objects.” useful discussions of the iconography of light and fire and their Tjehnet, an Egyptian word meaning “dazzling”—that which is divine connections. Although neither work discusses amber, brilliant or scintillating, such as the light of the sun, moon, and many references are apt. “In the epics of Homer, the gods are stars, glistening with a light symbolic of life, birth, and described as bright, shining, luminous”: Lapatin 2001, p. 55, immortality—was employed as an epithet of brilliance and who cites A. A. Donohue, Xoana and the Origins of Greek bestowed on many gods, including Hathor, Thoth, and Horus, Sculpture (Atlanta, 1988); J.-P. Vernant, “Mortals and Immortals: whose light-filled appearances were likened to celestial light The Bodies of the Divine,” in Mortals and Immortals: Collected (extracted from F. D. Friedman and R. S. Bianchi in Friedman Essays, ed. F. Zeitlin (Princeton, 1991), pp. 27–49; and R. L. 1998, pp. 15, 28–29). Tjehnet applies to precious metals and Gordon, “The Real and the Imaginary: Production and Religion faïence or, more correctly, glazed composition. It was not a in the Graeco-Roman World,” Art History 2 (1979): 5–34. cheap substitute material for precious and semiprecious Divinities shine with an otherworldly radiance, and declare stones but was valued in itself for amulets of the living as well their presence with brilliant light and the blaze of flame and as the dead. The light-filled material could promote the fire; see also Steiner 2001, p. 96–101. Demeter, in divine deceased’s rebirth and help to impart life. Hathor is named in epiphany, floods the halls “with radiance like lightning”: Late Period and Ptolemaic texts as Tjehnet, the Scintillating Homeric Hymn to Ceres 276–80 (H. Foley, ed., The Homeric Hymn One. In Italy, from the Bronze Age onward, faïence beads and to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays, 3rd pendants are often joined with amber in necklaces and other 26 INTRODUCTION

kinds of adornment for (ultimately) funerary objects. Faïence is first recorded in the inventory of 269. A connection of may have had a similar meaning in both Italy and Egypt, and lyngourion (whether amber or not) with Aesclepius, Artemis, the interest in it may have arisen from its Egyptian origin and and Eileithyia may be owed to its sanative properties. As noted its authenticity, as well as from the transformed nature of the in the text, Artemis and Eileithyia are both associated with material and its color. Strings of glistening materials—amber, childbirth, the protection of the young, and the moon. glass, faïence, and gemstones such as carnelian—all shared Aesclepius’s connection to childbirth and healing is established the divine qualities associated with luster; they were all by his own birth. According to Pindar (Pythian 3), he was manifestations of brilliance and were divine. rescued from his dead mother’s womb while she was being A number of miniature kouros amulets of glazed composition, cremated on her funeral pyre. found at Rhodes and now in the Louvre, are very close in form The stone’s bright color may have been another reason for its to the amber kouros in the British Museum (BM 41: Strong association with Artemis. On Eileithyia, see LIMC 3 (1986), s.v. 1966, pp. 15, 65–66, no. 41, pl. XIX), and to a number of ivory “Eileithyia” (R. Olmos), pp. 126–32; and S. Pingiatoglou, kouroi (discussed in n. 248); in each case, the material may Eileithyia (Würzberg, 1981). In ancient lapidaries, lyngourion is have been the determining divine attribute. one of the three magic stones said to protect both infants and 59. Onelektronin the Odyssey, see A. Heubeck, S. West, and J. B. pregnant women; this suggested to S. I. Johnston (Johnston Hainsworth, A Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1995, p. 366, n. 12) that the same type of demon was believed 1988), p. 197. to harm both. For the lapidaries, see R. Halleux and J. Schamp, Les lapidaires grecs: Lapidaire orphique, kérygmes, lapidaires 60. Odyssey 4.71–75. Others question whether this passage refers d’Orphée, Socrate et Denys, lapidaire nautique, Damigéron-Evax to the ancient resin or to the metal. (Paris, 1985); and L. Baisier, The Lapidaire Chrétien: Its Composition, Its Influence, Its Sources (Washington, DC, 1936), p. 61. Odyssey 15.455–62. 90. 62. Odyssey 18.294–96. 69. Schwarzenberg 2002, p. 56, and Riddle 1965, passim, discuss 63. The Shield of Herakles 2.141. Did Phidias’s Athena also include additional names for amber that derive from its amber embellishment?Lapatin 2001, p. 4, n. 11, refers to an electromagnetic properties. The Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and epigram ascribed to the mid-fourth-century South Italian demotic Greek names for amber are variants of (or sources tyrant Mamerkos (Mamerkos ad Plutarch, Timoleon 31 for) kāhrubā, or “straw attractor.” See also extensive [Anthologia Graeca, Appendix, Epigrammata Dedicatoria 84, line commentary by the tenth-century Al-Beruni, The Book Most 1]), in which the complex compound adjective Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious Stones, trans. H. M. chryselephantelektrous (Greek for “of gold, ivory, and electron”) Said (Islamabad, 1989), pp. 181–83: “Its name [referring to is used to describe Athena. amber]kāhrubātestifies to its characteristics, as it attracts straw towards itself and at times even the soil that is found in 64. Prier 1989. For other pertinent discussions of the marvelous, them. But this can happen only if it is rubbed and warmed.… It see F. I. Zeitlin, “The Artful Eye: Vision, Ecphrasis and Spectacle is called alqatrūn and adhmītūs in Roman [i.e., Greek]. It is in Euripidean Theatre,” in Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture, known asdaqnāandhayānūfrāin Syriac.” Al-Beruni, in the ed. S. Goldhill and R. Osborne (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 138–96; introduction to the section on p. 15, quotes Abū Nasr al-‘Utbī: andWinter 2000. “God has conferred upon everything a specific attribute and characteristic [and uses three examples, the third being] … 65. Theophrastus, De Lapidibus 5.28–29. amber draws straws.” 66. Theophrastus is not the only expositor of this story. Pliny 70. Pliny (Natural History 37.12 and 43) also discusses chrysoelectri, dismisses a number of variations, including a belief held by or “golden amber,” in his section on true gemstones: “Their Sudines and Metrodorus that amber comes from a “lynx” tree color passes into that of amber, but only in morning light. in Liguria. On this, see Schwarzenberg 2002, p. 48–49. Those from Pontus are betrayed by their light weight. Some of 67. Strabo, Geography 4.6.2–3. these stones are hard and reddish, while some are soft and full of flaws.” Eichholz, in his commentary (Eichholz 1962, p. 268, n. 68. Plantzos 1999, pp. 15–17. In the Asklepieion inventory, a a), clarifies: “Perhaps mostly hessonite, but like the Tibarene lyggourion [sic] on a chain brought by Satyra is noted for the stone, the less heavy Pontic stones were probably citrine.” year 276/5. In the inventory of the Artemision at Delos, a 71. For more on Dioscorides’ discussion of amber, see Riddle 1965 lyngourion set in gold (a ring) is first listed for the years 278/69. and Riddle’s later publications on the subject (in n. 52, above). At the Delian shrine of Eileithyia, a lyngourion set in a gold ring Ancient Names for Amber 27

Color and Other Optical Characteristics: Ancient Perception and Reception We may imagine that when Zeus revealed his true form to referred to as being red.77 And since Homer, amber and Cadmus’s daughter Semele at her rash request, his gold had been paired, and both were symbols of the sun. blinding brilliance was enough to reduce her to ashes even if he had left his thunderbolts behind. The name Zeushas associations of luminosity (it is derived from a word that means “to shine”), as do many of the common epithets for Greek deities: Phoebus Apollo means “radiant Apollo,” and the goddess Athena is often described in Homer asglaukopis, which can be translated as “with gleaming eyes.” Apollo appears to his worshippers at Delphi in a blaze of flame and brilliant light in the HomericHymn to Apollo. Similarly, the great heroes of ancient Greece often are depicted with a bright glow about them—like Achilles in the Iliad, “shining in all his armor like the sun.”72 In Quintus Smyrnaeus’s fourth-century A.D. Fall of Troy, the mourners at Ajax’s funeral lay “gleaming gold” and “lucent amber-drops” around his body.73 This connection between the radiance of precious jewels and the brilliance of heroes and gods was established in Greece as early as Homer. Given the strong associations among the dazzling, the divine, and the heroic, the choice of amber Figure 21 Hove tumulus cup, Wessex culture, Bronze Age. Amber, D: 8.9 cm for a piece of jewelry or a work of art indicated a divine (31⁄2 in.). Brighton & Hove, Royal Pavilion & Museums. or heroic subject. For example, Pausanias mentions in his Description of Greece the amber statue of the emperor The various images that a gemstone’s color conjured up Augustus.74 The image must have been a “marvel to could sometimes, as in the case of elektron, determine its behold.” name. As we noted, etymologically the word is probably When amber was considered in terms of its hue (instead connected with elektor, “the beaming sun,” the root of its brilliance), the images it evoked were no less meaning being “brilliant.” Pliny the Elder, for instance, striking. The most sought-after pieces ranged from yellow talks about a variety of jasper that was called boria to red—colors that were associated with fire and the (meaning “northern”) “because it is like the sky on an 75 autumn morning.”78And when Pliny discusses the precious metal gold (figure 21). The fiery and glowing different colors of amber, his terminology is almost colors were important to life, marriage, and death and invariably metaphorical. “The pale kind,” he writes, “has were linked with divine forces. Yellow and red were the finest scent, but, like the waxy kind, it has no value. redolent of fire (and consequently the sun) and of light The tawny is more valuable and still more so if it is itself, and were symbolic of life and regeneration.76 In the Roman writings of Martial and Juvenal, gold was often transparent, but the color must not be too fiery; not a fiery glare, but a mere suggestion of it, that is what we admire 28

in amber. The most highly approved specimens are the … of the Eridanus, is very rare and precious to men for many ‘Falernian,’ so called because they recall the color of the reasons.” What better material for the divine princeps? wine; they are transparent and glow gently, so as to have, 75. For the Roman preference for a reddish cast in yellow, see moreover, the agreeably mellow tint of honey that has Gage 1993, p. 272, n. 74. On the affinity of red and gold in been reduced by boiling.”79 Egypt, see Wilkinson 1994, pp. 106–7. For the Classical world, The metaphorical resonance of the colors associated with seeGage 1993, p. 26. The flammeum, the most characteristic amber, like the divine and heroic associations of its element of the Roman bridal costume, and the veil of the brilliance, would doubtless have played an instrumental Flaminica Dialis were deep yellow (luteum), the same color as role in the kinds of subjects carved in amber and in its lightning, according to Pliny (Natural History 21.22). See Sebesta and Bonfante 1994, esp. chaps. by L. La Follette, “The Costume use. In ancient gemstones, a correspondence between of the Roman Bride” (pp. 54–64), and by J. L. Sebesta, color and subject was desired. According to an ancient “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman” (pp. 46–53), epigram, the Nereid Galene was cut into an Indian beryl and “Tunica Ralla, Tunica Spissa: The Colors and Textiles of because the stone’s blue color was appropriate for this Roman Costume” (pp. 65–76). Some amber is similar in color to personification of the calm sea.80 egg yolks (said to be the color of the flammeum). As noted in “Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets” below, amber is attested as Amber’s fragrance—it is the only “stone” that is both a gift for Roman brides. shining and fragrant—is enhanced through rubbing.81 Amber is thus a perfect material for a divine image, For the Egyptians, pure gold, its pigment cognate, yellow, and especially when we recall that “statues were regularly the color red were the colors of the sun; gold was symbolic of polished with perfumed oils, perhaps matching the that which was eternal and imperishable. The flesh and bones emanation of fragrance that forms so regular a part of of the gods were held to be of gold, and thus that was the divine ephiphanies.”82 Not only the fragrance, but also the natural material for their images (Wilkinson 1994, pp. 106–9, great age of the material, its mysterious origins, its 116). E. A. Waarska, in The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, exh. cat., ed. E. Hornung and B. Bryan transmuted nature, and its electromagnetic, optical, and (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 105, no. 20, says that gold other properties, as well as its divine and heroic epithets, represented purity, and bedecking a mummy with such a would have evoked a variety of ideas in its beholders— material was thought to ensure a successful afterlife for its radiant Apollo, the fiery sun, Olympian honey, Falernian owner. wine. 76. Gage 1993, p. 26, with bibl. NOTES 77. J. André, Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949), p. 155, discusses the many instances of gold 72. Iliad 19.398 (R. Lattimore, trans., The Iliad of Homer [Chicago, referred to as red in Rome (as cited in D. Janes, Gold and God in 1961]). It is a common tendency in Greek poetry to emphasize Late Antiquity [Cambridge, 1998]). For further discussion of the qualities such as brightness or sheen rather than hue, as C. poetic and symbolic vocabulary for the different colors of gold, Irwin, Colour-Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974), was among see P. R. S. Moorey, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and the first to emphasize. See also Steiner 2001, pp. 97–101; Gage Techniques: The Archaeological Evidence (Oxford, 1994), p. 218. 1993, pp. 11–27; and many of the conference papers in L. 78. Plantzos 1999, p. 36: “The shape in which a stone was going to Cleland, K. Stears, and G. Davies, Colour in the Ancient be cut was also sometimes determined by its colour.” Mediterranean World, BAR International Series 1267 (Oxford, 2004). See C. W. Shelmerdine, “Shining and Fragrant Cloth in 79. Falernian wine, a product of Campania, was among the most Homeric Epic,” in Carter and Morris 1995, pp. 99–107, for a prized in ancient Rome and, as Pliny writes, the second-best discussion of the highly desirable qualities of shininess and wine produced in Italy (Pliny, Natural History 14.8.62). On fragrance in Aegean elite textiles and the larger implications of Falernian wine and its golden, red, and dark red colors, see, for her argument. example, P. McGovern, S. Fleming, and S. Katz, eds., The Origins 73. Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 5.623–25, trans. A. S. Way, and Ancient History of Wine (London, 1996); and T. Unwin, Wine Loeb Classical Library 19 (London, 1913). and the Vine: An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade (London, 1991). See also The Wine of Dionysus: Banquets of 74. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.12.7–8, trans. W. H. S. Jones Gods and Men in Basilicata, exh. cat. (Rome, 2000). While wine is and H. A. Ormerod, Loeb Classical Library 188 (Cambridge, MA, associated with Dionysos (and the Egyptian Bes), honey is 1966): “Of the statues set up in the round buildings, the amber associated with the Olympians Zeus and Artemis. one represents Augustus, the Roman emperor.… This amber of 80. SeePlantzos 1999, pp. 36, 89. For the use of garnets, hematite, which the statue of Augustus is made, when found in the sands and other red stones for martial subjects, see n. 223. Color and Optical Characteristics 29

81. On being both fragrant and shining, see Shelmerdine (n. 72, 82. Steiner 2001, p. 101, with reference to N. J. Richardson, ed. The above). On amber as an attractor, see Al-Beruni (n. 69, above); Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford, 1974), p. 252. on amber-fragrant kisses, see Martial (n. 114, below). 30 INTRODUCTION

Ancient Literary Sources on the Origins of Amber Where did amber come from? Attempts to answer this amber. This is probably due in part to the preponderance question, from the early Greek poets to Late Antique of amber found washed up onshore, and the idea may authors, were made in a wide variety of disciplines— have been fortified by a belief, prevalent in early philosophy, poetry, history, natural science, and even northern solar cults, that the sun (another commonly pharmacology. But the most important, and the most recurring theme in amber-origin theories) passes through varied, answers came from perspectives that were the waters of the earth on its nocturnal path. And then as scientific (amber comes from tree sap or lake mud or the now, sea-origin amber is often encrusted with shells sea), geographical (amber comes from the Northern (figure 22). Ocean, Liguria, or Ethiopia), or mythological (it comes from the tears of Phaethon or of Meleager’s sisters). However diverse the various origin stories, they explain amber either as being related to the sun or the planets, or as being “of water” or “of earth.” These different beliefs about amber’s origin appear to have affected the very ways it was used. Pliny’s chapters on amber in his encyclopedic Natural History are the most extensive surviving ancient source. Compiling his work at a time when amber was beginning to flood into Rome, he provides a survey of the stories then in circulation about the formation of amber, its geographical and mythical origins, and the way it was classified and used. The depth and complexity of the information available to Pliny is striking. Evidently there was a varied and lively debate about what amber was and where it came from by the time he was writing, right down to the question of whether it was a vegetable, mineral, or faunal product. Throughout Book 37, Pliny comments critically on his source material, contrasting its validity with current evidence. He passes over accounts that range from the theory that amber was moisture from the sun’s rays to the hypothesis that it was produced by heated lake mud before offering his own scientific conclusion: amber is formed from the sap of a species of pine, and, hardened by either frost, heat, or the sea, it “is Figure 22 Baltic amber encrusted with barnacles. L: 8.6 cm (33⁄ in.). Photo: washed up on the shores of the mainland, being swept 8 D. Grimaldi / American Museum of Natural History. along so easily that it seems to hover in the water without settling on the sea bed.” But where, geographically, did amber come from? Pliny’s In many of these accounts (including Pliny’s own), the sea sources do not agree. Italy, Scythia, Numidia, Ethiopia, and rivers play an important role in the manufacture of Syria, and “the lands beyond India” are among the 31

suggestions. Pliny himself prefers those accounts that Fall of Troy. At the lavish funerals of Achilles and Ajax, the place amber’s origins in northern Europe: “It is well mourners heaped drops of amber on the bodies. For established,” he writes, “that amber is a product of islands Achilles, in the Northern Ocean.” Herodotus is less sure: “I do not believe that there is a river called by foreigners Eridanus Wailing captive women brought uncounted fabrics issuing into the northern sea, whence our amber is said to From storage chests and threw them upon the pyre come, nor have I any knowledge of Tin-islands.… This Heaping gold and amber with them. only we know, that our tin and amber come from the For Ajax, most distant parts.”83 Lucent amber-drops they laid thereon The Eridanus River to which Herodotus refers was Tears, say they, which the Daughters of the Sun, originally a mythical river that came to be associated with The Lord of Omens, shed for Phaethon slain, the Po and sometimes with the Rhône, among others. In When by Eridanus’ flood they mourned for him. the ancient sources, the Eridanus migrates about the map. These for undying honour to his son, Pliny’s comment on his sources’ confusion about its The God made amber, precious in men’s eyes. location is typically pointed: “Such statements only make Even this the Argives on the broad-based pyre it easier to pardon their ignorance of amber when their Cast freely, honouring the mighty dead.87 ignorance of geography is so great.” The most likely explanation of this confusion is that the Eridanus at some By Quintus’s time, the tale of Phaethon88 had long been point became connected in myth to memories of an early the preeminent myth associated with amber.89 The name land–riverine amber route running from the Baltic to Phaethon, meaning “the shining one” or “the radiant one,” northern Italy. derives from the Greek verb phaethô, “to shine.” The Phaethon story, which provides a classic example of Herodotus himself affirms the existence of an exchange hubris followed by nemesis, was first recorded by Hesiod, route running from the far north all the way to the and dramatized in Euripides’ mid-fifth-century Phaethon, Aegean. In his discussion of the Hyperboreans (a but it might be best known today from Ovid’s version in legendary race from the far north who worshipped the Metamorphoses.90 Apollo), he mentions “offerings wrapt in wheat straw” that they bring to Scythia and that are passed from nation According to Ovid, Phaethon was the son of Clymene and to nation until they reach Delos (Apollo’s birthplace).84 the sun-god Helios. As an adolescent, he doubted his You cannot reach Hyberborea by either land or sea, says parentage and voyaged to the East to question his father. Pindar (Pythian 10.29); most stories of travel to and from There the god welcomed his son and promised as proof of this region involve flight. There is something his paternity to grant any boon Phaethon might ask. The otherworldly as well as northerly about the youth rashly demanded permission to drive the sun Hyperboreans’ land.85 Scholars are undecided as to chariot through the sky for one day. So unsuccessful and whether the offerings Herodotus mentions were actually dangerous was the young charioteer that Zeus was forced amber, but it is likely that amber was transported on such to kill Phaethon with a thunderbolt to save the world a route. from destruction. The result was a disastrous cosmic fire. The youth’s flaming body fell into the legendary Eridanus Furthermore, Apollonius of Rhodes (whose answer to the River. His sisters, called the Heliades (daughters of question “Where does amber come from?” is a Helios), stood on the riverbanks weeping ceaselessly for mythological one) provides a link between amber and the their brother until finally they were changed into poplars cult of Apollo in his Argonautica. He refers to a Celtic (figure 23). Thereafter the tears of the Heliades fell as myth that drops of amber were tears shed by Apollo for drops of precious amber onto the sandy banks, to be the death of his son Asclepius when he visited the washed into the river and eventually borne off on the Hyperboreans.86That amber should come to be associated with Apollo is not surprising, given its waters to one day “adorn young wives in Rome.” connections with the sun, but it is significant that the Phaethon’s friend Cygnus, the king of Liguria, was so connection should occur specifically in the context of the distressed that he left his people to mourn among the mourning of Asclepius. Amber’s role in mourning, poplars and was eventually transformed himself, into a evidenced by its funerary use, is constantly emphasized in swan. mythology. There is an explicit connection between this mythology and the funerary use of amber in Quintus’s 32 INTRODUCTION

Sophocles that links amber to Meleager, the famous hero of the Calydonian boar hunt.92 According to one version of the myth, Meleager’s sisters, who were changed into birds (meleagrides, perhaps guinea fowl) by Artemis when he died, migrated yearly from Greece to the lands beyond India and wept tears of amber for their brother. Artemis’s role is a critical one in this story, considering the number of amber carvings that might be associated with her. While one Late Antique author places the Meleagrides on the island of Leros, opposite Miletos, Strabo sets the transformed birds at the mouth of the Po or south of Istria—locations of great interest, considering the number of seventh-century ambers in the form of birds excavated from sanctuaries and graves in both Greece and Italy. Another amber-origin story, recounted by Pseudo- Aristotle in On Marvellous Things Heard, offers an intriguing hint of connections among amber, sun myths, and metalworking, and of the presence of figured amber and Greek artists at the mouth of the Po.93 Ever present in these accounts is the sadness of a youth’s early death, and this version involves Icarus, who was burned by flying too close to the sun. According to Pseudo-Aristotle, Icarus’s father, the master craftsman Daidalos, visited the Elektrides (“amber islands”), which were formed by the silting-up of the Eridanus River, in the gulf of the Adriatic. There he came upon the hot, fetid lake where Phaethon Figure 23 Fall of Phaethon, engraving by Thomas de Leu after a painting by fell, and where the black poplars on its banks oozed Antoine Caron. FromLes images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux amber that the natives collected for trade with the Greeks. Philostrates sophistes grecs, et Les statues de Callistrate (Paris, 1615), p. 90. During his stay on these islands, Daidalos erected two Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Library, A. W. Mellon New Century statues, one of tin and one of bronze, in the likenesses of Fund. himself and of his lost son. Like the Celtic myth about Apollo mourning Asclepius, There are recurring themes in all these myths: the death Phaethon’s tale is one of a young life tragically cut short. of divine or heroic youths, the mourning of the young, the When Diodorus Siculus tells the Phaethon story in his sun (which was responsible for Icarus’s death as well as Library of History, he ends by pointing out that amber “is Phaethon’s), and the sea. Many Greek and early Roman commonly used in connection with the mourning stories about amber place its origin in the far north, and it attending the death of the young.”91 But as well as is likely that the earliest myths incorporated knowledge of reminding us of amber’s role in mourning, the poplars the northern solar cults and the medicinal and magical dropping tears into the river are evidence that there were properties of amber. theories connecting amber to tree resin as early as the fifth century (which marks the first extant occurrence of Not only was amber connected to the sun, it also came to the Phaethon myth). The link between resin drops and be immortalized in the stars. It was characteristic of all tears is a natural one; myrrh, for instance, is explained in precious stones in antiquity to have a planetary or myth as the tears of Myrrha, who was changed into a tree celestial association, and by the third century B.C. at least, for her crimes—indeed, the Greek word for tear, dakruon, the Eridanus was thought to have been transformed into a can also mean “sap” or “gum.” constellation, the eponymic Eridanus, or River. Late Antique sources recount how Phaethon became the A broader trend in mythology (in many cultures besides constellation Auriga, the Heliades became the Hyades, the Greco-Roman) connects precious stones generally to and the Ligurian king became the Swan.94 In Late tears, and mythological accounts of amber’s origin do not Antiquity, Claudian described the river god Eridanus in a always involve trees. Pliny refers to a (now lost) play by manner no doubt long imagined: “On his dripping Ancient Literary Sources, Origins 33

forehead gleamed the golden horns that cast their the reclining couple and the ceremonial banquet had brilliance along the banks … and amber dripped from his spread earlier from the Ancient Near East to Greece and hair.”95 Why, as Frederick Ahl asks, is the Swan a friend of Etruria. Significant Archaic Etruscan sculpted and painted the sun’s child? The answer to this question explains in depictions are extant. If this is a funerary object and the part why amber was important in ancient Italy, and why subjects divine, rich mythological implications are the long-necked birds are represented early and often in possible. If the subjects are mortal, the pin could have the “solar” material. The swan was a cult bird in northern functioned in some manner as a “substitution” for the Europe during the height of Celtic power, in the Urnfield deceased. and Hallstatt phases of European prehistory. “The evidence strongly suggests that this bird was especially associated with the solar cults that were widespread in Europe, and that can be traced from the Bronze Age, into the Iron Age.”96 The constellation of Eridanus “wets the clear southern skin in its tortuous course and with starry stream flows beneath Orion’s dread sword”: so writes Claudian in his panegyric of A.D. 404. Here, too, amber’s place in Greek myths suggests that it was viewed as an ancient material, something belonging to a great age of the distant past. But it also had a practical life outside myth—by Pliny’s time, amber was very common in Rome, and a great number of amber objects were used as jewelry, incense, pharmaceuticals, and furnishings for the dead. Nonetheless, amber’s mythological significance would have had a powerful effect on the way the material was seen and employed in everyday life. Of course, as soon as one begins to delve deeper into the relationship between the myths and the reality of amber, Figure 24 Bow of a Fibula (Safety Pin) with Reclining Figures, Attendant, and Bird, Etruscan, ca. 500 B.C. Amber, L: 14 cm (51⁄2 in.). New York, Metropolitan it becomes difficult to distinguish which is which. Myths Museum of Art, 17.190.2067. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917. © The about amber’s role in the mourning of the dead and the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY. actual funerary use of amber, for instance, both have a direct correlation to the fact that amber can sometimes As Jean-René Jannot writes about the Etruscan-depicted act as a tomb itself. dead: The connection among amber, tombs, and funerary Was [a wall painting, an effigy sarcophagus] customs is brought out in a unique Etruscan amber, the considered the physical envelope for that which does bow of a fibula, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the not die, the hinthial [soul, or shade]? None of these so-called Morgan Amber, possibly the most beautiful of all monuments were made to be seen.… Was the surviving pre-Roman carved amber objects (figure 24).97 deceased, through his material image, believed to be The bow is carved into a complex grouping: a draped and living in the funerary chamber, which has become a shod female wearing a pointed hat holds the base of a house, or in the trench where offerings of food were small vase in her right hand and touches it with her left. A set out for him?98 young, beardless man, with flowing hair, long garment, and bare feet, supports himself on his left arm. Nestled Certainly, inclusions in amber—life visibly preserved for between them is a long-necked bird, presumably a swan. eternity—would not have been ignored when preparing At the foot of the couch is an attendant. The amber amber for funerary purposes. apparently depicts a ceremonial banquet, but is the The insects and flora in amber, which Aristotle and later couple mortal or divine? Are the figures Aphrodite and Pliny and Tacitus point to as proof of amber’s origin as Adonis (Etruscan: Turan and Atunis) and the bird the earth-born, as tree resin,99 are apt metaphors for goddess’s swan? Or is this an elite couple? If so, is the entombment and for the ultimate functions of the funeral swan a symbol or a part of the event? The iconography of ritual: to honor the deceased with precious gifts and to 34 INTRODUCTION

make permanent the memory of their lives. Three of Ajax (The Fall of Troy 5.625–30), the translation is by A. S. Way Martial’s epigrams are devoted to this correlation: (see n. 73, above). Shut in Phaethon’s drop, a bee both hides and shines, 88. This Phaethon is not the only Phaethon of Greek myth; see, for so that she seems imprisoned in her own nectar. She example, J. Diggle, Euripides’ Phaethon (Cambridge, 1970). has a worthy reward for all her sufferings. One might 89. Pliny, Natural History 37.11. believe that she herself willed so to die. 90. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.750–2.380. See the extensive discussion As an ant was wandering in Phaethonic shade, a drop of Euripides’ Hippolytus and Phaethon in Diggle 1970 (n. 88, of amber enfolded the tiny creature. So that she was above). despised but lately, while life remained, and now has 91. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.23–24. been made precious by her death. 92. The story may have had particular relevance in Italy (especially While a viper crawled along the weeping branches of in Etruria), a land famous for its fierce boars. the Heliads, a drop of amber flowed onto the creature in its path. As it marveled to find itself stuck fast in 93. On Marvellous Things Heard 81–82. A. Spekke, The Ancient Amber the viscous fluid, it stiffened, bound of a sudden by Routes and the Geographical Discovery of the Eastern Baltic congealed ice. Be not proud, Cleopatra, of your royal (Chicago, 1957), appears to have been the first to draw sepulchre, if a viper lies in a nobler tomb.100 attention to this story in relation to amber. See also Grilli 1975 (in n. 52, above); Hughes-Brock 1985; and Mastrocinque 1991, It is very unlikely that a swift, small snake could be pp. 32–34. entombed in such a fashion, but it is also only fair to 94. SeeMastrocinque 1991, pp. 16–22; Dopp 1997; and Geerlings allow Martial a degree of poetic license, given Cleopatra’s 1996for further discussion of the planetary and celestial traditional association with the asp. A more intriguing aspects of Phaethon. possibility remains, however: that Martial was describing something he had actually seen or heard about—an early 95. Claudian, vol. 2, “Panegyric on the Sixth Consulship of the instance of amber forgery.101 Emperor Honorius,” trans. M. Platnauer, Loeb Classical Library 136 (Cambridge, MA, 1922). Four amber pendants from Italy, NOTES each in the form of a bull-bodied man, may represent this river god. 83. Herodotus, Histories 3.115. 96. A. Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition 84. Ibid. 4.32–36. See J. Bouzek, “Xoana,” Oxford Journal of (London, 1967), p. 234, quoted in Ahl 1982 (n. 84, above), p. 390. Archaeology 19, no. 1 (2000): 111; J. Bouzek, Greece, Anatolia and 97. Metropolitan Museum of Art 17.190.2067, Gift of J. Pierpont Europe: Cultural Interrelations during the Early Iron Age Morgan, 1917: Art of the Classical World 2007, pp. 284–85, 471, (Jonsered, Sweden, 1997), pp. 35–38; Mastrocinque 1991, pp. no. 326; Richter 1940, p. 31, figs. 97–98; Kredel 1923–24; and 41–45, with reference to J. Tréheux, “La réalité historique des Albizzatti 1919. Richter cites two other ambers with similar offrandes hyperboréennes de Délos,” in Studies Presented to D. subjects, a fragmentary work in the Metropolitan Museum M. Robinson (St. Louis, 1953), pp. 758–59; and F. M. Ahl, “Amber, (23.160.96) and an example once in the Stroganoff Collection Avallon, and Apollo’s Singing Swan,” American Journal of (Pollak and Muñoz 1912, vol. 1, p. 78, pl. XLVII.1). Philology 103 (1982): 373–411. Hughes-Brock 1985, p. 260, 98. Jannot 2005, p. 58. points to C. W. Beck, G. C. Southard, and A. A. Adams, “Analysis and Provenience of Minoan and Mycenaean Amber, II. Tiryns,” 99. Aristotle, Meteorology 4.10; Pliny specifies ants, gnats, and Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 9 (1968): 5–19, and the lizards, the first two signifying similar-appearing and excellent connection of the “Tiryns” type of gold and amber beads to the specimens of amber; Tacitus, Germania 45. offerings. See also Fuscagni 1982, pp. 110–11. Callimachus (Hymn4.283–84) differs in this, believing that the offerings are 100. Martial, Epigrams 4.32, 4.59, 6.15, in vol. 2, ed. and trans. D. R. S. wheat. On this, see C. T. Seltman, “The Offerings of the Bailey, Loeb Classical Library 95 (London and Cambridge, MA, Hyperboreans,”Classical Quarterly 22 (1928): 155–59. 1993). See P. A. Watson, “Martial’s Snake in Amber: Ekphrasis or Poetic Fantasy?,” Latomus 61 (2001): 938–43. Was this snake 85. Ahl 1982 (n. 84, above), p. 378. in amber a forgery? 86. Apollonius, Argonautica 4.611–18. 101. SeeRoss 1998, pp. 6–9 (“fake amber”); Grimaldi 1996, pp. 87. For the passage about the funeral of Achilles (The Fall of Troy 133–41 (“processed amber, imitations, and forgeries”); D. 3.683–85), see Quintus of Smyrna, The Trojan Epic: Posthomerica, Grimaldi, A. Shedrinsky, A. Ross, and N. S. Baer, “Forgeries of trans. and ed. A. James (Baltimore, 2006). For the funeral of Fossils in ‘Amber’: History, Identification, and Case Studies,” Ancient Literary Sources, Origins 35

Curator 37 (1994): 251–74; and A. M. Shedrinsky, D. A. Grimaldi, J. J. Boon, and N. S. Baer, “Application of Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry to the Unmasking of Amber Forgeries,” Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 25 (1993): 77–95. 36 INTRODUCTION

Amber and Forgery If a piece of amber could be guaranteed to have been extant ancient example of such an amber object, it is a acquired from an exotic location, such as the distant compelling explanation for certain larger works referred north, the mythical Eridanus, or the Elektrides islands, or to in ancient sources, such as the large drinking vessels if it embodied one of its more mystical properties— mentioned by Juvenal and Apuleius,104 or the statue of natural luster, powerful magnetism, or particularly Augustus at Olympia described by Pausanias (see “Color impressive inclusions—it would likely have had greater and Other Optical Characteristics,” above). What we do worth as a magical or medicinal item, as well as being have as examples of amalgamated amber pieces are more valuable as an ornament. Practically speaking, such segmented amber fibulae and a few carvings with added a piece would have fetched a much higher price than an patches of amber, held together with glue or by adhesion unprovenanced or poorer-grade one. Then, as now, the with oil and heat. fibulae sections were joined with reeds, impetus for forgery or false provenance would have been sometimes covered in metal foil. Today, two pieces of commensurate with price. Roger Moorey, addressing the amber may be united by coating their surfaces with issue of forgery in relation to blue-colored stones in the linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together ancient Near East, writes that “the desire for rare while still hot. coloured stones was so great that it stimulated the development of artificial gemstones, made first, before Probably there was no need to conceal that such pieces about 2000 B.C., of glazed dull stones or of faïence and were joined or amalgamated, as their craftsmanship was increasingly thereafter of glass.”102 It is likely that various just as impressive as their size. That they were composed tree resins (particularly copal, a hard resin much younger of pieces rather than carved from one large chunk of than amber) might have been taken for amber—at least at amber would have been generally known, since the time of purchase—either through deliberate deception amalgamation techniques were common in Rome for or because of a genuine misunderstanding. other media, such as large ivory statues, wood marquetry, and glass. The greatest example of joined amber plaques Of course, because some materials used to imitate amber is the famous Amber Room from Tsarskoje Selo, Russia, also possessed, to some degree, the qualities for which now reconstructed. “Compressed” or “mosaic” amber (as amber was prized, they may have been valued in their it is called today) is often darker and less lustrous than own right, and it is therefore usually impossible to natural amber. Given the immense importance attached distinguish cases of successful deception from resins that to amber’s natural sheen, artificial coloring applied to a were never intended as impostors. Tutankhamen’s tomb, high-value object might have been deceptive in much the for instance, was found to contain various nonamber same way as an inclusion forgery like Martial’s snake. resin objects.103 Were they forgeries intended to be seen Pliny was aware that good examples of pieces displaying as amber or another high-value resin, or were these amber’s unique qualities, such as inclusions or brilliance, materials equally valued for their own sake? were valued according to the secret knowledge they Evidence of other amber-related forgeries in antiquity seemed to encompass as natural wonders, and he implies can be found in Pliny, who discusses the use of amber as much in his discussion of artificial coloring of amber. itself to approximate transparent gemstones, notably Admittedly, we can only speculate about the exact nature amethyst. Pliny also describes a technique for softening and extent of amber forgery in and before Pliny’s time, amber, a necessary step in clarifying it, and one but it was an early part of a continuing interest in making preliminary to amalgamating small pieces of amber into amberlike materials for scientific, manufacturing, and larger ones, as is still done today. Although there is no aesthetic (as well as more dubious) ends.105 In the early 37

modern period, this interest is documented by no less a and other resins. The interest today in amber forgery—in figure than Leonardo da Vinci, who describes one recipe fake jewelry and fake specimens—is such that many for making fake amber from egg whites hardened by modern publications and websites are available to help heating.106 identify and distinguish amber, copal, and the wide range of manufactured-amber imitations. In China, the high value placed on amber has resulted in counterfeiting since at least about A.D. 500, the date of NOTES Tao Hongjing’s book of materia medica. There he warns against false amber and recommends “using the 102. P. R. S. Moorey, “Blue Stones in the Ancient Near East: electrostatic ability of amber to attract straw as a means Turquoise and Lapis Lazuli,” in Caubet 1999, pp. 175–88. of distinguishing amber from imitations.”107 103. For amber in Tutankhamen’s tomb, see S. Hood, “Amber in More recently, significant modern forgeries of ancient Egypt,” in Beck and Bouzek 1993, pp. 230–35. Sherratt 1995 (in amber objects have come to light. These include an n. 9, above) p. 203, confirms (and refines) Hood’s stylistic “Assyrian” amber statuette of King Ashurnasirpal in attribution: he compares the necklace of the late Tumulus Boston108 and the Apollo of Fiumicino (Paris, private culture of central Europe (Reinecke Br C) to a necklace from collection), made in the early twentieth century, probably Barrow 2, Grave 13, at Schwarza, Thuringia. D. Warburton by the same carver responsible for the Getty statuette (pers. comm., 2001) pointed out the significance of the Seated Divinity (figure 25).109 feminine necklace in the young king’s tomb. Gaslain 2005, pp. 58–60, discusses material associated with amber in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the ancient Near East, and brings together a critical bibliography. A. Niwinski, “Amber in Ancient Egypt,” in Investigations into Amber: Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Symposium, Baltic Amber and Other Fossil Resins, 997 Urbs Gyddanyzc–1997 Gdansk, 2–6 September 1997,́ ed. B. Kosmowska-Ceranowicz and H. Paner (Gdańsk, 1999), pp. 115–19, discusses Egyptian terms for resins and cautions against identifying objects as amber without scientific analysis. M. Cultraro, “L’ambre nel mondo mediterraneo: L’Egeo e le aree di contatto,” in Ambre 2007, pp. 56–59, also cautions against the identification of amberlike resinous materials without scientific corroboration. For additional views on the existence and use of amber in Egypt, see Serpico 2000; A. Lucas and J. R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (London, 1962); and E. Daumas, “Quelques notes sur l’ambre jaune dans l’ancien Égypte,” Chronique d’Égypte 46 (1971): 60. 104. Juvenal (Satires 5.38) describes an encrusted amber cup, and Apuleius (Golden Ass 2.2.12, 19) speaks of large cups. Strong 1966, p. 34, refers to a fragmentary Roman amber vessel in Rouen: see Catalogue du Musée de Rouen (Rouen, 1875), p. 99. Although the large vessels could have been carved from exceptionally large chunks of amber, they instead may have been composed of mosaic amber. Pliny (Natural History 37.11) mentions a huge piece weighing thirteen pounds. A piece weighing twenty-seven pounds washed up on the shores of northern Jutland (Grimaldi 1996, p. 50). 105. For discussion of amber imitations, see, for example, Langenheim 2003; and M. Ganzelewski, “Bernstein–Ersatzstoffe Figure 25 Seated Divinity statuette, modern. Amber, H: 28 cm (11 in.), W (of und Imitationen,” in Bernstein 1996, pp. 475–82. base): 13.5 cm (53⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 82.AO.51. Gift of Vasek Polak. See cat. no. 57. 106. Codex Forster 3, fol. 33v. E. Ragazzi, “Historical Amber/How to Make Amber,”http://www.ambericawest.com/make_amber/ Today, an amber counterfeit such as the Seated Divinity is (accessed July 9, 2011), discusses Leonardo’s recipe. Ragazzi made with a mixture of modern materials including cites L. Reti, “Le arti chimiche di Leonardo da Vinci,” La chimica synthetic resin and plastics, as well as compressed amber e l’industria 34 (1952): 721–43, and compares the recipe to an 38 INTRODUCTION

earlier one (of circa 1424–56) in a British Museum manuscript. 108. O. Muscarella, The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near He also refers to B. S. Tosatti, Manoscritto Veneziano: Un Eastern Cultures (Groningen, 2000); and A. T. Olmstead, “Amber manuale di pittura e altre arti—miniatura, incisione, vetri, vetrate Statuette of Ashur-nasir-apal, King of Assyria (885–860 B.C.),” e ceramiche—di medicina, farmacopea e alchimia del Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) 36 (1938): 78–83. Quattrocento (Milan, 1991). 109. For the Paris statuette, see references for the Getty statuette 107. Tao Hongjing, Collection of Commentaries on the Divine Seated Divinity (82.AO.51, cat. no. 57). Husbandman’s Classic of Materia Medica (reference from Langenheim 2003, p. 279). Amber and Forgery 39

The Ancient Transport of Amber There is evidence for the movement of amber as early as back an extraordinary amount of the precious material, the Paleolithic era. Rough pieces have been found in which was used to extravagantly decorate the arena. Like ancient dwelling caves in Britain and northern Europe at the rare animals that were sometimes displayed at such some distance from amber sources.110 Early on, amber events, amber nourished the idea of exotica from afar— likely was transported to the Mediterranean via a chain of visible affirmation of Rome’s domination of the world.113 exchange—there was no defined long-distance amber trade until the mid-second millennium B.C., when it NOTES probably was acquired in both raw and more finished forms.111 It is likely that amber traveled overland to the 110. Unworked pieces have been found in dwelling caves in Europe Mediterranean via the long route between north and at the Grotte d’Aurensan in the Hautes-Pyrénées, at Judenes in south Europe, along the Oder, the Elbe, the Vistula, the Austria, at Kostelik and Zitmy in Moravia, at Cioclovina in Rhine, the Dniester, and other main European rivers. Romania, and at Gough’s cave near Cheddar, Somerset, England, all of which are far from natural sources of fossil It also traveled eastward. For a long period it, like tin, was resin. An upsurge in the quantity of amber in the carried by sea through the Gates of Hercules; Phoenicians archaeological record is observed in the Early Neolithic. White were likely the main transporters. The Adriatic appears to 1992, p. 549, has shown that there is a source-to-distance have been the main destination for amber intended for gradient for Aurignacian personal ornaments and that they are the markets of the Italian peninsula.112 Once at the frequently manufactured from exotic materials. Shennan 1993, Adriatic, amber must have been moved by water along pp. 62–66, discusses amber’s value in light of its acquisition by the Italian coast, finding its way inland along river valleys political-religious elites living far from amber sources. Citing and mountain passes. It was likely traded from farther Helms 1988, Shennan summarizes: west and welcomed along with the Aegean and eastern The spatially distant material, because of its strangeness, has Mediterranean goods that were transported to the central great power, and experience of it can increase the power and and western Mediterranean. The existence of raw and prestige of those who acquire that experience.… The ultimate worked amber from sites around the Mediterranean and goal of those seeking such goods (shields or shell or stones farther afield—on the Iberian peninsula, in Mesopotamia, or holy incense [or amber]) may well be directed towards in Anatolia, at Ugarit on the Syrian coast, and in Egypt— obtaining (maintaining) access to material manifestations of from the Bronze Age onward attests to its widespread the power and potency that imbues their cosmos, thereby value and transmission. Trade in amber was likely a continuing their close association and inclusion with the series of short-range transactions from the sources dynamics of the universe of which they are an integral part.… Many exchanged items have inherent magical or religious onward, with a few outstanding exceptions. We should significance as “power-charged” treasures acquired from imagine seekers traveling to the northern amber deposits extraordinary realms outside their own heartland. to obtain the precious material and learn its secrets. The “knowledge” that accompanies a highly prized substance 111. Not all students of the material agree that it was traded in both was as important as the thing itself. finished and unfinished forms. There is no literary evidence for direct trade between 112. In Pliny’s day, he relates (Natural History 37.11) that amber was Italy and the north until the first century A.D. Pliny the previously “conveyed by the Germans mainly into Pannonia. Elder writes of a Roman knight, commissioned to procure From there it was first brought into prominence by the Veneti, known to the Greeks as the Enetoi, who are close neighbors of amber for a gladiatorial display presented by Nero, who the Pannonians and live around the Adriatic.” traversed both the trade route and the coasts, bringing 40

113. J. Kolendo, A la recherche de l’ambre baltique: L’expédition d’un chevalier romain sous Néron (Warsaw, 1981). Ancient Transport of Amber 41

Literary Sources on the Use of Amber The archaeological record hints at a variety of uses of amber throughout the ages that are sometimes complemented by the surviving literature, but often are not. Certainly those uses that were by nature magical or tied up with mystery religions are unlikely to have been referred to other than obliquely in any mainstream literature, although they were extensive and widely acknowledged from very early on, through the Classical era and well into the Middle Ages. In addition, as helpful as the archaeological record is in elucidating the use of amber in mourning and burial contexts, it is less so when it comes to the everyday employment of amber as documented in the literature. Its use among the very wealthy ranged from girls’ playthings to decorative items such as the amber-encrusted goblet that Juvenal mentions in a satire to sculpture such as the imposing statue of Augustus that Pausanias describes to items for magical Figure 26 Female Head in Profile pendant, Etruscan, 525–480 B.C. Amber, H: and religious purposes—amulets, incense, fumigators, 5.7 cm (21⁄4 in.), W: 5.6 cm (21⁄5 in.), D: 3 cm (11⁄5 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty and burnt offerings (which by definition do not leave any Museum, 77.AO.81.4. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 14. physical trace). Martial writes of the pleasant odor amber gives off when it is handled by girls, of “amber nuggets Pliny (as usual) has a long list of possible uses: amber is polished by hand,” and compares kisses to “well-worn carved into figurines (figure 27),116 fashioned into truffle- amber.”114 In a letter to Marcus Aurelius, Fronto speaks cutting knives,117 made into artificial gems,118 and in scathingly of those writers (Seneca and Lucan) who “rub Syria used for spindle whorls. He also describes amber up one and the same thought oftener than girls their drinking cups, arms, and decorations of the arena (uses perfumed amber.”115These analogies provide some that would have been appreciated by men as well as by explanation for the wear on many pre-Roman amber women), although he prefaces these examples with beads; magical use explains it further (figure 26). denunciatory comments at the beginning of Book 37: “The next place among luxuries [after myrrhine and rock crystal], although as yet fancied only by women, is held by amber. All three enjoy the same prestige as precious stones … but not even luxury has yet succeeded in inventing a justification for using amber.” 42

and spices. One of the oldest Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri, opened in the nineteenth century, was found to include “bits of amber and other oriental gums placed around the corpse,” as George Dennis recounts. A morsel carried off and later ignited by the excavator “caused so powerful an odour as to be insupportable.”126 “Incense ‘offerings’ were a normal part of sacrificial rituals and the use of incense was often called for in magical rituals.”127 In China, a nineteenth-century traveler records, chippings and amber dust left over from cutting figured pieces were used for varnish or incense. “The burning of the odiferous amber is the highest mark of respect possible to pay a stranger or distinguished guest, and the more they burn the more marked is their expression of esteem.”128 Figure 27 Lion with Bird pendant, Etruscan, 600–550 B.C. Amber, H: 4.2 cm (13⁄5 in.), W: 6 cm (23⁄8 in.), D: 1.5 cm (3⁄5 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 77.AO.81.2. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 5. In ancient medical practice, incense, resins, wood shavings, and other odoriferous materials (usually plants) Amber is also often burned; as Tacitus says: “If you make or aromatics were used as a form of fumigation, either an experiment of burning amber by the application of alone or in compounds. It is also likely that amber incense fire, it kindles, like a torch, emitting a fragrant flame, and was used in divination: omens were read in the plumes in a little time, taking the tenacious nature of pitch or and short curls of smoke formed by burning amber 119 (figure 28).129 resin.” Pliny observes that “amber chippings steeped in oil burn brighter and longer than the pith of flax.”120 This suggests that amber may have had a practical use as interior lighting. Pliny also cites evidence that the northern Guiones used amber instead of wood as fuel and refers to what must have been a very common use of amber as incense, suggesting that in India, “amber was, to its inhabitants, found to be more agreeable even than frankincense.”121 Such burning may seem a rather wasteful use of a precious material, but it was essential for offerings, for communication between the human and the divine, and even for feeding the gods, as in Egypt.122 As Joan Todd has pointed out, “From the earliest recorded times burnt offerings and specifically incense are considered the most sacred gifts of all. The burning of amber would not have been considered a destructive act, but rather an elevated use of the material.”123 Amber burned as incense was of great consequence in rituals involving solar deities before and during the Classical era, since both amber and incense were symbolic of the sun in the ancient world.124 Incense, which emitted a fragrant smoke when scattered on lighted coals (in either a stationary or a movable burner or censer), was a regular element in Babylonian religious ceremonies.125 The thousands of incense burners found in sanctuaries and graves throughout Greece and Etruria attest to the great importance of burning fragrant gums Literary Sources, Use 43

NOTES 114. Martial, Epigrams 5.37.11. Martial compares the kisses of Diadumenus to “well-worn amber” in 3.65 and those of another (an unnamed youth) to “amber thaw’d in a virgin’s hand” in 11.8. Juvenal, Satires 6.573, makes fun of a woman who clutches “a well-worn calendar in her hands as if it were a ball of clammy amber.” Translations by Faris Malik: http://people.well.com/user/aquarius/martial.htm. 115. Fronto, “On Speeches,” in Correspondence, vol. 1, trans. C. R. Haines, Loeb Classical Library 112 (Cambridge, MA, 1919). 116. “Its rating among luxuries is so high that a human figurine, however small, is more expensive than a number of human beings, alive and in good health.” Here, in Natural History 37.12, Pliny may refer to simple carvings such as the actors in the British Museum (Strong 1966, nos. 109–13), but it is more likely that he cites Roman masterworks such as the Dionysos group from Esch, the Netherlands: see, for example, A. Zadoks- Josephus Jitta, “Dionysos in Amber,” Bulletin antieke beschaving 37 (1962): 61–66. Or might Pliny be referring to household Penates of amber, as documented in the House of a Priest at Pompeii? 117. Pliny, Natural History 22.47.99. Strong 1966, p. 12, declares such a use “an idiotic affectation,” but it may reflect the high regard in which amber was held. 118. Pliny, Natural History 37.12, states that “amber plays an important part also in the making of artificial transparent gems, particularly artificial amethysts, although … it can be dyed any color.” Piece of burning Baltic amber, producing its distinctive flame color 119. Tacitus, Germania 45. Figure 28 and characteristic smoke. Length of amber before burning: 3 cm (11⁄8 in.). 120. However, Philemon is cited by Pliny (Natural History 37.11) as Private collection. Photograph © Lee B. Ewing. saying that amber does not yield a flame. Strong 1966, p. 24, Amber incense may have been ground into a powder and citing A. Bonarelli, “Le ambre nelle tombe picene,” Rendiconti mixed with other aromatics, or nitrates, to keep it dell’Istituto Marchigiano di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 3 (1927), and burning. In Rome, as Karen Polinger Foster shows, Marconi 1933, col. 409, says that “it is recorded that before any “incense was shaped into cones, balls, discs, pyramids, regular excavations took place at Belmonte Piceno, the obelisks, granules, and pellets” as it had been in Egypt and villagers used amber found in ancient tombs as fuel on their the Near East.130 But the Romans apparently did not fires.” Strong adds (but without references), “The same follow the Egyptian practice of using figurative incense practice is recorded in the Perugia district.” blocks in forms such as birds or recumbent calves, which 121. Barfod 1996, p. 453. Amber’s combustibility (and its clearly suggests a religious element to the burning of corresponding application of being burnt) is suggested by at incense.131 A few pieces of unworked amber found in least two of its ancient names: sualiternicum and thium. Thium Etruscan graves might be construed as evidence of amber is derived from the old Italic thyem, or thyon. Ritters, cited by F. used for fumigation or as unburnt incense.132 And it may Eckstein and J. H. Waszink, was the first to connect thium with be that the very same amber objects considered then and incense. Still today, amber is an important ingredient of now as ornament and amulet (for example, birds or incense in India and many other places in the world and is recumbent calves) might also have been valued for their advertised globally, as a Web search can demonstrate. potential as light energy or incense. On the ancient use of resins in incense, see Langenheim 2003, chap. 8. A. L. D’Agata, “Incense and Perfumes in the Late Bronze Age Aegean,” in Avanzini 1997, p. 85, notes that the ultimate origin of the Greek term for incense “can be traced 44 INTRODUCTION

back to the Mycenaean tuwo (pl. tuwea), which in the Late amber wasnotused as incense (or an ingredient thereof), in Bronze Age seems to have been used as a general term for fumigation, and/or in sacrifice. aromatics, and cannot be in any way connected with 122. Black and Green 1992, p. 109. frankincense.” D’Agata presents evidence that “other resins were known in the Aegean [during] the Mycenaean period, and 123. J. M. Todd, “Baltic Amber in the Ancient Near East: A probably also in Minoan Crete.” Nearly a ton of terebinth resin Preliminary Investigation,” Journal of Baltic Studies 16 (1985): and a large group of worked Baltic amber beads were among 292. the cargo of the late-fourteenth-century shipwreck at Uluburun off the Lycian coast (Turkey). See C. Pulak, “Who Were the 124. Shennan 1993(inn. 110, above), p. 66; Bouzek 1993, p. 141. As Mycenaeans Aboard the Uluburun Ship?,” in Emporia: Aegeans Shennan summarizes: “Amber is a prehistoric exemplar of in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean: Proceedings of the 10th Mary Helms’ [Helms 1988] ‘political religious exotic International Aegean Conference, Italian School of Archaeology, experience.’ Northern amber thus mirrored southern myrrh as Athens, 14–18 April 2004 (Aegaeum 25 [2005]), ed. R. Laffineur a mystic import to the Mediterranean (and was, on occasion, and E. Greco, pp. 295–312; and C. Pulak, “The Cargo of the Ulu used in the same way).” Archaeological and linguistic evidence Burun Ship and the Evidence for Trade with the Aegean and shows that the use of amber as a “gemstone” occurred in Beyond,” in Italy and Cyprus in Antiquity, 1500–450 B.C.: Greece and Etruria at the same time in the eighth and seventh Proceedings of an International Symposium Held at the Italian centuries, alongside other “well-documented Near Eastern Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, practices such as incense-burning, purificatory rituals, November 16–18, 2000, ed. L. Bonfante and V. Karageorghis hepatoscopy, and the use of foundation deposits in temples”: (Nicosia, 2001), pp. 22–25, 37–39. The Murex opercula found on Faraone 1992, pp. 26–27. See also W. Burkert, “Itinerant the Uluburun ship is today an ingredient of incense in many Diviners and Magicians: A Neglected Element in Cultural parts of the Arab world; see G. F. Bass, “Prolegomena to a Contact,” in The Greek Renaissance of the Eighth Century B.C.: Study of Maritime Traffic in Raw Materials to the Aegean Tradition and Innovation, ed. R. Hägg, Acta Instituti Anthenensis during the Fourteenth and Thirteenth Centuries B.C.,” in Regni Susiae 30 (1983): 115–19; and W. Burkert, “‘A Seer, or a TEXNH: Craftsmen, Craftswomen, and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Healer’: Magic and Medicine from East to West,” in Burkert Bronze Age; Proceedings of the 6th International Aegean 1992, pp. 41–87. Conference, Philadelphia, Temple University, 18–21 April 1996 125. Black and Green 1992, p. 109. (Aegaeum16 [1997]), ed. R. Laffineur and P. Betancourt, p. 163 (with reference to C. Pulak, “1994 Excavation at Uluburun: The 126. For amber and other resins surrounding the corpse in the Final Campaign,” Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly 21, Grotta della Sedia, Banditaccia Necropolis, Cerveteri, see G. no. 4 [1994]: 11.) Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. 2 (London, On incense in the Greek world, see W. W. Mueller, RE suppl. 15 1848), p. 59, n. 4, with reference to P. E. Visconti and A. Torlonia, (1978), s.v. “Weihrauch,” pp. 702ff. A. Testa, Candelabri e Antichi monumenti sepolcrali scoperto nel ducato di Ceri, negli thymiateria in Vaticano (Rome, 1989); and L. Ambrosini, scavi eseguiti d’ordine di Sua Eccellenza il signor D. Alessandro Thymiateria etruschi in bronzo: Di età tardo classica, alto e medio Torlonia signore del Luogo dichiarati dal cav. P. E. Visconti (Rome, ellenistica (Rome, 2002), concentrate on frankincense and 1836), pp. 29–32. myrrh as incense ingredients. C. Zaccagnino, Il thymiaterion nel 127. Black and Green 1992, p. 109. Burning and offering incense as mondo greco: Analisi delle fonti, tipologia, impieghi (Rome, 1998); a means of communication between the earthly and divine and C. Zaccagnino, “L’incenso e gli incensieri nel mondo spheres is first attested in the Pyramid Texts of the third greco,” in Avanzini 1997, pp. 100–20, offer a fuller discussion of millennium and remained a central cult act in Egyptian temples incense, but no mention is made of amber. However, other erected by Greek and Roman rulers. In Mesopotamia, as B. ancient authors do describe additional substances burned as Böck, “‘When You Perform the Ritual of “Rubbing”’: On incense, as Mueller says. See Aristotle (Meteorology 4.10), Medicine and Magic in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Journal of Near where he lists in one breath “amber, myrrh, frankincense, and Eastern Studies 62, no. 1 (2003): 10, describes, “the burning of all the substances called ‘tears,’” and Theophrastus, On Odours incense plays an important role in magical and latreutic cult 12–13, where he differentiates among myrrh, frankincense, and because of its association with purity and impurity. Fumigation “anything that is burnt as incense.” G. Banti, “Names of is part of the veneration of gods and, accordingly, the burning Aromata in Semitic and Cushitic Languages,” in Avanzini 1997, of sweet-smelling fumigants accompanies sacrifice, prayers, as p. 169, underlines the difficulty in “singling out the gum resins well as intercessions.” of frankincense and myrrh with respect to other aromata … particularly in the most ancient literary sources and in the 128. E. A. Smith, “Concerning Amber,” American Naturalist 14, no. 3 reports by the earliest European travellers.” Burnt amber has a (March 1880): 106. delicious odor. From all of the evidence in the ancient sources, 129. This practice is documented in Old Babylonian times; see Black archaeological evidence, and the widespread use of amber in and Green 1992, p. 109. See K. Polinger Foster, “Dionysos and incense throughout the world today, it is hard to believe that Vesuvius in the Villa of the Mysteries,” AntK 44 (2001): 43, n. 39 Literary Sources, Use 45

(with extensive discussion of smoke omens and divination). 130. Foster 2001 (in n. 129, above), pp. 44. The Maya have used resin as incense throughout their history, 131. On the interpretation of the function of amber in funerary from 600 B.C. onward. The act of burning copal, accompanied contexts (are these grave offerings, ornaments, incense, or a by the “language for rendering holy,” brings about interactions combination thereof?), compare the discussion of some with deities and ancestors and initiates a series of figured ambers from the New World: the amber figurines in transformative processes that characterize Mayan religious the graves of certain northern Costa Rican peoples living there and cosmological beliefs. Copal pom is believed to be an circa A.D. 700–1400 have been interpreted as grave offerings. effective medicine for many ailments, and its incense is Langenheim 2003, p. 282, cites C. S. Balser, “Notes on Resin in considered “food for the gods,” since they cannot eat as Aboriginal Central America,” in Akten des 34. Internationale mortals do, but instead imbibe the products of human ritual, Amerikanisten-Kongresses (Vienna, 1960), pp. 374–80, who primarily the smoke of incense—paralleling belief about “suggested that these figurines could have been intended for incense in Egypt, Greece, and Rome (summarized from burning as incense after death.” Langenheim 2003, pp. 29–67. Langenheim cites various sources, including K. J. Triplett, “The Ethnobotany of Plant 132. Unworked lumps have been found in several Etruscan tombs Resins in the Maya Cultural Region of Southern Mexico and (see n. 126, above). Central America,” Ph.D. diss. (University of Texas, Austin, 1999). 46 INTRODUCTION

Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets Because of its beauty, saturated color, and translucency, The act of writing on or figuring a material—providing it amber was seen in antiquity not only as an ornament, but with a face or a form—gave it new significance and also as a supernatural and curative substance. To be power.138 One might write on a gemstone or amulet “to overly concerned with the distinction among the roles of create the impression of mysterious power by virtue of amber (sacral, ornamental, magical, medicinal) is perhaps the writing itself.”139 Now, in addition to the associations to miss the more subtle relationships among them. Pliny the material itself carries with it, the figured object has makes no such mistake: “Even today,” he writes, “the become a metonym for a past event, or a desired outcome, peasant women of Transpadane Gaul wear pieces of or perhaps for the attributes of a deity (see the ram’s-head amber as necklaces, chiefly as adornment, but also figures 29 and 39). Such an object derives new because of its medicinal properties. Amber, indeed, is significance when it is attached to a person—tied around supposed to be a prophylactic against tonsillitis and other the neck, perhaps, or fastened to the arm or a girdle. affections of the pharynx, for the water near the Alps has Unsurprisingly, the Greek terms for amulet, periamma properties that harm the human throat in various andperiapta, come from a verb that means “to tie on,” ways.”133 “Amber is found to have some use in and an amulet worn by a human can be defined, quite pharmacy,” Pliny goes on to say, “although it is not for this simply, as a powerful object attached to a person.140 reason that women like it. It is of benefit to babies when it Ancient amulets range widely in type, from natural is attached to them as an amulet.”134 In this passage, we objects141 to simple carved pendants to figured objects to find one of the two surviving ancient literary references lamellae, objects inscribed with magical symbols or to an amulet of amber, a use (the archaeological evidence incantations to ward off evil. The material from which the tells us) that was pervasive from as early as the mid- amulet was made was critical. T. G. H. James suggests, second millennium B.C. Caesarius of Arles gives us the “Although certain materials, semiprecious stones in other: he warns his readers against wearing “diabolical” particular, were invested with magical properties in amulets made of certain herbs, or of amber, around the ancient Egypt, it seems that these properties were usually neck.135 only activated when the stone in question was used for the manufacture of amuletic figures of specific kinds.”142 What did these amulets look like? The ones that Pliny refers to may have been perforated and polished raw lumps, or perhaps they were bulla-shaped or crescent- shaped.136 It is possible that they were made into special shapes, including figural subjects, as had been traditional for amber amulets in northern Europe and around the Mediterranean (and beyond) for millennia. Might one of Pliny’s amulets be similar to the Roman Head of Medusa (see figure 1)? Or might they have been like one of numerous surviving small carvings in amber—bird and animal figures, or corn ears and fruit—given as New Year’s presents in Imperial Rome? Several of these New Year’s gifts bear inscriptions referring to this occasion, evidence that amber’s magical properties were still significant.137 47

Figure 29 Ram’s Headpendant, Italic, 500–400 B.C. Amber, L: 3.6 cm (12⁄5 in.), Figure 30 Addorsed Lions’ Heads with Boar in Relief plaque, Etruscan, W: 1.9 cm (3⁄4 in.), D: 1.5 cm (3⁄5 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 500–480 B.C. Amber, H: 3.6 cm (12⁄5 in.), W: 8.2 cm (31⁄5 in.), D: 1.2 cm (1⁄2 in.). 77.AO.81.15. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 45. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 77.AO.83. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 38. Almost any jewelry object could have had some apotropaic function—and, as Geraldine Pinch remarks in The impact of the Aegean, the Near East, and Egypt her book on Egyptian magic, it is hardly an exaggeration (where women and children wore the majority of to say that most Egyptian jewelry had amuletic value. amulets) on native Italian customs during the first How conscious wearers were of their ornaments’ millennium B.C., a period of contact and acculturation, is symbolism is a more difficult question to answer.143 evidenced by the amulets’ subjects. New images, spells, amulets, deities, and aspects of deities replaced, perfected, The same is evidently true for amber objects of or married with the old. Although only a portion of the adornment. In life, amulets were worn as charms to bring extant figured ambers can be associated with religious good luck, health, protection, or love, to avert danger, or cults, the use of amulets was certainly bound up with to cure disease. Figured or inscribed amulets often would secret knowledge of sources of power—the province of have had a sympathetic function;144 a figure of a boar, skilled practitioners such as magicians, priests, “wise such as the Getty plaque Addorsed Lions’ Heads with Boar women,” healers, and midwives.147 Practitioners of magic in Relief (figure 30), might have brought luck in a hunt, might exert an influence on all levels of society. safeguarded the wearer from the boar he was hunting, or Theophrastus maintains that Pericles, on his sickbed, was even channeled the powers of Herakles or Meleager. induced by the women of his household to wear an Situations of potential crisis, such as a hunt, a dangerous amulet—entirely against his better judgment. The story, journey, or childbirth, warranted temporary amulets.145 whether apocryphal or not, is further evidence for More permanent amulets, in the form of jewelry, could widespread use of amulets among the elite, as well as the have provided protection during childhood, throughout lower classes.148 It is also interesting for its indications an individual’s life, and during the fraught voyage to the about the role of women in promoting such use.149 afterworld, the dangerous realm of spirits and demons. Indeed, amber and amber amulets were important Amulets were especially valuable to women for elements in the mourning ritual as permanent tears and controlling or increasing fertility, protecting the unborn, as grave gifts.146 helping to ensure safe childbirth, and safeguarding their children. Protective gynecological amulets must have been among the earliest of all amulets. Such items in Italy and the Greek world were age-old, the lore passing from generation to generation, no doubt affected by contact with new populations, practitioners, and magical practices. One seventh-century B.C. plain pendant in the Getty collection (figure 31) is inscribed with two images, on one side a fish and on the other something resembling the Egyptian symbol of a papyrus clump, or a pool with lotus flowers. This piece is one of forty-three beads from the 48 INTRODUCTION

same parure, its original findspot now unknown. Who an Argonaut wears strings of bullae on his arms, while a scratched the signs? How were they understood? Was the companion ties on yet another (figure 32).154 On a mere presence of Egyptian, or Egyptianlike, writing sarcophagus from the Tomb of the Triclinium at enough to make the amber more efficacious? Tarquinia, a reclining woman wearing a necklace of bullae, holding a thyrsus and kantharos and keeping a fawn by her side, is clearly a devotee or maybe a priestess of Dionysos/Pacha/Fufluns. On Etruscan mirrors, Aplu, Fufluns, Tinia, Epiur and Maris, young Hercle, Thetis and Alcumene, Athena, and Turan wear bullae.155 Votive images of women, girls, and boys, and effigies of deceased men, women, and babies, are often shown with a bulla or bullae.156 A mid-fourth-century B.C. mirror in New York Figure 31 Pendant inscribed with two Egyptianizing hieroglyphs, 7th shows Peleus wearing an armlet with bulla-shaped century B.C. Amber, H: 3.8 cm (11⁄2 in.), W: 2.2 cm (7⁄8 in.), D: 0.8 cm (3⁄10 in.). pendants on her left arm and Calaina (Galene), a Nereid, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 82.AO.161.285. holding a circlet with similar pendants in her left hand (figure 33).157 The serious dangers of disease for young children and the considerable risks for women in childbirth and early motherhood gave rise to a belief that the dead were jealous of new life, and the need for magical protection of women and children was a compelling one.150 For a pregnant woman, amber’s property of encapsulating living things may have made it an especially powerful similia similibus amulet, a “pregnant stone.”151 Resin also heals damage and wounds in trees; could it extend such properties to people wearing it? The bulla, a lens-or bubble-shaped container, is perhaps the best known of all ancient amulet types. Known in Rome asEtruscum aurum, it combined two magical functions: it enclosed amuletic substances, and it Figure 32 Red-figure crater attributed to the Argonaut Group (detail), symbolized the sun in material, in form, and in its Etruscan, early 4th century B.C. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, powers.152 The shape derives from age-old disk amulets of 4026. Photo: Nicolo Orsi Battaglini / IKONA. the sun. The bulla was given to high-born boys. The ancient sources relate that the king Tarquinius Priscus was the first to present his son with a gold amulet after the son had killed an enemy in battle, and from that time onward the sons of cavalrymen wore amulets. Ancient sculpture shows that Etruscan boys wore the bulla, and Roman writers recount that it was worn by magistrates, triumphant generals, and even domestic animals. It should be noted that bullae were made not only of gold, but also of other bright metals such as bronze, as is evidenced by bronze bullae of various forms found in Latin and Etruscan graves dating as early as the eighth century B.C. In fourth-century pre-Roman art, the single bulla and strings of bullae, not only lens-shaped but also pouch- shaped pendants, were worn by elite personages, some recognizable divinities and heroes. Dionysos wears a single bulla on the Praenestine “Cista Napoleon” in the Louvre.153 On an Etruscan red-figure krater in Florence, Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 49

Figure 33 Mirror with Peleus, Thetis, and Galene, Etruscan, Late Classical, ca. 350 B.C. Bronze, Diam.: 16.2 cm (63⁄8 in.). New York, The Metropolitan Figure 34 Necklace, Italic or Etruscan, 550–475 B.C. Amber and gold, L Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1909, 09.221.16. © The Metropolitan Museum of (approx.): 39.5 cm (159⁄16 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 77.AO.77.5. Art / Art Resource, NY. Gift of Gordon McLendon. As early as the eighth century B.C., the bulla was imitated If amber was fiery and glowing, its most prized in amber for pendants on necklaces, but it is important to characteristics, then this alone might have ensured it a note that documented finds of amber bullae come almost special protective and sanctifying role.159 Amber could exclusively from elite female burials (figure 34).158 Strings also symbolize constancy. Amber necklaces were gifts for of amber bullae excavated in Latium and the Basilicata brides, mortal and immortal, as the ancient sources tell date to the early seventh century. Bullae of amber were us. special translations of the form: they were sun-shaped and sun-colored, shining like the sun, and instead of Another sympathetic function of amber amulets might containing amuletic substances inside a metal envelope, have been their ability to focus the powers of a particular the material itself was a curative (remedia) that could deity and astrological force. Amber’s magnetic properties enclose inclusions. gave it a special role in attraction (and displacement), and because of its already potent associations with the sun, amber may have been thought able to draw, attract, and fix the sun’s influence.160 Ancient beliefs in the ability of stones to draw down the power of the planets and stars, and especially the rays of the sun, were widespread and are described first in Egyptian texts and later in Hermetic writings on talismans. We might extrapolate from such sources how amber might have worked in this regard. One Hermetic papyrus describes how “the magician draws down to earth the spiritual powers of the star, planets, and fixes them in talismans prepared of the proper substances and engraved with or shaped into the proper symbolic forms.”161 In early modern Europe, amber, gold, and rubies—all solar materials—were believed, like the sun, to have the property of generating the vital spirit of the microcosmos. It is not difficult to see how a shiny amber amulet could have been thought to contain sunlight or to allow light to 50 INTRODUCTION

pass through it in some active sense. In Greece and Italy, songs, healing words, spoken prayers, and incantations accompanied such amulets. Roy Kotansky traces the use of written incantations and symbols with amulets back to the rituals of Egypt and the Near East and notes that these “may have been transmitted to Ancient Greece and Italy by traditional folk means, traders, or itinerant medicine men or women.”162 There is a relative paucity of information in Greek and Latin literature about amulets and their use, as noted above, and much of the archaeological evidence awaits study. However, what does exist is enlightening, as recent scholarship shows. Some well-known examples indicate how pervasive was the use of “tied-on” substances: Pericles, sick with the plague, was prodded into wearing an amulet around his neck. Socrates in Plato’s Republic lists amulets and incantations as among the techniques used to heal the sick.163 More is known about Egyptian and Near Eastern amulets, from both written sources and archaeological evidence. Such information may be useful in coming to conclusions about early Greek and Italian use of amulets, but despite the similarities, it would be a mistake to assume that all such usage had Oriental prototypes. Much less is documented about northern European practice, and yet many subjects of the figured amber pendants found in Italy have Baltic precedents that are thousands of years older: standing human figures Figure 35 Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos), Etruscan, 600-550 B.C. (figure 35), faces, and detached heads, bears, and hoofed Amber, H: 13 cm (51⁄8 in.), W: 4.5 cm (13⁄4 in.), D: 1.8 cm (7⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. animals.164 Paul Getty Museum, 77.AO.84. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 1. From the point of view of amber amulet usage in Italy, seven large ambers, four of which are figured—two female heads and two satyrs—found in Tomb 48 at Ripacandida are of great interest.165 Angelo Bottini has suggested that the objects were not part of a necklace but may have been put inside a pouch or strung together to form a chaplet or a sort of rosary.166 A chaplet, or circlet, with bulla-shaped pendants held by the figure of Calaina (Galene) on a fourth-century Etruscan mirror (see figure 33) is an unusual ornament in Classical art. In Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian art, a goddess carries a similar chaplet, or string of beads, as an attribute.167 Amuletic pouches, containing all sorts of materials and objects, remained popular throughout Italy until the modern era. At the end of the nineteenth century, Giuseppe Bellucci collected and studied hundreds of such protective bags, or sacchettini, many of great age.168 Using terms such as necklace, armlet, collar, pectoral, or girdle for worked amber objects minimizes their ties to older amuletic traditions. There is a long history of such strings of amulets (some are seals) throughout Europe, in Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 51

the Mediterranean littoral, and in the Near East. Such The features of one of the frontal female faces is nearly groupings are documented as early as the Early Dynastic worn off, and three of the rams’ heads, as well as the period (third millennium B.C.) at Ur.169 Mesopotamian pendant in the form of a dormant feline, show evidence of texts specifically refer to figured amulets in the context of use wear. This is in contrast to the comparatively fresh protection and healing, amulets that were to be either surface of other ambers from the tomb, including the carried and worn by the living or placed on various parts recumbent sphinx (which is also at least a generation of the deceased’s body. Strings of amulets are documented older than the burial). as hanging in houses in the ancient Near East. In Greek, Cypriot, and Etruscan art, babies and children (and some The woman’s Tomb 48 at Melfi-Pisciolo included at least Greek young women) are depicted wearing amulets tied five figured pendants, but only one female head in profile onto a long cord worn diagonally across the body. This shows considerable surface wear. It contrasts with the tradition may well be the ancestor of the Roman male subject, a crisply detailed winged nude youth in a crepundia. As Demetrius Waarsenburg argues, the Phrygian hat with a shield at his side and sword in his hand.172 A large pendant of Eos carrying off a youth, crepundia (charms strung together and used as rattles for children) can be connected to these assemblages of perhaps Kephalos, from a burial of circa 350 B.C. at amulets, implying that they originally had a more Tricarico–Serra del Cedro, is an extreme example of face- 170 rubbing: the youth’s face is nearly lost.173 Female heads profound significance. from a documented find at Valle Pega (Spina) and rams’ Although nearly all figured amber pendants excavated in heads from excavated tombs at Bologna show well the Italy were found in funerary contexts, many of them had contrast between the better-preserved tops of heads and “lives” and an owner or owners (not necessarily the the more abraded faces.174 A number of the Getty female deceased) before they became part of the mourning ritual. and rams’ heads illustrate similar patterns of wear. Many Interments could contain both old and new pieces. Some other carved amber objects from burials throughout Italy may have been heirlooms, already venerable and (and Serbia) bear signs of wear: pulling troughs at the powerful, made so by provenance, status, or accrued suspension hole, as in a head of a satyr from Palestrina potency. (figure 36), handled or rubbed surfaces, and repairs, such Some beads and pendants show signs of use—of handling, as the drilling of replacement perforations or securing broken pieces in mounts.175 of pulling on the suspension perforations, of rubbing. Was the rubbing done to enliven the electromagnetic properties of the amber? To release its fragrance? For the tactile sensation? To activate amber’s divine associations? For medicinal and magical purposes? To enact the magic of the amulet’s imagery? The blurred features of some figured ambers must be due to handling in the course of amuletic use. Several examples from controlled excavations seem to confirm this. A female head from a grave at Latronico retains sharp groovings in the hair and crisp delineations in the diadem, but has smoothed facial features (its tiny chips are likely from modern times). It has a standard perforation through the top of the pendant but also a secondary perforation through the temple area, front to back, which has been elongated by gravity and pull, very like the holes on heirloom Tibetan or African amber beads. The Herakles and satyrs’ heads from a woman’s grave, Tomb 106 at Braida di Vaglio, which may be at least a generation older than the burial, are salient examples of nonuniform use wear. The face of the Herakles pendant is especially worn.171 Some figured ambers from another of the Braida di Vaglio tombs, Tomb 102, that of a little girl, are clearly worn on the prominent surfaces of the face. 52 INTRODUCTION

Classical illustrations of people (and divinities) wearing figured elements and amulets around their necks and limbs are valuable evidence for figured pendant usage outside the grave context. Figure 36 Dancing Figure or Head of Satyr, Etruscan or Italic, early 5th century B.C. Amber, legacy dimension: 7.5 x 4.7 cm (215⁄16 x 17⁄8 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Miss C. Wissmann, 02.253. Photograph © 2011, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The sometimes disfiguring large drilled holes in the faces Figure 37 Winged Female Head in Profile, Etruscan, 525-480 B.C. Amber, H: 7.9 cm (31⁄8 in.), W: 4.9 cm (19⁄10 in.), D: 2.5 cm (1 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty deserve special comment. Why and when were they Museum, 76.AO.85.2. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 15. bored? Raw amber pieces are sometimes found with large round holes in their center, the result of resin forming Paintings or sculptures of figures wearing a string with a around a branch or twig (now disintegrated). If a piece of single amulet or a group of them (as opposed to necklaces amber was purposely perforated before it was made into designed with repeating elements) are uncommon in an object, the act might have occurred anywhere between Archaic and Classical art from Italy, but the depictions the Baltic and Italy, and at any time, for it is likely that that do survive depict bullae-wearing men, women, and amber moved south in both worked and unworked form children, horses, and even ravens. Human figures of both from earliest times. On a practical level, the holes may sexes wear them around the neck and on the upper arms. have been drilled into the amber to better protect it when The single ornaments include gorgon masks and the it was suspended from a pin, or, once the piece was cored, heads of animals, such as fawns, lions, and rams. A it would have been suitable for wearing on a pin. The number of terracottas of seated goddesses from Greek smoothed prominent surfaces of the Getty pendant sanctuaries in Magna Graecia, for example, wear strings Winged Female Head in Profile (figure 37), the multiple of figured elements, among them bulls’ heads.177 On through-bores, the abrasion troughs in the suspension Greek vases, on Cypriot terracotta sculptures of temple perforations at the top, and the central hole all indicate boys, and on Laconian bronze images of partly clothed that this pendant must have been used over a period of young women are seen cross-torso carriers bearing time before it was finally interred in a grave.176 How and various kinds of amulets: crescents, boar tusks, circlets, by whom amber pendants were used during life is a and other shapes. Women wearing a single lotus-blossom subject for speculation. Pliny’s account is one useful pendant are represented in terracottas, bronzes, and source of information, and the few surviving Archaic and Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 53

plastic vases of the late sixth and fifth centuries. Pomegranates and simple flowers are also not unusual. All amulet wearers depicted on Etruscan fourth-century mirrors are elite subjects, and most are identified as divinities and heroes. Two examples are important for amber pendants, especially because of the material’s association with Apollo/Aplu and Dionysos/Fufluns. On many fourth-century Etruscan mirrors, Aplu wears pendants around his neck or on his upper arm. On a mid- fourth-century Etruscan bronze mirror in Naples, the infant Dionysos/Fufluns is already adorned with a ribbon of amulets during his birth from Tinia’s thigh. Fufluns as a youth, now with a necklace of amulets but otherwise unadorned, is kissed by his mother, Semele, on another in Berlin.178 Figure 39 Ram’s Headpendant, Etruscan, 525–480 B.C. Amber, L: 3.6 cm (12⁄5 in.), W: 2 cm (4⁄5 in.), D: 1.8 cm (7⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Key illustrations of animal pendants in use are painted in 76.AO.82. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 39. the Tarquinian Tomb of Hunting and Fishing (circa 510 B.C.) (figure 38).179 On the back wall of the main chamber, the male banqueter wears a necklace of three (possibly amber) rams’ heads almost identical to the Getty amber rams’ heads (figure 39). In the first room of the tomb (figure 40), simple carriers with ram’s- and lion’s-head pendants, similar to those in the Getty (figure 41), hang from branches. This room of the tomb may depict the grove of Apollo or a Dionysian setting. Figure 40 Figured amulet necklaces in the antechamber of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, Tarquinia, Etruscan, ca. 510 B.C. Fresco. Details from nineteenth-century watercolor painting by G. Mariani. From Steingräber 2006, p. 96. Figure 38 Reclining Couple with an Attendant, back wall of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, Tarquinia, Etruscan, ca. 510 B.C. Fresco. By permission of La Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Etruria Meridionale, Roma / IKONA. 54 INTRODUCTION

the Mediterranean. See A. Zadoks-Josephus Jitta and A. M. Gerhartl-Witteveen, Roman Bronze Lunulae from the Netherlands (Leiden, 1977); and H. Wrede, “Lunulae in Halsschmuck,” in Wandlungen: Studien zur antiken und neueren Kunst, Ernst Homann-Wedeking gewidmet(Munich, 1975), pp. 243–54. A lunula could be a single pendant on a carrier or one of many pendants in an ornament. The necklaces of the Archaic Sicilian terracotta Athana Lindia type wear complex pectorals, and the lunulae can have either upturned or downturned ends: M. Albertocchi, Athana Lindia: Le statuette siceliote con pettorali di età arcaica e classica, Rivista di Archeologia, suppl. 28 (Rome, 2004). 137. Strong 1966, p.12. 138. Kotansky 1991, p. 113: “The use of unengraved materials as amulets continues unabated into the Roman period side by Figure 41 Lion’s Head pendant, Etruscan, 550–500 B.C. Amber, H: 2.8 cm (11⁄10 side with talismans and phylacteries that carried texts.… in.), W: 2.2 cm (9⁄10 in.), D: 3.8 cm (11⁄2 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Magical texts (often containing just symbols or very short 76.AO.80. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 33. spells) … often [are] inscribed on small, semiprecious stones that are then set into rings and necklaces or otherwise simply NOTES carried in an individual’s clothing.” Kotansky provides an excellent list of sources for gemstones and magic, but singles 133. Pliny, Natural History 37.11. Negroni Catacchio 1989, p. 659, out Philipp 1986 (n. 7, above). linking a modern custom with this report by Pliny, notes that in many regions of Italy in relatively recent times, it was popular 139. Bonner 1954, p. 151, in reference to A. Bertholet, “Die Macht to present amber necklaces to young women as their first der Schrift in Glauben und Aberglauben,” Abhandlungen der precious object and as a portafortuna. Negroni Catacchio also Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1948, no. 1 cites an eloquent passage in Ovid’s retelling of the Phaethon (Berlin, 1949). story. See The Metamorphoses of Ovid, a verse translation by A. 140. Kotansky 1991, p. 107: “Simple uninscribed amulets are Mandelbaum (New York, San Diego, and London, 1993), p. 51, difficult, if not impossible, to identify; even when they carry lines 365–66: “The stream’s clear waters bear that amber off, some tell-tale symbol or design they remain silent about their and it will then adorn young wives in Rome.” The gift of amber specific purpose or the source of their efficacy. Those, necklaces to immortal brides is also described in Nonnus, however, that are inscribed with texts (no matter how brief) Dionysiaca 38.99, 40.400. In nineteenth-century Poland, provide information about the ancient medical and religious following folk tradition, brides wore amber necklaces, usually contexts of their use.” of three strings, during their wedding, necklaces that may have been passed down from generation to generation. At least one The tradition of tying on amulets and using knots in magic is of the beads would have had an inclusion, as I. Łapcik notes in attested in Egypt and the ancient Near East as early as the third “The Gold of the Baltic Sea: Amber in Art and Culture,” in millennium. A. Livingstone, “The Magic of Time,” in Languages and Cultures of the Baltic Region: Collection of Papers, Mesopotamian Magic: Textual, Historical and Interpretive International Conference of Young Scholars, vol. 2, ed. Y. Perspectives, ed. T. Abusch and K. van der Toorn (Groningen, Khramov and T. Khramova (Riga, 2007): http://www.sta-edu.lv/ 1999), pp. 131–37, calls for further ancient Near Eastern–area conf2007(accessed November 24, 2009). studies of “stones, their individual characters, and the tying on 134. Compare, for example, this Egyptian text: “The infant is of amulets.” The action of tying was one part of the magic, the protected by the gods, the child’s name, the milk he sucks, the substance another, and the spell or charm said over the amulet clothes he wears, the age in which he lives, the amulets made still another. Thus, the magical rite included the actions that for him and placed around his neck.” F. Lexa, La magie dans accompanied the words, while the objects or ingredients used l’Égypte antique, de l’Ancien Empire jusqu’à l’époque copte, vol. 2 in the rite were equally important; see Pinch 1994, p. 76. The (Paris, 1925), pp. 32–33. stone’s role actively implemented the communication between suppliant and superior; see Winter 1999, p. 51. In a similar vein, 135. Caesarius, Sermons 13.5, 14.4. See also Dickie 2001, pp. 304–5. Gordon 2002 (in n. 7, above), p. 83, confirms: “The spells in the Dickie suggests that the amber amulet “may well have had magical papyri generally contain two elements, the preparation writing on it, or a magical symbol.” of materia magica and an accompanying incantation, whose function is either to activate the inherent properties of the 136. For a selection, see Strong 1966, nos. 119–23 (including ring material, or to invoke a named divinity and his or her pendants). Crescent-shaped pendants have a long history in metamorphs. Although the balance between these elements is Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 55

variable, we may call this the tacit or implicit model of good and Courtauld Institute 16 (1953): 193–238; and Pinch 1994. See practice, a model whose appropriateness was learned by also Johnston 1995; and J. J. Aubert, “Threatened Wombs: practitioners in the course of their training.” J. Borghouts, Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts (Leiden, 1978), p. ix, emphasizes Studies 30, no. 3 (1989): 421–49. Added to the ancient evidence, that “spells are the verbalized core matter of the rite.” overviews such as J. Musacchio, The Art and Ritual of Childbirth 141. Many objects excavated from Italian tombs (of as early as the in Renaissance Italy (New Haven, 1999), and systematic analyses eighth century B.C.) are generally considered amulets. These such as G. Bellucci, Catalogue descriptif d’une collection d’amulettes italiennes, envoyée à l’Exposition universelle de Paris, include flints, fossilized shark teeth, shells of various species, 1889(Perugia, 1889; repr., 1980), and G. Bellucci, Il feticismo bears’ claws and teeth, boars’ tusks, faïence figures of Bes, and primitivo in Italia, e le sue forme di adattamento, 2nd ed. “Phoenician” glass masks. Many are commonly described as (Perugia, 1919), show the long duration of charms and amulets jewelry or by an equivalent word, but rarely as amulets. in Italy. Many uterine amulets are for quieting the womb, while 142. T. G. H. James, “Ancient Egyptian Seals,” in Collon 1997, p. 39. others are to still or retain a “wandering womb.” See also Ritner 1993; Andrews 1994, esp. pp. 100–106; and 151. Magical stones that protect pregnant women are listed in most Wilkinson 1994, pp. 82–95. ancient lapidaries. See n. 68. 143. Pinch 1994, p. 105. 152. Juvenal (Satires 5.163–65) calls the bulla the Etruscum aurum, 144. The wordsympatheticis used in the sense of “sympathetic and some Roman writers (Pliny, Natural History 33.4; Festus, De magic.” As is written in one surviving Egyptian medical significatione verborum 26.25; Plutarch, Vita Romulus 25) refer to papyrus, “still in some circumstances magic is needed to the bulla as a specifically Etruscan ornament. The importance attract the sun’s influence”: J. F. Borghouts, “The Magical Text of the bulla for high-born Etruscan boys is evidenced by the of Papyrus Leiden I 348,” Oudheidkundige Mededelingen uit’s third-century B.C. bronze statuettes Putto Carrara and Putto Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden 51 (1971): 165–67. Graziani in the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco in the Vatican: Cagianelli and Sannibale 1999, pp. 110–34, with nos. 2–3. 145. Pinch 1994, p. 105. P. G. Warden, “Bullae, Roman Custom, and Italic Tradition,” 146. Golden tears of amber might have been thought to be Opuscula Romana14, no. 6 (1983): 69–75, outlines the amuletic everlasting tears of mourning. For the ancients familiar with custom of the bulla, drawing attention to one from the Phaethon or Meleager myth, the tears may have called up Campovalano that contains three small stones and to the weeping of the Heliades or the Meleagrides. Amber objects elaborate figured bullae displaying, for example, apotropaic are found on the body, unassociated in the tomb, on top of devices, Bes, or the gorgoneion. J. Sebesta, “The Costume of cremated ashes, and, in rare cases, outside the container the Roman Woman,” inSebesta and Bonfante 1994, p. 47, within the grave complex. H. Horsnaes, The Cultural notes the apotropaic nature of both the bulla and the band of Development in North-western Lucania, c. 600–273 B.C. (Rome, the toga praetexta. Macrobius (1.6.8–14), discussing a bulla 2002), p. 85, reminds us that “personal ‘gifts’ and ritual objects worn by a triumphant general, says it enclosed curatives may have had plural functions (indeed, one object would often (remedia) that were believed to be strong against invidia. belong to more than one of these categories): the practical Invidia is one of the words used to describe the dangers function in the rituals taking place during the burial, the amulets were intended to prevent or act against. See M. Dickie, display of wealth/status for the community attending the “The Fathers of the Church and the Evil Eye,” in Byzantine burial, or the needs of the deceased in his/her afterlife.” Magic, ed. H. Maguire (Washington, DC, 1995), pp. 9–27 (with 147. Dickie 2001. essential bibl.), where he shows that the term evil eye as such was hardly used in Classical antiquity and the Christian world: 148. Kotansky 1991; Dickie 2001, p. 93, nn. 54–56. The terms most often used are, by Greek speakers, φθόνος 149. Dickie 2001, p. 93. and βασκανία, and by speakers of Latin, invidia and fascinatio or fascinus. What men feared under these 150. See V. Dasen, ed., Naissance et petite enfance dans l’Antiquité: headings was not a single object with a secure and fixed Actes du colloque de Fribourg, 28 novembre–1er décembre 2001, identity but a complex of objects with shifting identities, and Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 203 (Fribourg, 1994), provides a identities that coalesce.… The more or less constant factor in bibliography of the critical texts and secondary literature on this constellation of fears was envy: men were afraid lest amulets and spells of protection (against dangers of their good fortune would draw envy on their heads. The unspecified origin) for the pregnant woman, the fetus, mighty feared it would come from their fellow men, demons, parturition, and the newborn. See also V. Dasen, “Amulettes the gods, fortune, the fates, and a malign supernatural d’enfants dans le monde grec et romain,” Latomus 62 (2003): power they called simply φθόνος or invidia. (p. 12) 275–89. Bonner 1950 was my introduction to the subject of amulets in connection with women, birth, and children, See also J. Russell, “The Archaeological Context of Magic in the followed by A. A. Barb, “Diva Matrix,” Journal of the Warburg Early Byzantine World,” in Maguire 1995 (see above), pp. 37–38. 56 INTRODUCTION

The same word (invidia) was used in nineteenth-century Italy pp. 20, 41, n. 37; A. Stout, “Jewelry as a Symbol of Status,” in for the same purposes, as revealed in Bellucci 1889 and Bellucci Sebesta and Bonfante 1994, pp. 76–77; H. R. Goette, “Die 1919 (in n. 150, above). Bulla,” Bonner Jahrbücher 186 (1986): 133–64; F. Roncalli in Archaeological evidence for Roman domestic animals with Santuari d’Etruria, ed. G. Colonna (Milan, 1985), pp. 37–38; H. bullae is to be found in the bronze bullae-ornamented horse Gabelmann, “Römische Kinder in Toga Praetexta,” Jdi 100 tack buried at Populonia: Warden 1983 (see above), p. 70, with (1985): 497–541; M. Torelli, La storia degli Etruschi (Rome and reference to A. Minto, Populonia (Florence, 1943), pp. 185–86, Bari, 1984), pp. 23–25; Cristofani and Martelli 1983, p. 11; and A. pl. 49.5. R. D. De Puma called my attention to the many bulla- Andrén, “Oreficerie e plastica etrusche,” Opuscula wearing animals in Etruscan art, including the terracotta Archaeologica 5 (1948): 94–99. horses from the Temple of the Queen’s Altar, Tarquinia, and The largest and most “canonically” apotropaic of all amber the ravens on Etruscan mirrors. Exempla of human bulla pendants may be that excavated from a woman’s tomb (Tomb wearers are on the stone sarcophagus from the Tomb of the 94) at Belmonte Piceno: Rocco 1999, p. 62, nn. 161, 343, 473, fig. Sarcophagi, Banditaccia Cemetery, Cerveteri (Museo 27; Negroni Catacchio 1989, pp. 679–80, pl. 9a; Marconi 1933, Gregoriano Etrusco). Round bullae are worn by the deceased cols. 421–23, pls. 29.4–5; and I. Dall’Osso, Guida illustrata del male on the lid and by a woman and both horses on the box Museo Nazionale di Ancona (Ancona, 1915), pp. 42, 65ff., fig. 127. front: B. Nogara, Guide du Musée de sculpture du Vatican I: The large, lens-shaped amber has a relief gorgoneion in its Musée et Galeries Pontificaux (Vatican City, 1933), p. 412; and R. center and seven feline and human heads carved around its Herbig, Die jüngeretruskischen Steinssarkophage: Die antiken edge. The drilled holes on its periphery could have been used Sarkophagenreliefs (Berlin, 1952), p. 46, no. 83, pls. 1–2. to attach additional small pendants. A. Coen, “Bulle auree dal Piceno nel Museo Archeologico An Egyptian text describes how a solar amulet such as a bulla Nazionale delle Marche,” Prospettiva 89–90 (1998): 94, has best or an amber (or both) might work: “The hand and seal of the articulated the difference between the wearing of multiple sun god are the mother’s protection. Each morning and bullae by various personages and the wearing of the single evening, she recites the magic spells over an amulet that she bulla by boys. The bulla was offered up to the Lares on the day hangs around her child’s neck. She prays to the rising sun. She of Liberalia at puberty, thus connecting the boy to Liber and implores him to take away the dead who would like to steal her the sphere of Dionysian activity. Coen hypothesizes that the child. She does not give her child to the thief from the kingdom gold bullae buried with high-status individuals, women of the dead”: Borghouts 1978 (in n. 140, above). particularly, connote a particular status and were worn in view 153. G. Bordenache Battaglia with A. Emiliozzi, Le ciste prenestine, I: of the “religious salvation” and heroization of the subjects Corpus, vol. 1 (Rome, 1979), pp. 181–82, n. 59. represented on the bullae. Coen notes that bullae are frequently found in graves with coronae aureae, perhaps also 154. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 4026. Could his bullae Dionysian. Figured gold bullae (dating to as early as the sixth be of amber, considering the Argonauts’ destination of the century B.C., but mainly of the fourth) usually are worn in northern lands, the ancient association between this voyage multiples; they include obvious Dionysian subjects as well as and amber, and amber’s safeguarding and buoyant age-old aversion devices, the gorgoneion being a notable properties? example. If the bulla-wearing Dionysos on the Praenestine “Cista Napoleon” is also Liber, the image may be a link to the 155. For examples of bulla wearers (including demons) on Etruscan tradition of boys dedicating their bullae to Liber at puberty. See mirrors, see ES 2, pl. 166; ES 3, pl. 257; ES 4, p. 30, pl. 298; and n. 156, below. ES5, p. 60. See also LIMC 3 (1986), s.v. “Fufluns” (M. Cristofani), p. 532, n. 11; L. B. van der Meer, Interpretatio etrusca: Greek A subject still deserving closer study is the relationship Myths on Etruscan Mirrors (Amsterdam, 1995), pp. 93–95, figs. between the large figured amber pendants (found mainly 38, 42, 56, 60, 122, 125; LIMC 1 (1981), s.v. “Amatutunia” (G. along the Adriatic and in the Basilicata) and the pictorial gold Colonna), p. 586, n. 1; and LIMC 1 (1984), s.v. “Ares/Laran” (E. bullae and pectorals of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. Simon), p. 502, n. 19. Two other named bulla-shaped pendant (found mainly in Etruria, Latium, and Picenum). Both are made wearers are Peleus (armband) and Calaina (holding a circlet), from materials with solar connotations and figured with who are depicted on Metropolitan Museum of Art 09.221.16, apotropaic, heroic, and divine subjects, especially ones Rogers Fund, 1909: G. Bonfante, “Note on the Margin of a associated with rebirth and most particularly with Dionysos. Recent Book: Calaina,” Etruscan Studies 6 (1999): 8–9; and In addition to the bibliography above, see Bonfante 2003, pp. Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum 3, no. 14. 143–44, n. 95; Dickie 2001; Haynes 2000, p. 282; Cagianelli and 156. The extraordinary series of fourth-century B.C. terracotta Sannibale 1999, pp. 117–18, 133; R. E. A. Palmer, “Locket Gold, votive figures from Lavinio are richly ornamented with figural Lizard Green,” in Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the bullae of various forms: Enea del Lazio: Archeologia e mito, exh. Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era, ed. J. F. Hall cat. (Rome, 1981). An extraordinary sarcophagus-lid figure with (Provo, UT, 1996), pp. 117–27; Waarsenburg 1995, p. 409, nn. 1050–52; S. Stone, “The Toga,” in Sebesta and Bonfante 1994, Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 57

similar bullae (circa 400–350 B.C.) was found at Cerveteri: satyr heads) from Tomb 48, Ripacandida: Bottini 1987, pp. 9–12, Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pl. VIII. figs. 13–15, pl. III. 157. The jewelry represented on the New York mirror (see n. 155, 166. Bottini 1993 p. 65; and Bottini 1987, p. 10, n. 39. above) is compared by R. Nicholls to that on a mirror with 167. Seen. 155, above, for the Etruscan mirror with Calaina (Galene) Amphiaraos in the Fitzwilliam Museum: Corpus Speculorum in New York. A “so-called ‘chaplet’ or string of beads is carried Etruscorum Great Britain, no. 2.8. Nicholls also discusses the as an attribute by a goddess who appears on the palace significance of the armlet in Etruscan art. sculpture of King Assurnasirpal II of Assyria, and on Neo- 158. Bulla-shaped amber pendants (the commonest form of Assyrian seals, the goddess carrying the chaplet is sometimes pendant) are documented in the seventh-century Foundation Ishtar (Inana)”: Black and Green 1992, pp. 51–52. Deposit at Ephesus and in women’s graves in Etruria and 168. Seen. 150, above. southern Italy from the eighth century onward. Unfortunately, many of the known bulla-shaped amber pendants are without 169. Goff 1963 (in n. 7, above), pp. 162–211. For the Sumerian secure provenance. The largest amber bulla known to me material, see, for example, the beads and amulet group from comes from Belmonte Piceno Tomb 94, a grave typed as the tomb of Queen Puabi, discussed by H. Pittman in Treasures female by I. Dall’Osso (cited by Rocco 1999, p. 107, n. 473). The from the Royal Tombs of Ur, exh. cat., ed. R. L. Zettler and L. bulla was found in a woman’s tomb with iron armor and arms, Horne (Philadelphia, 1998), pp. 95–96, no. 33 (with critical parts of a cart, bronze torques, bracelets, fibulae of various comparanda). kinds (including ones with amber segments and one with bronze bullae pendants), and other amber objects. Rocco 1999, 170. For a recent discussion of crepundia and Roman amber, see M. p. 86, no. 143, discusses an ivory cylinder from the same tomb. Lista, “L’ambra dei Romani in Plinio: Dal moralismo alla devotio,” in Ambre 2007, pp. 254–59. Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 159. Seen. 75, above. 458–59, n. 1299 (with bibl.), notes that “although by Imperial 160. Amber might have been especially effective in magically times, crepundia had become restricted to protective charms attracting the sun, due to its inherent magnetic property and for children, Apuleius (Apologia 56.3) confirms that they had a because of amber’s “sympathetic” brilliance and color: like religious significance (sacrorum crepundia).” See also V. Dasen, would attract like. The verb “to fix” in reference to amulets is “Protéger l’enfant: Amulettes et crepundia,” in Maternité et borrowed from the Hermetic writings in reference to talismans. petite enfance dans l’Antiquité romaine, exh. cat., ed. D. See D. Pingree, “Some of the Sources of the Ghāyat al-hakīm,” Gourevitch, A. Moirin, and N. Rouquet (Bourges, 2003), pp. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 43 (1980): 1–15, 149–51. quoted by E. Reiner, “Magic Figurines, Amulets, and 171. Potenza, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 96684 (satyr) and Talismans,” in Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval 96685 (Herakles, identified in all publications as “maenad”), Worlds: Papers Presented in Honor of Edith Porada, ed. A. Farkas from Tomb 106, Braida di Vaglio: Magie d’ambra 2005, ill. p. 117; et al. (Mainz, 1987), p. 27. Bottini and Setari 2003, p. 66, nos. 310 (Herakles) and 311 161. Pingree 1980 (in n. 160, above), p. 3. Plantzos 1999, p. 110, (satyr), fig. 37. S. J. Schwarz confirmed my identification of the notes that “the ability of a lens—hyalos—to attract the rays of head as a Cypriot-type Herakles (pers. comm., September 22, the sun ([Aristophanes,] Clouds 760–75)” was common 2006); see LIMC suppl. 2009, vol. 1, add. 2, s.v. “Hercle” (S. J. knowledge. Schwarz), pp. 247–48. 162. Kotansky 1991, p. 108, with reference to P. W. Schienerl, “Der 172. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese “Massimo Ursprung und die Entwicklung von Amulett behältnissen in der Pallottino” 51436–40, from Tomb 48, Melfi-Pisciolo. The frontal antiken Welt,” Antike Welt 15 (1984): 45–54, esp. 50–54. female heads, inv. 51436–37, are each drilled with numerous stopped bores. Inv. 51436 even has bores in the cheek and 163. Plato, Republic 426b1–2. chin. For the female heads from this tomb, see Bottini 1993; 164. Amulets of clay, stone, ivory, bone, and other materials are Bottini 1987; and Popoli anellenici 1971, p. 125, pl. LIII. The two among the earliest surviving sculpted objects from Italy. The other pendants, female heads, inv. 51439–40, are in poor early Neolithic and Chalcolithic clay heads and figurines from condition. cultic caves include nude and partially dressed figures and 173. Eos and Kephalos (identified by A. Bottini), Matera, Museo heads with necks, but no isolated faces. See K. Holmes and R. Nazionale “Domenico Ridola” 169680, from Tricarico–Serra del Whitehouse, “Anthropomorphic Figurines and the Cedro, Tomb 60, middle of the fourth century B.C.: Magie Construction of Gender in Neolithic and Copper Age Italy,” in d’ambra2005, ill. p. 128. This pendant is likely older than the Gender and Italian Archaeology, ed. R. Whitehouse (London, burial. The intact woman’s Tomb 952 from Lavello-Casino, 1998), pp. 95–126. dating to the middle of the fifth century B.C. (Melfi, Museo 165. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese “Massimo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese “Massimo Pallottino”), Pallottino” 118680–81 (the female heads) and 118678–79 (the included three large amber pendants suspended in the groin 58 INTRODUCTION

area and several necklaces composed of glass-paste eye beads, Collection (7676): Masterpieces from Central Africa: Royal bone pendants, and amber beads and pendants. Although the Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, exh. cat., ed. G. Verswijver necklace ambers are in poor condition, two hitherto et al. (New York, 1996). For more examples of beads and unidentified pendants (a ram’s head and a siren; no known inv. pendants in amber and other materials that show evidence of nos.) show evidence of pulling wear at the suspension holes: use, see R. K. Liu, Collectible Beads (Vista, CA, 1995), pp. 35–37 Ornamenti e lusso 2000, p. 57; Treasures 1998; and “La tomba and passim. 952 di Forentum” (undated pamphlet, Melfi museum, above). 177. Some classes of amulet wearers deserving closer study include 174. For the amber ram’s head from Adria, see Due donne 1993. For the Laconian acrobats and dancers; babies and toddlers; the Bolognese (Certosa) material, see A. Zannoni, Gli scavi della Cypriot temple boys; and certain female divinities. Among the Certosa di Bologna (Bologna, 1876); and G. Muffatti, “Paste last are seated divinities from Sicily (Gela, the extraurban vitree, alabastri, oggetti in osso, avorio e ambra,” StEtr 35 sanctuary of Predio Sola; Selinus, the Malophoros Sanctuary) (1967): pl. 77a. For other ambers from the area, including and southern Italy (Metaponto, San Biagio). The amulets worn recent and previously unpublished older finds, see L. Malnati, by youngsters and athletic young women (on mirror supports) “L’ambra in Emilia Romagna durante l’età del Ferro: I luoghi include many time-honored fertility subjects: the crescent della redistribuzione e della produzione,” in Ambre 2007, esp. moon, lotus blossoms, lotus flowers, and the sun. pp. 122–29, 152–59. 178. For examples of these two gods adorned with pendants, see L. 175. The female head from Tomb 90 at Latronico–Colle dei Greci is Bonfante, “Fufluns Pacha: The Etruscan Dionysus,” in Masks of Policoro, Museo Nazionale 216349: Ambre 2007, p. 239. E. Brizio, Dionysus, ed. T. H. Carpenter and C. Faraone (Ithaca, NY, 1993), “Verucchio, scoperta di sepolchri tipo Villanova,” NSc 10 (1898): pp. 224–31, figs. 21, 24. The Naples mirror is Museo 373, reported that an amber ring from Tomb 11 at Verucchio Archeologico Nazionale ES, pl. 82; the Berlin mirror is was repaired in antiquity with “sewing stitches.” Antikenmuseum Fr. 36, ES, pl. 83. 176. Amber pendants are not alone in showing signs of use wear— 179. For the Tarquinian Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, see, most from touching, rubbing, kissing, or other kinds of abrasion as recently, Steingräber 2006. On p. 95, he notes the importance the objects came into contact with the body or clothing. See of Dionysian elements in the tomb. Haynes 2000, p. 229, Ritner 1993 on kissing, spitting, and other acts in Egyptian interprets the tomb as Dionysian; compare Simon 1998, who ritual magic. Ritual washing may also have been a cause of the reiterates her belief that its plants are laurel and signify it as uneven wear. The Africanist Zoë Strother (pers. comm., August the grove of Apollo. Brown 1960, p. 106, was the first to make 2005) recounts her interview with a Central Pende man who the connection between the painted images and excavated described how he washed his ivory pendant in river sand to gold animal-head pendants. keep it white. Compare the ivory mask in the Tervuren Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets 59

The Bronze Age Archaeological evidence attests to widespread use of small Baltic amber vessel in the form of a lion’s head was amber in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East by an exceptional object placed in the main chamber of the men, women, and children, primarily among the elite. As Royal Tomb at Late Bronze Age Qatna, at Tell Mishrifeh, well as for amulets and adornment, it was employed to Syria (Damascus, National Museum MSH02G-i0759). It, embellish arms and musical instruments, to create like the other exotic, high-prestige objects found on the spindles, buttons, and pins, and to decorate boxes and remains of a multiburial bier, may have served a ritual furniture. Carved amber and amber-embellished objects purpose. It is the most significant figured amber to come were offered to deities and buried in sanctuary from an excavation in the region. Was it carved in the foundation deposits. In the Greek-speaking world and in Syro-Levantine region, at Qatna even, or might it have Italy, these deities were almost exclusively female ones, been an exchange object or diplomatic gift?183 especially those associated with childbirth. Amber was also significant in funerary contexts. Large amounts of it Amber is attested with a high degree of probability in the were buried in the Shaft Graves at Mycenae. Four of the New Kingdom, from the period of the 18th Dynasty graves in Circle A, which included both females and (1550–1295 B.C.) onward, but only in exceptional males, contained numerous beads: the most prolific was circumstances and always in conjunction with other Grave IV, with nearly thirteen hundred. The beads “may precious materials, such as rock crystal, gold, lapis lazuli, have been imported ready-made, since [they] are or faïence. Sinclair Hood argues that a number of “resin” different from the mass of Aegean ones.”180 The head and objects from the tomb of Tutankhamen, including two chest of the woman buried in Grave Omicron of Circle B heart (possibly) scarabs and the necklace that he were covered with various precious materials, including identifies as being from the Tumulus culture of central/ 181 northern Europe, are actually amber.184 The over a hundred amber beads and spacers. Tutankhamen amber would be a very early instance of The resources required to obtain so much amber must funerary amber in Egypt, and an extremely early instance have been enormous. At this stage, certainly, amber was a of an amber scarab, a form that became a popular subject material for the social elite, although as time went on, it in Orientalizing Italy (eighth–seventh century B.C.), became more widely used. As Helen Hughes-Brock especially in Etruria, given the scarab’s importance as a observed: sun symbol and its concurrent connection to rebirth.185 The large necklaces and spacer plates were only for The importance of amber in Bronze Age northern and the very few and very rich, and hardly found their way central Europe is demonstrated by major finds and beyond the great centers of the northeastern and significant objects pointing to several regional centers of southwestern Peloponnese. However, generation by manufacture with local characteristics, as Aleksandar generation amber spread over the Mycenaean world Palavestra and Vera Krstić summarize.186 and to Crete and down the social scale.182 In Italy, the Middle Bronze Age finds of amber in the The Late Mycenaean amber finds are in tombs of every Basilicata and Late Bronze Age finds at Frattesina, in the type, and very occasionally in shrines—although no solid Po valley, are symptomatic of an active trade in both raw evidence connects them to any particular group of people, and finished products. The amber finds from Italy are deity, or cult. In the ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, the early evidence of a long tradition of amber consumption eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt, amber was a rare among women of high social rank on the peninsula.187 substance during the Bronze Age. A recently discovered 60

NOTES 184. For amber in Egypt, see n. 103. 180. S. Hood, The Arts in Prehistoric Greece (London, 1978), pp. 202-3. 185. Andrews 1994, p. 50. See also G. T. Martin, Scarabs, Cylinders, See E. M. Konstantinidi, Jewellery Revealed in the Burial Contexts and Other Ancient Egyptian Seals (Warminster, 1985); and E. of the Greek Bronze Age, BAR S912 (Oxford, 2001), pp. 60–62. Hornung and F. Staechelin, Skarabäen und andere Siegelamulette aus Basler Sammlungen (Mainz, 1976). Hölbl 1979 181. Hughes-Brock 1985, p. 259. lists the amber scarabs from Egypt in Italy. See also Zazoff 1968 182. Quotation fromHughes-Brock 1985, p. 259. See Hughes-Brock andBissing 1931. For Phoenician and Punic amulets, see E. 1993, p. 221. Undisturbed burials of both women and men Acquaro, “Gli scarabei e gli amuleti,” pp. 404–21, and M. L. show that burials could contain a single bead. The earliest Uberti, “Gli avori e gli ossi,” pp. 394–403, in I Fenici 1988. See amber with figural embellishment appears to be a unique also G. Hölbl, Ägyptisches Kulturgut im phönikishen und (Greek-made) seal engraved with a bull, excavated from Tomb punischen Sardinien, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1986). 518 at Mycenae, which, in the opinion of Hughes-Brock, may be 186. Palavestra and Krstić 2006, p. 23. one of the few certain cases of amber worked after its arrival in Greece. The sex of Tomb 518’s inhabitant has not been 187. For Frattesina, see, for example, Negroni Catacchio 1972; A. established. Mastrocinque, “Le ambre di Frattesina, in protosoria e storia del ‘Venetorum angulus,’” in Atti del XX convegno di studi 183. For Qatna, see A. J. Mukherjee et al., “The Qatna Lion: Scientific etruschi ed italici, Portogruaro, Quarto d’Altino, Este, Adria, 16–19 Confirmation of Baltic Amber in Late Bronze Age Syria,” ottobre 1996 (Pisa, 1999), pp. 227–34 (with earlier bibl. including Antiquity 82 (2008): 49–59; and M. Al-Maqdissi, H. Dohmann- Negroni Catacchio 1989); P. Bellantini, “Frattesina: L’ambre e la Pfälzner, and A. Suleiman, “Das königliche Hypogaeum von produzione vitrea nel contesto delle relazioni transalpine,” in Qatna,” Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin Ori delle Alpi, exh. cat., ed. L. Endrizzi and F. Marzatico (Trento, 135 (2003): 189–218. 1997); and Fuscagni 1982. Bronze Age 61

Early Iron Age and the Orientalizing Period After about 1200 B.C., amber was much scarcer A number of female graves in and around Magna Graecia throughout the Mediterranean until about the mid-eighth each contained but one small waterbird, which may be century B.C., when it begins to reemerge appreciably in related to the Egyptian duck amulet, a symbol of archaeological contexts. For the most part, it was at the regeneration; it may also be related to the duck symbol of end of the eighth and especially during the seventh northern Europe. Since the Bronze Age, the duck, a centuries when amber was most popular in Greece and multivalent symbol both guardian and apotropaic, was peninsular Italy. This is not to leave out a few believed to connect the chthonic and other worlds.194 extraordinary tenth-to-early-eighth-century exceptions, notably at sites in Italy, in Latium, at Castel di Decima, In Greece, worked amber was buried in foundation and and, most recently, in the Roman Forum and in the votive deposits as well as, more rarely, in graves. A pair of Basilicata, in the area between the Agri and the Sinni, Geometric-date tombs (possibly of priestesses or where, in the graves of elite women, remarkable amber princesses) at Eleusis offer critical evidence of amber in the burial of women of the highest rank.195 The rich parures were discovered. This is the case with a girdle with interspersed bird-shaped beads from the Enotrian tombs include sumptuous grave gifts, among them Tomb 83 at Latronico.188 On the whole, amber- necklaces of gold, amber, and faïence, and amber-inlaid embellished objects were buried in both male and female ivory furnishings. The presence of glowing elektron bears graves, but figured amber is almost exclusively found in witness to the lavish and exceptional occasion of the those of women and children.189 entire funeral process. Carvedfiguredambers of eighth-to-seventh-century date Both figured and nonfigured ambers have been excavated are characteristically small (on average, roughly fingertip at sanctuaries dedicated to a limited number of divinities, size), suggesting that these works, mainly pendants, were mainly female. These include objects from the sanctuaries carved from small pieces. None are composites, that is, of Artemis (Ephesus), Artemis Orthia (Sparta), Hera works made from almost imperceptibly joined pieces, as Limenaia (Perachora), and Apollo Daphnephoros is characteristic of contemporary fibulae from Etruria, (Etretria). Intaglios were found at Perachora, and two Campania, and the mid-Adriatic. Among the earliest animals at Aetos (Ithaca). The earliest date to the decades figured finds are those from the eighth-century necropolis around 700 B.C. and represent birds at rest and couchant at Veio Quattro Fontanili. They include a standing animals, and they, like the contemporary Italian objects, ithyphallic male, monkeys,190 a horse, a duck, and a are generally quite small. At Ephesus, the foundation human lower leg and foot, as well as both scarabs and deposit was buried circa 700 near the cellar of the temple scaraboids, some of which have intaglio horses engraved of Artemis. Anton Bammer has suggested that the ambers on their flat side.191 All of these are amuletic subjects of (and accompanying ivory objects) are the remains of a 192 pectoral worn by an early statue of the goddess.196 Other great antiquity, and truly Orientalizing. A cinerary urn buried in the First Circle of the Interrupted Stones at figured Greek works of this period include the by-now Vetulonia (of circa 730–720 B.C.) contained a number of traditional subjects of figured amber: crouching monkeys, high-status objects, including an amber scarab, thus recumbent lions, human heads, birds, and other 193 species.197 indicating an object interred after cremation. The scarab may well have been an import, like the The seventh-century B.C. ambers from Italy are almost accompanying glass beads and bronze Phoenician bowl, exclusively mortuary and more extensive in number, although the urn also contained locally produced objects. type, and size than the contemporary Greek examples. As 62

is characteristic of all art from the Orientalizing period, thought to resemble the vulva. The extraordinary Getty they take on a character different from the eighth-century Cowrie Shell / Hare pendant (figure 42), for instance, material, although birds, especially ducks, retain their combines two subjects: fertility and regeneration. Scarab- popular status, as they do in other figurative arts in Italy. cowrie combinations, such as that represented by a ninth- At some sites, figured amber is found in combination with century B.C. amber from Tursi (Basilicata), do the same. In faïence amulets of Egyptian fertility and protective Egypt, both real cowries and imitations in gold and other subjects.198 The primary seventh-century finds have come materials were strung together to make girdles and worn from Etruria, Campania, and Latium; Etruria Padana and in the pelvic region.205 elsewhere in the mid-Adriatic; and from the Basilicata. Recent discoveries in southern Italy and at the Adriatic site of Verucchio (near Rimini) have greatly modified the picture of amber importation and use. One rare figured subject from the extraordinary amber-rich graves at Verucchio is a fibula decoration of addorsed ducks.199 Figured ambers excavated at southern Etruscan sites include the ubiquitous monkeys and a number of standing “nude” females, their arms in various poses Figure 42 a & b. Cowrie Shell / Hare pendant, Italic or Etruscan, 600–500 B.C. associated with fertility.200 An exceptional example, Amber, H: 3.7 cm (11⁄2 in.), W: 2.6 cm (1 in.), D: 1.4 cm (1⁄2 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 79.AO.75.28. Gift of Stanley Silverman. a) front; b) back. dating to the first half of the seventh century, is the Seecat. no. 30. elaborate grouping of amber pendants and beads (possibly a collar) found on top of the cremation layer in a The most important surviving ensemble of the seventh tomb at Vetulonia.201 Little else accompanied the strings 202 century from Italy is that of a high-ranking woman buried of amber: the figured pendants include a fish, a at Latin Satricum (Tomb VI).206 The grave, dated to circa scaraboid, seven monkeys, and eleven standing female 650/640 B.C., contained a flint (actually a Neolithic figures dressed only in collars and armlets, with legs obsidian scraper)207 and more than five hundred amber apart, the vulva exposed, and hands placed on the lower objects—fibulae, spindles, nonfigured beads and abdomen. The most important pendant represents an pendants, and numerous figured objects. The medley of enthroned female giving birth, the infant’s head stylistic and iconographic connections of the objects is appearing between her legs.203 This tiny amber is the typical of the period and place, but the burial is without strongest evidence to date for a direct link between amber parallel: it is the largest single burial with amber from and childbirth. ancient Italy. The figured pieces include nude females and Many other types of figured amber from the second half males (some doubled and addorsed), fantastic creatures,208 and fish, and some of the pendants were of the seventh century correspond to standard Egyptian carved from large amber blanks. Some pendants are amuletic iconography. Among the most popular are the unique, others variants on or copies of Egyptian subjects: dwarf deities, such as Bes and Pataikos-Ptah—the most fish, Bes, and patakoi. The unworked pieces of amber, common Egyptian protective genies.204 Bes was known to protect sleepers and women in childbirth and here and in other tombs, may also have served as fumigants, unburnt incense, or apotropaics.209 This safeguarded the young mother and her children. Both grave’s goods and the many contemporary large amber figures have solar associations; the Pataikos-Ptah figure, fibulae of the mid-Adriatic of these decades speak to new part adult and part infant, symbolized the infant sun. sources (geographic or cultural) of or new access to big Almost without exception, the images on early amber pieces of jewelry-grade amber. carvings were reiterations of Egyptian-sourced solar and rebirth symbols. NOTES The main focus in this catalogue is amber in the form of figural subjects, but the many beads and pendants of this 188. S. Bianco in Magie d’ambra 2005, pp. 94–96, ill. p. 99. period in botanic or shell forms are also important, since 189. This is theorized on the basis of a small percentage of they, too, served a similar role via a metonymic process. excavations or published accounts; the number of unpublished Amber cowrie pendants, common in Italy from the graves and deposits with amber objects and the amount of seventh to the fifth centuries B.C., were potent subjects of pre-Roman amber in non-source-country museums and fertility and childbirth, since the mature cowrie shell was collections (from old or unreported finds and uncontrolled Early Iron Age, Orientalizing 63

excavations) is unfortunately very high. The exceptions are Mainz31 (1984): 269–75; J. Szilágyi, RA 1972: fasc. 1:111–26; and critical (such as the male Tomb 43 at Melfi-Pisciolo). D. Rebuffat Emmanuel, “Singes de Maurétanie Tingitane et 190. Orientalizing Greek and Etruscan images of nonhuman d’Italie—Réflexions sur une analogie iconographique,” StEtr 35 primates are generically referred to as “monkeys” in the (1967): 633–44. For an Etrusco-Corinthian aryballos in the form literature, although some may represent baboons, especially of an “ape,” see B. A. Kathman in Kozloff 1981, pp. 95–96, no. the hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), as well as a long- 95. tailed monkey (Cercopithecus) and the green monkey, or vervet For the monkey in the Minoan world, see N. Marinatos, “An (Cercopithecus aethiops). The prototypes of the eighth-to- Offering of Saffron to the Minoan Goddess of Nature: The Role seventh-century amber pendants from Italy (Etruscan, Latin, of the Monkey and the Importance of Saffron,” in Gifts to the Faliscan, Picene) are Egyptian in invention, but they also may Gods: Proceedings of the Uppsala Symposium 1985, Boreas 15, have derived from Phoenician examples and could be related ed. T. Linders and G. Nordquist (Uppsala, 1987), pp. 123–32, to northern Mesopotamian, northern and western Syrian, Old who argues convincingly for a religious function for monkeys Babylonian, and Anatolian types and symbolism. In Egypt, and interprets various Minoan roles for them: as adorants, as amulets in the form of monkeys and baboons are first known intermediaries between humans and the goddess of nature, as in the Old Kingdom, made of steatite and faïence, then of her servants, and as guardians. Marinatos draws parallels with amethyst and carnelian in the Middle Kingdom, and in a wider Egyptian and Anatolian images of squatting monkeys (nn. 10, variety of materials from the New Kingdom onward. The green 17) and suggests the images’ possible entry into Crete in the monkey is most often the subject of Egyptian and Phoenician Middle Bronze Age, but points also to Mesopotamian examples simian amulets: its humanlike features, the females’ motherly of the squatting posture. Both Egyptian and Near Eastern love, its cleverness and ability to mimic, and its greenish color prototypes are proposed, with reference to R. D. Barnet, (symbolic of freshness and regeneration) account for its “Monkey Business,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 5 (1973): popularity. It participates at the side of the dwarf as an 1–10; and C. Mendelson, “More Monkey Business,” Anatolian emissary of Ra, the sun-god, in magical invocations for Studies 33 (1983): 81–83. F.-W. von Hase 1984 (above) proposes successful parturition and thus has a solar aspect (Andrews Phoenicians as intermediaries in the transition of the motif to 1994, p. 66). In Egyptian glazed-composition faïence maternity Italy. For a view on the possible permutation of the “monkey” amulets, where it is joined with Bes, the green monkey takes type into human imagery in early Greece, see S. Langdon, on the role of nurse for the newborn and is connected to music “From Monkey to Man: The Evolution of a Geometric Sculptural and dance, as associated with birthing. For the monkey and Type,” AJA 94 (1990): 407–24. maternity, see also Bulté 1991, pp. 99–102. Monkey To be added to this discussion are the simianlike “emaciated representations in the Levant seem to carry several humans” of the Old Babylonian period, the clay plaques of the connotations, of both Near Eastern and Egyptian origin, goddess Nintu, and the separate statuette images in the same including veneration, eroticism, good luck, and best wishes. In form. D. Parayre, “Les âges de la vie dans le répertoire figuratif erotic scenes on Old Babylonian terracottas, simian dancers oriental,” KtèMA 22 (1997): 67, identifies the figures as often keep company with dwarfs. As S. Schroer and J. Eggler, representing premature or deformed fetuses. See her figs. 10a “Monkey,” in Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient (stamped relief possibly from Tell Asmar, Louvre) and 10b Near East, http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd (bronze statuette, Cincinnati Art Museum). Parayre suggests /prepublication.php (accessed November 12, 2009), p. 1, note that the fetus images may be figural transpositions of the for Mesopotamian and Elamite art, “Just like in Egypt, there is a šumma izbuseries, listing the precautions to take in the case of proximity between the monkeys and the Nude Goddess. This premature, nonviable, or monstrous births. If the amber may be due to their playful nature, but also their excitability … pendants represented such fetuses rather than monkeys or leading to their association with sex and eroticism.” baboons, they would be extraordinary “like banishes like” Amber and glazed-composition amulets of monkeys might amulets. Alternatively, if the amber monkeys are identified with work in various direct and indirect forms of magic: to ensure the Minoan interpretation of the type (following Marinatos), love and sexual fulfillment; to provide sexual aid in this world they may be associated with the local nature goddesses in and the next, to aid in rebirth and rejuvenation, to assist in the Crete, as in Mesopotamia. care of newborns, and to inject humor (a potent aversion 191. For Italian finds of eighth- and seventh-century date, technique). On the nonhuman primate in Egyptian art Waarsenburg 1995is the most complete compendium of generally, see Andrews 1994, pp. 66–67; and A. Kozloff, ed., objects and earlier bibl., including Massaro 1943. The Iron Age Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection Greek amber finds are listed in Strong 1966, pp. 21–24 (with (Cleveland, 1981), pp. 67–69, nos. 54–56. For a wide range of earlier bibl.). The horse imagery, which appears early and opinions about “monkeys” in Etruscan art, see Waarsenburg remains until the fourth century B.C., deserves closer study. 1995, p. 415–16, and esp. 445–50. See also Bonfante 2003, pp. Although the horse has good connotations throughout the 138, 141; Negroni Catacchio 1999, pp. 280–82; Waarsenburg ancient world (the Egyptian hieroglyph for “beautiful,” nefer, is 1996; F.-W. von Hase, “Die golden Prunkfibel aus Vulci, Ponte a prancing horse), it had both positive and negative aspects in Sodo,” Jahrbuch des Römisches-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 64 INTRODUCTION

Greece. “The horse was strongly associated with Poseidon, a 198. This is noted by Waarsenburg 1995; and Mastrocinque 1991, p. dark and marginal god, a god of the frightening sea and 78. destructive earthquake. According to myth and cultic tradition, 199. Verucchio (Rimini), Lippi Necropolis, Tomb 27, inv. 11392: P. von Medusa and Erinys (or Demeter-Erinys) each assumed the Eles, entry for no. 395, in Bartoloni et al. 2000, p. 295; Verucchio shape of a mare to become the consort of Poseidon, and 1994, p. 161, n. 553, pl. LXI. See also Franchi Dell’Orto 1999, pp. subsequently bore him the foals Pegasus and Areion.… From 91–92. Homer onwards, [Erinys and Medusa] represent the grim, horrific and threatening aspects of the chthonic world”: 200. Nude and partially clothed humans (with primary and Johnston 1995, pp. 375–76, nn. 36–38. An amber horse may secondary sex characteristics exposed) were potent signs of have worked as a danger-averting object. sexuality, both promoting fecundity and controlling 192. On the Orientalizing phenomenon in Italy, see D. Ridgway, conception, but such pieces also would have encompassed “The Orientalizing Phenomenon in Campania: Sources and powerful apotropaic, guardian, and positive-attraction forces. Manifestations,” in Prayon and Röllig 2000, which takes the For “fertility” gestures, see P. Demargne, La Crete dè dalique:́ phenomenon far beyond Campania. Ridgway’s term medleyis Études sur les origines d’une renaissance (Paris, 1947), pp. 38–39; useful in describing sources of Orientalizing art. Also apt is his Haynes 1985, p. 253, no. 21; Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 433–34, assessment of the term Phoenician: “We cannot simply call the (with additional bibl. and pertinent comparanda, including orientalia (and Orientals) in question ‘Phoenician’ e basta.” The ivory and bucchero caryatid supports of ritual vessels). For the term encompasses considerable diversity; as coined by the relevant caryatids, see H. Salskov Roberts, “Some Observations Greeks, it was used to describe Bronze Age Canaanites, Iron on Etruscan Bowls with Supports in the Shape of Caryatids or Age Phoenicians, and Punic Carthaginians. See also I. J. Winter, Adorned by Reliefs,” Acta Hyperborea 1 (1988): 69–80. “Homer’s Phoenicians: History, Ethnography, or Literary Demargne, on the basis of the Cretan material, distinguishes Trope? (A Perspective on Early Orientalism),” in Carter and nine types of pudical gestures (and their predecessors). For Morris 1995, pp. 247–72. Compare Lapatin 2001, p. 38, n. 3, who this Orientalizing material, the gestures may be read as they concludes that the terms Phoenician and North Syrian are useful may have been in Egypt: the pose or gesture is a “still.” As and readily understood stylistic labels, despite their Wilkinson 1994 explains, a figure’s gesture may be the visual inaccuracies and problems. recording of the most characteristic movement within a sequence of movements. The image thus registers the most 193. Poggio alla Guardia Necropolis, Tomb 7. Haynes 2000, p. 15, memorable or significant movement or gesture in a sequence. cites the burial as indicating early connections with the Near 201. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 7815. East. 194. Waarsenburg 1995, p. 428. The birds are waterfowl, often 202. This fish pendant is close to the Egyptian lates amulet type, an ducks, represented as if afloat. See S. Bianco (with bibl.) in emblem of the goddess Neith, one of the four great Magie d’ambra 2005; and Franchi Dell’Orto 1999. An eighth- protectresses of the dead. century necklace of bulla-shaped bronze pendants inset with 203. Haynes 2000, p. 100, queries the identity of the figure between convex pieces of amber and with sleeping ducks above and the legs of the seated woman—is it a child or a monkey? It below (mirrored compositionally) is an important early Italian must represent a birthing scene, the throne a birthing chair, object that associates amber, the sun, and ducks. the head that of an infant human. For the tiny birthing amber, 195. For a recent consideration of the pair of tombs, see J. B. see also Waarsenburg 1995, p. 429; von Hase 1984 (in n. 190, Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient above), p. 274; Massaro 1943, p. 46; I. Falchi, Vetulonia e la sua Greece (Princeton, 2007), p. 224. For the larger discussion of necropoli antichissima (Florence, 1891), p. 101, pl. 7.4; and L. precious materials and grave gifts in death, ceremony, and Pernier, “Vetulonia: Il circolo del monile d’argento e il circolo burial, sources consulted include C. Sourvinou-Inwood, dei lebeti di bronzo,” NSc 22 (1913): 425–37. “Reading” Greek Death: To the End of the Classical Period (Oxford, 204. Bes was closely associated with Hathor, as was the related 1995); S. Campbell and A. Green, eds., The Archaeology of Death dwarf-god Pataikos-Ptah. Although dwarf figures were in the Ancient Near East (Oxford, 1995); M. Parker Pearson, The associated with a number of gods, they were commonly linked Archaeology of Death and Burial (Gloustershire, 1999); and D. with Bes, often called simply “the dwarf.” V. Dasen, “Pataikos,” Bolger, Gender in Ancient Cyprus (Lanham, MA, 2003). Iconography of Deities and Demons (in n. 190, above), p. 1, 196. A. Bammer, “Kosmologische Aspekte der Artemisionfunde,” in summarizes: “The term pataikos is first used by Herodotus Der Kosmos der Artemis von Ephesos, Sonderschriften des (Historiae 3.37) to describe representations of the god Ptah in Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts 37, ed. U. Muss the form of a dwarf equated with Hephaistos,” and “it remains (Vienna, 2001), pp. 11–26. unclear whether [pataikoi] depict various forms of one and the same god, or a group of dwarf gods, as with Bes.” Connected 197. Also mentioned by Mastrocinque 1991, p. 68. with solar and rejuvenating symbolism, they were regarded as a solar hypostasis, embodying the morning form of the sun- Early Iron Age, Orientalizing 65

god, newly born and old at the same time. “Their association discusses such lightning stones and cites A. Cherici, with the continuing process of creation may have motivated “Keraunia,” ArchCl 41 (1989): 372, n. 37. Tamburini points to their identification with Ptah in his capacity as a creator god the ancient belief “in the heavenly origin of prehistoric and likewise with Horus, Khnosu, Osiris, and other youthful and flintstones found by chance on the ground … [and] their regenerative gods.” In respect to protection, Pataikos-Ptah relation to the thunderbolt” and “to their simple apotropaic seems to have been concerned with both the living and the function.” Still in early-twentieth-century Italy, Neolithic flints dead; it aimed to guard the family, especially pregnant women are recorded as important amulets to protect against lightning, and small children, against unpredictable negative forces. As and to protect people, animals, houses, and land against prescribed in magical spells, pataikoi could be worn around the natural disasters, as G. Bellucci (in n. 150, above) shows. In neck as helpers during delivery. Pataikoi are often discovered in Etruria, both Menerva and Tinia could hurl thunderbolts, and burials, where they had a strong afterlife symbolism; see as such they may have had oracular faculties, as suggested by Dasen, above (with refs.). For Bes, see esp. M. Malaise, “Bes et G. Camporeale, “La manubia di Menerva,” in Agathos daimōn: les croyances solaires,” in Studies in Egyptology Presented to Mythes et cultes; Études d’iconographie en l’honneur de Lilly Kahil Miriam Lichtheim, ed. S. Israelit-Groll (Jerusalem, 1990), pp. (Athens, 2000), pp. 77–86. Waarsenburg 1995, p. 411, notes that 680–729. See also V. Dasen, Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece “a functional and semantic relationship seems to have existed (Oxford, 1993), pp. 54–83; LIMC 3 (1986), s.v. “Bes” (A. also between Eileithuia, lightning and the Elysium.… An entry in Hermary), pp. 98–112; and Pinch 1994. For the Egyptian and [the Suda] states that Eilusion—normally the afterlife world— imitation Egyptian amulets of Bes figures and pataikoi, see also was also used to denote a place hit by lightning.” Was the flint H. Győry, “To the Interpretation of Pataikos Standing on a special amulet of protection against lightning? Crocodiles,” Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts 94 (2001): A carved amber in New York likely represents a thunderbolt (a 27–40; and Andrews 1994, p. 39. Hathor, the “goddess of perfect marriage of subject and material). Metropolitan sexuality, fertility, and childbirth, was also a funerary goddess Museum of Art 1992.11.22, Purchase, Renée E. and Robert A. who presided over the necropolis; she helped women give Belfer Philanthropic Fund, Patti Cadby Birch and the Joseph birth in this world but also facilitated the rebirth of the Rosen Foundation Inc., and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992: deceased into the afterlife”: G. Robins, “Dress, Undress, and The Metropolitan Museum Annual Report (1991–92), p. 37; C. A. the Representation of Fertility and Potency in New Kingdom Picón, “Carved Ambers,” Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, Egyptian Art,” in Kampen 1996, p. 28. For the dwarf amulet as a 1991–1992: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 50, no. 2 health amulet of Hathor, see also G. Pinch, Votive Offerings to (Fall 1992): 10; Art of the Classical World 2007, pp. 295, 473, no. Hathor (Oxford, 1993). These dwarf images may have 339. functioned not only to protect the state of birthing, but also to control fertility and birth spacing—equally critical issues for The bracelet pendant worn by the male figure on the Etruscan young families—for the protection of the mother’s health and stone sarcophagus of a couple from Vulci, now in Boston that of her young. On birth spacing, see n. 15. (Museum of Fine Arts 86.145), appears to be either a shark’s 205. On cowries, cowroids, and cowrie-shell imitations in Egypt, see tooth or a “flint.” Pinch 1994, p. 107; Andrews 1994, p. 42; and R. E. Freed in Quest 208. The most frequent form of demons is that of a hybrid or for Immortality 2002 (in n. 75, above), p. 102, no. 17. For a monster, and the demonic “frequently serves as a classificatory discussion of the cowrie in amber, see 79.AO.75.28 (cat. no. 30). marker that is part of a larger system of boundaries used to 206. For the find, see the exhaustive treatment in Waarsenburg express or reinforce a society’s values”: Johnston 1995, p. 362. 1995; and Waarsenburg 1996. “The demon is situated between two taxa that are considered mutually exclusive: the hybrid nature of demons, noted by 207. Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 410–11, nn. 1058–64: the “flint” likely Smith, is a form of this”: Johnston 1995, p. 363. Johnston cites J. originated on the nearby island of Ponza and is thus one of Z. Smith, “Towards Interpreting Demonic Powers in Hellenistic several secondarily reused in the Iron Age. Obsidian “flints” and Roman Antiquity,” Augsteig und Niedergang der römischen are found in central Italy in tombs dating from the ninth to the Welt 2.16.1 (1978): 425–39, who therein develops the precepts seventh centuries and in several Latin votive deposits, of M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of including in Satricum. A tomb from Terni yielded a Neolithic Pollution and Taboo (London, 1966). flint wrapped in an embossed bronze sheet medallion with a 209. SeeWaarsenburg 1995, p. 430, on the unworked pieces in the representation of Bes. Waarsenburg suggests that the “flint” Archaic votive deposit. See n. 126 above for reference to amber from Tomb VI would have been known in antiquity as a and resins in a tomb at Cerveteri. ceraunium, or lightning stone. P. Tamburini in Antichità dall’Umbria a New York, exh. cat. (Perugia, 1991), p. 276, 66 INTRODUCTION

The Archaic and Afterward The most important reference to amber from around 600 many of the individual pieces are of exceptional size. This B.C. may be only apocryphal. It concerns the early Greek is the third great flourishing of archaeologically philosopher Thales of Miletos, the first to recognize evidenced amber importation in the Mediterranean-rim amber’s magnetism, which he argued was proof of a soul area before the time of the Flavian emperors. or life, even in inanimate objects. Did he observe this property at home when watching women spinning Most large sixth-to-fourth-century figured works Miletos’s famous wool with an amber spindle and distaff? demonstrate a new respect for the original shape of the raw material in its naturally occurring forms—rods, After about 600 B.C., the record shows a change in amber drops, or sheets—and figural subjects accommodate the use. Individual pieces and long strings of worked amber ancient resin’s form. Italian figured ambers of the eighth became much rarer throughout the Mediterranean, and seventh centuries continued ancient traditions, but perhaps owing to relative scarcity or to fluctuations in new kinds of amuletic figuration developed during the trade or even its interruption (perhaps by the Celts). Thus, sixth century B.C. in response to changing local and amber finds from the next decades take on a particular contemporary magical, medicinal, and sacral needs. The importance. Most are very small pieces used for inlay, in multifarious seventh-century fertility and hunting multimedia fibulae, in small ivory and bone boxes, or in divinities began to be replaced by Olympian subjects and furnishings. Four composite ivory or bone and amber hitherto unknown faunal and fabulous subjects. Rams, figured objects dating to the first half of the sixth century lions, and boars (figure 43) take the place of frogs, are of considerable iconographic importance: a pair of monkeys, dogs,212 and sphinxes. Sirens now proliferate, plaques from the Picene territory, from Tomb 83, that of and dancers appear. Pendants in the form of detached an elite woman, at Belmonte Piceno; and a pair from a heads, of either specific female divinities or other figures, late Hallstattian Celtic tomb of an elite woman at Asperg, are among the few traditional subjects that retain their Germany. The two Picene plaques each represent a important place right through to the beginning of the winged female figure flanked by two smaller female fourth century B.C. Yet despite the change in iconography, figures. The winged female is represented in the schema the categories of appropriate subjects do not appreciably of Potnia Theron (Mistress of the Animals) or perhaps change: they are still the protective and regenerative another (now unknown) divinity of protection and subjects of tradition, the subjects that could enhance or fertility. The carving is on all sides; the faces (now lost) focus the powerful properties of amber. were inlays of amber. Giulia Rocco attributes the reliefs to Picenum, noting the Greco-Orientalizing character of the figures and their relationship to portrayals of Artemis in the Laconian world.210 The Halstattian furniture plaques with amber-faced sphinxes are generally believed to be Laconian.211 The figured ambers of the sixth to fourth centuries B.C. range in size from the tiny (20 mm) to the very large (250 mm) and are formed in a range of subjects, some traditional and some new to the material. They are mainly pendants and fibulae bow decorations. Not only is there a wide distribution of finds on the peninsula, but 67

In what sense is an image identical with the deity or activity it represents? The magical and theological properties of images, as well as the way the offering of the Orneatai could actually substitute as a ritual, hint at a much more dynamic interpenetration of image and referent, representation and prototype, than we usually allow for in discussions of mimesis.… Here … the context of the image asserts the actual presence of its prototype.217 Figure 43 Foreparts of a Recumbent Boar pendant, Etruscan, 525–480 B.C. Amber, L: 5 cm (19⁄10 in.), D: 1.3 cm (1⁄2 in.), H: 2.4 cm (9⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 76.AO.84. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 37. A number of exceptional (unprovenanced) ambers can be dated to the sixth century based on their style and iconography. Among them are the Getty Divinity Holding Haresgroup (figure 44), the Getty Ship with Figures pendant (see figure 6), a two-figure group in London, Satyr and Maenad(seefigure 17, which is perhaps instead a dancing male and female),213 and a group of four pendant figures, possibly from Ascoli Piceno, now in Philadelphia: two crouching nude males and an addorsed pair of draped female figures.214 A recumbent lion, found in a circa 560–550 B.C. tomb at Taranto, is a rare example of a piece from a Greek colonial city.215 These are “contemporary” works for their time, but they also evince artistic connections to older central Italic and Etruscan art, to the eastern Mediterranean, and to East Greek and Peloponnesian art. This wide range of influences might suggest simple explanations: itinerant carvers with a rich artistic vocabulary or a workshop in the ambient of a Figure 44 Divinity Holding Hares pendant, Etruscan, 600–550 B.C. Amber, H: 9.7 cm (34⁄5 in.), W: 6.4 cm (21⁄2 in.), D: 2.4 cm (9⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul great crossroads. While both may be accurate, this line of Getty Museum, 77.AO.82. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 4. thought underemphasizes the magical aspects of the imagery. Alongside such evocative and wide-ranging In contrast to these “international style” works are a explanations should be considered the fact that the scattering of amber carvings, markedly Ionian in style, figured ambers were made as amulets, or objects that date to the second half of the sixth century B.C. following a “prototype” or recipe, or modeled according to Where they were carved is not known for sure, but some tradition and prescription, which required the have old provenances: Falconara, in the mid-Adriatic, for practitioner to absorb various symbol systems and modes the amber in New York; Sala Consilina, for the flying- of representation. There must have been persistent types, figure ambers in the Petit Palais, Paris; Armento, for the and a long-lived oral tradition behind them. Because London kouros. Another tiny kouros in Paris,218 two of precision of execution is essential to efficacy, “magical the Getty Heads of a Female Divinity or Sphinx (see figures practices have little potential for modification, change, 18and45), and the Getty Kore (figure 46) and her animal and interpretation and thus tend to be slower to change companions, the ram and boar pendants (see figures 29, than most other aspects of culture.”216 What Jaś Elsner queries from the starting point of a large-scale offering at 39, and 43), if from the Italian peninsula, would be Delphi is relevant here: additional evidence of the presence of Ionians (or Ionian models). 68 INTRODUCTION

Aggressive subjects, of rape, imminent or active combat, or triumph over death, emerge: Eos and Kephalos (or Tithonos), Herakles killing the Nemean lion, Ajax, or Achilles lying in wait.223 Only in a few cases, such as these, can heroes and divinities be surely identified. The style and iconography of the ambers of this period come out of the artistic traditions of Greece (including Magna Graecia), Etruria, and other Italic areas. Some heads have old-fashioned “divine” hairstyles and large, severe faces, conjuring up Near Eastern divinities. Most Figure 45 Head of a Female Divinity wear old-fashioned Etruscan dress, the significance of or Sphinx pendant, Etruscan, which deserves more attention. Generally speaking, the 550–520 B.C. Amber, H: 3.4 cm (13⁄10 in.), W: 2.4 cm (9⁄10 in.), D: 1.6 cm (3⁄5 Archaic style has a secure hold throughout the fifth in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Figure 46 Standing Female Figure century B.C. and well into the fourth. Some works are Museum, 76.AO.79. Gift of Gordon (Kore) pendant, Etruscan, 525–500 B.C. Amber, H: 6.7 cm (25⁄8 in.), W: 2 very like other sculptural works and compare well with McLendon. Seecat. no. 11. cm (7⁄ in.), D: 0.9 cm (3⁄ in.). Los 10 8 the corpora of ivories, bronzes, and terracottas. Others, Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, significantly, are old-fashioned in style: many have the 76.AO.77. Gift of Gordon McLendon. Seecat. no. 8. oversized eyes of much earlier art, kept alive in the millennia-old schemata of divine and heroic Three burials, rich in amber objects that date to the end of representations of the Near East; some are remarkably the sixth century B.C., demonstrate the tradition like Hittite sculptures. The huge eyes signify the figure’s (extending back to the Bronze Age) of burying strings of identity and the characteristic keenness of sight of the ambers in elite females’ tombs: at Sala Consilina, with supernatural. Wide-open and exaggerated, the eyes of the three necklaces totaling a minimum of 114 pieces; in amber heads project a dazzling gaze, emphasizing the Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, with nearly 300; and at the efficacy of their role as apotropaia, or devices of “princely” tombs at Novi Pazar (Serbia), with over 8,000 protection and danger aversion (figure 47).224 individual amber beads, pendants, and related objects. In the Braida di Vaglio tomb, the skeleton is that of a young girl.219 Fifth-century finds are more concentrated outside coastal sites in Latium, Etruria, and Magna Graecia. They are dispersed at the fringes of Etruria and the mid-Adriatic area and in Campania and the Basilicata. A very large number of surviving figured ambers, mainly pendants, can be dated by context or style to the period of about the mid-fifth to the early fourth century B.C. They range in subject from the now-traditional rams’ heads, female figures, detached heads and faces, and satyrs to whole animals and mythological creatures in repose to more innovative images. The new subjects reflect the plurality of cultural and commercial relations established among Greeks, Etruscans, and other indigenous peoples, and many show the incorporation of new ways of attracting the good, averting the dangerous, or picturing the voyage to the afterworld and its guides. New to amber, but already established by this date in vase and wall painting, bronzework, and gold, all of which have come from graves, are action figures: Dionysian revelers vintaging or dancing,220 a charioteer, a swaying Danaid, and figures in flight, sirens especially.221 Athena, with lionskin, shield, and lance, is in movement: the Pyrrhic dance?222 Archaic and Afterward 69

that tombs with figured amber of the sixth to fourth centuries were female burials, with one anomaly: the man buried in Tomb 43 at Melfi-Pisciolo. All the others belonged to women and girls. Figured pendants, in almost every case, were found on the upper torso, once the elements of neck and chest adornments, or in the pelvic area, once girdle pendants.226 Many of the (well-published) fifth-century B.C. tombs with figured ambers from southern Italy are critical evidence for amber’s importance to the inhabitants and to the funeral customs of elite women of the populations, which reveals the continuation of certain late Bronze Age (indigenous) traditions and the impact of Magna Graecian and Etruscan culture in the interior through interaction with more recent settlers of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coasts. The link between amber and ritual, elite status and salvation, is undeniable. Two exemplary tombs of elite Italic females might be singled out: the aforementioned late-sixth-century Tomb 102 from Braida di Vaglio, and the late-fifth-to-early-fourth-century Tomb 955 from Lavello-Casino. Both contain not only significant pieces of figured amber, but also gold (a grape-cluster necklace in Tomb 955) and a selection of vessels and utensils for Figure 47 Female Headpendant, Italic or Campanian, 500–480 B.C. Amber, H: banqueting, mixing and drinking wine (Italic and Greek 3 cm (11⁄5 in.), W: 2.6 cm (1 in.), D: 0.4 cm (1⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 83.AO.202.12. Gift of Vasek Polak. See cat. no. 21. traditions are both represented), and roasting and eating meat.227 The contents reveal a climate welcoming the Nearly every subject represented in amber during this worship of Dionysos in Italy, and perhaps the impact of period has counterparts in other media found in Italy, Orphism. namely sculpture, vases, and gems, as well as in Greek, Dionysian subjects had come into prominence in figured Etruscan, and Italic architectural decoration. In some amber by the sixth century, satyrs first and then other cases, individual objects or monuments have been related imagery, and some ambers probably were prepared to ancestors or clan, as well as to place or cult.225 expressly for funeral rituals. They are powerful evidence Rather than coming from Etruria proper, almost all fifth- for the importance of the resurrection divinity in folk religion and cult in Italy.228 They, like the evidence of to-fourth-century B.C. ambers are documented as coming banquet practices and sacrifice in indigenous graves, from (or are believed to have been found in) areas with denote an afterlife condition of beatitude, and the significant Etruscan connections: at sites north of the Po; mysteries of Dionysos constituted one path to in Campania; on the Italian mid-Adriatic seacoast; farther salvation.229 Amber could have illuminated the way. inland in the Basilicata, Lucania, and Calabria; at Aleria (Corsica); and at Kompolje (Croatia). As is true for the Dionysos (figure 48) watched over Italy, as we hear from earlier figured ambers from nonpeninsular finds (at Novi the chorus in Sophocles’ Antigone: “God of many names … Pazar, most importantly), those from Aleria and Kompolje you who watch over far-famed Italy.”230 Dionysos, the god are closely related to Italian finds. Unfortunately, as is the not only of wine but of dance and drama, who promised case with the ambers from the eighth to sixth centuries, experiences outside the corporeal (ecstacies), was an only a few ambers of fifth-to-fourth-century date have obvious focus for individuals worried about the been included in the study or, in some cases, publication afterworld.231 By the fifth century B.C., as Susan Guettel of the graves’ skeletal material. None of the significant Cole has observed, “the rituals of his cult were clearly amber objects from chance finds, problematic associated with themes of life and death. Dionysus was a excavations, or illicit undertakings are able to yield god whose myths about a double birth, death and rebirth, information about the sex of the inhabitant(s) or other and a journey to the underworld made him a figure critical contextual information. The admirable exceptions, including many recent excavations in the Basilicata, show 70 INTRODUCTION

attractive to those who wished to find a way to escape the anxieties of death.”232 Figure 49 Satyr Head in Profile pendant, Etruscan, 525–480 B.C. Amber, H: 6.5 cm (21⁄2 in.), W: 6.8 cm (27⁄10 in.), D: 3.5 cm (13⁄8 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Figure 48 Head from the Statue of the Young Bacchus (Dionysos), Roman, A.D. Museum, 83.AO.202.1. Gift of Vasek Polak. See cat. no. 12. 1–50. Bronze with silver, H: 21.6 cm (81⁄2 in.), W: 18 cm (71⁄16 in.), D: 19 cm (71⁄2 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 96.AB.52. Herakles (figure 50) in Greece and Italy (in Etruscan, Hercle) was another powerful apotropaic figure, because Dionysos also knew the great sea, into which he plunged of his cultic roles as danger averter, healer, and death to avoid Lycurgus and from which he was rescued by dealer.235 His polyvalent cult functions in Etruria and Thetis, and where he showed his powers as he much of the Italian peninsula were also associated with transformed his Tyrrhenian pirate captors into dolphins. trade, triumph, transhumance, and initiation, and he was The liquid, winelike optical characteristics of amber may worshipped in his oracular and mantic roles.236 The have created a natural connection between Dionysos and representation of the hero-god in amber is derived from the ancient resin. As E. R. Dodds writes in his edition of various schemata—Greek, Etruscan, and Cypriot. Two Euripides’ Bacchae, “[Dionysos’s] domain is, in Plutarch’s amber amulets of the Cypriot type of Herakles show him words, the whole of hugra phusis [the principle of wearing a lionskin helmet: these pendants were doubly moisture], not only the liquid fire of the grape, but the sap potent, for the lionskin itself was a standard protective thrusting in a young tree, the blood pounding in the veins device. of a young animal, all the mysterious and uncontrollable tides that ebb and flow in the life of nature.”233 Satyrs (figure 49), nymphs, Bacchic revelers, heads of the god, and other Dionysian subjects are among the most numerous of the fifth-century B.C. funerary figured ambers. And Dionysian subjects would be the most common of Roman-period figured ambers.234 Archaic and Afterward 71

lion (with blood spurting from the wound) in the Bibliothèque nationale de France might be explicated by the recipe of the physician Alexander of Tralles (circa A.D. 525–circa 605) for abdominal pain or colic. It was to be given if a patient “would not follow a regimen or could not endure drugs.” It reads: “On a Median stone, engrave Herakles standing upright and throttling a lion; set it in a gold ring and give it to the patient to wear.”239 The last moment in the pre-Roman period for the interment of amber is toward the end of the fourth century B.C. This is documented by a concentration of finds on the central Adriatic coast and in southern Campania. Villalfonsina,240 Paestum, and Timmari have three exceptional finds: the subjects of the pendants are female heads or faces, joined into necklaces with spacer beads of various shapes. The finds at Paestum date after the Lucanian takeover of the site, as Angela Pontrandolfo Greco points out—critical evidence for the earlier appreciation of amber among the Lucanians.241 One of the latest examples of these necklaces was found at Timmari and dates to circa 330–320 B.C.242 From the late fourth century B.C. until the first century A.D., amber was a scarce grave good in Italy. The exceptions are a number of gold earrings in the shape of helmeted heads (the negroid heads are of amber) of the third century B.C., many of them from Etruria.243 Just like the earliest Figure 50 Votive Statuette of Hercle, Etruscan, 320–280 B.C. Bronze, H: 24.3 Etruscan and Greek ambers, these late manifestations of cm (95⁄8 in.), W: 7 cm (23⁄4 in.), D: 8.7 cm (37⁄16 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty funereal figured amber objects are tiny. Yet their Museum,96.AB.36. functions are still to protect, to avert danger, and, as fertile subjects, to promise rebirth. It was not until the The Homeric heroes Achilles and Ajax, both represented revival of trade by the Romans that amber again became in amber, also had longstanding danger-averting, abundant in Italy. Figured amber objects, necklaces, rings, protective, and propitious roles in Greek and Greek- small vessels, and small, independent carvings once again influenced culture. Achilles triumphed in arms; Achillean were significant grave goods, particularly for women and sharp-subject amulets “cut” pain. An amulet with Ajax— children. Danger-averting gorgons, Dionysian and marine heroic rescuer of the fallen body of Achilles—who subjects, and other time-honored images of protection committed suicide by falling on his sword but was said to and regeneration dominated, continuing what was now a live after death on the island of Leuke, might also “cut” peninsular vocabulary for efficacious objects of amber. pain or offer protection. Most importantly, Homer’s very words were magical. NOTES “Quotations from his work could heal people when 210. Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1154 (from Tomb 83, whispered in their ears or hung around their necks Belmonte Piceno): Rocco 1999, pp. 82–85, nos. 135–36, pls. written on amulets, which should be preferably of gold.” 44–45. Not only could Homer cure disease; he could also make fruit trees grow and favor people’s relations with one 211. C. Rolley, “Sculpture in Magna Graecia,” in Pugliese Carratelli another.237 1996, p. 389. Heroic and martial figures could play important roles in 212. On the dog as a subject of early figured ambers in Italy, see what is called aggressive magic.238 Subject, material, and 82.AO.161.2 (cat. no. 27). As N. Winter, Greek Architectural actions (such as attachment and incantation) were likely Terracottas: From the Prehistoric to the End of the Archaic Period combined in the use of potent objects for healing. The (Oxford, 1993), has shown, the Temple of Artemis in Epidauros large amber pendant of Herakles stabbing the Nemean employed dog protome waterspouts, and this usage was 72 INTRODUCTION

widely followed in Campania and Latium in the second and first regenerative and life-giving symbols.… Several … were found centuries B.C., particularly in private residences. She attributes in tombs, and probably had a specific funerary meaning; one this popularity to the dog’s symbolism in the Greco-Roman vessel in particular was found with two small silver bracelets world. Originally valued primarily as a hunter and, as such, the and one Corinthian aryballos in a child’s tomb from Ialysus. indispensable companion of gods and particularly of Artemis, Others come from sanctuaries of female deities, such as that the dog eventually assumed the role of guardian and of Hera at Perachora or of Demeter at Gela; it is revealing companion and obtained apotropaic powers. Ancient authors that two vases were found with three statuettes of attributed to dogs the power to forewarn of danger, and thus kourotrophic dwarfs in a votive deposit dedicated to recommended their use as temple guardians. Demeter at Catania. The association of squatting demons with the protection of fecundity is also suggested by the 213. British Museum 43: Strong 1966, pp. 61–62, no. 35, pl. XV. decoration of the comast from Isthmia: the figure has 214. Warden 1994. The draped female figures of the Philadelphia pendulous breasts, like Bes or Egyptian personifications of group may represent the same type as the female figures of a fecundity, and his belly is painted with a large phallus group in the Getty: 77.AO.84 (cat. no. 1), 77.AO.85 (cat. no. 2), surrounded by phallic padded dancers.… The influence of 77.AO.81.1 (cat. no. 3), and 77.AO.82 (cat. no. 4). The kneeling Egyptian dwarf-gods is also perceptible in the iconography of figures in Philadelphia are close enough in form to a type of Corinthian padded dancers, with bandy legs, protruding Egyptian alabaster magical or medical vessel, imitated in abdomens and buttocks like Bes figures, and likewise “Rhodian” faïence, in the form of a kneeling woman to invite associated with music, wine and powers of fecundity. further investigation, especially if E. Brunner-Traut, On the importance of musicmaking in danger aversion, “Gravidenflasche,” in Archaeologie und Altes Testament: especially in birthing and early childhood, see Bulté 1991. The Festschrift für Kurt Galling (Tübingen, 1970), pp. 35–48, is antiquity of such figures is suggested by the existence of correct: that women used the ingredients of such vessels in dancing figures from before the fourth millennium; see Y. magic, and rubbed the contents on the body during Garfinkel, Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture (Austin, TX, 2003), pregnancy. Such a faïence vessel was found in the Circolo dei who connects them to early agricultural ritual. Leoncini d’Argento III Tomb at Vetulonia (Vetulonia, Museo Civico Archeologico “Isidoro Falchi” 116483: Bartoloni et al. On the child-killing demons, see Johnston 1995. She cites the 2000, p. 3012, no. 413 [L. Pagnini], with earlier bibl.). significant work by J. A. Scurlock, “Baby-Snatching Demons, The Philadelphia ambers are formally and stylistically Restless Souls, and the Dangers of Childbirth: Medico-Magical comparable to an amber pendant from an early-fifth-century Means of Dealing with Some of the Perils of Motherhood in B.C. female grave at Tolve-Magritiello, which is in the form of a Mesopotamia,”Incognita2 (1991): 1–112. See also Maternité et short-chiton-wearing, front-facing, seated figure whose knees petite enfance 2003 (in n. 170, above). are close to the body and whose arms are crossed on the The bent-under feet may have magical significance. The chest, illustrated in Magie d’ambra 2005. A. Russo (p. 114) gesture may refer to reversed feet, to bent or bound legs, or to suggests that it could be the work of an artisan from a Greco- a deformed fetus. All three are known in ancient magical Oriental culture and compares it to the sculpture of Samos. She practice as ways to harness the dangerous potency of a suggests that the amber was made in Magna Graecia and particular demon or agency: see Gager 1992; Faraone 1991; compares it to a small alabaster of Helen emerging from the and C. Faraone, “Binding and Burying the Forces of Evil: The egg, excavated at Metaponto. Defensive Use of ‘Voodoo Dolls’ in Ancient Greece,” Classical The Tolve-Magritiello figure can also be compared to an Antiquity 10, no. 2 (October 1991): 165–220. Two extraordinary Egyptian-derived kourotrophos-demon type of ancient Greece: ancient bound figures are the inscribed Etruscan lead figures see U. Sinn, “Zur wirkung des ägyptischen ‘Bes’ auf die of a nude woman and man from the late fourth or early third griechische Volksreligion,” in Antidoron: Festschrift für Jürgen century that were inserted into a much older tomb at Sovana, Thimme,ed. D. Metzler, B. Otto, and C. Müller-Wirth (Stuttgart, now in Florence (Museo Archeologico Nazionale): Haynes 2000, 1989), pp. 87–94. (For Bes, see also n. 204, above.) p. 282, figs. 228–29; and Faraone 1992. If the subject of the amber alludes to a deformed fetus, it would function magically Corinthian and Rhodian terracotta vessels in the form of as “like banishing like.” Alternatively, the twisted feet could squatting comasts offer parallels to many figured ambers. See, refer to the anger of Artemis. Cole 1998, p. 31, citing for example, V. Dasen, “Squatting Comasts and Scarab- Callimachus’s famous hymn to the goddess, lists the dangers, Beetles,” in Tsetskhladze et al. 2000, p. 132: including “their women either die in childbirth or, if they do survive, give birth to infants unable to stand ‘on upright Like kourotrophic demons or the Cypriote forms of Bes and ankle’[Hymn to Artemis 128].” Ptah-Pataikos, the figures seem to have conveyed the Egyptian notion of dwarfs as healing gods and family 215. See F. G. Lo Porto, “Ceramica arcaica dalle necropoli di guardians: their scaraboid features may also have translated Taranto,” Annuario della Scuola archeologica di Atene e delle into Greek idiom the Egyptian concept of scarab-beetles as Missioni italiane in Oriente, n.s., 21–22 (1959/60): 213, n. 7, fig. 183d. Tomb 116 (Acclavio Str.) is dated to 560–550 B.C. Archaic and Afterward 73

216. D. Schmandt-Besserat, “Animal Symbols at ‘Ain Ghazal,” to point to production centers in South Italy. While some works Expedition 39, no. 1 (1997): 52, quoting D. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics can be linked to ambers from southern Italy, the burial and Power (New Haven, 1988), p. 12. seemingly represents the work of many different artisans, 217. J. Elsner, Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text traditions, and object types, and it draws on a variety of (Princeton, 2007), p. 44. sources for subject, style, and type. The other figured ambers in the Novi Pazar burial include part of a vessel, well-worn plain 218. For the amber kouros in London (British Museum 41), see beads, and pendants, as well as figured pendants, korai, rams’ Strong 1966, pp. 65–66, no. 41, pl. XIX. For the amber kouros heads, and acorns. In addition, there are two large plaques, pendant in Paris, Bj 2343 – MNE 967, see M. C. D’Ercole, Ambres part of larger, more complex ornaments. One plaque is graves: La collection du département des Antiquités grecques, engraved with Herakles carrying the Cecropes on one side and étrusques et romaines du Museé du Louvre (Paris, 2013), pp. with two hoplites on the other; the second is engraved with a 36–38. A comparable amber kouros from Arezzo is now lost. rider and horse on one side and facing sphinxes on the other. Two nearly identical kouroi in ivory, from a comb, are 220. Satyrs in action include the London Vintaging Satyr (British published by K. A. Neugebauer, Antiken im deutschen Museum 36):Strong 1966, pp. 62–63, no. 36, pl. XIV. A parallel, Privatbesitz (Berlin, 1938), no. 255. now lost, was in the de Jorio collection: Strong 1966, pp. 62–63. 219. The ambers of a grave context excavated in 1896 at Sala The Eos and Kephalos (possibly) amber in the Steinhardt Consilina (the finds are now in the Petit Palais, Paris) are still collection, New York (Grimaldi 1996, pp. 150–51; Negroni not fully published. The amber of the tomb included three long Catacchio 1999, pp. 290–92, fig. 7), is said to have been found necklaces and 113 beads and pendants. For some of the Sala with the large winged female head in the collection (Grimaldi Consilina ambers, see Le arti di Efesto: Capolavori in metallo 1996, pp. 151, 289–90, fig. 5), as well as with a third large head dalla Magna Grecia, exh. cat., ed. A. Giumilia-Mair (Trieste, of a Cypriot-type Herakles in a Swiss private collection 2002), no. 51; Mastrocinque 1991; La Genière 1968, p. 203; and (unpublished). Eos as kourotrophos with Kephalos is the subject La Genière 1961, p. 76. Among the published figured ambers of a pendant from Tomb 60 at Tricarico–Serra del Cedro, dated are Dut 1600 (5), a flying figure carrying an amphora; Dut 1600 to the mid-fourth century B.C. (see n. 173, above). (6), a bee-divinity; Dut 1600 (2–4), unencumbered “sirens”; Dut 221. Why a bird-woman composite as the subject of an amber 1600 (1), a lion; and Dut 1600 (2), a ram’s head. Mastrocinque pendant? The variant subjects—some must be sirens, while 1991, pp. 114–17, figs. 44–47, illustrates the four fliers. others may represent harpies, chthonic beings, or the soul, or Independently, both this author (public lecture, Washington, be related to the Egyptian ba-bird—may augment or focus DC, 1997) and A. Bottini, in Ambre 2007, p. 232, have proposed certain aspects of amber. Without doubt, the composites all that the bee-divinity with child pendant may represent the represent beings with some connection to death and the Archaic Cretan myth of the nourishment of Zeus by Ideo. afterworld, and it is likely that the amber bird-woman carvings For Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, see n. 276. Among the have magic in them. In amber are found most of the bird- animate subjects are a crouching sphinx, a tiny vase with woman composite creatures of Orientalizing–Archaic-period crouching felines, a scallop shell, two rams’ heads, two female art; they belong to several types of “siren” imagery, one close faces, and the foreparts of a boar. There are also three to the form of Rhodian terracotta vessels and probably related compressed-composition subjects: a feline, a bovine, and an to the Egyptian ba-bird type, and others that are more like “Achelous.” The largest pendant, a crouching sphinx with various Near Eastern–derived bird-female composites. Some reverted head, is exquisite (and then-recent) Etrusco-Ionian are more like Oriental and early Greek sphinx types, others work, the surfaces still exhibiting great subtlety in carving, the more like flying birds in an as-seen-from-below schema; some engraved lines crisp. Given its chthonic associations, a sphinx are more human than bird, and others more bird than human. (especially a recumbent one) might be interpreted as a As J. Leclercq-Marx, La Sirene dans la pensè e et dans l’art dé ̂ permanent amulet expressly made for the rituals of death. l’Antiquite et du Moyen Á ge: Du mythe païen au symbole chretien,́ Classe des beaux-arts, Academie ŕ oyale de Belgique (Brussels, For the Novi Pazar material, see Palavestra and Krstić 2006; 1997), pp. 1–42, superbly sets out, “siren” encompasses many Palavestra 2003; and Popović 1994, pp. 66–68, figs. 288–329 different things and beings, and a range of beliefs about them. (with earlier bibl. including Mano-Zisi and Popović 1969 and B. Homer’s sirens may not be Hesiod’s. However, by the seventh Jovanović, “Les bijoux en ambre dans les tombes princières de century B.C., an undoubtedly magical power is associated with Novi Pazar et d’Atenica,” in Hommages à D. Mano-Zisi [Belgrade, them, and sometimes they are invoked as protective divinities 1975]). Novi Pazar was a complicated excavation. A. for the deceased. Some are undoubtedly related to the sirens Palavestra’s studies of the Balkan burial underscore what is not of the Odyssey; others must be linked more closely to the known. As he writes in Palavestra and Krstić 2006, p. 110, ba-bird, representing “the freedom and mobility of the spirit of nothing can be inferred conclusively about the number of the the deceased”: S. Quirke, Ancient Egyptian Religion (London, bodies buried in Novi Pazar, or of their sex, or of whether the 1992), p. 106. In Egypt, as Vermeule 1979, p. 76, points out, the chest found under the church is the primary or secondary ba-bird functioned as an agent to reintegrate a dead person: archaeological context. Palavestra considers the ambers’ style the ba could mediate between the living and the dead, 74 INTRODUCTION

bringing the sustenance of funeral gifts from the earth’s such as Theseus, Achilles or Alexander the Great were often surface to the deep tomb. In Homer’s Odyssey (12.158–200), the shown on red stones, carnelians and jaspers, for red is the sirens are “endowed with omniscient memory, including colour of blood and life.” In late antiquity, hematite was chosen complete knowledge of the Trojan War.… In Greek literature, for magical amulets, as notes G. Vikan, “Magic and Visual their presence foreshadows, accompanies, or otherwise refers Culture,” in Greek Magic: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, ed. J. C. to death”: M. J. Bennett in Centaur’s Smile 2003, p. 285. Essential B. Petropoulos (Abingdon and New York, 2008), p. 55, because was the siren’s association with transport to the afterlife and of its “persuasive parallel”: as an iron oxide, it can hold its red with the underworld and the task of the spiritural nourishment “blood” within its shiny black skin. Perhaps amber that was of the dead. See also D. Tsiafakos, “Life and Death at the Hands more red than yellow was selected for martial subjects. If the of a Siren,” Studia Varia from the J. Paul Getty Museum 2 (Malibu, amber was not red enough, it could be colored, as Pliny relates 2001): 7–24; LIMC 8, 1, Thespiades-Zodiacus: Supplementum (Natural History 37.12): “tinted, as desired, with kid suet and the (1997), s.v. “Seirenes” (E. Hostetter and I. Krauskopf), pp. root of alkanet. Indeed, it is now stained even with purple dye.” 1093–104; and LIMC 4 (1988), s.v. “Harpyiai” (L. Kahil and A. In discussing the making of artificial transparent stones (ibid.), Jacquemin), pp. 445–50. For the confusion surrounding the he mentions this possibility again: “It can be dyed any color.” Harpies and other winged creatures, including their D. E. Eichholz’s gloss (Eichholz 1962, p. 200, n. a) explains: “The interchangeability, see B. Cohen, “Red-Figure Vases Take modern technique is to open a fissure, introduce colouring Wing,” in Athenian Potters and Painters: The Copenhagen matter and heat the amber. The root of the alkanet, which was Proceedings, ed. Oakley et al. (Oxford, 1997), pp. 143–55. That commonly used for rouge in antiquity, would have reddened the sirens ranged along the coast of Italy, and that Parthenope it.” was traditionally buried at Naples, may provide some 224. On the large and animated eye, see Steiner 2001, pp. 171–81; explanation for the impressive number of amber sirens from Faraone 1992, pp. 45, 58–59, 119; and Mottahedeh 1979. See documented Italian finds of the sixth to fourth centuries, a also Frontisi-Ducroux 1991. On the startling eyes of number of them from Campania. The sirens’ watery origins Mesopotamia, see Winter 2000. (they are daughters of either Achelous, the river god, or of Phorkys and Ceto, sea divinities) must also have added to their 225. Archaic Etruscan gemstones are a case in point; see I. powers. Since amber, too, was of water (originating in, Krauskopf, “Interesse private nel mito: Il caso degli scarabei hardened by, or borne by ocean, sea, rivers, or streams), etruschi,” in Le Mythe grec dans l’Italie antique: Fonction et imag; material and subject reiterated each other. Actes du colloque international organisé par l’École française de 222. This amber pendant is from Tomb 9, Rutigliano-Purgatorio Rome, l’Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici (Naples) et l’UMR 126 Necropolis: see Negroni Catacchio 1993, p. 199, fig. 7. du CNRS (Archéologies d’Orient et d’Occident), Rome, 14–16 novembre 1996, ed. F. H. Massa-Pairault (Rome, 1999), pp. 223. On Eos and Kephalos see n. 220, above. The amber of Herakles 405–21. slaying the Nemean lion (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet 226. D’Ercole 1995. des Médailles Fröhner 1146) shows the slaying on the pendant’s main side and a coiled, bearded snake on its 227. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale “Massimo Pallottino” secondary side, although the figures wrap around the lump: (from Lavello-Casino, Tomb 955): the female head is inv. D’Ercole 2008, pp. 52–61, figs. I–II; and La Genière 1967, p. 302, 337381; the pendant, in the form of the foreparts of a rearing figs. 7–8. The Ajax in New York (Ajax Carrying the Body of horse, is inv. 337832. I do not know the inventory numbers of Achilles) is Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.267.2, Gift of Mr. the other ambers from the tomb. For the tomb, see Magie and Mrs. Jonathan P. Rosen, 1992. The Achilles from the “Tomb d’ambra2005, pp. 82–83; Due donne 1993, pp. 63–69, 97–158; of Amber” at Ruvo di Puglia (Naples, Museo Archeologico andBottini 1990. Nazionale 113643) was found with at least six other figured ambers, including an equine head and three female heads: A. 228. A. Bottini, “Le ambre nella Basilicata settentrionale,” in Ambre C. Montanaro, Ruvo di Puglia e il suo territorio: Le necropoli; I 2007, p. 233, cites the British Museum Satyr and Maenad corredi funerari tra la documentazione del XIX secolo e gli scavi pendant (Strong 1966, pp. 61–62, no. 35) as another example of moderni(Rome, 2007), pp. 917–18, no. 325.3 (with important the identification of a deceased person with Dionysos in Italic bibl., including Ambre 2007, pp. 246–47, ill. 280); G. Prisco, “La Italy. The London pendant is perhaps the most complex of the tomba delle ambre,” in I Greci in Occidente: La Magna Grecia “Orphic” ambers, as this author outlined in “Dionysos in nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico di Napoli, exh. cat. Amber” at the College Art Association Annual Meeting (New (Naples, 1996), pp. 115–16; and Siviero 1959, p. 132, no. 560. York, 1996). See also A. Bottini, “The Impact of the Greek Colonies on the Indigenous Peoples of Lucania,” in Pugliese Martial subjects have a long history as protective objects, Carratelli 1996, p. 546. beginning in the third millennium and continuing through to the present. In Rome, martial subjects in red stones were 229. Garnered from essays by A. M. Nava, S. Bianco, A. Bottini, and especially popular; see M. Henig, “Roman Seals,” in Collon M. Tagliente in The Wine of Dionysos 2000 (in n. 79, above). 1997, p. 99: “It is not surprising that Mars and warrior heroes Archaic and Afterward 75

230. Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, part 3, Antigone, trans. R. C. 234. This author was among the first to suggest the continuity of Jebb (Cambridge, 1900), 115s. Dionysian subjects in Italian amber objects from the 231. The literature on Dionysos in Italy is vast. Especially important Orientalizing period through Late Antiquity. See also for this study, in addition to the sections on the god in LIMC, Mastrocinque 1991; and D’Ercole 1995, n. 18. were D. Paleothodoros, “Dionysiac Imagery in Archaic Etruria,” 235. Herakles’s seminal role in amuletic magic is partly explained by Etruscans Now: The British Museum Twenty-Sixth Classical his ability, even as a baby, to overcome dangerous animals and Colloquium; An International Conference Hosted by the British monsters and to conquer Death. In Euripides’ Herakles Furens, Museum, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the the hero repulses the attack of the demonic (Gorgon) and British Museum Friends, 9–11 December 2002, “assumes the same appearance and powers as the invading http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classtud/etruscansnow/index.htm force: issuing ‘terrifying looks,’ he rolls his Gorgon-like eyes”: (accessed April 28, 2004); Bonfante 1996; S. G. Cole, “Voices Steiner 2001, p. 171. Herakles’s survival of Nessus’s deadly from Beyond the Grave: Dionysus and the Dead,” in Masks of poison might have made him a “wounded healer” (similia Dionysus, ed. T. H. Carpenter and C. A. Faraone (Ithaca, NY, and similibus curantur). His role in spring cults and his sanative London, 1993), pp. 276–96 (with earlier bibl.); L. Bonfante, aspects relate to his successful cleansing with water of the “Fufluns Pacha: The Etruscan Dionsyus,” in Masks of Dionysus; Augean stables and other exploits. Water was a healing agent, A. Bottini, “Appunti sulla presenza di Dionysos nel mondo a carrier of omens, and a supporter of fertility. On Classical italico,” in Dionysos: Mito e Mistero; Atti del convegno spring cults, see F. Muthmann, Mutter und Quelle: Studien zur internazionale, Comacchio, 3–5 novembre 1989, ed. F. Berti Quellenverehrung im Altertum und im Mittelalter (Basel, 1975). (Ferrara, 1991), pp. 157–70; G. Colonna, “Riflessioni sul In private worship especially, Herakles was commonly dionismo in Etruria,” in Dionysos: Mito e Mistero, pp. 117–55; W. appealed to as a defender against evils and a victor over them. Burkert, Greek Religion, trans. J. Raffan (Cambridge, MA, 1985); SeeOxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 1949), s.v. “Herakles” E. Richardson, “The Story of Ariadne in Italy,” in Studies in (H. J. Rose), pp. 413–14. As Mottahedeh 1979, p. 201, outlines, Classical Art and Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von “Herakles was the first of the heroes to appear with a facing Blanckenhagen, ed. G. Kopke and B. Moore (Locust Valley, NY, head, and he remained the most prominent throughout Greek 1979), pp. 189–96; and J. D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase Painting coinage.” Faraone 1991, n. 6: “The locus classicus for the (Oxford, 1947). Bonfante 1996, pp. 162–63, summarizes: “In deadly Herakles is Od. 11.605–12, where he appears glaring Etruscan religion, Dionysos (Fufluns) is also god of the dead. about with his bow forever drawn.… He alone shares Ares’ Satyrs are images of Dionysos’ power as well as creatures of epithet πτολίπορθος as the traditional destroyer of Troy and the world of the dead.… The connection of sexual or Oechalea.” Faraone 1991, pp. 195, 203, no. 19, fig. 5 (with scatological activity with the circle of Fufluns in Etruscan tombs reference to A. Minto, “Curiosità archeologiche,” StEtr 1 [1927]: seems to urge a connection between sexuality and death that 475–76, pl. 72a), discusses a magically bound Etruscan bronze can present apotropaic meanings as well as notions of fertility figure of a male god or hero wearing a wolf- or dogskin hat and continuity between life and death.” The representations of and leaning on a knotty club; the head is completely twisted male figures disguised as satyrs on funerary objects, such as in about and the legs broken off below the knees. Faraone (and the dance of a woman and a man disguised as a satyr on the Minto) tentatively identifies him as the Etruscan Herakles. funerary cippus from Chiusi (Chiusi, Museo Archeologico Alternatively, this figure may represent Suri/Apollo or Aita/ Nazionale 2284), may shed light on amber imagery and the Hades, despite his lack of a beard, or Perseus, despite the role of amulets in the grave. Haynes 2000, pp. 246–47, presence of the club. For a dog-hatted Perseus, see A. Krug, discusses the Etruscan staged funerary performances “with “Eine etruskische Perseusstatuette,” in Festschrift für Frank satyrs or silenoi; the pairs of women (maenads?) with tall, Brommer,ed. U. Höckmann and A. Krug (Mainz, 1977), pp. draped headdresses; nude boys dancing with castanets.” 207–17, pls. 57–58. These are the same subjects that are found in fifth- and early- fourth-century amber carvings, the same subjects that are The literature on Herakles in Italy is extensive. In addition to found on vases painted by the Micali Painter and his followers. LIMC5 andLIMCsuppl. 1 (2009), s.v. “Herakles/Hercle,” Dionysos’s importance in the life of children in ancient Greece literature consulted includes Le Mythe grec 1999 (in n. 225, is evidenced by the spring festival of Anthesteria, one that above). celebrated new growth and transformation. His role in healing, Schwarzenberg 2002, p. 57, reminds us that elektron and magic, and protection (especially of children) deserves greater Herakleon, the name given in antiquity to magnetite (the attention. Dionysos’s own infancy and childhood were magnetic compound Fe3O5, formed when lightning strikes iron significant in myth, and he was a revered father. Might this ore) as well as to a plant that could cure wounds made by iron have contributed, too, to his place in the protection of the weapons, were first associated by Thales because of their young? magnetic, animate properties. Might an elektron amulet of 232. Cole 1993 (in n. 231, above), pp. 277–79. Herakles with a sword have incorporated multiple magical manners of animated healing? 233. E. R. Dodds, The Bacchae of Euripides (Oxford, 1944), p. xii. 76 INTRODUCTION

236. As S. J. Schwarz, LIMC 5 (1990), pp. 196–253; and LIMC suppl. 1 240. R. Papi, “Materiali archeologici da Villalfonsina (Chieti),” ArchCl (2009), pp. 244–64, documents, there are few places in Italy 31 (1979): 18–95. where Herakles/Hercle is not evident and not honored. 241. Pontrandolfo Greco 1977. 237. S. Sande, “Famous Persons as Bringers of Good Luck,” in 242. The Timmari (Basilicata) necklace was found in Tomb 1: see E. Jordan et al. 1999, p. 233. Lattanzi, “Attività archeologica in Basilicata,” in Atti del XV 238. Bonner 1950, passim. Convegno Internazionale di studi sulla Magna Grecia (Naples, 239. Alexander of Tralles 2.377, as quoted in Bonner 1950, p. 63, nn. 1976), pp. 561–667; and Losi et al. 1993, n. 20. 43–44. In n. 45, Bonner cites Abraham Gorleus, Dactylioteca 243. SeeMastrocinque 1991, p. 143, n. 477. The documented (1695 ed.), as the first modern writer to recognize that the examples are from Vulci, Volterra, Orvieto, Taranto, and many gems showing Herakles and the lion were medico- Bettona (Umbria). magical and corresponded to Alexander’s prescription. Bonner, p. 64, cites two other relevant medico-magical prescriptions. Archaic and Afterward 77

The Working of Amber: Ancient Evidence and Modern Analysis There is no literary or archaeological evidence for existence of artisans working in more than one specialized amber-workers in pre-Roman Italy. Because of medium.246The evidence is also found in many surviving its inherent properties, it is likely that amber was worked multimedia works, such as one type of seventh-century by any number of skilled craftspeople or artisans. B.C. fibula made from ivory, amber, gold, and bronze, or a Considering its magical and medicinal importance, amber work such as the Getty Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx must also have been worked by a multiplicity of ritual (see figure 45), an amber face with metal additions specialists–pharmacists, “wise women,” priests or (possibly silver) and once, perhaps, inlaid eyes.247 priestesses, and “those who had the knowledge.”244 However, for the working of very large carvings, or for amber fibulae composed from conjoined pieces, considerable experience with varying qualities of amber was essential. An artisan comfortable in working other hard organic materials, such as hardwoods, ivory, or horn, or one skilled in cutting gems would have found working amber comparatively undemanding. Amber is also pleasant to work, for it is fragrant, unlike ivory. A number of scholars have proposed that amber was worked by ivory-workers. Certainly, the tool marks on the objects in the Getty collection (and elsewhere) show that eighth-to-fourth-century B.C. amber objects were made with a toolkit probably no different from that of a Bronze Figure 51 a & b. Silver Pin with Amber Satyr Head pendant, Italic, 5th century Age ivory-worker, for which there is excellent B.C. Amber, H: 6.8 cm (27⁄10 in.), W: 4.9 cm (19⁄10 in.), D: 2.2 cm (7⁄8 in.). Taranto, archaeological evidence.245 (Much less is known about the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 138144. a) front; b) back. By permission of Il pre-Roman period.) In fact, amber-working today has Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali—Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici della Puglia—Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici changed very little, with the exception of the speed della Puglia. offered by electric tools. Like Bronze Age toolkits, pre- Roman ones likely would have included bow drills, Many figured ambers, particularly those of the seventh to chisels, saws, knives or blades, points, awls, burins, rule fifth centuries B.C., are similar in style to contemporary and compass, vices, abrasives, oils, metal foils, pigments, and earlier works in other media, such as gemstones, and glues. The surviving evidence of amber from the Iron coins, terracottas, and bronzes. However, they are closest Age and beyond—furnishings, arms and armor, utensils, in manufacture, and often in subject, to objects of ivory or boxes, vessels, dress ornaments, and amulets—shows that wood. The amber kouros in London is very close in form amber was in the supply of many kinds of trained to a wood kouros excavated at Marseilles and to a pair of workers. Some composite works—furniture inlaid with tiny ivory Etruscan kouroi.248 The Getty plaque Addorsed ivory and amber; ivory carvings inlaid with amber; Lions’ Heads with Boar in Relief (see figure 30) is very like bronze fibulae ornamented with amber and ivory (figure an ivory relief. Works such as the exquisite 51); and amber carvings embellished with ivory and chryselephantine “Artemis” and “Apollo” from Delphi249 precious metals—are additional concrete evidence for the are among the closest parallels for the Getty Head of a 78

Female Divinity or Sphinx (see figure 18) and the Getty Kore(seefigure 46), not only for the style, but also for details such as the eyes. The pre-Roman ambers themselves yield considerable evidence of their manufacture. The traces of working consist of carving, cuts, filed grooves, drill pointing and drilling rills, abrasion scratches, engraving, and fine Figure 52 Hippocamppendant, burnishing. Supplemented by both earlier (Bronze Age) Etruscan, 575–550 B.C. Amber, L: 7 cm (23⁄4 in.), W: 4.3 cm (17⁄10 in.), D: and later (Roman) physical evidence, medieval and early 2.7 cm (11⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul modern treatises, and still-current methods of amber- Getty Museum, 78.AO.286.1. Gift of working, a picture of their manufacture comes into focus. Gordon McLendon. Seecat. no. 29. Figure 53 Female Holding a Child The process of creating the objects likely began with (Kourotrophos) with Bird pendant, careful study of the piece of amber. Some ambers must Etruscan, 600–550 B.C. Amber, H: 8.3 cm (31⁄4 in.), W: 5 cm (115⁄16 in.), D: 5 have been worked from the raw state, others from cm (115⁄16 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul preexisting finished works. In some cases, the raw Getty Museum, 77.AO.85. Gift of material was treated as if it were any other costly Gordon McLendon. Seecat. no. 2. material, and little trace exists of the natural form of the amber, whether drop, rod, or sheet. However, in other cases, the ancient resin’s naturally occurring form is retained and sometimes even exploited in the finished object; the Getty Hippocamp (figure 52), Kourotrophoi (see figures 35 and 53), and Lion (figure 54) are good examples. Figure 54 a & b. Lion pendant, Etruscan or Campanian, 525–480 B.C. Amber, L (as preserved): 10.5 cm (41⁄8 in.), L (estimated original): 11.5 cm (41⁄2 in.), W: 4 cm (11⁄2 in), D (at chest): 1.8 cm (7⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 76.AO.78. Gift of Gordon McLendon. a) front; b) back. See cat. no. 31. If the work were begun with a raw piece of amber retaining its outer skin, or cortex, it was necessary to remove it and any encrusted material, organic matter, or shells. This was likely done with saws, abrasive powders, and water. The fissures would be cleared of organic matter and hard minerals, the pyrites. In amber-working, water acts as both a coolant and a lubricant in the shaping, smoothing, and drilling processes, since the ancient resin softens or melts with the application of high friction.250 The resulting surface of an amber blank was smooth but uneven, with craters and undulations. In the seventh century, an artisan might remove a large amount of material to attain the desired form; in fifth-century B.C. Italy, the design would be accommodated to the irregular (magical) shape. The twelfth-century A.D. guide to working crystal by Theophilus probably outlines the next steps, which are corroborated by the tooling remains on Working of Amber 79

both pre-Roman and Roman-period ambers. The medieval transverse perforations and, as discussed below, could be treatise states: “Rub it with both hands on a hard used to attach works to pins or even to a piece of sandstone moistened with water until it takes on the furniture. shape you want to give it; then on another stone of the same kind, which is finer and smoother, until it becomes The final stage of the work was probably to polish the completely smooth.”251 surface, likely with oil and a fine abrasive or cloth. To bring out the brilliance of the stone, Theophilus instructs: Theophilus then suggests the use of a flat abrasive surface “Finally, put the tile rubbings, moistened with spittle, on a to sand the nodule. Evidence of this is found on the goatskin free of dirt and grease, which is stretched on a remarkably well-preserved flat inside of the Getty wooden frame and secured below with nails, and pendantHead of a Female Divinity or Sphinx (see figure carefully rub the crystal on this until it sparkles all over.” 18). For amber, such polishing and rubbing would bring up the luster and the fragrance, releasing the amber’s The amber pieces must have been further abraded, ambrosial perfume; if that were not enough, the piece carved, graved, and polished into the desired subjects, could have been rubbed with perfumed oils. We might perhaps refined with engraving (and, more rarely, imagine how this would have added to amber’s attraction drilling). Sketching was likely done with a sharp scriber of and mystery, especially if it were in a divine image. The metal, stone, or flint.252 Pliny refers to “Ostacias” (possibly delicious odor might have “[matched] the emanation of flint), which is “so hard that other gemstones are fragrance that forms so regular a part of divine engraved with it.”253 Engraving required a rotating epiphanies.”257 As a divine characteristic, fragrance was instrument, such as a bow drill, the standard tool of a gem itself imbued with the power of everlasting life. engraver. All of the surviving pre-Roman figured ambers (at the The narrow-bore suspension perforations, usually Getty Museum and elsewhere) reveal an understanding of transverse, were drilled with particular attention to how the morphological and structural characteristics of the the pendant would hang or would attach to a carrier. The ancient resin. Compositions tend to be compact, without narrowness of the borings suggests that the ambers would projecting parts; the potential points of weakness are have been suspended from plant filaments, such as linen, minimized in the designs. In human figures, legs and feet or silk. Many larger pendants have multiple long borings, are close together, arms and hands are attached to bodies, again usually transverse, signifying that more than a and necks are short; animals may have their legs tucked simple filament was needed for the suspension, or that beneath themselves, heads reverted, and tails curled the pendant was part of a complex beaded apron, neck around their haunches. The best-preserved works retain ornament, or girdle or was sewn directly onto clothing. signs of surface burnishing, which once enhanced the The Getty’s large Ship with Figures (see figure 6) and the optical qualities of the amber: its transparency, brilliance, Getty Kourotrophoi group (see figures 35 and 53), to name luster, and color. three examples, have multiple perforations and would have required more than one carrier, and a system of The earliest figured amber objects from Greece and Italy, knots. The circa 600 B.C. multipiece pendant in Trieste254 dating to the eighth to seventh centuries, are small, from and the circa 500 B.C. composite pendants from Novi about 48 mm, and frequently imitate small-scale Pazar255 were made possible by complicated stringing/ sculptural objects in other media, including ornaments knotting systems. The through-borings are all visible in and amulets. The Orientalizing amber carvings are the transparent amber. comparable to works in ivory, bone, wood, faïence, precious metals, gemstones, and bronze. Many appear to Not only would the stringing have secured the pendants, be direct translations into amber. Examples are the but both the knots and the action of tying the knots were Egyptian and Egyptianizing scarabs, scaraboids, monkeys, critical to amuletic usage. In magical practice, tying a knot dwarves, and other time-honored amuletic subjects. In implies hindering negative actions. Demons and their these small works, there is no evidence of the amber’s corresponding diseases were believed to be caught by natural shape, and little wastage. Some excess may have knots, bands, threads, strings, and amulets. Knots thus been used to make tiny beads or inlay, as flux in could actively play a protective or benevolent role. The goldsmithing,258 or as incense or medicine. A number of pendant-amulets would have been tied on, attached, or pendants in the Getty collection, all dating to about the suspended as an essential aspect of their efficacy, as we last third of the sixth century B.C., correspond closely to learn from ancient literary sources.256 The large frontal objects of Ionian Greek (or Ionian-influenced) art. Among holes of some figured works are secondary to the 80 INTRODUCTION

the finest examples are the two Heads of a Female Divinity or Sphinx (see figures 18 and 45), the Kore (see figure 46), and some of the rams’ and lions’ heads. A different approach to the material emerged at the beginning of the sixth century B.C. The natural form of the amber nodule is preserved, even enhanced, by the design. Some objects, such as the Getty Hippocamp (see figure 52), suggest that the lumpy nodule of amber may even have dictated the subject. The subjects of the multifigure pendants are distorted as they wrap around the exceptionally large amber pieces. In order to comprehend the entire subject, the pendant needs to be physically turned in every direction. In any one view, the figures are deformed, but as the pendant is turned, the shapes shift. The Boston Dancing Youth (figure 55) and the British MuseumSatyr and Maenad(seefigure 17) are excellent illustrations of this approach. The compositions are illogical, the scale of the figures is skewed, parts are missing, the heads and bodies are twisted or wrapped around the amber in an anatomically impossible manner. Is this because of the sanctity of the whole piece of amber? Are the figures deformed as part of the magic, the shapes shifting as the object is turned over? Might this shape shifting—a common demonic talent—be part of the attraction?259 Figure 55 Dancing Figure. Etruscan or Italic, early 5th century B.C. Amber, 7.2 x 3.7 cm (213⁄16 x 17⁄16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gift of Miss C. Wissmann, 02.254. Photograph © 2011 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A variant of this approach is seen in a number of animal subjects, best exemplified by the Getty Lion (see figure 54). In this work, there must have been no appreciable wastage. The natural form of the amber blank is obvious and the subject embellishes, rather than conceals, the idiosyncrasies of the raw material. In such cases, the outline, depth, and undulations of the surface are incorporated into the design, with the result that animals and anthropomorphic figures are compacted, splayed, or contorted.260 A few anthropomorphic pendants are worked in the round, but many have flattish, plain backs. Since the amber was transparent, the carving would have been visible from any angle, an extraordinary sight especially if the piece was figured on all sides. The reverse of the Lion allows it to be seen from below, a view only chthonic beings might have. These are extraordinary sculptural objects; in the ancient world, perhaps only in- the-round rock crystal carvings are comparable.261 Working of Amber 81

There are precedents as early as the third millennium for the figural manipulation and contortion of pre-Roman amber objects. Many examples can be found in the art of the Near East in objects dating to the fourth millennium and the Aegean Bronze Age. Ivories, amulets, and stone vessels are figure-wrapped. However, this is not common in Greek art. In Italy, the earliest parallels are in Etruria, in bronze vessel attachments and scaraboids. The outstanding examples of a wraparound composition on a large scale are the stairway sculptures of circa 560 B.C. from a possible altar at the side of a clan tumulus at Cortona.262 The extreme examples of figure contortion are certain pre-Roman amber pendants, of which the earliest might be associated with the neighborhood of Cortona. Was it done only to preserve as much of the amber as possible—not just because of amber’s high value, but also because of the efficacy of the resulting images? Might it also have been done because such contortion was a way to magically “bind” or control the potency of the subject? Were the subjects of the British MuseumVintaging Satyror the GettyHippocamp(see figure 52) bound in order to strengthen their power?263 Many human and humanoid heads contain drillings or stopped bores, many of which were filled with tiny amber plugs, on average 2 to 3 mm in diameter and 5 mm in length. These holes are on the face, in the hair and headdress, on the neck, or on the obverse, but were never drilled into the facial features. Only sometimes are they found in areas with inclusions. It is not apparent why the Figure 56 Asinine Head in Profile pendant, Italic, 500–400 B.C. Amber, H: 4.8 holes were bored and then plugged. The holes might have cm (17⁄8 in.), W: 5.9 cm (25⁄16 in.), D: 1.9 cm (3⁄4 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty been made to render the pendant more consistently Museum, 77.AO.81.24. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 56. translucent, or to remove a microscopic bubble or an A number of fifth-to-fourth-century B.C. amber pendants inclusion. Alternatively, the amber may have been drilled from southern Italy have large holes drilled through their specifically in order to insert something into the bore, middles. Four examples are still attached to large which was then plugged. Amulet-making and medicinal fibulae.266 The large holes disfigure the design and must recipes often include directions for inserting materials have been drilled after the carving was finished, perhaps into another object.264 Many of the plugs are now missing, but the remaining ones are often darker and more much later. In the case of four other pendants, including a opaque than the rest of the pendant. This is probably not Satyr Head in Profile (see figure 49) that retains its silver an intended effect, but a result of the plugs’ accelerated fibula, the holes are incorporated into the design, which oxidation.265 The Getty Asinine Head in Profile (figure 56) implies that the perforations preexisted the figural has four large stopped bores, but none of the plugs composition. The large holes may have originated in the remain. This pendant is full of inclusions, and the stopped amber’s formation (the resin could have formed around a bores penetrate into areas with inclusions. On the other small branch) or in a previous use: the pendants might hand, the Getty Winged Female Head in Profile (see figure have been carved from older works, perhaps large, plain 37) has numerous stopped bores, some in areas with beads or pin decorations. It is also possible that these visible inclusions, others in areas that appear to be large holes were made to remove inclusions, or to insert inclusion-free. something into the amber—both are commensurate with magico-medical practice. Alternatively, the secondary perforations may have been drilled to destroy the power of the image. 82 INTRODUCTION

NOTES 246. That craftsmen worked in a variety of materials is suggested by a range of “multimedia” furnishings and other kinds of objects 244. Dickie 2001. from very early times throughout the Mediterranean and the 245. The ivory-working techniques in the Aegean and Near East ancient Near East. The Late Bronze Age Adriatic site of during the second to first millennia B.C. are relatively well Frattesina shows evidence of bone, horn, ivory, amber, and understood from the tool marks on ancient ivory (and osseous) glass working. This accords with archaeological evidence from objects and from excavated “workshop material,” notably from Mycenaean workshops that different materials were worked at Knossos and Mycenae. From these, a picture of the basic ivory- the same place: precious metals, glass paste, shells, amber, worker’s toolkit has been reconstructed. See Lapatin 2001, esp. rock crystal, steatite, onyx, amethyst, agate, and lapis lazuli. chap. 2; O. Krzyszkowska and R. Morkot, “Ivory and Related See, for example, H. Hughes-Brock, “Mycenaean Beads: Materials,” in Nicholson and Shaw 2000, pp. 328–30 (with Gender and Social Contexts,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 18, references); Evely 2000; D. Evely, “Towards an Elucidation of no. 3 (August 1999): 283, 289; and R. Laffineur, “Craftsmen and the Ivory-Worker’s Tool-kit in Neo-palatial Crete,” in Fitton Craftsmanship in Mycenaean Greece: For a Multimedia 1992, pp. 7–16; and R. D. Barnet, Ancient Ivories in the Middle Approach,” in Politeia: Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age; Proceedings of the 5th International Aegean Conference / 5e East (Jerusalem, 1975). rencontre égéenne internationale, University of Heidelberg, For the Orientalizing period in Italy, evidence for the working Archäologisches Institut, 10–13 April 1994, ed. R. Laffineur and W. of various hard materials is found in the same atelier at D. Niemeier (Liège and Austin, TX, 1995), p. 196. For a Greek seventh-century Poggio Civitate. The amber (as well as the gem cutter’s toolkit, see Plantzos 1999, pp. 38–41. Warden 1994 glass and some of the ivory, bone, and antler) found in the makes an excellent case for amber being worked by ivory- Lower Building remains unpublished; see Berkin 2003, p. 21. carvers, as does Waarsenburg 1995, n. 1121, who cites Massaro For ivory from the site, see E. O. Nielsen, “Lotus Chain Plaques 1943as among the first to have “acknowledged the intimate from Poggio Civitate,” in Studi di antichità in onore di Guglielmo links between ivory and amber carving as well as their close Maetzke, vol. 2 (Rome, 1984), pp. 397–99; and E. O. Nielsen, connection with jeweler’s workshops.” Waarsenburg 1995, p. “Speculations on an Ivory Workshop of the Orientalizing 428, emphasizes that “we should look for carving workshops in Period,” in The Crossroads of the Mediterranean: Papers Delivered general rather than for amber workshops.” See A. Russo, at the International Conference on the Archaeology of Early Italy, “L’ambra nelle terre dei Dauni e dei Peuketiantes,” in Magie Haffenregger Museum, Brown University, 8–10 May, 1981, d’ambra2005; andRocco 1999for the rapport among amber, Archeologica transatlantica 2, Publications d’histoire del’art et ivory, and bone carving. del’archéologie de l’Université catholique de Louvain 38, ed. T. The popularity of amber inlays in ivory during the Orientalizing Hackens et al. (Louvain-la-Neuve and Providence, RI, 1984), pp. period is suggested by various kinds of cult or ritual objects 255–59. belonging to the elite. These include the late-eighth-to-early- Simple amber beads and pendants would not have required seventh-century axe handle from Chiusi (Florence, Nazionale tools much different from those used to work amber in the Museo Archeologico 70787), in n. 50, above; the “hunting Mesolithic period. Sophisticated Mesolithic carvings from scene” ivory panels (the amber is backed with gold foil) from Denmark and Lithuania, for example, likely were made with the Bernardini Tomb, Palestrina (F. Canciani and F.-W. von stone tools and polished with ground minerals, leather, or Hase, La Tomba Bernardini di Palestrina: Latium Vetus II [Rome, cloth and common lubricants, such as water or fat. For amber- 1979], p. 68, no. 120, pls. 55.3, 56.2, 56.5); the seventh-century working, see also S. Zanini, “Cenni sulla lavorazione e il (Phoenician?) Etruscan ivory trumpet with geometric commercio dell’ambra,” in Gioielli del Museo Archeologico di decoration from the Praenestine Barberini Tomb (Rome, Padova: Vetri, bronzi, metalli preziosi, ambre e gemme, exh. cat., Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 13229: I Fenici 1988, p. ed. G. Zampieri (Padua, 1997), pp. 116–18; and Evely 2000, pp. 742, no. 928; and M. E. Aubet, “Estudios sobre el periodo 562–65, where he discusses “actual cooperation.” See Lapatin orientalizante I: Cuenco fenicios de Praeneste,” Studia 2001, chap. 2 and p. 134, for a discussion of ivory-working and Archeologica 10 [1971]: 165–68, pl. 25); and the fillet worn by the “ivory worker.” What Lapatin notes about chryselephantine the seventh-century ivory lyre arm in the form of a “jumper” works by the best sculptors has resonance for the finest amber from Samos, which preserves inlaid amber disks (Lapatin 2001, carvings: “Although not a single ‘original’ that can confidently p. 48, fig. 88; B. Freyer-Schauenburg, Elfenbeine aus dem be attributed to any of these sculptors has survived, many of samischen Heraion: Figürliches, Gefässe und Siegel, vol. 3 these craftsmen are reported to have also produced statues in [Hamburg, 1966], pp. 19–26, pl. 2; and Carter 1985, pp. 207–13, other media. The chryselephantine technique was, after all, a fig. 76). For the late-seventh-to-early-sixth-century (possibly composite one, and processes of production can be discerned Laconian) reliefs of sphinxes (elements of furniture with amber not only from ancient anecdotes … but also from the evidence faces) from Asperg and other German sites, see J. Fischer, “Zu of closely related wood working from other periods and einer griechischen Kline und weiteren Südimporten aus dem cultures.” Fürstengrabhügel Grafenbühl, Asperg, Kr. Ludwigsburg,” Germania68, no. 1 (1990): 120–21; and H. Zürn, “Die Grabhügel von Asperg (Kr. Ludwigsburg), Hirschlanden (Kr. Leonberg) Working of Amber 83

und Mühlacker (Kr. Vaihingen),” Hallstattforschungen in seventh-century bone kouros pendants were excavated at the Nordwürttemberg(Stuttgart, 1970), p. 21, fig. 9, pls. 10–11, sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta: see Marangou 1969, pp. 61–62, 68–69. Amber was also inset into gold and silver, as the 163–64, nos. 109–10, figs. 138a–c. Latin tombs (especially Tomb 102) from Castel di Decima show: Much Egyptian wooden and ivory (or bone inlaid) furniture, the see, for example, M. R. Di Mino and M. Bertinetti, eds., Orientalizing wooden throne from Verruchio (Verucchio 1994), Archeologia a Roma: La materia e la tecnica nell’arte antica and the furniture from Gordion are exempla of the technical (Rome, 1990). and stylistic similarities between ivory- and woodworking. See, Inset amber eyes are found on the (possibly seventh-century for example, O. Krzyszkowska and R. Morkot, “Ivory and Ionian) ivory lion staff heads (chance finds) from Vasilkov near Related Materials,” pp. 320–31, and R. Gale, P. Gasson, N. Smêla:Boardman 1980, p. 259, fig. 301; and E. H. Minns, Hepper, and G. Killen, “Wood,” pp. 334–71, in Nicholson and Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of the Ancient History and Shaw 2000; G. Herrmann, “Ivory Carving of First Millennium Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to Workshops: Traditions and Diffusion,” in Images as Media: the Caucasus (Cambridge, 1913; repr., New York, 1971), pp. 78, Sources for the Cultural History of the Near East and the Eastern 193, fig. 85. A number of Greek headpieces for horses Mediterranean (1st Millennium BCE), ed. C. Uehlinger (Fribourg, (prometopidia) from southern Italy have eyes of ivory inset with 2000), pp. 267–82; E. Simpson and K. Spirydowicz, Gordion amber irises; compare Getty 83.AC.7.1. Votive eyes of ivory and ahş ap eserler / Gordion Wooden Furniture (Ankara, 1999); G. amber were excavated at the Syracusan Athenaion: see Strong Herrmann, ed., The Furniture of Western Asia: Ancient and 1966, pp. 22–23. For a possibly Etruscan seventh-century ivory Modern(Mainz, 1996); R. A. Stucky, “Achämenidische Hölzer bed inlaid with amber, see G. Caputo, “Quinto Fiorentino: Avori und Elfenbeine aus Ägypten und Vorderasien im Louvre,” AntK applicativi incastonati d’ambra,” StEtr 56 (1989–90): 49ff.; and 28 (1985): 7–32; and O. W. Muscarella, The Catalogue of the A. Mastrocinque, “Avori intarsiati in ambra da Quinto Ivories from Hasanlu, Iran (Philadelphia, 1980), who writes, Fiorentino,” BdA 10 (1991): 3–11. For an East Greek or Lydian “That the same artisans who carved the ivories also worked kline from a later sixth-century B.C. grave in the Athenian with wood and bone is attested at Hasanlu [which date prior to Kerameikos cemetery, see U. Knigge, Der Kerameikos von Athen: 800 B.C.] … and this situation … fits into a general pattern Führung durch Ausgrabungen und Geschichte (Athens, 1988), p. known from other Near Eastern sites.” Rocco 1999 frequently 101. Rocco 1999 compares the Hallstattian examples from refers to the relevant hard materials in understanding the Asperg, Hundersingen, and Römerhügel to the Orientalizing Picene bone and ivory material. As noted in n. 246 above, both bone and ivory objects from Italy; D. Marzoli, in Bartoloni et al. Rocco 1999 and Russo 2005 draw significant connections 2000, pp. 397–98, no. 587, compares them to the furnishings among amber, bone, and ivory carvings. from Etruscan tombs. See also A. Naso, “Egeo, Piceno, ed 249. Delphi Museum 10413–14, circa 550 B.C. See Lapatin 2001, no. Europa central in period arcaico,” in L’Adriatico, i Greci e 33, for illustrations and bibl. (note especially the photographs L’Europa: Actes du colloque (Venice-Adria 2000), ed. L. Braccesi, L. of the heads during restoration). Attention to detail (akribeia) Malnati, and F. Raviola (Padua, 2001), pp. 87–110. In the was much praised by ancient critics, records Lapatin 2001, p. Byzantine Suda, under elektron, it is noted: “ancient beds used 135, with reference to R. Meiggs, Trees and Timber in the Ancient to have their feet set with dark precious stones and amber.” Mediterranean World (Oxford, 1982), pp. 302–5. See “Elektra,” trans. A. Ippolito, March 16, 2006, Suda on Line, http://www.stoa.org/sol/ (accessed November 27, 2009). Such 250. Forming holes from both ends toward the center prevents elaborate objects correspond well to the literary descriptions of “blowout”—a technique already in evidence in the earliest earlier Near Eastern furniture, marvelous works worthy of the bead- and pendant-making. Modern craftspeople recommend gods’ attention: see, for example, Winter 2000, p. 29, who cites placing amber underwater when making perforations to avoid a text of Ashurnasirpal I (1049–1030 B.C.) in which an ornate shattering the material or cracking the holes. bed of precious wood, gold, and precious stones, made for the inner chamber of the temple of the goddess Ishtar, is 251. Theophilus, Book 95, The Various Arts, trans. C. R. Dodwell described as “shining like the rays of the sun (god).” (London, 1961), pp. 168–69. G. Kornbluth, Engraved Gems of the Carolingian Empire (University Park, PA, 1995), pp. 9–10, 247. Massaro 1943, pp. 36ff., no. 27/a, records that the bored provides the useful model of using Theophilus. concentric eyes of female pendants from the Circolo dei Monili preserved traces of silver inlay (reference from Waarsenburg 252. The sketching might have been done in a manner similar to 1995, p. 429, n. 1123). that which Theophilus, Book 98 (see n. 251, above), p. 166, recommends for carving a prepared piece of bone. Chalk is 248. See A. Hermary, “Un petit kouros en bois de Marseille (fouilles spread as the ground for drawing figures with lead. Theophilus de la Bourse),” RA 1997: 227–41, n. 14, figs. 5a–d (inv. H 34), advises scoring “the outlines with a sharp tracer so that they who dates the Marsailles kouros “third-quarter to end of the are quite clear.” seventh century.” K. A. Neugebauer, Antiken im deutschen Privatbesitz (Berlin, 1938), no. 255, dates the pair of ivory kouroi 253. Pliny, Natural History 37.15, 37.65. in a German private collection to circa 500 B.C. Two late- 84 INTRODUCTION

254. Trieste, Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte 9795. Pendant-pectoral almost as if they had been intended as hand-pieces, a sort of from Santa Lucia di Tolmino / Most na Soči, Tomb 3070, end of netsuke of the late archaic Italic world.” the seventh or beginning of the sixth century B.C.: Ambre 2007, 262. Tumulus II of Melone del Sodo at Cortona: P. Zamarchi Grassi, p. 120, fig. III.8. “Il tumulo II del Sodi di Cortona (Arezzo),” in Bartoloni et al. 255. For the most recent discussion of this composite jewelry, see 2000, pp. 141–42, no. 109. Palavestra and Krstić 2006, pp. 94–115. 263. On binding in magic, see Gager 1992; Faraone 1992; and 256. Kotansky 1991, pp. 107–8. Kotansky, p. 124, n. 6, recommends Faraone 1991. that “the verb περιάπτειν should be regularly translated 264. The insertion of materials into an amulet or “talismanic statue” cognately, viz. ‘to wear/attach/suspend a περίαπτον,’ or the is not uncommon in ritual and magical practice. The amber equivalent.” bullae from Satricum have a large vertical piercing unrelated to 257. Steiner 2001, 101. On the ambrosial fragrance of the gods, see the suspension perforation, which Waarsenburg 1995, pp. also Lapatin 2001, p. 55; Richardson 1974 (in n. 82, above), p. 409–10, takes to be meant for the insertion of a charm. He 252; and Shelmerdine 1995 (in n. 72, above). relates the amber specimens to the original idea of the bulla as 258. T. Follett, “Amber in Goldworking,” Archaeology 38, no. 2 a locket. (On the bulla, see n. 152.) There are also vertical (1985): 64–65; but compare G. Nestler and E. Formigli, borings in the bottle-shaped pendants and the seated monkey Granulazione Etrusca: Un antica tecnica orafa (Siena, 1994). of the necklace from Praeneste in London: see Strong 1966, p. 53, no. 23, pl. IX. Were the inclusions in amber conceived as 259. Johnston 1995, p. 363. This may push the concept of shape naturally inserted material? Might there have been a shifting, but such a concept is relevant for the magical aspects preference for specific inclusions, such as a lizard? In Egypt, of some amber pendants. The appearance of shape shifting “the lizard was symbolic of regeneration because of its ability could be conceived as an attestation of the artisan’s skill in to regrow limbs and tail if they were injured or lost” (Andrews making what were perhaps to be considered daidala. 1994, p. 66). 260. Because of this, each amber object is unique. Figures 265. Strong 1966 and others think the plugs might have been made contorted, splayed, or wrapped around planes are seen in for coloristic effects. It is more likely that they were originally ancient Near Eastern animal representations as early as the the same color but have suffered from increased oxidation and fourth millennium, and some Mycenaean ivories and Middle thus have more rapidly darkened. The original attempt may Assyrian alabaster vessels suggest that such figure have been to make the piece appear uniform, as large “tears” manipulation was well established much earlier. Of the art of amber. made in or imported into pre-Roman Italy, contorted and 266. Additional pendants with large secondary holes include a large splayed figures are found in ivory work, scaraboids, plastic Eos group and the large frontal head with wings in a New York vases, some bronzes (especially utilitarian items such as feet or private collection (Grimaldi 1996, pp. 150–51; and Negroni handles), and gold objects of adornment. An early example is Catacchio 1999, pp. 289–90); a draped, dancing figure from the ivory lion group from the Barberini Tomb (Museo Oliveto Citra, Aia Sofia district, Tomb 1 (Paestum, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Rome), thought by Brown Nazionale OC/00082: Mastrocinque 1991, pp. 129, 133, fig. 84; 1960, p. 5, to be Syrian work. The resonance in Etruria for and P. C. Sestieri, “Ambra intagliata da Oliveto Citra,” ArchCl 4 wrapping figures (divine, heroic, and demonic subjects most [1952]: 16, pl. 14); a winged female figure (perhaps Lasa) especially) around planes may reflect several generations of (Shefton Museum of Greek Art and Archaeology 286: B. contact with art from the Orient. Eastern Greece seems to have Shefton, Archeological Reports [1969–70]: 58–59, figs. 11–12); been a direct source not only for the large-scale stone carving two other, very different sirens in the Shefton Museum (nos. of the Cortona altar (see n. 262, below), but also for later, 298, 596: unpublished); a pair of satyr heads from Palestrina in small-scale bronzework, such as the Vulcian naked youth riding Boston (Museum of Fine Arts 02.252–53: Mastrocinque 1991, the winged lion of an incense burner’s foot (circa 450 B.C., pp. 131–32, figs. 73–74); a head from Tomb 9, Rutigliano- from Olympia: Olympia Museum B 1001) and the (possibly Purgatorio Necropolis, which has a lateral through-bore in the Orvietan) bronze tripod feet with representations of Peleus top of the head and is still attached to a silver pin (Taranto, wrestling Thetis and Perseus decapitating Medusa (circa Museo Archeologico Nazionale 138144: Ornarsi d’ambra: Tombe 470–460 B.C., provenance unknown: Florence, Museo principesche da Rutigliano, ed. L. Masiello and A. Damato Archeologico Nazionale 710–11). The dating and localization of [Rutigliano, 2004]; Mastrocinque 1991, p. 131, n. 408; and G. Lo the bronzes follow Haynes 1985, nos. 118–19. Porto in Locri Epizefirii: Atti del XVI Convegno di studi sulla Magna 261. Perhaps only Chinese amber carvers and Japanese inro- and Grecia [Naples, 1977], pl. CXV); a winged female head from netsuke-makers have exploited the material and figural form to Tomb 10, Rutigliano-Purgatorio Necropolis, also still attached the same degree. D. G. Mitten (review of Strong 1966, AJA 71, to its bronze pin (Ornasi d’ambra 2004; and Negroni Catacchio no. 3 [July 1967]: 323) was the first to point out the visual 1993, pl. XIII). A satyr head in Milan has a large frontal hole: N. relationship: “Many of these strange lump-sculptures look Negroni Catacchio, “Un pendaglio in ambra in forma di Working of Amber 85

protome maschile,” Notizie dal chiostro del Monastero maggiore: together in the Basilicata, a female head and a horse’s head, Rassegna di studi del Civico museo archaeologico e del Civico were originally pendants that saw considerable use (there are gabinetto numismatico di Milano 15–18 (1975): 37, 39, pl. XXV. A pulling troughs on the upper edges of the suspension large, unpublished head of Herakles in a lionskin helmet (art perforations). The two were later bored and attached to a market, Geneva) has a large central hole through the forehead. wooden(?) support with silver nails, fragments of which still Two ambers on the London art market, allegedly found remain. 86 INTRODUCTION

The Production of Ancient Figured Amber Objects As a result of unauthorized archaeological activity since such as Vulci in the sixth century B.C., are important at least the nineteenth century, a great number, perhaps examples to consider. The extent to which the existence of the majority, of sixth-to-fourth-century B.C. figured such centers resulted in a web of autonomous secondary ambers are undocumented or lack sure provenance. This routes—along with a whole range of other cultural places greater importance on works with solid outcomes268—demands our attention, especially with a documentation for a discussion of culture and meaning. It mythic material such as elektron. An indigenous palatial is often the case that findspot is equated with place of center such as Braida di Serra di Vaglio (Potenza, origin, and grave goods are associated with ownership by Basilicata) is an Italic example of a place where the the deceased or assumed to be direct evidence of daily “circulation” of both objects and people, and interchange dress and customs. The existence of high-value objects among foreigners and colonial Greeks and Etruscans and such as amber and gold in elite graves must be considered the indigenous population, might be found. Traders and in light of their role as ingredients in a larger network of makers of amber objects might include residents as well cultural relationships. Amber and gold, incense and as itinerants. precious textiles were internationally recognized prestigious and valuable objects, suitable for exchange, It is important to say a word about style: the efficacy of gift giving, and status display. Not all objects were new. pre-Roman ambers may have been determined in part by They may have been tokens of guest friendship, or the resin’s assured provenance (from the north), by its heirlooms or funerary gifts from family or clan members form (it should follow established guidelines or a or people with some other relationship. Such “antiques” prescription), and by its appropriate style(s). The very may have been valued for their history, provenance, or duration of time-honored forms and style—the long life of established efficacy (sacral, magical, or medicinal). Egyptian subjects and forms in amber, or the importance Celebrations of alliances, marriages, and other rituals of Ionian- and Etruscan-looking ambers deep into the were likely occasions for the gathering, exchange, special fourth century B.C.—underlines the conservative commissioning, and social display of such objects. Some functions of figured ambers. It was seemingly important ambers may have been highly prized prestige objects— that works look as if they were made by, or followed the treasures gained from purchase, plunder, or prescriptions of, Egyptians, Ionians, or Etruscans. This presentation—and were meant to be circulated within an visual resemblance, perhaps a stamp of authenticity, may aristocratic network. Emporia, palaces, or possibly sacred have assured their potency or “branded” the objects’ magic. In this way, the style, “a way of doing things,”269 is sites might support established as well as itinerant artisans. And the gifting of things, old and new, could not a culturally significant variable. In the case of amuletic have been a rare occurrence in the pre-Roman period ambers, the style can be said to play a critical role in when amber reigned. Travel and travelers (for reasons of defining the genuineness and efficacy of the objects. In commerce, politics, religion, or celebration) meant addition, there appear to be prototypes—not only gatherings of people at sanctuaries and “princely” schemata, but actual models—that were followed for centers, where high-status objects might be purchased or centuries. It is possible that certain works were on view commissioned, and where jewelry or magic or medicine for a long period, through public display in ceremonial may have been procured. The “‘cultural clearing houses,’ circumstances or via circulation. If some works were the intermediate centers where goods and ideas were family or clan heirlooms, they may have been valued for received, adapted, mixed—and passed on,”267 places such one or more reasons, economic, sacral, medical, or as Pithecoussai and Rhodes in earlier centuries, or a city 87

magical. To find individual style in a copy of a copy is a challenge indeed. In a search for the artistic origins of some figured ambers, scholars have tended to look for individual hands, schools, and centers of production. Connoisseurship and archaeological sleuthing have identified master artisans. Much progress also has been made in siting some groups of objects, drawing them around schools or the hands of particular artisans, and there are undeniable stylistic connections between groups of carved ambers.270 However, there are many reasons to consider paradigms that move beyond individuals, workshops, and centers of manufacture. As touched on above, many students of figured ambers see an undeniable Etruscan connection in the subjects and “art” of these objects. Some emphasize Magna Graecian, Campanian, Lucanian, or other Italic elements. This author has long advocated for the Ionian, Figure 57 Lion’s Head spout or finial, Etruscan, 525–480 B.C. Amber, H: 1.9 and even more specifically the Milesian, aspects of many cm (3⁄4 in.), W: 1.7 cm (2⁄3 in.), D: 2 cm (7⁄10 in.). Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty amber pendants.271Other scholars, notably Nuccia Museum, 76.AO.81. Gift of Gordon McLendon. See cat. no. 34. Negroni Catacchio, have charted well-stated arguments for several regional centers.272 Canosa is a good candidate The great potency of amber made it the province of for the fifth century B.C., as Angelo Bottini has argued.273 healing specialists, too. Although it is possible that Armento is another.274 itinerant craftsmen produced the amber carvings of pre- Roman Italy, and that they did so in court settings, as has But why (and where in) these centers? Was there a been proposed,276 these hypothetical models emphasize religious site or sacred sanctuary there? A market? A the craft and deemphasize the special function of figured venerable studio? A school of pharmacology? Raw amber objects in medicine, magic, and mourning. materials and finished products were easily portable, and not only was the use of amber amulets pervasive, but the The termscraftsmanandartisanimplymétier, iconography of some types—the form of a detached head instruction, apprenticeship or training, and the (figure 57), to cite the most numerous—was consistent production of art. It must be kept in mind that amber is over time. There is also evidence that carvings of different relatively soft and easy to work and was not, of necessity, dates and styles could be buried together, as in the grave the exclusive province of skilled artisans. While the Getty of the young girl of Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio.275 pendantHead of a Female Divinity or Sphinx (see figure 45) may be equal to the finest of contemporary temple dedications or cult imagery, many figured ambers are art only by modern definition. The material was the force behind its usage, and therefore the workers of amber might well have encompassed pharmacists and religious functionaries, including priests or priestesses, magicians, healers, seers, midwives, and sorceresses.277 Was an amber object an heirloom, a gift, an exchange object?278 Or was it produced and/or purchased at a time of crisis? What was most important about these objects was how well they worked: as social indicators, as prestige objects, as gifts, as items in transition rituals, as ornamentation, materia medica, and amulets. Knowledge of the incantations necessary to accompany them and their specific magical role as amulets was essential. Any analysis of how ambers functioned for the living and the dead needs first to consider who would have possessed such information. 88 INTRODUCTION

In what activity was an amber involved? This question is the British Museum, possibly found together at Armento, especially important when it comes to the most long-lived which some scholars believe are Campanian, or made and geographically widespread amulet types, of which a under Campanian influence, as is Donald Strong’s substantial number (early as well as late) are schematic in opinion.282 In each of the two cases, the heads may have manufacture. The sixth-century B.C. female heads from been produced at a sanctuary of the divinity represented Eretum, for example, are small and schematic, their in the amber, by a local carver as a commissioned good, features formed primarily by abrasion.279 Such is also the by an itinerant, for the open market, or even as filled case with a number of crude heads in the Getty collection. “prescriptions.” Relevant here are the critical questions Since both the material and the subjects of pre-Roman Jean Turfa asks about offerings and exchange in Greek amber amulets suggest an association with healing, the votive tradition: “The large number of terracottas protection of women, infants, and children, and the manufactured from the same molds or workshops at sites aversion of danger, some may have been acquired at the like Kirrha, the staging port for Delphi, suggests seasonal sanctuaries of healing divinities, where old traditions production or supply from factory to sanctuary, and thus were kept alive or powerful images were on view in the sanctuary as the ‘retail’ supplier of votives.”283 These special settings or ceremonies. Some pieces may have heads, like all amber amulets, were valuable in every been spoils, gifts, or dedications. sense, and their value may have depended in part on where or by whom they were made. And they were just There is much to be learned about the making of power the sort of thing to have accrued further value by being objects, jewelry, and amulets from Egypt and displayed, worn, or buried at a place distant from their Mesopotamia, where the literary sources and the manufacture. A carved amber or group of ambers may archaeological evidence are especially rich, and from the have been carried in the pouch of an itinerant artisan, later Greek tradition of inscribed amulets, among the trader, or healer. Before it played a role in a sanctuary or earliest of which were found in the south of Italy. With in the rituals of death, the amber may have been traded noninscribed amulets, the situation is more complicated or gifted elsewhere, to be copied or remembered. Carved and more open to misinterpretation. Nevertheless, ambers may have had many lives and been involved in information can be mined from earlier, concurrent, and many activities. Made from a material as old as the earth, later traditions. Especially valuable are ancient amulets formed into deeply significant subjects only to be interred with writing, which appear frequently in Roman times, as once again, these gems of the ages offer new windows well as ancient handbooks with instructions on the onto the past. preparation of rites and amulets. These reveal a great deal about the workings of amulets: the stated purpose, the NOTES ingredients, the time and place for performance, accompanying gestures, and the incantations themselves. 267. Ridgway 2000 (in n. 192, above), p. 236. For specific objects, however, we may never know the answer to the question “Was the preparation, inscription, 268. Ibid., with reference to A. Peserico, “L’interazione culturale or donning of the amulet conceived or enacted as a ritual greco-fenicia,” in Alle soglie della classicità: Il Mediterraneo tra act or in a purely perfunctory manner?”280 tradizione e innovazione; Studi in onore di Sabatino Moscati, ed. E. Acquaro, vol. 2 (Pisa and Rome, 1996), pp. 899–924. The differing possibilities for who made the amber 269. These ideas were articulated with the help of M. Hegmon, pendant heads, and in what kind of context, are not “Technology, Style, and Social Practices: Archaeological necessarily mutually exclusive. A female head pendant Approaches,” in The Archaeology of Social Boundaries, ed. M. T. excavated at Lavello may be a local product, for it has Stark (Washington, DC, and London, 1998), pp. 264–79. “A way formal connections with earlier Etruscan art, with the art of doing something” is found on p. 265. of (Laconian) Taranto, and with local Italic production, as Maria-Cecilia D’Ercole has shown.281 Was it carved by a 270. SeeStrong 1966, p. 31. He argues convincingly that if the local artisan who offered up key elements of the image in analogies he put forward are valid, “it leads to the conclusion her/his own style? What was the model? How old was it, that the bulk of the better pieces were made under the strong and where was it seen? Or was it made by an itinerant influences of Campanian art of the sixth century.” Strong who had absorbed a large visual vocabulary, sculptural thinks that Lucania was the center of such manufacture but does not rule out centers in Apulia. Others who have published repertoire, or pharmacopoeia—whatever the correct strong arguments about other sites of manufacture are Russo lexicon may be? And according to which traditions, and 2005 (in n. 246, above); Bottini and Setari 2003 (with earlier which kind of “instructions”? Another example might be a bibl.); Palavestra and Krstić 2006; Palavestra 2003; D’Ercole group of pendants in the form of frontal female heads in Production of Figured Amber 89

1995, pp. 284–85; Mastrocinque 1991, passim; Bottini 1987, pp. symposium in Italy, see A. Rathje, “The Adoption of the 11–12; and La Genière 1961, pp. 87–88. Homeric Banquet in Central Italy in the Orientalizing Period,” in 271. D’Ercole 2008, pp. 52–69, convincingly argues for an Ionian Sympotica: A Symposium on the Symposium, ed. O. Murray working in Etruria for the Herakles and the Nemean Lion group (Oxford, 1990). The earliest representation from Italy of of circa 530–500 B.C. in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet feasting while reclining is the Etruscan symposiast on the lid of de Médailles, Fröhner 1146). a two-handled calyx vessel from Tomb 23 from the necropolis at Tolle, dating to circa 630–620 B.C. See G. Paolucci, ed., City 272. This has also been done by a number of University of Milan Archaeological Museum of Thermal Waters: Chianciano Terme students, noted by Negroni Catacchio 1999. (Siena, 1997), fig. 90; and Haynes 2000, p. 108. 273. Bottini 1987, p. 12, has suggested several reasons for this but 277. “A seer, or a healer of illnesses, or a carpenter who works on emphasizes the existence of a clientele capable of appreciating wood, or even an inspired singer,” named by Eumaios (Odyssey and acquiring luxury articles. Might the draw have been a 17.381–87), are four kinds of high-ranking strangers, any one of temple, cult, shrine, or healer at Canosa or Armento (see n. which (theoretically) could have been involved in aspects of 274)? amulet construction. For discussion of the passage and the translation see Nagy 1997. See also Burkert 1992, pp. 41–87. 274. On Armento as a center, see, most recently, A. Bottini, “Le ambre nella Basilicata settentrionale,” in Ambre 2007, pp. 278. Bottini 1987 discusses the figured ambers of two “princely” 232–33. tombs at Melfi-Pisciolo as being older than their (second half of the fifth century B.C.) contexts. 275. Bottini and Setari 2003; A. Bottini (pp. 541–48) and E. Setari (p. 644) in Pugliese Carratelli 1996; Bottini and Setari 1992; Bottini 279. The Eretum pendants are from Tomb XIII: see P. Santoro, and Setari 1995; Bottini and Setari 1998; and E. Pica in Treasures “Sequenza culturale della necropoli di Colle del Forno in 1998, pp. 224–25, pls. 32–33. See also E. Greco, Archeologia della Sabina,” StEtr 51 (1985): 13–37; and Losi et al. 1993, p. 203. Magna Grecia(Rome, 1992). Santoro published Tomb XIII as a child’s grave (P. Santoro, “La necropolis di Colle del Forno,” in Civiltà arcaica dei Sabini nella 276. For the amber from Tomb 102, E. Setari summarizes in Pugliese valle del Tevere [Rome, 1973], pp. 39–44), but this is not certain Carratelli 1996, p. 643: “Native craftsmanship can in no way be perLosi et al. 1993, p. 209, n. 1. excluded, but they were probably part of a palace-based activity, the work of traveling craftsmen with various cultural 280. D. Frankfurter, “Narrating Power: The Theory and Practice of origins.” E. Pica in Treasures 1998, p. 224, hypothesizes that the the Magical Historiola in Ritual Spells,” in Meyer and Mirecki amber objects “came from the shops of itinerant indigenous 1995, p. 3. artisans who reworked both colonial Greek and Etruscan- 281. D’Ercole 1995. Campanian models.” This idea is elaborated in Bottini and Setari 2003. Bottini 1987, pp. 11–12, proposes a modulated 282. Strong 1966, pp. 67–71, no. 44–3. picture: the possibility of a fixed center of production at a 283. J. M. Turfa, “Votive Offerings,” in De Grummond and Simon major center and the existence of itinerants using acquired 2006, p. 108, n. 37. She cites J.-M. Luce, “Les terres cuites de models (particularly aristocratic Greek ones) while introducing Kirrha,” in Delphes: Centenaire de la “grande fouille” réalisée par innovations. The types of drinking vessels in the Braida di l’École française d’Athènes (1892–1903), ed. J.-F. Bommelaer Vaglio necropolis indicate the acculturation of Greek rituals of (Leiden, 1992), pp. 263–75; and J. Uhlenbrock, “Terracotta wine consumption alongside native traditions. For a recent Figurines from the Demeter Sanctuary at Cyrene: Models for note on this tomb, with the wine service as possible evidence Trade,” in Cyrenaica in Antiquity, BAR International Series 236, of the Dionysian aspect of the burial, see Causey 2007. On the ed. G. Barker et al. (Oxford, 1985), pp. 297–304. Greek customs of wine drinking and the adoption of the 90 INTRODUCTION

Catalogue

Orientalizing Group The first six objects presented here, Female Holding a All six ambers are better understood when looked at in Child (Kourotrophos) (77.AO.84, cat. no. 1), Female Holding the context of contemporary and slightly earlier a Child (Kourotrophos) with Bird (77.AO.85, cat. no. 2), production from Greece, especially from the Addorsed Females(77.AO.81.1, cat. no. 3), Divinity Holding Peloponnesus and South Ionia, as well as ivories, bronzes, Hares(77.AO.82,cat. no. 4), Lion with Bird (77.AO.81.2, cat. gold, faïence, and shell carvings from the Near East and no. 5), and Paired Lions (77.AO.81.3, cat. no. 6), are similar Cyprus, including Cypro-Phoenician objects, and in style, technique, state of conservation, and size. Subject Orientalizing carved ambers and ivories from Picenum also relates them. Because of this, and because the six and Latium. This is a range similar to the visual were part of the same donation, it is posited that they vocabularies of other Orientalizing amber and ivory come from the same original context. carvings, as carefully analyzed by A. M. Bisi and G. Rocco (for Picene ivory and bone carvings), P. G. Warden (for As is argued below, the six were produced in northern four “Picene” ambers in the Museum of Archaeology and internal Etruria in the first half (or perhaps in the third Anthropology, University of Philadelphia), and D. J. quarter) of the sixth century B.C. and have stylistic Waarsenburg (for ambers from Satricum in the Villa connections to Greek Arcadian and Ionian small bronzes, Giulia).1 Similarly rich stylistic and iconographic links are as well as to contemporary Etruscan votive bronzes, relief characteristic of some Orientalizing bronze reliefs, work, andbucchero. All can be shown to have specific ties Praenestine ivory work, and Felsine stelai, and many of to subjects and styles current in the Near East and Cyprus. the small finds from Samos, a number of unique carvings The North Syrian and “Phoenician” aspects are salient. in wood and in ivory in particular.2 Because of the These objects would have belonged to an elite person. The Etruscan aspects of the Italian-provenanced works, it size alone of the largest three pendants would have seems most likely that they all were produced on the signaled their exceptional value even before peninsula for locally based commissioners and craftsmanship transformed the lumps of amber into purchasers. traditional subjects of great power and status. As Therealiaof the amber figures’ thoroughly Etruscan ornaments and amulets, the ambers could not but have dress is matched by the waterfowl depictions. The bird of made a spectacular impression, if only because of the 77.AO.85is a white-fronted goose, and that of the Lion optical characteristics of the rare material and its with Bird pendant (77.AO.81.2) a mute swan. These species associations. The imagery enhanced the amber’s value. have long histories in the ancient world and its art, and The age-old vocabulary that gave form to these glistening both long-necked waterfowl accrued a rich lore and jewels made them good luck–inviting, danger–averting, symbolism. The species are highly distinctive migrants to protective objects. Although there are no close parallels in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, and both are excellent amber or other media for the individual works or the table fare. The hare, too, is good eating. group, they belong to the vocabulary, iconography, and styles of Etruscan Orientalizing art. The subjects are Each of the six might also have been read as women, children, and wild fauna—lions, hares, and incorporations, or as symbolic, of a female nature migrating waterfowl. In format, the six include three divinity. This may be the principal divinity of popular heraldic compositions, a squared-up group of a lion with Etruscan religion, who was worshipped in a variety of its prey, and two pairs of an adult and child in a side-by- forms and under different names.3 side pose. 92

Although the six may have been used during the life of avori piceni,” in La civiltà nelle Marche: Studi in onore di Giovanni one or more powerful persons, some of their iconography Annibaldi (Ripatransone, 1992), pp. 128–39, shaped my seems to be funerary: the right-hand-on-breast gesture argument originally. See also Warden 1994; Waarsenburg 1995; made by the figures of 77.AO.84, 77.AO.85, and 77.AO.81.1, andRocco 1999. the common mantle of77.AO.85, and the hares of 2. Warden 1994outlines the issue succinctly. Strøm 1971 was 77.AO.82may have held special funerary meaning. instrumental to my study of this group of ambers. Further study may support the identification of the large female figures as divinities with chthonic as well as 3. H. Nagy, “Divinities in the Context of Sacrifice and Cult on afterworld aspects; the same may be true of the waterfowl Caeretan Votive Terracottas,” in De Puma and Small 1994, p. and hares. Individually and as a group, the six 221. She refers to A. Pfiffig, Religio Etrusca (Graz, 1975), p. 98. remarkable ambers invite questions about their Waarsenburg 1996andWaarsenburg 1995discuss in detail the commissioning, making, owning, and burial. At this point, representation of the Great Mother in the Orientalizing period, it is feasible to interpret these as the property of one or with special attention to Astarte. There is a visible absorption of more political-ceremonial specialists, and to posit that a female nature divinity’s aspects by several female and male 4 divinities, but the concept of a Great Goddess is fraught, as these amulet-ornaments may have served as insignia. Moorey 2004points out. There are only a few documented pre-Roman burials with 4. For this idea, compare the placing of certain ritual pre- significant numbers of figured ambers. All such intact, Columbian gold objects in the graves of political-ceremonial published graves also included numerous other high- specialists by other specialists. For example, in the Costa Rican status objects, providing not only evidence of the Guanacaste and Central regions, finds from funerary contexts elaborate rituals that accompanied the deceased, but also show that both new and previously used objects were a glimpse of ideas about the tomb and the afterworld. deposited. Some are local, but there is also evidence of These comparison burials, which are rich in figured interchanges from around the region. The production of amber, also contain nonfigured amber beads and sumptuary and ritualistic objects in diverse materials suggests pendants, plus many other high-value objects, of bronze, the existence of such specialists, who required the use of precious metals, ivory, or ceramics, among their durable insignia associated with those possessions that, at some point, goods. Textiles and other now-perished organic goods that were deposited in graves. The archaeological evidence suggests must have accompanied the deceased have left few traces. that during the period of A.D. 300–800, as these societies became more hierarchical, with greater social stratification, These six pendants, then, may be evidence of what must there was greater consolidation of experts in political-ritualistic have been an extraordinary burial. activities, and the number and quality of grave offerings increased and changed. There is also evidence, represented by NOTES images in clay, of women carrying out various roles. See, for example, S. K. Lothrop, Archaeology of the Diquis Delta, Costa 1. A. M. Bisi, “Due avori piceni di tradizione vicino-orientale,” Studi Rica, Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and urbinati di storia di filosofia e letteratura Urbino, ser. B, 3, 55 Ethnology at Harvard University 51 (Cambridge, MA, 1963). (1981–82): 79–83; and A. M. Bisi, “Componenti siro-fenicie negli Orientalizing Group 93

1. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) Provenance –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Condition The pendant is intact and in good condition. There is a long, curved fissure in the lower right section of the larger figure’s heavy cloak, extending to the base. There are numerous minute chips on the child’s head and on the adult’s nose, chin, and left side of the neck, and along the cloak’s left shoulder. There is an old chip on the tip of the hat. A pattern of minute cracking extends over the surface of the entire piece. There are inclusions at the hem on the right side, at the right elbow, at the top of the child’s head, and scattered throughout the adult’s body. The pendant’s patina varies from yellow-ocher to brown. In ambient light, the amber is reddish brown, and in transmitted light, translucent and ruby-red. Description The two figures form a compact composition. The physiognomy, pose, gestures, dress, and relative scale of the figures suggest that the larger figure is a woman and the smaller figure is a child. The woman wears a long, heavy cloak and a conical hat and is shod in close-fitting boots. The raised area at the collarbone suggests the presence of a close-fitting undergarment. Although there Accession 77.AO.84 is no sign of the undergarment’s hems or selvage edges, it Number is probably a long, close-fitting, unbelted chiton. Bunched Culture Etruscan cloth at the top of the cloak forms a kind of collar at the Date 600–550 B.C. back of the neck and around the shoulders. Engraved vertical lines extend from the lower edge of the sleeve Dimensions Height: 130 mm; width: 45 mm; depth: 18 mm; slits to the hem. On the left side, the cloak hem falls to the Diameter of suspension holes: 2.5 mm; Weight: ankles, just above the small feet, and on the right, to 55.2 g ground level. The two front edges of the cloak join below Subjects Amulets; Artemis; Birds; Etruscan culture; the chest, at the woman’s solar plexus. Her open right Funerary use of amber (also Burial); Ionia, hand is placed at this junction. Her somewhat bulbous Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Kourotrophos conical hat stands high off her head. The hat’s rim is rounded and protruding; it is engraved with short diagonal striations, creating a design resembling cable molding. On the proper left side of the hat, a graved line, interpreted here as a seam, runs from the apex to the rim. 94

The woman’s left forearm emerges from the cloak as it Discussion encircles the upper body of the child; her left hand lies flat on the child’s upper arm. The upright, frontally and 77.AO.84 and 77.AO.85 (cat. no. 2) belong to the category rigidly posed child tilts back toward the body of the of divinities known as child-carriers, or kourotrophoi, and woman. From the back, it appears that the child is under are composed in the side-by-side pose exclusive to heroes the mantle of the adult. The child wears a miniature and divinities, a schema of great antiquity.1 version of the adult’s garments, but the hood/collar For the style and the forms, the principal amber section of the mantle is pulled over the head. The mantle comparisons for 77.AO.84 are a pendant in London of two fits snugly around the brow, curves behind the right ear, standing figures2 and a group of four Etruscan amber and drapes forward over the shoulder and chest before pendants in Philadelphia, perhaps excavated at Ascoli extending to the ankles. The tiny shod feet are set side by Piceno. One of the latter pendants, MS 2536, a side and jut straight outward. Below them is a spur of fragmentary standing woman, is the single best parallel amber. The child, too, appears to wear a long chiton. for 77.AO.84 in style and physical type.3 The woman’s head is large, full, and round, and her neck The physiognomies of the women and children of thick, short, and cylindrical. The child’s neck is 77.AO.84, 77.AO.85, and the relevant Philadelphia pendant characteristically short, and the head is a smaller, more are characteristic of Orientalizing Etruscan sculpture. delicate, and slightly more schematic version of the They all have long, almond-shaped eyes, named the Blind adult’s. No hair is visible on either figure. Both the Eye by Emeline Richardson.4 In common with the woman’s and the child’s eyes are blank, almond-shaped Etruscan votive bronzes that Richardson groups together bosses, turned up slightly at the outer canthi (the right eye as Orientalizing Early Etruscan Ladies, the Getty Museum of each is slanted more sharply upward at the outer six and their amber comparanda exhibit the same solid, canthus than are the left eyes), and are surmounted by an rounded Assyrian forms; in Richardson’s words, “the eyebrow ridge that moves smoothly from the temples convex surfaces of the ‘Assyrian’ tradition as well as its over the orbits. The eyes of both figures, set between a convention of a fully draped figure and some of its bulging brow and cheeks, are almost as big in profile as in massive quality.”5 The ambers, like the Ladies, were likely full face, but the child’s eyes are less richly modeled than carved in northern Etruria.6 An excellent comparison for the woman’s, and the line separating the eye from the 77.AO.84 in the Ladies group is the small votive bronze of brow is longer. Both figures’ brows are low and flat. The a woman in London (British Museum 1907.3–11.1), which noses are short, smooth, and triangular, and the bar- Richardson points out is the earliest shoe-wearer and is shaped mouths are formed as horizontal protrusions. The closer to the “Assyrian” aesthetic than any other.7 She chins are wide. Both figures have round, flat ears with an dates this figure to the end of the seventh century B.C. opening at the position of the tragus. The woman’s ears are placed close to the hat rim. The child’s right ear, a While Volterra may have been the center of such flatter version of the woman’s, is far back on the head. production, specific details of dress and style among these The tilt of the woman’s head, the illogical location of her ambers also draw them close to Chiusi. One example is a feet, the scale of the figures, the child’s placement, and the bronze in Leiden (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden H3 ZZZZ concave depression on the lower part of the woman all 1), said to have come from Montalcino (in the ancient Chiusine territory).8 A large bronze from Brolio, which suggest that the sculptural configuration is dependent on should be considered Chiusine, is another excellent the amber blank’s original shape. parallel.9 The bronzes and ambers reveal several In addition to the engraved grooves and lines, some traces similarities, including a geometric structuring of the of abrasion are visible on the woman’s neck and in the figures, their proportions—especially the smallness of the depression of the lower right section of the heavy cloak. hands and feet in relation to the rest of the body—and the Two perforations form a V-shaped suspension system, form of the faces, fingers, and thumbs. each extending from a hole drilled at the shoulder and Each of the constituent parts of the dress worn by the meeting just below the position of the woman’s right woman of 77.AO.84—long chiton, cloak, boots, and hat—is wrist. The amber may have been strung with one carrier Etruscan. Larissa Bonfante refers to the mantle similar to forming a loop. Alternatively, if there were two filaments, those worn by 77.AO.84 and 77.AO.85 as a kind of cape each could have been knotted at the point below the “raincoat.”10 Richardson describes it as a distinctly woman’s right wrist. In either case, the figures would Etruscan garment, names it the Heavy Cloak, and have stood upright when suspended. Cat. no. 1 95

underlines its dependence on masculine Near Eastern sculpture. The bulbous shape is like that of the traditional models.11 crown of Upper Egypt. Oriental precedents for female figures wearing cone-shaped hats are few but significant, The carver of 77.AO.84 indicated the important sartorial and among them are an image of a Hittite goddess in a details of the Heavy Cloak, which must be based on an pointed hat on a silver rhyton16 and Near Eastern understanding of the actual garment. The collar/hood lamassu, the beneficent protective female deities first section of the cloak is formed by bunched fabric. The seen in the Neo-Sumerian period. Contemporary and just child’s cloak is drawn over its head, so no collar is formed. slightly earlier Greek parallels for females wearing this The line that extends from just below the armhole to the distinctive hat type are to be found in Magna Graecia and hem may represent a seam joining the garment’s front Laconia. Many of the sixth-century B.C. terracottas of and back sections, but more likely it indicates the meeting Artemis excavated at the Metapontine spring sanctuary of or overlap of the selvages. San Biagio wear nearly identical hats. As Gesche Olbrich Under the cloak, the large 77.AO.84 figure wears a long has argued, the San Biagio type is closely related to the chiton. Both male and female figures wear the “the Tarantine Artemis and Artemis Bendis types of terracottas,17 and the Artemis of the San Biagio sanctuary Oriental, clinging, unbelted tunic,” as Sybille Haynes describes it.12 At the Archaic Building Complex at Poggio is closely related to the Laconian Artemis Orthia, who Civitate, tunic-wearers animate the terracotta frieze herself has important connections to the Near East and plaques,13 and two—one passenger in the two-wheeled the Minoan-Mycenaean worlds. cart (perhaps a woman) and the woman seated on the Carved amber figures with pointed hats are few, and in curved throne in the assembly of seated figures—also each case, they differ from the type and personage of wear an enveloping cloak. 77.AO.84. The female figure of the New York “Morgan The tall hat of 77.AO.84 is distinct in its slightly bulging Amber” (see introduction, figure 24), the bow of a conical shape, in the manner in which it is worn (toward fibula,18 wears a hat with one seam near the midfront the front of the head and concealing all hair, front and and a large, flat upturn. It is set back on the head, and the back), and in its construction. Despite its simple form, the front of the hair shows. Two of the wingless flying figures carver articulates specific details of its structure: the from Sala Consilina in the Petit Palais, Paris, are hatted. egglike bugle, the seam line on the front, the tiny dimple The bee-divinity (perhaps Ideo with Zeus) sports a at the apex, and the rounded, upturned brim with pointed, beanielike hat with six seams and a dog-toothed diagonal striations. The form of the brim and the seam turnup; the vessel-carrier wears a swirl-wrapped hat with line indicate that the hat is of leather, skin (fur side a simple upturn.19 Other amber figures in pointed hats inward), or leather lined with fur, and not of felt; the include numerous female pendants (Etruscan and Italic, horizontal line likely indicates an upturn, and the late sixth to early fourth centuries), but these usually diagonal lines, the whipstitching.14 display small, close-fitting, pointed caps, which are sometimes worn under veils and over garments. It is rare to find representations of Etruscans wearing pointed hats before about the mid-sixth century, but Other important Etruscan parallels for the hat of 77.AO.84 afterward, various kinds of conical hats—originally a are a unique pair of hats depicted in the Tomb of the male fashion in the Near East—appear everywhere, in Funeral Couch, where they are placed on an ornate bed,20 innumerable variations of type, size, and even number and the hats worn by certain bronze figures. Six Middle worn at the same time.15 Conical hats were a female Archaic bronze draped female figures, four winged and fashion in Etruria. (They are related to but not identical two wingless, were part of a wheeled vehicle (a with the pointed hat worn only by haruspices.) The hat of carpentum, or mule-drawn cart) found at Castel San 77.AO.84 stands out as unusual within the repertoire of Mariano near Corciano (Perugia).21 Another example is a Etruscan pointed headgear and dates to the moment just Late Archaic bronze, a rare type of votive kore, from before the fashion took off in Etruria. The combination of Volterra.22 The figure (she must be a divinity) on the apex its bulbous shape, construction, and placement on the of a large bronze kyathos handle from Bisenzio, of the late head sets it apart from later-fashionable types. The sixth century B.C., holds a small raptor.23 She and the contemporary Oriental masculine parallels include the Potnia Theron of the bronze appliqué are the only ones to hats of “Asian” figures represented in Egyptian relief hold birds. sculpture, as well as the hats worn by some Cypriot The hats of the four Middle Archaic winged bronzes priests and some divinities on Phoenician engraved gems. (representing Turan, an unnamed divinity, or possibly a Antecedents are found in Hittite and other North Syrian 96 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

protective genius) and of the Volterran Late Archaic Alternatively, it is possible that the adult figure of figure are more elaborate than that of 77.AO.84. Their 77.AO.84 represents a divinity similar to the Latin Mater head coverings are either wrappings of long ribbons of Matuta. The solar aspects of amber would make it an cloth or wrapped hats.24 The hats worn by the Middle attractive material for such an image. Matronae prayed to Archaic bronze korai are the best parallels for the pitch of this goddess of light and childbirth and presented to her, the hat, the form of the crown, the thick, rolled rim, and not their own child, but their sisters’.32 The exceptional the lack of visible hair on 77.AO.84. In contrast, the cart figured ambers from (the priestess’s) Tomb VI at attachments wear their hair long and unbound, and the Satricum, where the Mater Matuta was worshipped, lend Volterran figure wears hers tucked up inside the hat (it is weight to this hypothesis. just visible beneath the rim in front and back). Whatever the identity of 77.AO.84, her pose and the child Although there are numerous illustrations in Etruscan art are significant. Her right hand is placed on her breast, of women wearing tunics, heavy cloaks, or boots, there atop the cloak opening. The gesture of 77.AO.84 is the does not seem to be any other figure wearing this same one made by the two figures of 77.AO.81.1 (cat. no. combination. The nearest relative is the uniquely dressed 3) and perhaps by the adult figure of 77.AO.85. It is of Etruscan votive bronze of a woman from Brolio in great antiquity and is found on many contemporary Florence (Museo Archeologico Nazionale 561), dating to images, including a considerable number of Early the late sixth to early fifth centuries, already mentioned Etruscan sculpted works. It has been variously read, above for its Chiusine style.25 Instead of a tunic, Florence resulting in correspondingly varying interpretations of 561 wears an old-fashioned long Ionian chiton, along with the figures making it—and vice versa. The gesture makers boots, a pointed hat, and a cloak (which is pulled up over have been identified as divinities, priestesses, votives, the hat). Florence 561 must represent a divinity. supplicants, adorants, adherents, and mourners.33 Although most scholars agree that the hand-on-breast Not only is the dress of 77.AO.84 unusual, so is its subject. gesture is Oriental in origin, there is less consensus about There are only three other kourotrophoi of amber known its meaning. It has been interpreted as a sign of to this author, and all are Etruscan. These include thanksgiving (signifying gratitude to a deity for a favor 77.AO.85, a kourotrophos in a London private collection conferred), as a sign of adoration or of offering, and as that must date to the mid-seventh century,26 and a tiny one of mourning. Some have seen it as one variant in a amberkourotrophosin the Metropolitan Museum of Art system of female gestures that call attention to the that is strongly Ionian in style, very like a number of primary and/or secondary sex characteristics.34 In his Chiusine bronzes, and of fifth-century date.27 Each of the discussion of the marble Dame d’Auxerre (Musée du four amberkourotrophoiholds the child on the left side; Louvre), who also makes this gesture, Jean-Luc Martinez otherwise, they differ from one another in details of pose, is cautious in assigning a precise signification, in dress, and style. particular a funerary one, to the sculpture.35 Kourotrophoihave an ancient history in and around the For Etruscan sculpture in small and large scale, Bonfante Mediterranean.28Without other specific information, 36 regards the gesture as one of mourning. If the figures such as an inscription or burial context, the images of are indeed mourners, the gesture would support the women, possibly nurses, holding children cannot be thesis of a funerary role for the pendant. However, if the associated with any one divinity or function. 77.AO.84 figures are ancestors (including heroes) or divinities, may represent “any of the multifarious lists of mythical identifying the gesture as funerary is a less sustainable mothers and nurses who were so popular, and often conclusion. Almost every known Etruscan figure making venerated, in early Italy.”29 Although its hat brings the the “hand on breast with thumb up” gesture has come amber figure close to the Metapontine terracottas of from a tomb, and it could be argued that some represent Artemis with the pointed hat, there are no examples of divinities. Notable examples are the seventh-century this hatted variety as a kourotrophos.30 The child, who 37 stone Figure A from Casale Marittimo, a number of can be interpreted as standing upright, may specifically early bucchero caryatid figures,38 the early-sixth-century allude to the Greek Artemis. Artemis could cause bronze female divinity from the Vulcian Polledrara deformities in children, particularly of the foot or leg; cemetery “Isis Tomb,”39 one of the limestone figures from conversely, she could be called upon to protect the child the Pietrera tumulus,40 the woman atop the much- from such deformities. That the child is held up and restored Chiusine “Paolozzi urn,”41 several of the stone represented as well formed could be read as emphasizing female divinities from Chiusi, and a number of the the divinity’s protective role.31 Chiusine enthroned “canopus” figures of young men. Cat. no. 1 97

Bonfante notes the pose of a figure on a gold plaque from ambers part of her ceremonial properties? On the other Rhodes.42 A comparable right-hand gesture is made by hand, might these fabulous figured ambers have been some East Greek plastic vases in the form of a female grave gifts, even insignia, of another ritual political- bust; it is also made by some of the Artemis Metapontine religious specialist? Whatever the answers, something terracotta figures from the San Biagio sanctuary, similar must also be the case for the amber ensemble representations that Olbrich considers to be of the from Tomb VI at Satricum.48 goddess herself, not votives.43 NOTES The pose of 77.AO.84—the position of the body, head, arms, and hands—gains from being read as one 1. Richardson 1983, p. 29. See Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 438–40, nn. movement in a sequence “frozen” at its most 1179–92, for a discussion of the side-by-side pose and twinned characteristic point. This is the case with many Egyptian figures, with special attention to Orientalizing imagery in amber images, as R. H. Wilkinson explains: “Sequential gestures and in ivory. exist where a certain pose or gesture occurs within a 2. British Museum 43: Strong 1966, pp. 66–67, no. 43, pl. XIX. sequence of continuous action.… The specific gesture usually illustrated was perhaps chosen because it 3. The fragmentary cloaked female figure amulet is University of represented the most important or recognizable part of [a Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology MS complex] ceremony, but it must be remembered that 2536: see Warden 1994, pp. 134–43, no. 3, figs. 13.7–9; Turfa gesture can only be understood in terms of the meaning 2005, pp. 226–27, no. 242. of the larger ritual in which it was embedded.”44 If this is 4. Richardson 1983, p. 29. the case with 77.AO.84, then it may be that pose is one that incorporates a fertility gesture and is at the same 5. Ibid., pp. 28–29. time one of promise: the divinity avows the deceased the 6. Ibid., pp. 45–47, with earlier bibl., including J.-C. Balty, “Un centre gift of rebirth, the activity of the left hand that of carrying de production de bronzes figurés de l’Etrurie septentrionale the child and that of the right, avowal. That the object was (deuxième moitié du VIIe–première moitié du VIe siècle avant J.- ultimately funerary may have modified or even added to C.): Volterra ou Arezzo?,” Bulletin de l’Institut historique Belge de the pose’s meaning. Rome33 (1961): 5–68. Jürgeit 1999, pp. 26–27, provides a concise This glittering, large ornament was a potent amulet, the analysis of the arguments for the date and origin of related types of votive bronzes and their possible connection to subject of which could place the wearer under the Volterra, and dates the Karlsruhe example to about 570 B.C. divinity’s protection. As such, it joins many of the earliest Haynes 1985, pp. 251–52, considers the London bronze images of females in world art, which are small in scale (1907,0311.1) to be “Northern Etruscan” and dates it circa and functioned magically, many as protection. Amulets in 600–575 B.C. the form of a standing female figure, often suckling a 7. Richardson 1983, pp. 45–47. child, were popular in Egypt as early as the New Kingdom.45In the ancient Near East, amulets of seated 8. Ibid., pp. 46–47, figs. 44–45. female figures occur as early as the eighth millennium.46 A third-millennium fertility goddess from Cyprus wears a 9. From a votive deposit at the Montecchio farm at Brolio (Val di miniature of her own image.47 Chiana): Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 561. It has been dated to the mid- to the third quarter of the sixth century. The figural groups are all carved fully in the round and SeeTorelli 2000, p. 622, no. 275; Zamarchi Grassi 1992, p. 205; well secured by the system of attachment for suspension. Colonna 1985, p. 164; Richardson 1983, pp. 55–56; and A. Were the pendants intended to swing freely? Were they Romualdi, Il deposito di Brolio in Val di Chiana (Rome, 1981), pp. an attachment to clothing, a larger ornament, or even a 10–11, 26–29, no. 17. structure? Were they used in life or only for the rituals of 10. Bonfante 2003, p. 46. death, and thereafter in the tomb? Who made the ambers, 11. Richardson 1983, p. 31, notes that the closest parallels to the following which models or according to which recipes? Etruscan bronzes are figures on reliefs from Nimrud and Who placed them with the deceased? Whoever was Kuyunjik, dating to the end of the eighth century B.C. Warden buried with the ambers, and whoever saw to it that these 1994, p. 140, provides other excellent North Syrian parallels from ambers accompanied the deceased, must have had the Zincirli, Carchemish, Maraş, and Sakçagözü, and to ivory carving appropriate knowledge and status. If the original owner attributed to the region. The exhibition and catalogue Bartoloni was the deceased, might the owner have been a ritual et al. 2000 is essential to the understanding of the Orient and political-religious specialist? Were 77.AO.84 and the other Italy. E. Di Filippo Balestazzi, “L’orientalizzante adriatico,” in I 98 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

Greci in Adriatico 2, Hesperià 18: Studi sulla grecità di Occidente, horizontal and vertical lines. D. P. Hansen in First Cities 2003, p. supplement del convegno internazionale, Urbino, 21–24 octobre 204, no. 130, writes: “Although the shape of the cap is 1999, ed. L. Braccesi and M. Luni (Rome, 2004), pp. 57–100, adds perplexing, it clearly is not the horned crown associated with significantly to the evolving picture of interaction with North divinities.… A conical cap is worn by certain heroes on Akkadian Syria. The Hittite parallels suggested by each student of this cylinder seals, and it has been noted that it resembles the material point the way for further understanding. military cap of Ebla.” 12. Haynes 2000, p. 121. 16. This extraordinary example is a seated goddess (with hair 13. Antiquarium di Poggio Civitate, unknown inventory no. Haynes showing in front and a twisted braid in back), represented on 2000, pp. 120–25, summarizes the Near Eastern aspects of these the silver rhyton terminating in the foreparts of a stag in New friezes and their connection with the terracotta plaques from York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1989.281.10 (Empire Period, Metaponto. The terracotta frieze plaques from Serra di Vaglio circa fifteenth to thirteenth centuries, presented by Norbert (Basilicata) are directly related to these. Schimmel Trust, 1989). The goddess holds a falcon (possibly) in her left hand, a cup in her right. Her tall, seamed hat has a 14. Such a rim not only would have stabilized the hat (and perhaps diagonally striated turnup; the horns (or perhaps uraeus) are reduced stretching), but also would have increased its heat represented in profile. retention, a critical feature of cold-weather hats, one possibly 17. Olbrich 1979, chap. 4, distinguishes the hat found on many of fundamental for the origin of the hat (and wearer). the Metapontine terracottas of Artemis (always worn over long, 15. SeeBonfante 2003, pp. 68, 71, 76–77, nn. 8–13, 48–49, 80–88. The flowing hair) from that of the Etruscan tutulus and points out its conical hat and its typology, especially for early Italy, still parallels at Samos, Cyprus, Rhodes, Assos (Troas), Sicily, Etruria, deserve further study. See also M. Pipili, “Wearing an Other Hat: Lucania, and Apulia and in Magna Graecia (Taranto and Workmen in Town and Country,” in Not the Classical Ideal: Athens Metaponto-Pisticci). She also charts the relationship between and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art, ed. B. Cohen the hat of the San Biagio terracottas and the Phrygian hat of the (Amsterdam, 2000), pp. 150–79; Smithers 1988, pp. 214–15, with Artemis Bendis type. reference to M. Bonghi Jovino, Capua preromana: Terrecotte 18. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 17.190.2067, Gift of J. votive, vol. 1 (Florence, 1965), p. 14, and vol. 2 (Florence, 1971), Pierpont Morgan, 1917. pp. 70–71; and Olbrich 1979. For the related form in helmets, see A. Bottini, Armi: Gli strumenti della guerra in Lucania (Bari, 1994); 19. Paris, Petit Palais, Dutuit Collection. The flying figure carrying an and A. Bottini et al., Antike Helme (Mainz, 1988). amphora is Dut 1600 (5), and the bee-divinity is Dut 1600 (6). See The seventh-century B.C. bucchero lady from Falerii Veteres “The Archaic and Afterward” in the introduction, n. 219, for bibl. (Richardson 1983, p. 32, n. 41), is one of the oldest examples of a 20. The painting on the back part of the Tarquinian Tomb of the woman wearing the pointed hat, and some of Richardson’s Funeral Couch, in the view of Steingräber 2006, p. 139, presents Early Etruscan Ladies (pp. 49–51) wear a small pointed hat the space as a festival tent or baldachin on posts, “dominated under the veil. Some Late Archaic bronzes wear small conical by a large empty bed reminiscent of a catafalque, with two light hats stacked one atop another. shrouds, two pillows, two wreaths, and two conical caps The Assyrian conical hat is constructed from a soft material, so resembling the pilos caps of the Dioscuri.” Represented is either that it does not stand up, and its crown is creased, with a a deceased aristocratic couple or a divine duo. If the latter is the sagging tip. This is more than likely a felt hat, as are the hats case, Steingräber believes the representation to be a theoxenia worn by a number of (possibly hairless) elite male figures or a lectisternium, and the hats then represent the divinities engaged in various ceremonial activities (perhaps including aniconically. However, compare Haynes 2000, p. 237: she augury) on a number of bronze situlas, such as one found at suggests that the two hats may be funerary cippi. Is there a Vaće, Slovenia (Narodni muzej Ljubljana P581), and another connection between the bulbous conical shape of Etruscan cippi excavated at Magdalenska gora near Smarje, Slovenia (Narodni and the similarly shaped protuberances of seventh-century B.C. muzej Ljubljana P4281). These are soft, pointed hats with rolled Daunian steles? For the latter, see Nava 1988. rims articulated with diagonal lines. 21. The Middle Archaic bronzes are distributed between Perugia A pointed-hat type common to Cypriot Archaic figures is almost and Munich. A recent proposal for the placement of the winged identical to the “bonnets” worn by the later-fourth-century B.C. figures on the four corners of the box of the carpentum in the bambino in fasce votives from the Capua region. For the reconstruction by S. Bruni is convincing (see summary by him in Campanian material and its relationships, see Smithers 1988. Torelli 2000, pp. 580–85). See also Emiliozzi 1997, pp. 82–86. The bronzes are generally thought to date to around 570 B.C. and In addition to the possible antecedents gathered by the authors have been compared to the repertory of Etrusco-Corinthian listed above, relevant comparisons for 77.AO.84 include the pottery. For the wingless kore figures in Perugia, in addition to unusual hat worn by Naramsin on a basalt stele of circa Bruni and Emiliozzi, see Richardson 1983, pp. 269–70; and 2220–2184 B.C.: it has a raised edge and is decorated with both Höckmann 1982. Cat. no. 1 99

22. For the bronze kore from Volterra, now in Munich pendant B.C. in New York, it compares well with the Ionizing (Antikensammlungen 3678), see Richardson 1983, pp. 268–69. sixth-century B.C. sculpture of the Chiusine area, as is shown by Paraphrasing Richardson, the figure wears a properly comparison with a bronze kore in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, understood Ionian chiton, a rarity among Etruscan korai, a dress Cabinet des Médailles 204: see Richardson 1983, pp. 265–66, that illustrates a drapery style of some competence, contrasting figs. 605–6. That the child of the New York pendant is carried in with her “thoroughly un-Greek” heavy, round head, ugly ears, a sitting position might indicate that the subject is one of and broad, smiling face. Hair peeks out from under the hat brim presentation or abduction. in front and back. The conical hat has a similar turned-up rim 28. For the kourotrophos, see T. Hadzisteliou Price, Kourotrophos: with diagonal markings and is wrapped (clockwise) with a long Cults and Representations of the Greek Nursing Deities (Leiden, strip of cloth in a pattern distinct from that of the above- 1978); V. Tran Tam Tinh, Isis Lactans (Leiden, 1973), with a review mentioned Middle Archaic korai. Richardson singles out the by L. Bonfante, AJA 80 (1976): 104–15; L. Bonfante, “Dedicated Munich kore as one of the finest of the Mannerist korai, as well Mothers,” in Visible Religion III: Popular Religion (Leiden, 1984), p. as the biggest. Her unparalleled costume, a mixture of Ionian 13; L. Bonfante, “Daily Life and Afterlife,” in Bonfante 1986, p. and Etruscan fashion, her pose, and her (perhaps) youthful 240; L. Bonfante, “Votive Terracotta Figures of Mothers and proportions of large head and smaller body, characterized by a Children,” in Italian Iron Age Artefacts in the British Museum: rather planklike modeling, also set the kore apart. Might the Papers of the Sixth British Museum Classical Colloquium, ed. J. Munich bronze be an updated reflection of an early statue, or Swaddling (London, 1986), pp. 195–201; I. E. M. Edlund, “Man, phenotype, of Artemis? Nature, and the Gods: A Study of Rural Sanctuaries in Etruria The face of the adult figure is very like those of two sculptures in and Magna Graecia from the Seventh to the Fourth Century the British Museum, a bronze statue of a woman from the B.C.,” in Papers in Italian Archaeology IV: The Cambridge Polledrara cemetery “Isis Tomb” who holds a horned bird (GR Conference, Part IV, Classical and Medieval Archaeology, BAR 1850.2–27.15), and a gypsum statue of a woman said to be from International Series 246, ed. C. Malone and S. Stoddart (Oxford, the same tomb (GR 1850.2–27.1). As is the case for 77.AO.84 and 1985), pp. 21–32; and Smithers 1988, esp. chap. 2. the other five ambers, the gypsum statue shows the influence of 29. On the ubiquity of the kourotrophos, Brendel 1995, p. 240, prototypes from Greece, particularly Crete and the summarizes: “An unnamedkourotrophosoccurs quite Peloponnese, as well as from Phoenicia and the Near East. For frequently among the artless statuettes which worshippers the “Isis Tomb” sculptures, see Roncalli 1998; and S. Haynes, deposited as ex-votos, to please the sacred spirits of the place.” “The Bronze Bust from the ‘Isis Tomb’ Reconsidered,” StEtr 57 He lists the kourotrophoi of Italy, among them Diana, Mater (1991): 39, where she proves that Roncalli’s theoretical Matuta, Minerva, Persephone, Turan, and Uni, and in Greece, reconstruction of the bust is untenable. Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Eileithyia, Eirene, Ge, Hekate, Hera, 23. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 74913. The standing Hestia, Ino/Leukothea, Leto, and Persephone. (Ino/Leukothea’s (perhaps) figure on the apex of the kyathos handle wears a role as the young Dionysos’s nurse probably gave her the chiton, a conically shaped hat under a veil, and boots, and holds character of a protectress of small children.) On Leukothea, see what looks like a small raptor on her right hand. G. C. Cianferoni I. Krauskopf, “Leukothea nach den antiken Quellen,” in Akten des in World of the Etruscans 2001, pp. 26, 91, no. 165, dates it to the Kolloquiums zum Thema “Die Göttin von Pyrgi,” Tübingen, last decades of the sixth century B.C. 16.–17.1.1979, Bibliotheca di Studi Etruschi 12 (Florence, 1981), 24. More needs to be understood about the “wrapped” conical hat, pp. 137–48. the headdresses made from cloth bands, and the so-called 30. A headless terracotta kourotrophos from the San Biagio twisted hat. Bonfante 2003, pp. 142–43, has unraveled much, sanctuary, with the image of a standing child scratched into its including the occasions for wearing such headgear and the planklike body, is a unicum: Olbrich 1979, no. B14b. gender of the wearers. 31. This reference comes from Callimachus’s Hymn to Artemis. At 25. For Florence 561 from Brolio, see n. 9, above. 3.128, Artemis is called out for inflicting her grievous anger 26. The unpublished amber pendant in a London private collection when she causes wives “to give birth to children of whom none is similar in physiognomy and style to two amber pendants of stands on upright ankle.” The Getty kourotrophos pendants, women from the Circolo dei Monili, Vetulonia (see, for example, thus interpreted, could be amulets of the “frightening-the- Bissing 1931, pp. 49–52), and very like several of the bronzes in demons” type. Here, too, the apotropaic nature of amber Richardson’s Geometric Overlap Series C and Orientalized reinforces the subject. Although she writes of objects of a later Geometric Series A, B, and C. period, Stephanie Leitch’s explanation is relevant: “Demons can see and the pagan prescriptions for avoiding evil, most notably, 27. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 17.230.52, Rogers Fund, were prescriptions that were activated through sight and 1917: Art of the Classical World 2007, pp. 295, 473, no. 340; and seeing…. Among the methods chosen for foiling an evil force Richter 1940, p. 32, figs. 104–5. Although there are no known was the use of a bright and dazzling object” to distract it from amber parallels for the style and format of the fifth-century its intended victim. S. Leitch, “Seeing Objects in Private Devotion,” in Pious Journeys: Christian Devotional Art and Practice 100 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. L. Seidel (Chicago, See also H. Damgaard Andersen, “The Etruscan Ancestral Cult: 2001), cited by R. Mellinkoff, Averting Demons: The Protecting Its Origin and Development and the Importance of Power of Medieval Visual Motifs and Themes, 2 vols., ed. C. Anthropomorphism,”Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 21 (1993): Lanham (Los Angeles, 2004), p. 47. 7–65; A. Minetti, “Le necropoli chiusine del periodo 32. SeeWaarsenburg 1995, pp. 438–40, 460–61, with key bibl. for the orientalizzante,” in Chiusi etrusca, ed. A. Rastrelli (Chiusi, 2000); Mater Matuta. andBartoloni et al. 2000, p. 306, no. 424. 33. Waarsenburg 1995. 41. Chiusi, Museo Civico 63092, circa 630–600 B.C. See Bartoloni et al. 2000, p. 306, no. 424 (where M. Iozzo summarizes the 34. The interpretation of the arm and hand positions has been used convincing explanation by Cristofani 1978, pp. 125–27; and as integral evidence in the naming of figures and their role in Damgaard Andersen 1996) (see n. 40, above), p. 35, n. 26. See the tomb or sanctuary. Waarsenburg 1995, p. 432, n. 1136, also the impasto in Florence: Sprenger and Bartoloni 1981, p. 90, believes that “on the old discussion of whether female votive no. 50; and Gempeler 1974, pp. 55ff., no. 44, pls. 12, 15. statuary represents goddesses, priestesses, or possibly 42. Bonfante 2003, p. 139. adorants … at least for the nude female statuary the goddess interpretation is the most feasible option.” I. E. M. Edlund Berry, 43. One example of a plastic vase in the form of a female figure who “Whether Goddess, Priestess or Worshipper: Considerations of places her open hand on her breast is Berlin 30733: see U. Female Deities and Cults in Roman Religion,” in Opus Mixtum: Gehrig, A. Greifenhagen, and N. Kunisch, Führer durch die Essays in Ancient Art and Society, Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Antikenabteilung (Berlin, 1968), p. 43, pl. 35; and J. Ducat, Les Institutet i Rom, 8, vol. 21 (Stockholm, 1994), pp. 25–34, provides Vases plastiques rhodiens archaïques en terre cuite (Paris, 1966), p. an excellent discussion of the topic, especially in reference to 35, no. C26, pl. 5.3. For the Metapontine examples, see Olbrich Rome. 1979, chap. 4, pp. 70–98. Bonfante 2003, p. 219, pries open the question again in 44. On independent and sequential gestures, see Wilkinson 1994, p. discussion of stone sculptures from Casale Marittimo, noting 205: “Symbolic gestures may utilize the positioning or that Figure A reaches up to the neck in a gesture characteristic movement of the body, head, arms or hands, and are usually of female mourners. Germane Etruscan votive bronzes include ‘frozen’ at their most characteristic point in representations. the Middle Archaic bronzes Florence 230–31 (Richardson 1983, Functionally, two types of gestures may be differentiated— pp. 261–64, figs. 579–80, 597–98) and the Late Archaic bronzes ‘independent’ and ‘sequential.’” Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek H224 (ibid., pp. 295–96, fig. 700) and 45. Andrews 1994, passim. Arezzo 11603 (ibid., p. 282, figs. 654–55). 35. J.-L. Martinez, La Dame d’Auxerre (Paris, 2000), pp. 20–22. 46. White 1992, passim. 36. Most recently, Bonfante 2003, p. 219. 47. The picrolite cruciform figurine from Yialia (Cyprus Museum 1934/1112/2) confirms that many Neolithic tiny figures were 37. Ibid., n. 36. used as pendants and tomb offerings. The Yialia picrolite wears 38. Ibid., p. 219. a nearly identical image around her neck. See L. Vagnetti, “Stone Sculpture in Chalcolithic Cyprus,” Chalcolithic Cyprus, 39. London, British Museum GR 1850.2–27.15. See n. 22, above. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 282/83 May/August 1991: fig. 1. J. Mertens reminded me to look at the 40. Bonfante 2003, p. 71, n. 456; and Richardson 1983, p. 39, n. 1056: Yialia figurine. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 85148854. However, the hands of another of the Pietrera tumulus figures (85148553) 48. Waarsenburg 1995; and N. Negroni Catacchio, “L’ambra nella are flat on the breast, the right one over the left, in a gesture protostoria italiana,” in Ambra, Oro del Nord, exh. cat. (Venice, common in the ancient Near East to show reverence and 1978), p. 199, although, as Waarsenburg notes, it lacks submission: see J. K. Choksy, “In Reverence for Deities and supporting arguments. On priestesses in early Italy, in addition Submission to Kings: A Few Gestures in Ancient Near East to the bibl. assembled in Waarsenburg 1995, nn. 1310–19, see M. Societies,” Iranica Antiqua 37 (2002): 7–29. Haynes 2000, p. 83, Beard, J. North, and S. Price, Religions of Rome (Cambridge, questions whether the Pietrera tumulus sculptures “are meant 1998); and M. Beard, “The Sexual Status of the Vestal Virgins,” to represent mourners or ancestors of the buried aristocrats.” Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980): 12–27. Cat. no. 1 101

2. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) with Bird Condition The pendant is in good condition, with a firm, smooth, stable surface. Before its entry into the Getty Museum, the two broken sections of the pendant were reattached and a synthetic fill was added to the break that runs along the left contour below the feet of the smaller figure. There are additional small chips on the reverse along the break and on the boot toes of the larger figure. There are visible inclusions in the fissure at the center, between the two figures, and in the midsection of each figure. The back surface and much of the front are covered with a dusty, light-yellow-ocher layer of degraded amber. In ambient light, the piece is reddish brown with some translucent areas; in transmitted light, the object is translucent and ruby-red. Description The pendant is conceived fully in the round and is composed of two frontal figures in a side-by-side pose, with a long-necked waterbird at the lower right. The human figures are identified as a woman and child because of their proportions, morphological (facial) features, dress, hair, and forms of the upper torso. The woman extends the full length of the amber and fills Accession 77.AO.85 approximately one half of the composition. The child is Number carved into the upper section of the other half; beneath its Culture Etruscan feet is a spur of amber, which might be read as a groundline. Below the child, at the bottom, is the bird. It Date 600–550 B.C. stands on the same plane as the woman. Since the bird is Dimensions Height: 83 mm; width: 50 mm; depth: 50 mm; represented only on the obverse and the triangular Diameter of suspension holes: 2 mm; Weight: depression above its head is inside the garment, it should 48 g be read as standing within the shelter of the woman’s Subjects Bird; Etruscan culture; Fertility; Funerary use outer garment. of amber (also Burial); Ionia, Greece (also Despite the difference in scale between the figures and in Ionian, Greek); Kourotrophos; Potnia Theron some of their details, both share the same head-to-body proportion, as well as dress and hairstyle. Their facial Provenance characteristics are comparably fashioned (even if they are not identical): the forehead, eyebrow ridge, temple region, –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. and nose are conceived as a single modeled unit Paul Getty Museum, 1977. composed of a continuous curving form from the top edges of the head to the end of the nose. The slightly bulging, almond-shaped blank eyes are fitted neatly 102

beneath the eyebrow ridge, the outer canthi higher than at the base of the lower hole so that the piece hung as if the inner ones, and the right eyes slanted higher at the the figures were standing. outer canthi. Their noses are long and narrow (that of the Discussion woman is slightly wider), with delicate nostrils. The mouths are wider than the noses. The lips curve into There is no exact parallel for this pendant. In style, slight smiles; the lower lips are slightly wider than the 77.AO.85 is very like others in the Getty group; it shares upper. The cheeks and lower faces are wide and rounded. comparisons with them and is equally complex in its The chins are short; in profile, they protrude to the level relationship to contemporary and earlier art, including of the root of the nose. While the two faces are very Greek (Cretan, Ionian, and Peloponnesian), Cypriot, and similar, there are minor differences between them. The Near Eastern objects. The subject, like that of 77.AO.84 child’s face is finer in structure, her features smaller, and (cat. no. 1), is a kourotrophic divinity. The iconography is her chin more pointed. There is a distinct nasolabial line underlined by the compositional format and the chosen on the woman’s face; there is none on the child’s. material, amber. The dress and the hairstyles of the two Both figures wear a similar undergarment. There is no figures identify them as female. The smaller figure likely neck detail; the garment is indicated only by the hem and represents a child rather than an infant, since it “stands lower section of a long skirt. Both also wear close-fitting on upright ankle.”1 The active pose of the goose contrasts veils over their heads. The front of the hair is just visible with the stillness of the human figures. Because the adult at the brow. The woman’s left frontal hair lock descends and child are frontal, standing, and stationary (and the from her temples to just below her breasts; the child’s (on adult wingless), it is unlikely that an abduction scene is her right side) ends at the shoulder. The same heavy outer represented.2 garment covers both figures. The line parallel to the front The bird of 77.AO.85 is schematic but telling. The carver edge of the mantles may be a turnback or fold of the indicated some salient features that suggest that a cloak; alternatively, it may represent the seam closing the particular species is represented: the round head, long, lower edge of the sleeve. With her left arm and hand, the undercurved bill, and distinctive form of the tail feathers woman encircles the child; she places her right hand on aid in identifying the fowl as a white-fronted goose.3 her own chest. The tear-shaped form emerging from the border of the cloak may be the top of her thumb, although There are many similarities between this pendant and the it is very large. Alternatively, it might represent the tip of Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) (77.AO.84) a lotus blossom. The child’s arms are not visible. The presented above. There are also differences in the pose, woman is barefooted: four toes and the instep are hairstyle, and manner of covering the heads. Only delineated. There is no elaboration of the child’s feet. The 77.AO.85 includes a bird. The woman of 77.AO.84 is plump bird’s body and legs are in a resting pose (the feet hatted, no hair is showing, and the hood section of her are visible), the neck is stretched back, with the head mantle is down. No hair shows on the child, and it is reverted, and the right wing is raised. wrapped in a mantle. Both figures are shod. In contrast, As is the case for all of the other amber objects in this both figures of 77.AO.85 have their heads covered by a group, the original form of the amber blank appears to common mantle, show hair at the brow, and wear temple have played a key role in the composition. The nodule’s locks. The woman of 77.AO.85 is barefooted. No long shape is suggested by the placement, size, and stance of chiton or other undergarment is delineated for the figures the figures, and by the depressed area between the adult of 77.AO.84, yet in this pendant, the bottom hem of the and child. undergarment is shown. If the protrusion emerging in the area of the chest from the front closure of the cloak of There are small drill holes in the corners of each figure’s 77.AO.85 is a thumb, and the hand is thus flattened on the mouth. Abrasion marks are visible underneath the chins, breast, the gesture is similar to that of 77.AO.84 and to along the left body contour, around the head and neck of those of both women of the Addorsed Females pendant the bird, and between the feet of the adult. There are (77.AO.81.1, cat. no. 3). As discussed above in the entry for engraved lines around the eyes, separating the lips, along 77.AO.84, this hand gesture has been variously the front edges of the mantles, and in the hair plaits. The interpreted. It is likely one with complex meanings, but it single perforation has two holes, one exit between the two certainly had a fertility aspect and perhaps a funerary heads at the position of the ears, and the second exit in one. Avowal or promise also may be inherent. On the the indentation between the two heads. The pendant other hand, the droplike shape could represent the tip of probably was suspended from a strand or strands knotted an unopened lotus blossom, a subject of great antiquity in ancient art and a symbol of youth, fertility, and rebirth. Cat. no. 2 103

The lotus blossom may have been thought especially apt by the standing female bronze from the Brolio deposit.13 for an unfurled young life, as it was in Egypt.4 The amber figures’ locks are most like the latter’s. The type of undergarment worn by each figure of Not only might the hairstyle be Greek-derived, so too 77.AO.85 cannot be determined, since only the hem and might aspects of the style and iconography. Both lower edge of a skirt are indicated. There is no Peloponnesian and South Ionian stylistic aspects of articulation at the neck. This might suggest that the carver 77.AO.85—and of the Divinity Holding Hares (77.AO.82, neglected these aspects of dress or that the figures of cat. no. 4), and the other Kourotrophos (77.AO.84)—are 77.AO.85 wear only skirts beneath their mantles. If this is brought out by comparison to certain Arcadian and the case, one possible parallel is the bronze divinity from Sicyonian bronzes of Hermes Kriophoros and of other the Vulcian “Isis Tomb,” whose only garment may be a unnamed shepherds.14The ambers and bronzes have a skirt.5 related solidity of sculptural forms and similar modeling of the bodies beneath the dress and relative proportions Amber comparisons for 77.AO.85 include the other five in (head-to-body and torso-to-leg length); they also all have the Getty Orientalizing group and two others: an thin arms and small hands and feet. (The small hands and unprovenanced pendant in the form of two standing small feet are also characteristic of the four largest figures figures in the British Museum,6 and a pendant in the form from the Brolio find, the bronze statuettes of a female and of a female figure, possibly from Ascoli Piceno, in three warrior males.) The backs of 77.AO.85 and 77.AO.82 Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania, Museum of are especially like those of the Peloponnesian bronzes. A Archaeology and Anthropology).7 An ivory carving of a comparison to the Man in Cloak in Providence, to cite one seated female figure, part of a furnishing from Pianello di example, is telling.15 Castelbellino, has the distinctive short neck, short-set body, and facial profile of the ambers.8 The South Ionian aspect is apparent when the ambers are compared to the most “Samian” of Etruscan bronzes. For For the figures of 77.AO.85, the best comparisons among instance, the “Kneeling Archer” in Providence is akin in Etruscan small bronzes are found in Emeline facial details, general physical type, sculptural Richardson’s Early Etruscan Ladies, Series B, Group 1,9 16 proportions, and smooth modeling. The South Ionian the same group that helps to situate 77.AO.84 and aspects of the amber pendants are elicited by comparison 77.AO.81.1. Bronzes in Florence (Museo Archeologico to an ivory of a horse-tamer and to a wood sculpture of Nazionale 225) and London (British Museum 1907.3–11.1) two figures, both thought to be Samian.17 Alfonsina Russo are particularly relevant for their body proportions, facial suggests the existence of an Ionian, specifically Samian- features, and overall combination of dress elements. influenced, amber-carving atelier in the Metaponto area, Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 27, and Leiden, with two examples: the seated amber figure from a grave Rijksmuseum van Oudheden H3 ZZZZ 1, provide the best at Tolve and another from Tomb 122 at the Rutigliano- parallels for the cloak of 77.AO.85. The “Etruscan-ness” of Purgatorio Necropolis.18 77.AO.85 and the related ambers and bronzes is brought out further when they are compared to large-scale The common mantle and the goose may be iconographic Etruscan figures. They share with the gypsum figure in details that help one to interpret the meaning and London (from the Polledrara cemetery at Vulci), the pair functions of 77.AO.85. The mantle shelters the figures of limestone figures from Casale Marittimo, and some beneath it and separates them from the outside: it can early Chiusine limestone figures a solidity and retention serve both literally and figuratively as a sign of of the permanent materials in the sculptures.10 protection.19 The common mantle can be interpreted as an ancient fertility motif, a signifier of matrilineal Potnia Theron figures stamped on a number of bucchero descent, a symbol of marriage and procreation, and more kyathos handles—two excavated at Poggio Civitate and simply a protective device. others likely from Chiusi11—are important comparisons, not only for composition and style, but also for specific How does the goose function in this pendant? Is it a features such as the birds and the figures’ temple locks. As symbol or attribute, or does it perform some temporal or Larissa Bonfante has outlined, the Greek-influenced narrative role? Long-necked birds are among the earliest Etruscan fashioning of temple locks was popular from the sculpted objects: one of the earliest is the ducklike end of the seventh through the first half of the sixth (perhaps) bird, seen in profile, from Uruk, of about 3000 century.12 Comparable temple locks are worn by some B.C.20 In Egypt the goose is one of the forms of the solar funerary female busts from Chiusi, by the bronze divinity god Atum. Early in Etruscan art, in illustrations of both from the Vulcian “Polledrara Tomb” or “Isis Tomb,” and landscape and the built environment, waterfowl are in 104 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

residence, and they are represented as resting, standing, they represent rebirth to eternal life by divine adoption, a or in action. Birds, especially waterfowl, feature hoped-for assimilation and identification with Dionysos.27 prominently on the bronze objects from Iron Age Italy. Ducks, geese, and swans are among the most numerous What roles are played by the bird of 77.AO.85? Might the subjects of figured ambers found at sites in Greece, fowl act as an attribute, signify the location of the figure’s Etruria, and Latium.21 Long-necked and short-legged divine actions, or point to a specific activity? After all, the waterfowl may be the most frequent of all faunal bird is in action, in contrast to the static pose of the figures. Might the goose signify transit and rebirth28 or decoration in earliest Etruscan imagery, embellishing countless objects found in tombs. Images of female designate the figure as the Greek Artemis? It is perhaps divinities with waterfowl, usually in the schema of the not a native Italian divinity, such as the Etruscan Artumes goddess known asPotnia Theron, are found on bronzes, (or Artames or Aritimi), who “never became mistress of including vessels and ornaments, as early as the eighth the wild animals or even goddess of the hunt, as she had been in Greece.”29 century B.C. Early Etruscan sculptural images of divinities, male or The elaborate perforation system of the pendant, which female, defined by attributes are relatively rare, and it is when strung would have maintained the upright posture significant that among them are goddesses with birds, of the figures, strongly suggests that 77.AO.85 was mainly waterfowl and raptors. Among the sculptured suspended or worn or was attached to something before representations are the early-sixth-century bronze its ultimate burial. As a shining ornament, 77.AO.85 was a divinity with a horned bird from the Vulcian “Polledrara large, glittering jewel figured with potent imagery. As a Tomb,” or “Isis Tomb,” and a slightly later freestanding permanent amulet, it could have been considered as bronze statuette in Cortona with a large bird of prey theomorphic, one that would have offered its wearer, on (perhaps an eagle) perched on her head.22 The latter is earth, in the tomb, or in the afterworld, the protection of comparable to the Laconian (or possibly Tarentine) the deity represented. Both material and subjects were divinity that forms the handle of a bronze hydria of about the province of persons of elevated social rank, members 570 B.C. found at Grächwil, Switzerland.23 Female of the religious and political elite. In life, its owner could divinities with birds are to be found in Etruscan bucchero, have shown herself to be a votive of the divinity painted vases, and gold objects of adornment (namely represented: the combination of material and subject earrings, pendants, and plaques). Many are in the Potnia would have played a powerful danger-averting and Theronschema, and some are represented in the bird- protective role. In the tomb, 77.AO.85 might offer special atop-the-head pose.24 Divinities with birds (again both protection and even guidance to the deceased in the waterbirds and raptors) on contemporary Greek vases fraught voyage to the afterworld. (primarily Corinthian and Laconian) and on a series of NOTES ivory plaques from the Spartan sanctuary of Artemis Orthia include depictions of both schemata.25 An Etruscan mirror support of fifth-century date is a later relevant 1. See cat. no. 1, n. 31. example: it represents an old-fashioned kore figure 2. For a recent discussion of images of pursuit and abduction in wearing what appears to be a pointed hat with an Etruscan art and the possible ambiguities of meaning, see A. upturned rim.26 The join to the mirror is in the form of Carpino, Discs of Splendor: The Relief Mirrors of the Etruscans addorsed, upside-down swans. (Madison, WI, 2003), pp. 14–16, 19–21. Above are listed the images of female divinities with 3. For the identification of the bird, see Houlihan 1986, pp. 57–59. birds. With the possible exception of the lion- or hare- On the conventions of representing birds, see Ruuskanen 1992. wielding Mistresses of the Animals, no other divinities as Douglas Causey (pers. comm.) corroborates the identification of the image as that of a white-fronted goose. The bird “breeds in such are represented with birds or other animals. The parts of northern Europe and Asia and winters in parts of only other example of a kourotrophos with a bird known Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa” (Houlihan 1986, to me is a much later type of Etrusco-Latial terracotta p. 57). In ancient Egypt, the standard hieroglyphic sign for a votive statue from Satricum, of fourth-to-second-century goose is generally taken to represent this species. In captivity, date. In these terracottas the woman is seated, the child is they are sociable and peaceful birds and thus would have been in her lap, and a bird is standing in front. B. M. Fridh- excellent geese to domesticate, unlike some other species. Then Haneson posits that this and related multifigured, single- as now in Egypt, the white-fronted goose is a delicacy, and it mantled terracotta votives are Orphic-Dionysiac, and that appears that ancient Egyptians looked upon it as one of the Cat. no. 2 105

more desirable table geese (ibid., p. 59). The species is still Museum 12347), the two Arcadians (Berlin, Staatliche Museen found in Italy today. 30552 and 10781), and the Hermes Kriophoros in New York 4. If this is the tip of a lotus blossom, the amber might be (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1972.118.67, Bequest of Walter C. compared to an unusual type of Egyptian New Kingdom Baker). statuette and to certain Greek terracottas and plastic vases of 15. Providence, Rhode Island School of Design 20.056: D. G. Mitten, youthful figures holding a single lotus bud, or to the lotus-bud Classical Bronzes: Catalogue of the Classical Collection, Museum of jewelry depicted in Greek sculpture and vases. As E. Russman in Art, Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, 1975), pp. 41–45, Hatshepsut 2005, p. 42, proposes for the Egyptian Eighteenth no. 12. Dynasty images, the symbolism may have been thought 16. Providence, Rhode Island School of Design 47.792: ibid., pp. especially apt for untimely deaths. On the symbolism of the 102–5, no. 29. lotus-blossom jewelry worn by Phrasikleia, a funereal archaic marble kore, see M. Stieber, The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic 17. The ivory horse-tamer in Samos (Vathy Museum), early sixth Korai (Austin, TX, 2004); and R. Higgins, The Aegina Treasure: An century B.C.: B. Freyer-Schauenburg, Elfenbeine aus dem Archaeological Mystery (London, 1979). samischen Heraion: Figurliches, Gefässe und Siegel (Hamburg, 5. British Museum GR 1850.2–27.15. On the dress, see Bonfante 1996), pp. 26–28, pl. 3b; and Marangou 1969, p. 196. 2003, p. 223, n. 31; Haynes 2000, p. 154; Haynes 1985, pp. 18. A. Russo in Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 116. The seated figure from 252–53, no. 21; and Roncalli 1998. Bonfante asks a question (p. Tolve is illustrated on p. 114. 223, n. 31): “The bust is wearing a necklace and tight belt: is it naked or dressed in a ‘transparent’ linen chiton?” 19. For a discussion of multiple goddesses under a single mantle, see G. Koch Harnack, Erotische Symbole: Lotosblüte und 6. Strong 1966, pp. 66–67, no. 43, pl. XIX. gemeinsamer Mantel auf antiken Vasen (Berlin, 1989); H. G. 7. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Buchholz, “Das Symbol des gemeinsamen Mantels,” Jdi 102 Archaeology and Anthropology MS 2536: Turfa 2005, pp. 226–27, (1987): 155; B. M. Fridh-Haneson, Le manteau symbolique: Étude no. 242; and Warden 1994, pp. 134–43, no. 3, figs. 13.7–9. sur les couples votifs en terre cuite assis sous un même manteau (Stockholm, 1983); E. Simon, Die griechischen Vasen (Munich, 8. Seated female figure, Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1976), p. 53; K. Schauenburg, “Iliupersis auf einer Hydria des 4417 (from Pianello di Castelbellino): Rocco 1999, pp. 50–51, cat. Priamosmalers,” RM71 (1964): 68–70; and M. Guarducci, “Due o no. 36, pls. XXVIII–XXIX. più donne sotto un solo manto in una serie di vasi greci arcaici,” 9. Richardson 1983, pp. 44–47. AM53–54 (1928–29): 52–65. On the role of the common covering cloth and protection, see the far-reaching study of M. S. 10. The gypsum statue of a woman in the British Museum is GR Gittinger, “Selected Batak Textiles: Technique and Function,” 1850.2–27.1 (Sculpture D1) (see cat. no.1, n. 22). For a survey of Textile Museum Journal 4, no. 2 (1975): 13–19. the Chiusine sculptures, see Hus 1961. For the Casale Marittimo 20. See the example published by E. Heinrich, Kleinfunde in den sculptures in Volterra, see, for example, Principi Guerrieri: La archäischen Tempelschichten in Uruk (Berlin, 1936), pl. 13c, necropoli etrusca di Casale Marittimo, exh. cat., ed. A. M. Esposito referenced in Bonner 1954, p. 140. (Milan, 1999). 11. For the related bucchero, see Berkin 2003, pp. 38–40, nos. 22–23, 21. See the introduction for the subject of birds in amber; for a figs. 13–14, pl. 67 (his Type 1). For the related bucchero at the J. listing of amber waterfowl found in Italian and Greek Paul Getty Museum, see CVA, United States of America, fasc. 31, sanctuaries and graves, see Mastrocinque 1991, pp. 65–88. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, fasc. 6 (Malibu, 1996). 22. For the bronze statuette in Cortona, Museo dell’Academia 12. For the temple locks, see Bonfante 2003, pp. 70–71, nn. 40–42. Etrusca 1571, see Richardson 1983, p. 339, figs. 800–802. The As she points out, the numerous spiral hair holders excavated bronze divinity in London from the Polledraran “Isis Tomb” at from Etruscan graves indicate the long popularity of the fashion. Vulci is British Museum GR 1850.2–27.15 (Bronze 434). See n. 5, Among them are gold rings with amber disks. above. Once a full statue, the fragment likely represents a native Italic deity, perhaps one of fertility, as the hand-on-the-breast 13. For the bronze from Brolio, see cat. no. 1, n. 9. gesture and the other hand holding a bird may indicate. “The horned bird was often depicted by the early peoples of Italy and 14. For the Hermes Kriophoros bronzes in Boston, Museum of Fine north of the Alps, and may have had some significance in local Arts (the larger is 99.489, H. L. Pierce Fund, and the smaller, cult worship”: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/ 1904.6), see M. True in Kozloff and Mitten 1988, pp. 77–85, with highlights/highlight_objects/gr/b/ references to the related bronzes the Hermes Kriophoros from bronze_bust_of_a_woman.aspx.Haynes 2000, p. 155, notes the the Stathathos collection (unnumbered), the Hermes from supernatural bird’s Villanovan antecedents, the possible Ithome (Athens, National Archaeological Museum 7539), the religious significance of bronze cup handles with images of a Hermes from Andritsaina (Athens, National Archaeological human figure flanked by birds and quadrupeds in the tombs at 106 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

Bisenzio and elsewhere, and that birds associated with Vulci (possibly); its nine pendants, made from sheet gold, are in priestesses or goddesses (Atargatis, Artemis Ephesia, and the form of a crowned and necklaced bust of a female divinity Artemis Orthia) are known from Syria, Ephesus, Dodona, and with a resting duck on her head (Rome, Museo Nazionale Sparta. Etrusco di Villa Giulia 53486): A. M. Moretti Sgubini, ed., La On the identity of ancient images of female deities with birds of Collezione Augusto Castellani (Rome, 2000), pp. 180–81, no. 134, prey, especially Hittite, see J. Vorys Canby, “Falconry in Hittite with references to comparanda in Hamburg and Munich. The Lands,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 61 (2002): 161–202; and bucchero oinochoe in Florence (Museo Archeologico Nazionale Ridgway 1977, p. 112, n. 35: “Several Phrygian statues of the 3179), from Chiusi, may be another representation of the same Goddess Kubaba are characterized by the attribute of a raptor divinity. The neck of the vase is made into the lower part of her pressed against the chest, perhaps significantly with the left head, the lid into a bird-topped hat: see World of the Etruscans hand.” It has been pointed out that in hieroglyphic Hittite, a 2001, pp. 28, 29, 95, no. 180. The handle of an unparalleled large raptor is the second sign in Kubaba’s name (Expedition 6 [1964]: bronze kyathos from Bisenzio (Florence, Museo Archeologico 28–32). Tanaquil understood the actions of raptors. She, “like Nazionale 74913), of the later sixth century B.C., has three most Etruscans, was expert in interpreting celestial prodigies figures represented on it, two walking and greeting figures on and delighted at the omen” of an eagle snatching and replacing each side of the handle, and a third at the apex, whose position her husband’s cap as they entered Rome, presaging his own, is difficult to understand: she may be interpreted as supported the Tarquins’, and Etruria’s future, as related by Livy (1.34ff). by one figure on the inside of the handle (whose eyes are cast downward) or as seated at the apex of the handle. The divinity 23. For the hydria from Grächwil (Bern, Historisches Museum (for so must she be) wears a chiton, a conically shaped hat 11620), see Die Hydria von Grächwil: Zur Funktion und Rezeption under a veil, and boots, and holds what looks like a small raptor mediterraner Importe in Mitteleuropa im 6. und 5. Jahrhundert v. on her right hand: see World of the Etruscans 2001, pp. 26, 91, no. Chr.; Akten Internationales Kolloquium anlässlich des 150. 165. Jahrestages der Entdeckung der Hydria von Grächwil, 12.–13. 25. Canby 2002 (in n. 22, above); and Marangou 1969. Oktober 2001, ed. M. A. Guggisberg (Bern, 2004); Stibbe 2000; C. Stibbe, “Exceptional Shapes and Decorations in Laconian 26. Etruscan, first quarter of the fifth century B.C.: H. B. Walters, Pottery,” in Sparta in Laconia: The Archaeology of a City and Its Catalogue of Bronzes, Greek, Roman and Etruscan, in the Countryside, ed. W. G. Cavanagh and S. E. C. Walker (London, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum 1998), pp. 72–73, with reference to his previous discussion of the (London, 1899), no. 551; and Richter 1968, p. 108, no. 203, fig. work; and H. Jucker, “Altes und Neues zur Grächwiler Hydria,” in 644. Zur griechischen Kunst: Hansjörg Bloesch zum 70. Geburtstage am 27. B. M. Fridh-Haneson, “Votive Terracottas from Italy: Types and 5. Juli 1972. = AntK Beiheft 9 (1973): 57–78. Problems,” in Gifts for the Gods, ed. T. Linders and G. Nordquist 24. Among the earliest images of a bird atop the head (perhaps a (Uppsala, 1985) = Boreas 15 (1985): 67–75; see also Fridh- bird hat) is the tiny eighth-century B.C. (possibly Vetulonian) Haneson’s 1983 study (in n. 19, above), pp. 27ff. amber in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1992.11.14a, 28. On the symbolism of the waterbird, see “Early Iron Age and the Purchase, Renée and Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Fund Orientalizing Period.” Foundation, Patti Cadby Birch, and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992). A 29. Jannot 2005, p. 147. significant parallel is the late-sixth-century B.C. necklace from Cat. no. 2 107

3. Pendant: Addorsed Females Condition The pendant is intact and in good condition. Although its two sides mirror each other, the obverse is distinguished by a more plastic rendering of the figures and superior carving, especially of the left-hand figure (hereafter referred to as Figure A). Figure A has minor chips on the reverse shoulder and small breaks on the feet at the hem area. Figure B has a chip on the reverse shoulder. The piece is a dark reddish brown color in ambient light and is dark ruby-red in transmitted light. There are many large inclusions, including those at the heads, torsos, knees, and feet of both figures. Description The pendant is carved from a relatively flat piece of amber and represents two figures standing back to back. An indentation and an engraved line separate the rigidly posed, profiled figures. The two figures are identified as females because of their facial characteristics and dress. Although similar, they are not identical: the faces are especially idiosyncratic. On both sides of Figure A, the forehead-to-nose line is smooth, with only the slightest bulge at the brow ridge and a faint indentation for the root of the nose. The eyes are amygdaloidal, with the outer corners higher than the inner. The angle of the nose is close to the facial plane; the Accession 77.AO.81.1 nose itself points slightly downward, and overhangs the Number level of the short chin. The upper lip area is short; the upper lip protrudes over the lower. The face of B is Culture Etruscan different: the forehead slopes more acutely; the root of Date 600–550 B.C. the nose is more deeply indented; the nose is attached lower on the face; and the angle of the nose is farther Dimensions Height: 100.4 mm; width: 39.9 mm; depth: 13 from the facial plane. The eyes of Figure B are also mm; Diameter of suspension holes: 2.5 mm; almond-shaped but are narrower. The figure’s lips have Weight: 39.3 g an even profile. Her chin is short and small, and there is a Subjects Egypt; Etruscan culture; Magic hint of a double chin. The mouth furrow, cheek modeling, and area under the chin are features that make Figure B Provenance appear older than A. The two wear the same type of dress, a long chiton that –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. descends to the ankle; a tightly fitting veil, which covers Paul Getty Museum, 1977. the hair and falls to the hem; and a heavy, ankle-length cloak. There is no indication of hair on either woman. 108

Swellings and indentations on the surface of the piece Although more simply rendered than on 77.AO.81.1, it is describe the shape of the arms and upper torsos. Each the same garment.6 figure places one hand flush on the chest and with the other holds the left edge of her garment at the waist area. The ivory and bone carvings related to 77.AO.81.1 include Figure A has her right hand up and the left below; Figure an identical pair of bone plaques from a chair or other B has her left hand above and the right below. The small furnishing from a tomb at Belmonte Piceno, representing feet of Figure B are pointed, without any toes delineated, a large winged goddess flanked by two small female figures;7 and a number of bone pendants, one from the suggesting that both figures were meant to be represented 8 as shod. (The toe area of Figure A is broken off.) Large Building excavations at Poggio Civitate, and others, all votives, from the Stipe di Sant’Omobono, Rome.9 The Tool marks include visible abrasion traces in the sections small figures from the Picene bone plaques wear clothing closest to the engraved line that separates the two figures, different from that of 77.AO.81.1 but are similar in their at the necks, and at the ankles. The perforation for arm and hand positions and their addorsed poses. The suspension passes from front to back at the center of the unique figure-seal from the Sant’Omobono deposit is pendant, at the nape of each figure’s neck. analogous in style and figural type but differs in the Discussion position of the arms. The arms of all of the Sant’Omobono votives (and probably that of the Poggio Civitate pendant) This amber pendant is unique in composition and hang at their sides. iconography. The combination of dress elements worn by The images of Potnia Theron decorating the handles of the figures of 77.AO.81.1—the long chiton, veil, and heavy, some Orientalizing bucchero kyathoi are significantly enveloping overgarment, Emeline Richardson’s Heavy similar in format and style to 77.AO.81.1. The figural type, Cloak—is otherwise unattested. Generally, the best proportions, and modeling are comparable to a series of parallels for the figures of 77.AO.81.1 are the two other kyathoi handles from Poggio Civitate,10 and to another pendants from this group with standing female figures— type found at several sites, but which, too, may have 77.AO.84(cat. no. 1) and 77.AO.85 (cat. no. 2)—and their originated at Chiusi. This type is adorned with images of a comparanda, including the group of four ambers likely full-figured Potnia Theron who is winged and holds long- from Ascoli Piceno in Philadelphia (University of necked birds.11 Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)1and the pendant of two standing figures There are few carved ambers formed into doubled in London.2 The female figure in the latter, also presented subjects, but among them is another work from the same in profile, is especially close in physical type and dress, Getty group, Paired Lions (77.AO.81.3, cat. no. 6). Two although she is of a huskier physical type. 77.AO.81.1 also other approximately contemporary examples, both has correspondences with three other kinds of Picene, are the fragmentary pendant with addorsed archaeological material: Etruscan bronzes, ivory and figures from Castelbellino12 and the Philadelphia pendant bone carvings, and bucchero ware. In each case, the (MS 2538) in the form of a draped standing female backed traditions informing the imagery are similar. with a nude figure.13 Earlier doubled-figure compositions in amber include the Getty Addorsed Sphinxes The votive bronzes most like 77.AO.81.1 are in (78.AO.286.2, cat. no. 28) and a number of the pendants Richardson’s Early Etruscan Ladies Series,3 the same from Tomb VI at Satricum (circa 640–630 B.C.): two pairs group that provides good parallels for 77.AO.82 (cat. no. of twinned nude females, a pair of twinned, possibly 4), 77.AO.84, and 77.AO.85. Three, now in London, Leiden, masked figures, a seated monkey with a small, fetuslike, and Florence, respectively, are the most similar.4 The possibly human figure on his head, and two pendants of salient parallel for 77.AO.81.1 is the last, Florence 27, conjoined foreparts, one a lion-centaur and the other a which is the latest in Richardson’s B Series. The sculptural lion and (perhaps) dog.14 Two parallels much later than contours and facial profiles are nearly identical, and, in 77.AO.81.1, dating to the fourth century B.C., are pendants both cases, the shawl curves over the forehead in the of addorsed human heads. One is the central pendant of a same way. The small feet are also comparable, although votive necklace from the sanctuary of the goddess Mefite the Florence bronze wears calceoli repandi (curled-toe in the Valle d’Ansanto (a rare example of a figured amber boots)5 rather than the simple boots of the amber women. excavated from a sanctuary),15 and the second a nearly British Museum 1907.3–11.1, among the earliest in the identical pendant, also from a string of very similar- Ladies Series, is most like the figures of 77.AO.81.1 in looking amber human-head pendants.16 facial type, in the small, articulated hands, and in the shod feet. The Leiden bronze is most similar in dress. Cat. no. 3 109

Addorsed compositions and doubling generally were quality.25 However, because of the subtle differences already age-old by the sixth century B.C. Doubled figures, between the two figures of 77.AO.81.1, it may be that the some addorsed, are not uncommon among ivory and pendant represents a dyad: that is, two discrete divine bone carvings from Egypt, the Near East, and the individuals. Phoenician world. This compositional motif was often used for objects such as handles17 and pommels, as well NOTES as in weaving or embroidery. Doubled images may represent the same figure twice or two different figures. 1. Warden 1994. Doubling and twinning may always have been inherently 2. Strong 1966, pp. 66–67, no. 43, pl. XIX. magical. The doubling of a phrase in a magical spell was understood to increase its efficacy, and the same may 3. Richardson 1983, p. 45. have been true for imagery. In amulet making, doubling 4. British Museum 1907.3–11.1; Leiden, Rijksmuseum van and addorsed compositions were well-established Oudheden H3 ZZZZ 1 (from Montalcino in Chiusine territory); conventions.18 Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 27. Many kinds of objects in the ancient world include two 5. The famous Etruscan curled-toed footwear does not appear in figures represented side by side, in both seated and Etruria earlier than the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. standing poses, but addorsed compositions are rare. SeeBonfante 2003, pp. 60–62; and Richardson 1983, p. 47 (see Among the exceptions are terracotta vessels, bone and also introduction to part 2, p. 33, no. 11). ivory carvings, and the above-noted ambers. In some 6. For a discussion of the garment, see Bonfante 2003, pp. 45ff.; cases, the figures are identical; in others, they are andRichardson 1983, p. 46. distinct.19 The significance of the addorsed pose is not clear.20 7. Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 1154 (from Belmonte Piceno Tomb 83): Rocco 1999, pp. 135–36. In Egypt, as C. Desroches Noblecourt points out, addorsed 8. Poggio Civitate, Antiquarium 71–100: Phillips 1993, p. 78, fig. figures are a convention used to represent figures that are 121. actually side by side.21 Stelae of the New Kingdom and later periods frequently show two deities back to back.22 9. Rome, Antiquario Comunale (bone figures from the Stipe di The conscious pattern seen in the countless examples of Sant’Omobono) 27876 (single figure) and 27877 (figure-seal): paired deities, other figures, or symbols is unmistakable. Civiltà degli Etruschi 1985, pp. 276–77, 10.18.c 7,6. The seal has a As Richard Wilkinson observes, “Often in fact, a pair of flat, square base engraved on its underside with a lion in whose deities—especially goddesses—are depicted identically in maw is a human leg. Attached to the head of the figure-seal is a dress and appearance and differ only in name, as though large, disklike flange, perforated for suspension. The flange may their very duality gave them significance enough.”23 One derive from the sun disk worn by some Egyptian deities; it Etruscan example is a funerary object from Orvieto recalls the sun disk–like appendages on some bronzes from dating to the second half of the sixth century, a tufa cippus Satricum. See Richardson 1983, p. 267, for references to three in the form of back-to-back busts of female figures, likely bronzes with head appendages from Satricum in the Villa Giulia (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 10513–18, 110922). She sphinxes, and a suitably Egyptian subject for an addorsed presumes all these images to be of the Mater Matuta herself. composition.24 The disk and the lion of the Sant’Omobono figure-seal may be Objects with identical addorsed female subjects in interpreted as links to Hathor. Egyptian, Eastern Mediterranean, and Orientalizing Greek 10. Berkin 2003, pp. 47, 97, no. 35, fig. 17, pl. 11 (his Winged art may point the way for further study of the meaning of Goddess Type 1, with Murlo nos. 73268–69). the subject type in Italy. Because 77.AO.81.1 is made of 11. The full-figured type was excavated at Poggio Civitate: see amber, the figures must be divinities, heroines, or Berkin 2003, pp. 46–47, no. 34, fig. 16, pl. 10 (his Winged demons. The hand gestures of the pair may emphasize the Goddess Type 2, with parallels at Pescia Romana, Ischia di fertility and funerary aspects of the amber. If a divine Castro, Vulci, and Poggio Buco). Owls perch above the latter subject, the pendant may represent a “duplicate divinity.” type. Another bucchero comparison is to be found in the That is, as T. Hadzisteliou Price has summed up, a doubled mirrored, addorsed female heads (of a long-haired Daidalic divine image may represent one deity with two names or phenotype) decorating the handle crests of another type of two aspects, natures, or cults; a deity that appears in the kyathos. One example of this addorsed-heads phenotype was plural, such as the Eileithyiai; or a duplication of one excavated at Poggio Civitate: see Berkin 2003, p. 45, no. 31, fig. goddess for the purpose of strengthening the deity’s 15, pl. 9 (with parallels cited from Cortona, Chiusi, and Vulci). 110 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

12. Marconi 1933, cols. 413–14, fig. 46. Fitton 1992, p. 174, pl. 1a. The tufa cippus with addorsed busts 13. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Museum of (possibly of nude female figures or sphinxes) from Orvieto is an Archaeology and Anthropology MS 2538: Warden 1994, no. 2, important architectural manifestation of the schema (Florence, figs. 13.4–6; Turfa 2005, p. 226, no. 241. Museo Archeologico Nazionale 73138): World of the Etruscans 2001, p. 87, no. 149. 14. Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 12024–26, 12028, 12033. 18. Among the most common of Egyptian addorsed-figure amulets The definitive study is Waarsenburg 1995. For twinned figures, are those figured with the pataikos, joined with Bes or with a see his pp. 438–41. For the Picene amber, see Warden 1994. falcon-headed dwarf: see Andrews 1994, p. 39. Waarsenburg allows the possibility that the figures are masked and compares them to vessels isolated by R. De Puma, “Nude 19. Among the most notable examples of nonidentical figures are Dancers: A Group of Bucchero Pesante Oinochoai from the East Greek terracotta alabastra in the form of two addorsed Tarquinia,” in Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Ancient Greek female figures. and Related Pottery, Copenhagen, August 31–September 4, 1987, 20. Does the addorsed pose have a special antidemonic potency? ed. J. Christiansen and T. Melander (Copenhagen, 1988), pp. Johnston 1995, p. 364, notes that in European tales of witches’ 130–43. sabbaths the participants are portrayed as dancing back to back 15. The votive amber necklace with multiple profile female heads instead of face to face. (at least six) from the sanctuary of the goddess Mefite (Valle 21. Desroches-Noblecourt 2006, p. 189. d’Ansanto) is in the Museo Provinciale Irpino, Avellino. See Losi et al. 1993, p. 210, n. 20; NSc 30 (1976): 503–4, no. 1309g; and G. 22. Wilkinson 1994, p. 130. Colucci Pescatori, Il Museo Irpino (Cava dei Tirreni, 1975), p. 33, pl. IX. 23. Ibid. 16. This group of ambers was on the Zurich art market in 1981. 24. The tufa cippus with addorsed busts (perhaps sphinxes) is Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 73138: World of the 17. Perhaps related in meaning are eighth-century B.C. ivory Etruscans 2001, p. 87, no. 149. handles in the form of addorsed, partially clothed females, including the closely related fan handle from Nimrud in the 25. T. Hadzisteliou Price, “Double and Multiple Representations in British Museum (WA 118102: Bartoloni et al. 2000, pp. 102–3, no. Greek Art and Religious Thought,” JHS 91 (1971): 48–69. See also 1). Another ivory analogue is a janiform “Astarte” figurine V. von Graeve, “Neue archaische Skulpturenfunde aus Milet,” in excavated from a well at Kameiros (British Museum GR Archaische und klassische griechische Plastik: Akten des 1864.107.671), which L. Schofield suggests is a local Rhodian internationalen Kolloquiums vom 22.–25. April 1985 in Athen, vol. 1 product made under the influence of Oriental ivory carving: see (Mainz, 1986), pp. 23–30; and C. Sourvinou-Inwood, “Reading” L. Schofield, “The Influence of the Eastern Religions on the Greek Death to the End of the Classical Period (Oxford, 1995), p. Iconography of Ivory and Bone Objects in the Kameiros Well,” in 244. Cat. no. 3 111

4. Pendant: Divinity Holding Hares Condition The piece is in excellent condition, and its surface is uniformly hard, smooth, and shiny. The amber is crazed overall and has numerous minute cracks and fissures, which are especially noticeable on the figure’s feet and in the head and body of the hare to her left. The broken tip of the left hare’s nose is the only significant loss to the pendant. In ambient light, the piece is dark red-orange and translucent; in transmitted light, the amber is transparent and bright red-orange. There is a large, cloudy inclusion in the upper body of the hare on the figure’s right side, and other inclusions are scattered throughout the piece. Description The pendant is worked from a large piece of amber, rounded on both the obverse and reverse sides. The figure is identified as youthful because of the lack of beard hair and the relative body proportions. Its sex is not evident. The figure wears a short, simple, schematically rendered short chiton, or chitoniskos. There is no indication of the front neckline or the sleeve hems, and no belt. The top edge of the footwear is not indicated, but the smooth, Accession 77.AO.82 close-fitting shape and pointed toe box suggest that they Number are boots. The figure stands in a rigid frontal pose. In each Culture Etruscan arm, the figure grasps the hind feet of a large crouching hare held head downward. The space between the figure’s Date 600–550 B.C. neck and the hares’ bodies is undefined. Dimensions Height: 97 mm; width: 64 mm; depth: 24 mm; The figure’s head is large in proportion to the body; its Diameter of suspension holes: 2.5 mm; Weight: narrow shoulders slope slightly. The broad chest 76 g protrudes in the breast area, but there are no Subjects Artemis; Childbirth; Egypt; Etruscan culture; individualized breasts. The hips are narrow. The back is Hare; Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Magic; full through the upper area and concave in the lumbar Potnia Theron region, and the rounded buttock area protrudes. The long, thin arms end in small, rounded hands. Each hand shows Provenance four fingers and the roots of the thumbs. The legs are thick, short, and sturdy, with full thighs and calves, and –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. are contiguous for their full length. No knees are Paul Getty Museum, 1977. indicated. The feet are small. Geometry and pattern infuse the face: it is round, broad, and flat; the curve of the hairline in front is echoed by 112

that of the eyebrow ridge, and the line of the lower in a knot at the lower end of the reverse exit holes, the eyelids mirrors that of the chin. The eyes are blank, two meeting at the top hole and knotted at this juncture. elongated ovals that are plastically rendered and outlined Discussion with raised eyelid rims. The outer canthi are higher than the inner ones, and the left eye is narrower and slanted Although it is comparable in style, technique, and farther upward than the right. Both the frontal and sculptural conception to the other five pendants in the parietal eminences of the cranium are wide. The Getty Orientalizing group—77.AO.84 (cat. no. 1), 77.AO.85 otherwise flat forehead bulges slightly at the brow ridge, (cat. no. 2), 77.AO.81.1 (cat. no. 3), 77.AO.81.2 (cat. no. 5), but there is no indentation for the root of the long nose, and77.AO.81.3(cat. no. 6)—there are no close parallels for which lies at an angle close to the face. The upper lip area this pendant in any media. All six of these pendants is short, the mouth small, and the mentolabial sulcus demonstrate stylistic and iconographic connections with shallow. The mouth is wider than the nose, the lower lip Near Eastern, Peloponnesian, South Ionian, Cypriot, and wider than the upper. Grooves indicating the mouth native Italian sculpted objects in bronze, ivory, terracotta, furrow run from the top of the nose wings to the corners and amber. Like those of the other five, the composition of the mouth. The lips, formed by two nearly parallel bars of 77.AO.82 is of an ancient type and shows well the broad separated by a groove, have their corners punctuated by range of visual schemata, techniques, and styles current drilled indentations. The chin is also wide and projects in northern inland Etruria. slightly, the under-chin area full and angled downward to the neck. In front, the smooth cap of hair is raised above No definite conclusion has been reached about the sex or the plane of the brow; in back, the hair follows the shape age of the figure. As to identity, the composition, the age- of the skull and is wide through the crown and indented old “Mistress” or “Master of the Animals” schema, below the occipital protuberance. A point of hair at the announces that the figure is heroic or divine (or both). neck extends below the juncture with the spine (in the The proportions, head-to-body and legs-to-torso, the short cervical region) and must overlap the neckline of the neck, high chest, and small feet, and the relative scale of tunic in back. hares and figure seem to suggest that the figure is that of The hares are large compared to the human figure and a child, but there exist many images of adults with these are powerfully built, with compact, muscular shoulders characteristics in Greek and Etruscan art of this and and legs. Their forelegs are stretched out under their earlier periods. chins, and the hind legs are tucked up close under the The somatic parallels with some images of children in bodies. On each animal, an incision line separates the Hittite art are striking. A critical comparison is the rock- front of the face from the back of the head. The hares’ crystal figure of a child in the Walters Art Museum, which ears are long and pointed and lie flat against their Jeanny Vorys Canby demonstrates to be a “Hittite shoulders. Their longish tails hang down their backsides, expression of the miraculous child concept.”1 The short with the tip of each tail touching the head of the human hairstyle, head-to-body proportions, and general figure, creating a parallel line across the top of the sculptural form are remarkably alike. pendant. Neither the hairstyle nor the dress of 77.AO.82 indicates There are abrasion and scraping marks in many places on with certainty the sex or age of the central figure. The the pendant. Drill holes define the indentation between hair is short and somewhat similar to what Emeline the toes and footpads of the hares’ feet and punctuate the Richardson calls the Etruscan Ducktail, the masculine corners of the figure’s mouth, the corners of the hares’ chin-length cut worn by Early Etruscan votive bronzes of mouths, and the roots of the hares’ ears. elite males, swordsmen, spearmen, and kouroi.2 It is not The pendant is drilled for suspension with two long far from the fashion of the sacrificing youth of the perforations, both of which exit at the top, in the crown of Campana Panel, which Sybille Haynes interprets as hair shorn in mourning.3 The amber figure’s hair can be the figure’s head. The perforations’ lower ends exit on the compared to certain images of Artemis, but it has no reverse: one hole is between the foot of one hare and just analogue. A bronze statuette of Artemis (or an adorant or below the figure’s left ear, and the other is in the crook of juvenile dedicant) from Lusoi has hair that is cut short in the hare’s foot near the figure’s right elbow. The least back and with short bangs, a boxy hairdo. This bronze visible and perhaps the strongest method of suspending dates to the end of the sixth century B.C. and is thought to the pendant would have required two filaments, each tied be a variant of a cult statue of Artemis Hemera, goddess of Lusoi. It conserves much older traits.4 Overall, it is the Cat. no. 4 113

object most similar to 77.AO.82 in hairstyle, dress, and bronze of an armed female from Thermon, variously blocklike body. Parallels for the hair may also be drawn dated between the twelfth and eighth centuries.17 She with some ivories of Artemis Orthia from her Spartan wears a short chiton, necklace, and boots, and carries a sanctuary. In these, the divinity is young and has cropped bow in her right hand. Her hair is gathered up under a hair; in some cases she wears a feather headdress.5 These pointed hat. This may be the same subject as a bronze of a Spartan figures wear a long, smooth-fitting dress that running “girl” from Samos of about 600 B.C.18 Etruscan contrasts with the shorter one worn by 77.AO.82 and the parallels for the chiton of 77.AO.82 include those of the shorter chitons of the Lusoi bronzes. The Spartan ivories figure (Thesan/Dawn) controlling winged horses who belong to what may be the oldest type of Artemis decorates another of the six astronomical antefix types representations, that of the goddess in the form of a from the south side of Temple B of Uni/Astarte at Pyrgi;19 frontal draped standing figure.6 the bird-grasping divinity represented on a series of Etruscan terracotta antefixes from Capua;20 and a bronze The amber figure’s costume—the plain, short dress and found at Pietrabbondante. The bird-tamer’s chiton is boots (or bare feet)—is not unusual for male figures, such longer than the hare-tamer’s, but it is similarly as hunters, archers, shepherds, charioteers, riders, rendered—simple in its line, it suggests easy movement. athletes, and flying figures, but it is uncommon for (The Capuan figures and the amber hare-tamer are also females. An important comparison is one of a pair of comparable in their general proportions, youthfulness, seventh-century B.C. female stone figures from Casale face shape, short neck, and long, thin arms.) The bronze Marittimo (Volterra). Figure A wears a long braid and a from the Pietrabbondante sanctuary wears a shortened perizomaover a short tunic (and her disproportionately dress, and her short hair forms a point in back. long arms and hands are held across her chest in the “mourning gesture”).7 Later Campanian and Etruscan The Ionian aspects of the amber hare-tamer’s style are bronze archers (of circa 530–500 B.C.) wear leggings brought out by comparison not only to the Samian bronze under a very similar short costume, but many of the latter of the running girl and to the Ionian-looking Peleus from are not clearly sexed; they are often also called Scythians the Loeb Stand C,21 but particularly to the ivory horse- and Amazons.8Early Etruscan masculine parallels for the tamer in Vathy. This last and 77.AO.82 also share clothing of 77.AO.82 are the tunics worn by three iconography (both figures have short hair and wear buccheroathletes (who also wear the perizoma) and at unbelted chitons and smooth-fitting boots) and a similar least one of the hunters on the Bernardini sheath,9 as well technique (low relief, smooth modeling, and an analogous as by the riders on the terracotta relief plaques from the use of graving tools). principal building at Poggio Civitate.10 Later sixth-century B.C. examples are two of the male subjects of the antefixes Seven other Etruscan sculptural comparisons, all strongly from the Temple B cell-row building at Pyrgi, the winged Ionian in style, are related to 77.AO.82, not only in and rayed sun-god Usil and a bird-headed figure, who is artisanal terms, but also in iconography. They are a large 11 terracotta votive statuette from Portonaccio, Veii,22 and probably Lucifer, the morning star. Important Greek masculine parallels for the amber’s dress (and for its four related bronze works: the “Herakles” from Valle iconography) are the sixth-century Arcadian and Fuino (Cascia) in the Vatican, a bronze in Geneva (Musée Sicyonian bronzes representing Hermes Kriophoros and d’Art et d’Histoire MF 1017), one in the Louvre, and other unnamed shepherds,12certain Ionian bronzes of another in the Getty Museum (96.AC.124).23 All these active figures,13 and an ivory figure of a horse-tamer from figures are distinguished by tall, pointed headdresses or Vathy, Samos.14 All these works present the short garment hats that curve forward and animal skins, which in most as a close-fitting, smoothly rendered sheath of thick cloth. cases are arranged so the head hangs in front of the pubic area, in sporranlike fashion. Massimo Pallottino suggested Among the Greek female parallels for the short chiton are that the Portonaccio terracotta represented an unnamed various active figures, athletes and hunters most notably. divinity of the Etruscan pantheon, and Giovanni Colonna As Eva Parisinou outlines, the short hunting dress is worn convincingly associated it with the cult of Aritimi in the not only by Artemis, but also by the hunters Atalante and sanctuary at Veii.24 Prokris, by the hunting female demons the Gorgons and the Erinyes, and by female athletes.15 The short garment In answer to the question of who is represented in may denote the status of the figure and its activity; the 77.AO.82, two depictions of masculine figures with hares same was true for girls who wore the exomis at the are important. The winged and snake-tailed male demon Olympian Heraia.16 One of the earliest antecedents for of an Etruscan repoussé relief, dated to 600–585 B.C., 77.AO.82—if it is female—is a unique and early Greek holds a hare and a lotus flower in his left hand and a 114 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

wader in his right.25 A sixth-century B.C. haruspex on a Andersen suggests that the Potnia Theron figure of central gold ring, who holds a hare in the left hand, is a valuable Italy must be considered a local goddess and her cult a testimony to the sacrifice of the hare in Etruscan nature-worshipping one.29 She proposes that the haruspicy. The figure on the ring, probably from Vulci, goddess’s iconography changed in the Orientalizing was once identified by Rodolfo Siviero as Artemis.26 period from the primitive Iron Age figure into one more like Near Eastern forms under the influence of luxury The composition of 77.AO.82 is also eloquent in objects brought to Italy by Phoenician merchants and establishing the perimeters of the identity. The image of a traders, “who in this way might have initiated an contest between a human figure and animals is known in important development of the Italic religious beliefs or at Mesopotamian art since the fourth millennium and is least of the iconography of these deities.”30 Further, she generally interpreted as a symbol of power or control argues that the importance of Potnia Theron diminished over nature, and possibly also as a symbol of protection.27 by the second half of the sixth century, since images of the While both male and female protagonists are known in goddess became scarce except in bucchero, and proposes the art of the Minoan-Mycenaean world, the female is that throughout the seventh and sixth centuries, as the more common. Images of the female figure with animals, Etruscan pantheon was slowly established, strongly first named Potnia on Linear B tablets, seem to have influenced by the Greek, the old Potnia Theron seems to incorporated the Mesopotamian ideology relating to this have been subsumed, possibly into aspects of more than composition. In Greek Olympian religion, this Mistress of one deity but including Ishtar/Astarte or Uni, Artemis/ the Animals disappeared, and her role and divine Artumes, or perhaps Vei/Ceres. attributes were incorporated by other goddesses, among them Athena, Rhea, Hera, and Artemis. In Italy, there What Sybille Haynes sagely comments about Etruscan appears to have been incorporation by some unnamed Orientalizing nude females of ivory and gold is relevant divinities. By the seventh century B.C. in Greece and in for female divinities of the period more generally: “It is Italy, the “mastery of the animals” schema was adapted to possible that these images corresponded to preexisting fit current needs, with variants sometimes differing concepts of nature divinities flanked by birds and significantly from the Oriental prototypes. Nevertheless, quadrupeds that figured in earlier representations on some elements remain constant, chief among them the open-worked bronze handles found as far apart as symmetrical scheme, the frontality of the female figure, Bisenzio, Bologna, and Spadarolo.”31 and the animals. Although in Italy, images of a “mistress” are more frequent than those of a “master,” both subjects The hares, too, are critical to the identity of 77.AO.82. They are found in Etruscan art. The “master” is usually shown bear a strong stylistic similarity to the lions of the group— between horses, and the “mistress” is shown as 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3—especially in the detail of the overcoming lions, most commonly, and birds (raptors and line separating the faces from the upper part of the head, waterbirds, especially geese and swans). and to the comparisons presented for them in the catalogue entries below. Both in style and in subject, they While some scholars believe that the mastery imagery relate to the pairs of lions held by Potnia Theron figures came directly from the Orient to central Italy, others have molded on the handles of a series of bucchero kyathoi proposed that the subject was transformed in the from Chiusi and Poggio Civitate.32 (See 77.AO.81.2 and Mediterranean East before its adoption on the Italian 77.AO.81.3 for further discussion.) peninsula. There was direct contact with Cretan material in some instances. Hares are an uncommon subject of jewelry and amulets in the art of Greece and ancient Italy, but they are much Homer calls Artemis Potnia Theron (mistress of the wild more commonly represented in vase painting of the beasts) in the Iliad (21.470). I. Krauskopf has argued that seventh and sixth centuries. The few early examples of the Potnia Theron known in Etruria from the seventh the hare as a subject of an Etruscan object of adornment century onward is more like a demon than a divinity (amulet, pendant, or ring) stand out. One is a tiny ivory proper (such as Artemis) and that there was no early pendant-amulet from Murlo, which this author identifies connection between Artemis and Potnia Theron, since in as a curled-up, couchant hare. Another is a carved Etruria the latter is never represented with Artemis’s carnelian with a crouching hare.33 favorite animals. Noting that there is no identifiable Artemis (Artumes) in Etruria before the second half of the The hares of 77.AO.82 are not newborns but large, mature sixth century, she suggests that if there is a blending of the animals. Wild hares, such as the indigenous Italian Lepus two, it is perhaps under Greek influence.28 H. Damgaard corsicanus and the Lepus europaeus, may grow to 75 cm in length.34 (It should be noted that the females of the Italian Cat. no. 4 115

hare are larger than the males of the species.) “When a tunic with embroidered border reaching to the knee, going it springs,” says Xenophon of the hare. “No one has that I may slay wild beasts.”42 ever seen or will ever see a hare walking.”35 Hares possess excellent senses of sight, smell, and hearing; they If the hare-tamer of 77.AO.82 does represent Artemis, or a were the fastest of the wild animals of ancient Italy; and related female divinity, the emphasis is on her aspect as they can dodge and change direction quickly or dive into young virgin goddess of the hunt, a double-edged role: as streams if needed, as they are able swimmers.36 a fertility deity, she ensures the hunt and the well-being, safety, and reproduction of wild fauna, but as a hunter A successful chase would no doubt attest to the hunter’s herself, she is lethal.43 If the amber represents Potnia great fleetness of foot, command of the coursers, perhaps, Theron, the hares may underline her chthonic aspect.44 and success with the throwing stick. Catching a hare The Grächwilhydriahandle may exemplify this. The might also be the result of a good snare. The hares of fauna around the divinity represent her broad influence: 77.AO.82 are in a crouching pose, alert yet carried head she controls the earth dwellers, the lions; those who live downward and encircled in the arms of the smaller both above and below the earth, the hares and snakes; figure, emphasizing the power of the hunter. and the hunter in the sky, the raptor—whose prey can be all creatures of the underground, the earth, and the sky. The wide-open eyes of the hares may specifically allude to The hares and snakes reiterate the connection of the the ancient belief that the animal slept with its eyes open divinity with the realm below. and was thus always vigilant. Since the hare is also a burrower, a creature that moves between the earth and Hunting itself connects two realms, the outside, the wild, the subterranean realm, it had, like the snake, chthonic the nonlocal, and the unfamiliar with the inside, the associations. domestic, the local, and the familiar, as Mary Helms suggests.45 Hunters are often seen as shamans who Hares rarely accompany figures in the mastery pose. mediate between these two worlds and have the Lions are the most common subject, long-necked uncommon ability to participate in unknown worlds.46 waterfowl (especially waders) the second most common, and horses the third. There appears to be but one extant In Egypt, the hare was the sacred animal of Wenet, an example of a hare-grasping female divinity: the main anthropomorphic goddess who wore a standard on her subject of the handle of a Laconian mid-sixth-century head with a recumbent hare. According to Plutarch, the bronzehydriafound at Grächwil, Switzerland.37 The Egyptians esteemed the hare as a symbol of divine figure, called by some scholars Artemis and by others qualities, because of its swiftness and acute senses. The Potnia Theron, stands atop lions and bearded snakes and relation of the hare to Osiris, which has been variously holds a pair of live hares firmly in her hands, one head affirmed, is unexplained but may have to do with the upward and the other head downward. A raptor is animal’s burrowing. In Greece, the hare is linked with perched atop her crown. other female and male divinities as well. One of the earliest marble korai, a headless figure from Samos In some societies today, birds and hares are among the (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1750), holds a young hare.47 first wild prey children learn to hunt, chase, or trap.38 Of Previously interpreted as an offerant to Aphrodite, it has course, hare hunting was not limited to the young in the now been associated with Hera. Another Samian statuette ancient world; Xenophon’s Cynegiticus, for instance, is of a kore holding a hare, a recent find, has also been especially concerned with chasing hares. As an animal of considered a votive gift to Hera.48 A marble kore the wild, the hare belonged to the deities of the hunt. consecrated in the Milesian sanctuary of Artemis Kithone/ Xenophon recommends that a hound be loosed on a hare Chitone holds a bird in her hand; Katerina Karakasi only after a vow has been registered to Apollo and interprets this kore as venerating Artemis not only as a Artemis the Hunter, and that hunters dedicate newborn fertility and vegetation goddess, but also as the goddess of hares to Artemis.39 Not only did Artemis watch over the 49 the hunt. newborn, as noted earlier; she also protected the unborn.40Callimachus, writing in the third century B.C. If the amber tamer is male, the hares may indicate a and drawing on a wealth of ancient tradition, claims that hunter-tamer, and Artemis’s brother may be called up. Artemis’s main pursuits are “the bow and the shooting of Dionysos, too, is associated with the hare: youths carry hares and the spacious dance and sport upon the dead hares in the company of the god; on two vases of the mountains.”41 Callimachus also refers to Artemis as Amasis Painter, women (maenads) bring live hares to Chitone, and his Artemis asks Zeus to “give me to gird me Dionysos; and on a vase by Lydos, a small satyr leans down to pet a hare in a scene with Dionysos and his 116 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

entourage. Is the hare held by a maenad in the presence fertility amulet combining a hare and a cowrie.58 In of Dionysos on the black-figure neck-amphora in Paris magical terms, the hares of 77.AO.82 may have mirrored, (attributed to the Amasis Painter) a gift to the god or an increased, or focused the fertility and healing aspects of emblem of the wild nature of the god’s followers?50 the divinity they refer to, accelerating the speed with However, as T. H. Carpenter points out, there does not which the pendant could ward away danger (a hare’s foot seem to be a “consistent pattern of use for the hare in gives the owner the animal’s fleetness of foot) or promote early Dionysian scenes.”51 rapid healing. The Etruscan aspects of 77.AO.82 suggest that the subject NOTES had particular relevance in Etruria, and more particularly in central, internal Etruria. Might it represent a native 1. J. V. Canby, “The Child in Hittite Iconography,” in Ancient Italian divinity such as that represented by the Vatican Anatolia: Aspects of Change and Cultural Development: Essays in “Herakles” or the Portonaccio terracotta? Or could it be a Honor of Machteld J. Mellink, ed. J. V. Canby, E. Porada, B. rare illustration of one of the indigenous male hero- Ridgway, and T. Stech (Madison, WI, 1986), p. 68. divinities that became absorbed into the Etruscan Hercle 2. The Ducktail is described by Richardson 1983, p. 34, as “a of the fifth century B.C.? smooth cap of hair that makes a low arch across the forehead, On balance, given the ancient connection between amber leaves the ears uncovered, and ends in a point at the top of the and divinities of light, and the iconographic and stylistic shoulders.” She notes that it is worn by the later group of connections of 77.AO.82 to the Artemis Orthia ivories, the perizoma-clad spearmen and is “a stiff version of the Laconian Grächwilhydria, the Lusoi bronzes, and the characteristic haircut of the kouroi of the Middle Archaic period, [which] helps to date these figures in the middle or third Samian bronze girl, the evidence seems to support a quarter of the sixth century.” Compare also the hair of the female identity for the figure. The pendant may represent bronze kouroi in Siena (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Siena the Greek (Laconian?) Artemis accommodated to a native 38720: ibid., p. 122, figs. 250–51) and in Volterra (Museo Etrusco female hunting divinity, one traditionally represented in Guarnacci 4: ibid., p. 121, figs. 252–53). the Potnia Theron schema. Whichever hunting divinity is 3. Painted wall panel of a youth before an altar from the represented, the pendant would offer protection. If Banditaccia Necropolis, Cerveteri (Louvre Cp 6626): Haynes Artemis, she would offer special protection for women in 2000, p. 220. childbirth, not just because of her skill in midwifery, but also because she offers death to women for whom the 4. Frankfurt, Liebieghaus 436: V. Mitsopoulos-Leon, “The Statue of pain of childbirth would be too great.52 In the Iliad, Hera Artemis at Lousoi: Some Thoughts,” in Sculpture from Arcadia reminds Artemis, “It was against women that Zeus made and Laconia: Proceedings of an International Conference Held at you a lion, and granted that you might kill whichever the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, April 10–14, ones you choose.”53 This more violent side of Artemis, 1992, ed. O. Palagia and W. Coulson (Oxford, 1993), pp. 33–39, from as early as the seventh century B.C., fueled with earlier bibl., including P. Bol, “Die ‘Artemis von Lousoi’: apotropaic magic, and medicine.54 In late antiquity, Eine klassische Wiedergabe eines frühgriechischen Kultbildes,” Artemis the bow-bearer was called upon in “aggressive” in Kanon: Festschrift Ernst Berger = AntK Beiheft 15 (1988): 76–88; magic and medicine as quite literally a “pain-killer.”55 So, R. Tölle-Kastenbein, Frühklassische Peplosfiguren: Originale (Mainz, 1980), pp. 149–52; and LIMC 2 (1984), s.v. “Artemis” (L. too, were Apollo and Herakles. In the rituals of death and Khalil), pp. 633, 738–40, no. 104, pl. 450. in the tomb itself, this ornament-amulet would have offered protection of the most powerful sort. Still to be 5. For the ivory and bone plaques representing feather-crowned resolved is the possible relationship of this image with the goddesses in various actions, see Marangou 1969, pp. 9–17, nos. iconography of the Hittite child. Might this figure, too, 1–4, fig. 15. On feathered crowns in Etruscan art, see Bonfante incorporate something of the miraculous-child concept? 2003, pp. 69–70, 135–38, 139, 147. Throughout antiquity, the hare’s proverbial fertility made 6. LIMC2 (1984), s.v. “Artemis” (L. Khalil), pp. 86–98, 631–32, it a rejuvenating symbol, and it was used in direct magic 742–43, with reference to J. Boardman, “Artemis Orthia and 56 Chronology,” Annual of the British School at Athens 58 (1963): to ensure regeneration. As an ornament, this large, 1–17; and Dawkins 1929. shining amber carving must have made a great impression with its potent imagery; as an amulet, it would 7. On Figure A as a female, see Bonfante 2003, pp. 219, 226, n. 36. have served its owner(s) well in life and death.57 Among The pair may be mourners but perhaps not ancestors: see F. R. the few examples of amber hare pendants is another S. Ridgway, “Near-Eastern Influences in Etruscan Art,” in Italy pendant in the Getty (79.AO.75.28, cat. no. 30), a “doubled” and Cyprus, 1500–450 B.C., ed. L. Bonfante and V. Karageorghis (Nicosia, 2001), p. 354. L. Bonfante refers to A. Maggiani, “Le Cat. no. 4 117

statue di Casale Marittimo,” in Principi Guerrieri: La necropoli 21. Höckmann 1982. etrusca di Casale Marittimo, ed. A. M. Esposito (Milan, 1999), pp. 22. G. Colonna, “Note preliminari sui culti del santuario di 33–39; and Bartoloni et al. 2000, pp. 172–76, nos. 126–27. Portonaccio a Veio,” Scienze dell’Antichità 1 (1987): 429; and M. 8. See S. Fabing, “Kneeling Archer,” in Kozloff and Mitten 1988, pp. Pallottino, “Le recenti scoperte nel santuario ‘Dell’Apollo’ a 190–93; see also Riis 1998, passim. Veio,” Le Arti 2 (1939): 23–24. 9. For the chitoniskos, or short tunic, in Etruria, see Bonfante 2003, 23. Vatican, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco 12056, from Valle Fuino: C. pp. 22–23; and Richardson 1983, p. 29. For the bucchero athletes Cagianelli, “Bronzi a figura umana,” in Monumenti Musei e who wear a tunic beneath a perizoma, see Bonfante 2003, pp. Gallerie Pontificie, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco: Cataloghi, 5 (Vatican 22–23, fig. 35. For the tunic-wearing kneeling hunter on the City, 1999), pp. 159–63, no. 15; and Bonfante 2003, p. 77, n. 89. Bernardini sheath, see Richardson 1983, p. 30, n. 23. The Geneva bronze MF 1017: Richardson 1983, pp. 361–62 (type 10. See M. Cool Root, “An Etruscan Horse Race from Poggio xi), fig. 867. The Paris bronze: A. de Ridder, Bronzes antiques du Civitate,” AJA 77 (1973): 121–38. Louvre (Paris, 1913), no. 223; and T. Campanile, “Statuetta di Eracle in bronzo d’arte etrusca,” BdA 2, no. 3 (1923/24): 453–63, 11. Haynes 2000, pp. 177–78. For the Pyrgi material, see the figs. 5–8. The Getty Museum bronze (96.AC.124): J. Paul Getty publications of the site by or ed. by G. Colonna, including Pyrgi: Museum2002, p. 130; J. Paul Getty Museum 2010, p. 126; and S. Scavi del santuario etrusco (1969–71) (Rome, 1992); NSc 42–43, Haynes in True and Hamma 1994, pp. 156–57, fig. 70. Two suppl. 2 (1988–89); and Pyrgi: Scavi del santuario etrusco related bronzes are the “Herakles” from Contarina (Rovigo) in (1959–67), 2 vols. (Rome, 1972). See also I. Krauskopf, Adria (Museo Archeologico Nazionale 9996: Mastrocinque 1991; “Ikonographische Parallelen im Bereich der Götter-und andLIMC, suppl. 1 (2009), s.v. “Herakles/Hercle” [S. J. Schwarz], Dämonenbilder,” in Prayon and Röllig 2000, p. 319, nn. 24–25. p. 248), and Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire MF 10117bis: Mastrocinque 1991, fig. 7; and LIMC, suppl. 1 (2009), s.v. 12. See cat. no. 2, n. 14, for discussion of the relevant bronzes. “Herakles/Hercle” (S. J. Schwarz). 13. One example is the runner in Samos (see n. 18, below). 24. For an outline of the debate, see C. Cagianelli 1999 (in n. 23, 14. For the ivory horse-tamer (Samos, Vathy Museum), see cat. no. above). The many features in common among the Etruscan 2, n. 17. The artistic relationship between the horse-tamer and terracotta, this group of bronzes, and a pair of late Proto- North Syrian art is evidenced by comparison to such a work as Elamite arsenical copper statuettes representing a striding the seventh-century B.C. bronze horse cheek piece from Samos horned hero or demon deserve consideration. The strider is a representing animal mastery (Samos, Vathy Museum b 149): well-recognized type “who descended from the mountains Jantzen 1972, pp. 58–62, pl. 53. bearing the mighty horns of an ibex and protected by the body of a vulture” (H. Pittman in First Cities 2003, pp. 46–48, nos. 15. For females wearing a short garment, see E. Parisinou, “The 15a–b). ‘Language’ of the Female Hunting Outfit in Ancient Greece,” in 25. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 529 (from a chariot): F. Johansen, Llewellyn-Jones 2002, pp. 55–72; see also T. Scanlon, Eros and “Etruskiske bronzerelieffer i Glyptoteket,” Meddelelser fra Ny Greek Athletics (Oxford, 2002), esp. chaps. 4 and 5, in which he Carlsberg Glyptotek 36 (1979): 67, fig. 22; and Emiliozzi 1997, pp. discusses the Olympic Heraia and Brauronia; N. Serwint, “The 291–97, fig. 1 (p. 292) and pl. XXX, 2. Female Athletic Costume at the Heraia and Prenuptial Initiation Rites,” AJA 97 (1993): 403–22; W. B. Tyrrell’s review of Scanlon 26. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 25081, Feoli Collection: 2002 (see above), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.05.20; and L. M. Cristofani in Cristofani and Martelli 1983, p. 299, no. 183; and Roccos, Ancient Greek Costume, http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/ Siviero 1959, p. 13, pl. 13, no. 15. roccos/greekcostume. 27. The “mastery of the animals,” the Mistress of the Animals, 16. See Serwint 1993 (in n. 15, above), n. c. Potnia Theron, and Artemis are schemata used to represent 17. Athens, National Archaeological Museum 14.494: LIMC 2 (1984), various related nature divinities. Discussions of Potnia Theron s.v. “Artemis” (L. Khalil), p. 633, pl. 450, no. 103a (under with particular relevance to this study are C. Christou, Potnia “Répresentations incertaines”). theron: Eine Untersuchung über Ursprung, Erscheinungsformen und Wandlungen der Gestalt einer Gottheit (Thessaloniki, 1968); 18. Samos, Vathy Museum B3. See Stibbe 2000, p. 170, figs. 133–34. Faraone 1991, pp. 39–48; LIMC 2 (1984), s.v. “Artemis” (L. Khalil), pp. 738–40, s.v. “Artemis/Artumes” (I. Krauskopf), pp. 786–87, 19. For the Pyrgi material, see n. 11, above. and s.v. “Potnia” (N. Icard Gianolio), pp. 1021–27; Damgaard 20. In the Capuan terracotta antefixes, the deity is between identical Andersen 1996; E. Nielsen, “Interpreting the Lateral Sima at large, long-necked birds (the common crane?). Capua, Museo Poggio Civitate,” in De Puma and Small 1994, pp. 64–71; Campano P. 289/90; Rome, Capitoline Museums; and Paris, Krauskopf 1998; Krauskopf 2000 (see n. 11, above), pp. 315–22; Louvre MNB 2071: LIMC2 (1984), s.v. “Artemis/Artumes” (I. A. Barclay, “The Potnia Theron: Adaptation of a Near Eastern Krauskopf), p. 777, pl. 580, no. 8. Image,” in Potnia: Deities and Religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, 118 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

ed. R. Laffineur and R. Hägg (Liège, 2001); and N. Winter, that the Phoenicians introduced the figure of Potnia Theron into “Commerce in Exile: Terracotta Roofing in Etruria, Corfu and Etruscan Italy from the Near East. Winter sees a different Sicily, a Bacchiad Family Enterprise,” Etruscan Studies, vol. 9, intermediary, at least for the roofs she discusses. The other article 18 (2002), http://scholarworks.umass.edu/ animal represented on the perirrhanterion, the ram, is important etruscan_studies/v019/iss1/18. The earliest Etruscan examples in the context of carved amber pendants, for rams’ heads are of the Great Goddess are close to the early Minoan images of the next most numerous subjects after female heads and are animal mastery. One example is the gold pendant from the frequently found in conjunction with them. Aigina Treasure: C. Gates, “Iconography at the Crossroads: The 38. Because of the Laconian associations of style and iconography Aigina Treasure,” in Transition: Le monde égéen du Bronze Moyen in 77.AO.82, a story recounted by Plutarch may be relevant: one au Bronze Récent, ed. R. Laffineur (Liège, 1989), pp. 215–25; and day, at Sparta, while youths and boys were exercising inside a R. Higgins, The Aegina Treasure: An Archaeological Mystery colonnade, a hare appeared, and the boys, still naked, ran out (London 1979). and chased it. For the erotic aspects of the hare and the chase, 28. Krauskopf 1984 (in n. 27, above). seeBarringer 2001; A. Schnapp, Le Chasseur et la cité: Chasse et 29. Damgaard Andersen 1996. érotique dans la Grce ancienne (Paris, 1997); and B. Ginge, The Erotic Hare (Odense, 1981). For the association between 30. Ibid. Aphrodite and the hare, see Freyer-Schauenburg 1974, p. 30. Plutarch’s telling of the story in regard to the hunting in Sparta 31. Haynes 2000, p. 131. may be of greater relevance for 77.AO.82. The discussion by R. 32. Berkin 2003, pp. 38–40, nos. 22–23, fig. 13, pl. 67; Valentini 1969, De Puma,Etruscan Tomb-Groups: Ancient Pottery and Bronzes in pp. 417–24. Valentini located the principal workshop for the Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History (Mainz, 1986), pp. production of Potnia Theron figures of this type, her Type A, at 32–33, of Archaic-period East Greek vessels in the form of a Chiusi. dead hare sheds light on more than the perfume vases. 33. The ivory pendant of “a sleeping animal” identified here as a 39. Xenophon,Cyn.5.14. Later in the text (5.33), he writes, “Thus the hare is Poggio Civitate Antiquarium 71–282: Phillips 1993, pp. sight of the hare is so pleasing that there is no one who would 75–76, fig. 115. For the Etruscan gem, see M. Martelli, “Un sigillo not forget about whomever [or whatever] he loved once he saw etrusco,” Quaderni Urbinati di cultura classica 38 (1981): 169–72. the hare being tracked, found, pursued, and caught.” 34. See, for example, the entry by A. Vu on Lepus europaeus: http:// 40. Artemis is angered at the death of a mother hare and her animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information unborn in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon. /lepus_europaeus.html. For the Lepus corsicanus, see a recent 41. Callimachus, Dian. 2 (Callimachus: Hymns and Epigrams; study by M. Pierpaoli et al., “Species Distinction and Lycophron; Aratus, trans. A. W. Mair and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Evolutionary Relationships of the Italian Hare (Lepus corsicanus) Library 129 [London, 1921]). as Described by Mitochondrial DNA Sequencing,” Molecular Ecology 8 (1999): 1805–17. 42. Ibid., 11–12. A stock subject in Attic and Proto-Corinthian vase painting is the dog-chasing-hare motif; the dog with prey (often 35. Xenophon,Cyn5.31. See also 6.11–17. For further descriptions of a hare) in its mouth is the subject of a series of Archaic bronze hare hunting among the ancient Greeks and in Italy, see J. K. and terracotta figurines in which the dog usually seizes the back Anderson,Hunting in the Ancient World (London, 1985); and K. D. legs of the hare (Langdon 1993, p. 57). Might this subject relate White, Country Life in Classical Times (Ithaca, NY, 1977), pp. to the constellation of Orion’s hound pursuing a hare? 119–20, 122. 43. Of particular interest in Etruria are the molded frieze of hounds 36. Barringer 2001, p. 95. pursuing hares decorating the raking gutter (sima) of a building 37. For the Grächwil hydria, see cat. no. 2, n. 23. That the figure is in the Archaic Building Complex at Poggio Civitate; the the handle of a hydria is significant, especially in the context of contemporary hare-hunting frieze on the Etrusco-Corinthian the gray marble perirrhanterion (circa 660–650 B.C.), a cult object “Tragliatella” jug (from a seventh-century B.C. elite woman’s from the Corinthian sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia. Its basin tomb at Cerveteri, Capitoline Museums 358); the inclusion of the is supported by a quartet of Potnia Theron caryatids holding hare (without hounds) in the rows of animals on vases, such as lions by the tail, with large ram protomes flanking the ring the Caeretan amphora in the Getty Museum (71.AE.289), support. E. Neilsen recognized this as the same deity attributed by J. G. Szilágyi to the Etrusco-Corinthian Group of the represented in the roof tiles in the early workshop building at Scale Amphorae (perhaps by the Le Havre Painter), of circa Poggio Civitate. Winter 2002 (see n. 27, above), p. 229, notes, 630–600 B.C.; and the head decoration of a pair of recumbent “The association of Potnia Theron with the water basin and the hares and a pair of lions worn by the bearded head of the edges of a roof where water drains from the eaves may be Etrusco-Campanian infundibulum in Copenhagen (Danish connected to the role of female caryatids as votive water National Museum 3284). Might the subject have also had a bearers.” Winter differs with Damgaard Andersen 1996’s theory danger-averting function, as did the Gorgon antefixes and the Cat. no. 4 119

panther masks decorating the roofs? Haynes 2000, p. 120, notes 23; W. Günther, “‘Vieux et inutilisable’ dans un inventaire inédit the connection between the Murlo sima and the Tragliatella jug. de Milet,” in Comptes et inventaires dans la cité grecque, ed. D. For the Getty amphora, see R. De Puma in CVA, United States of Knoepfler and N. Quellet (Geneva and Paris, 1998), pp. 215–37. America, fasc. 31, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, fasc. 6 Compare this to the high number of archaic terracottas of korai (Malibu, 1996), pp. 13–14, no. 10, who identifies the animal as a identified as Artemis holding hares. “dog (hare?).” For the infundibulum in Copenhagen, see H. 50. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet des Médailles 222 (signed Sauer, “Ein etruskisches Infundibulum in Kopenhagen,” AA by Amasis as potter): ABV, 152.25, 687; CVA, France 7, III H e, pl. (1937): cols. 286–308, figs. 1–3, 13–14; Riis 1938, p. 155, fig. 19; B. 36, 1–7, and pl. 7. D’Agostino, “Il mondo periferico della Magna Grecia,” in Popoli e civiltà dell’Italia antica, vol. 2 (Rome, 1974), p. 199; and B. 51. Carpenter 1986, p. 52. D’Agostino, “Le genti della Campania antica,” in Italia, omnium terrarum alumna: La civiltà degli Enotri, Chone, Ausoni, Sanniti, 52. SeeFaraone 1992, pp. 57–61, on the bow-bearing, death-dealing Lucani, Brettii, Siculi, Elimi, ed. C. Ampolo et al. (Milan, 1989), p. gods. Odysseus (Odyssey 11.171–73) asks his mother in the 572, fig. 555. For the Tragliatella jug, see, for example, underworld, “Was it a lingering illness, or did the archer Artemis Waarsenburg 1995, p. 449; and J. P. Small, “The Tragliatella attack you with her gentle arrows and kill you?” On Artemis’s Oinochoe,” RM93 (1986): 63–69. Haynes 2000, pp. 97–99, argues role in childbirth, see, for example, N. Demand, Birth, Death, and for a less mythic reading than most other recent interpreters Motherhood in Classical Greece (Baltimore and London, 1994). S. do. Running hares were a favorite theme for the rims of Greek G. Cole, Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek mirrors, most of which have been excavated from funerary Experience (Berkeley, 2004), p. 212, n. 87, notes, “Artemis contexts. Eileithyia is more common epigraphically. Artemis Lochia is more common in literary sources.” 44. Christou 1968 (see n. 27, above) underlines the connection between the “Mistress of the Animals” and the underworld. 53. Iliad 21.481. 45. Helms 1993;Helms 1988; see also Y. Hamilakis, “The Sacred 54. SeeFaraone 1992, pp. 136–40 (appendix 4, “The Incarceration of Geography of Hunting,” in Zooarchaeology in Greece: Recent Dread Goddesses”), with references; and Gager 1992. Advances, British School at Athens Studies 9, ed. E. 55. On aggressive magic, see Bonner 1950, pp. 26–56. On weaponed Kotjabopoulou et al. (London, 2003), p. 240, with references to divinities and talismanic magic, see Faraone 1992, pp. 136–40. Helms’s work. 46. Hamilakis 2003 (see n. 45, above), p. 240, refers to V. Turner, The 56. Hares have many other associations and meanings throughout Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca, NY, 1967); ancient culture, especially in the circum-Mediterranean world, and W. E. A. van Beek and P. M. Banga, “The Dogon and Their which may bear on this image. In Egypt, the Cape hare was a Trees,” in Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment and frequent subject of desert hunting scenes in tombs. By the New Development, ed. E. Croll and D. Parkin (London, 1992), pp. Kingdom, the scene of the desert hunt was already an age-old 39–56. theme, one of many symbolizing regeneration. Amulets in the shape of a hare have a long history in Egypt. The earliest 47. Berlin 1750: Freyer-Schauenburg 1974, pp. 27–31, n. 87, with surviving example is dated to the Old Kingdom; they are extensive bibl. She assumed the kore was consecrated to occasional in the Middle Kingdom, and more common in the Aphrodite and notes that two votive gifts of marble hares were Late Dynastic and Ptolemaic periods. Faïence images of hares brought to the Heraion, as indicated in the sources. See also were deposited in tombs, probably because “the figures had Karakasi 2003, p. 16, n. 59, pl. 11, with reference to Kyrieleis some magical or amuletic significance” (Houlihan 1986, p. 70). 1995. Andrews 1994, p. 64, summarizes: “The hare was credited with powers of regeneration, but its swiftness of movement and the 48. Karakasi 2003, p. 17, nn. 64–68, explains, “Hera and Aphrodite at keenness of its senses were also well known: it was even times fulfilled similar functions.… The hare was probably an believed to sleep with its eyes open. Its fecundity, of course, was appropriate votive offering for both deities, for both were seen proverbial. Thus a hare amulet could have worked in life to as protectors of the female sphere and patronesses of endow its wearer with fertility or rapidity of movement, or in conceptions and marriage. Whereas Aphrodite was more the death with hope of rebirth.” Erwin R. Goodenough, Jewish embodiment of sensuality and erotic love, Hera was associated Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, vol. 8 (New York, 1958), p. 93, with the family, virginity, and marriage.” sees remarkable persistence in the type and use of hare 49. Ibid., p. 50, citing bibl., considers that the cult ceremonies imagery from the Egyptian, Hittite, and Greek past through associated with Artemis Kithone at Miletos can be considered Judaism and early Christianity until the early modern period, initiation rites and that there was a “marriage market” aspect to suspects it was a generally popular symbol of immortality, and the festivities. On Artemis Chitone, see also N. Strawczynski, believes “[it] represented Dionysus and all other fertility deities “Artemis et Thesée sur le skyphos du peintre de Brygos Louvre through whose destruction and love men came, usually in G 195,” Revue Archéologique 35 (2003): 3–24; Cole 1998, p. 43, n. mysteries, to look for immortality.” 120 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

57. The hare is a solar symbol in ancient Egypt. This is discussed in Roma, CNR-Pompeii, 13–19 novembre, 1995, ed. N. Bonacasa et al. M. Caccamo Caltabiano, “Il simbolismo del ‘lepre’: Influenze (Rome, 1998), pp. 33–45. ideologico-religiose dell’Egitto sull’area dello Stretto riflesse dai 58. See B. A. Kathman’s entry for the Corinthian “Crouching Hare documenti monetali,” in L’Egitto in Italia dall’antichità al Toy(?),” in Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg medioevo: Atti del III Congresso Internazionale Italo-Egiziano, Collection, ed. A. K. Kozloff (Cleveland, 1981), p. 113, no. 94. Cat. no. 4 121

5. Pendant: Lion with Swan The amber is reddish brown. At the modern break on the bird’s head, the interior red-orange color of the material is visible. It is translucent in ambient light, but when subjected to transmitted light, it is transparent and a rich red. Numerous inclusions (or, possibly, deterioration pits) are visible in the lion’s chest, belly, and rump and in the base of the bird’s neck. Before it entered the museum, the pendant is reported to have been lightly cleaned. Description This pendant is carved from an oblong piece of amber and is conceived fully in the round. The two main sides are nearly identical. Only the position of the lion’s tail— which descends from the root downward, winds beneath the body and up around the right haunch, and terminates on the right hip—breaks the symmetry of the Accession 77.AO.81.2 composition. The bottom surface of the pendant, Number including the legs and belly, is compressed more than are Culture Etruscan the two flanks. Between the body and legs on both the underside and the flanks are areas of the pendant without Date 600–550 B.C. design (to be read as negative space). On the underside, the amber has been sharply cut-in to differentiate Dimensions Height: 42 mm; width: 60 mm; depth: 15 mm; between the sunken undersurface and the body parts. Weight: 25.2 g Subjects Amulets; Bird; Etruscan culture; Lion The lion looks back in a complete swivel. Its legs and feet are drawn compactly up under its body, the lower legs Provenance and feet stiffly parallel. The legs are angular, thin, and short, contrasting with the compact bulk and round –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. curves of the lion’s head and body. The pads and toes, Paul Getty Museum, 1977. especially of the back legs, are talon-shaped. The smooth blanket of the lion’s mane is raised away from the face in Condition front, standing up like a crewcut, and falls forward in a semicircular section between the ears. Around the face at The pendant is in a good state of preservation, intact with the point of juncture of the jaws, the mane juts forward the exception of a chipped portion of the bird’s head and into a cusp of fur. A Z-shaped shallow groove comes to a V bill. The surface is firm overall, with some abraded areas, above the nose. The folded-back ears have a barely minute cracks, overall crazing, and shallow chips. There is discernible pointed tuft of hair in front and lie well back little surface deterioration or crust. Shallow chips are on the head. The eyes are plastic and almond-shaped, missing from the left side of the lion’s jaw, the right front with the outside corners sloping sharply upward. elbow, and the lower edge of the left rear leg. One sizable Outlined below by a continuous engraved line, the eyes crack crosses obliquely across the lion’s left shoulder. are set off above by a line that also defines the length of There are small internal fissures throughout the piece. the nose. An extremely fine ridge connects to the cusp. The lion’s mouth is open, exposing the teeth (better preserved on the left side than on the right), including the 122

sharp upper canines, extending down over the lower In spite of its schematic rendering, the bird of 77.AO.81.2 canines. The lower jaw is suspended squarely under the can be classified as a swan and, more specifically, as a cheek, emphasizing the stylized, squared-off form of the mute swan. The salient characteristics are its large size in head; the chin is rounded by the exaggeration of the relation to the lion, its extremely long neck, and the semicircular flaps. volume of its wing area, but perhaps most important is the diagnostic basal knob on the upper mandible.4 The On the lion’s back, and partly in its mouth, is a long- amber image corresponds to the modern bird as well as to necked waterbird in the reguardant pose, with its head Egyptian illustrations of the mute swan.5 Did the artisan reverted. The neck is turned back so that the head and bill of the pendant know the lion and bird from firsthand rest flat on its body. Although the breast of the bird is in knowledge or only from other representations? While the lion’s mouth, the teeth do not indent the flesh. In there appear to have been no lions in ancient Italy, the proportion to the lion, the bird is large. A shallow mute swan is still a migrant visitor to the area. indentation separates the bird’s body from the large spread of the wing below it. The bird is more precisely The lions of 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3 and the amber rendered on its left side, where the triangular section heads in the Louvre are related in style to a large group of below the wing (overlapping the lion’s body) is more archaic Etruscan lions, mainly bronze reliefs, first easily read. gathered together by W. L. Brown.6 This large and varied group of lions is characterized by an amalgamation of In the area of the juncture of the lion’s face and mane is a early Etruscan lion types, which show strong links with smoothed depression, well blended into the design. The the Near East, with Assyrian and Hittite types modified by perforation holes are the same diameter here as on East Greek stylizations and motif. The lions of the two 77.AO.82(cat. no. 4) and the two Kourotrophos pendants, lion-subject pendants in this group reveal their 77.AO.84(cat. no. 1) and 77.AO.85 (cat. no. 2). Located on genealogies. The folded-back ear is a variant of the old the right side of the neck is a stopped bore 4 mm in Hittite heart-shaped form. The shape and slant of the eyes, diameter. Engraved lines are visible throughout the piece. the squared-off face, the curve of the lower jaw, and the On the body, around the lower part of the lion’s head, form of the mane in front reveal their genetic ties with below the bird’s body, circling the eye, and on the left the ferocious lions of Assyria. The East Greek stylizations flank are small hatchings and parallel series of scratch are brought out by comparison to lions from Ionia. marks. The pendant was bored with a triangular set of perforations, one piercing the thorax from side to side, Two of Brown’s lion groups are more closely related than and one each from the exits of this through-bore to a hole others to the lions of 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3. The first on the front of the neck. When strung, the lion would group includes two important parallels: the repoussé- have been suspended neck upward, with its legs formed lions of two reliefs from a chariot excavated from perpendicular to the ground. a “princely” tomb at Castel San Mariano di Corciano.7 The Discussion lion’s head of Thetis from the front of the chariot and the lion helmet of Herakles on the side panel are very close This pendant has no exact parallel in subject or matches for the heads of these Getty amber lions. They composition. For the style of the animals and bird, the have in common similar squared-off faces, jaws with deep closest comparisons are the lions of 77.AO.81.3 (cat. no. 6), mandibles, comparably formed eyes, folded-back ears, the hares of 77.AO.82, the waterbird of 77.AO.85, and two and smooth manes. The Thetis lion has the same amber lions’ heads in the Louvre.1 The squared-up distinctive cusp of the ruff on the cheek found on the lions compositional type of 77.AO.81.2 is not uncommon in of 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3. The amber lions are also Etruscan Orientalizing art. It is similar to the faunal related to the lions of the “Loeb” cauldron from Marsciano in Munich.8 They, too, have this distinctive compositions found in Etruscan goldwork, in bronze cheek-ruff tuft. The Castel San Mariano chariot reliefs and reliefs, and on bucchero. A nearly identical parallel for the the Loeb cauldron and stands reveal the impact of Ionian amber is the pair of (possible) fibulae molded onto the Greek art, especially that of Samos, as do the lions of shoulders of an enthroned canopic figure in Chiusi dated 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3. The second of Brown’s groups to the second half of the seventh century B.C.2 A close comparison for 77.AO.81.2 is a double lion motif stamped of lion relatives are all lions’ heads, each significantly on a number of impasto cup handles from Poggio Civitate larger in scale than the pendants. The comparanda (Murlo).3 include the Etruscan bronze chariot pole decorations and decorative bosses (tomb decorations of some kind) from Vulci and Tarquinia. The closest examples are the lion’s Cat. no. 5 123

head with inlaid eyes from the Vulcian Tomba del storied animal and the material as well. On the principle Guerriero, Osteria necropolis, in Rome,9 and the of “like banishing like,” an amber lion amulet might avert Tarquinian lacunaria in the Castellani collection.10 All the terrible danger and protect its owner in life or death. above-listed lions presented here as comparanda are Through amuletic assimilation, a lion-subject amulet likely to have been manufactured near their findspots in might incorporate danger-averting and protective northern internal Etruria11 and date to the last third functions for its owner. quarter of the sixth century B.C.12 The lion of 77.AO.81.2 might have carried deeply A lion with prey or parts of a human body grasped in its embedded cultural meanings such as were known in the mouth is an early and important theme in early Greek Near East. Among the earliest surviving of all ancient and Etruscan art, as Brown was the first to outline.13 Two Near Eastern amulet types is the lion, and in literature the other amber objects in the form of a lion with prey are lion was long the metaphor for warlike kings and fierce fibula-bow decorations, one representing a lion attacking deities. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the lion was a a bull, another a lion and a deer or fawn. However, the “generally magically protective type, known as urgulû.”19 style and compositions of these are different from In Egypt, the lion was a symbol of the sun-god Ra, and by 77.AO.81.2, and they are later in date, perhaps from the extension a symbol of the god Amun. As a desert dweller, end of the sixth century B.C.14 the lion was believed to have regenerative capabilities and as such was a vital amulet for the dead. The lion’s A lion savaging a long-necked bird is a rare subject in conquest of the swan adds to the meaning of the image. If ancient art. Among the few examples are a Greek a sixth-century Etruscan lion pendant did to some degree Orientalizing earring or temple pendant from Rhodes in incorporate Mesopotamian or Egyptian symbolism, what the Louvre,15 the aforementioned molded fibulae on the better material for it than amber, with its solar Chiusine “canopic” figure, and a painted detail on a hydria associations? In the tomb, the powerful lion, carved from by the Micali Painter in Geneva.16 One of the many a material long associated with mourning and rebirth, variants on the theme is a lion with prey slung over its would have made the amulet especially effective for the back; this artistic convention is East Greek in origin.17 deceased. 77.AO.81.2 appears to be the unique representation in amber. NOTES Although the composition of 77.AO.81.2 may have been 1. Metzger 1991. instigated in part by the shape of the amber, the squared- up form, with the creatures’ bodies pointing in one 2. For the Chiusine urn, see Gempeler 1974; it is illustrated in P. direction and the heads in another, may have had special Barcellini, L’Arte Etrusca (Florence, 1958), fig. 14. importance. The reverted head, an age-old format in Near 3. K. M. Phillips, Jr., “Stamped Impasto Pottery Manufactured at Eastern art, perhaps carried something of its earlier Poggio Civitate,” in De Puma and Small 1994, pp. 29–46. The signification. For instance, in Kassite-period art, a bird number and variety of stamped designs found on pottery and with a turned-back head is found frequently as a divine ordinary utensils from northern Etruria during the Orientalizing symbol and attribute.18 period are exceptional and closely related to impressions made from cylinder seals. The old format of the amber, as well as its character as a shimmering and golden jewel, may have called up the art 4. Compare the schematic representation of waterbirds in and ornaments of Egypt and the Near East, and the power Ruuskanen 1992. and status of the exotic ornaments of the Orient. It may 5. For the mute swan, see Houlihan 1986, pp. 50–51. The mute also have called up Odysseus’s famous brooch. If it swan (Cygnus olor) breeds in parts of Europe, Asia, and southern functioned as an amulet, 77.AO.81.2 might have been able Africa and winters in parts of Europe, Western Asia, the Middle to conjure up the power of the deities of the wild, or the East, and Africa (ibid., p. 50). “Although not fully understood, it heroes and gods who conquered birds and animals. The is clear that the swan must have possessed some religious lion may even represent symbolically a particular hero or significance which prompted statues of the bird being deposited divinity. The symbolism of the swan in the ancient world in the tombs of [three] Dynasty XII princesses” (ibid., p. 51, with and in Italy, and specifically its importance to the people references). who would have seen this amber, deserves further study. 6. Brown 1960, chap. 5. The owner of such an object may have taken on by 7. Perugia, Museo Archeologico Nazionale com. 3a, inv. Bellucci assimilation the power, bravery, and ferocity of the 1403 (fragment with the Thetis lion), and com. 453, inv. Bellucci 124 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

1427 (panel with a scene with Zeus and Herakles). See A. E. 14. These two amber ornaments are from the same tomb, Feruglio and A. Emiliozzi in Emiliozzi 1997, pp. 207–25, with Belmonte Piceno Tomb 72 (Ancona, Museo Archeologico earlier bibl.; M. Martelli, “Il ‘Marte’ di Ravenna,” Xenia 6 (1983): Nazionale 11014–15): Marconi 1933, pl. 30.1–2; Brown 1960, p. 27; M. Martelli, “La cultura artistica,” in Gli Etruschi: Una nuova 100; Negroni Catacchio 1989, pls. 484–85; and Rocco 1999, p. 75, imagine, ed. M. Cristofani (Florence, 1984), p. 188. P. G. Warden fig. 29. Brown concluded that they were “made on the spot— AJA(1984): 87–88, in his review of Höckmann 1982, cautions doubtless by a craftsman who had come from somewhere in against certainty in siting the manufacture since so little is Etruria, perhaps from Orvieto or Chiusi,” which remains a valid known about the nature of Etruscan workshop production. assessment. 8. Munich, Antikensammlung SL 68: Höckmann 1982, passim; 15. Laffineur 1978, pp. 127–37. On p. 129, n. 1, he notes that the pair Sprenger and Bartoloni 1981, pp. 107–8, fig. 103; W.-G. Thieme, in the Louvre belong to the same type as a group in the “Die Dreifüsse der Sammlung J. Loeb im Museum für Antike Archaeological Museum, Rhodes, first recorded by G. Jacopi, Kleinkunst, München,” Ph.D. diss. (Munich, 1967); and L. Banti, “Scavi nella necropolis di Jalisso 1924–1928,” Clara Rhodos 3 “Bronzi arcaici etruschi: I tripodi Loeb,” in Tyrrhenica: Saggi di (1929): 72–80. studi etruschi, Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere 16. Thehydriais in a Geneva private collection: Spivey 1987, p. 22, (Milan, 1957), pp. 77–92. fig. 16. 9. Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 63580: Civiltà degli 17. Brown 1960, p. 83, observes: “Most modern observers deny that Etruschi 1985, p. 301, no. 11.21.9. lions carry their quarry in this manner.” For the motif, see the 10. Brown 1960, pp. 101–4. representation on side B of the “white-on-red” ware pithos in 11. See ibid., p. 89, for his sage evaluation of this material: “This the Getty (96.AE.135, gift of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman): widespread series of styles is undoubtedly Etruscan.… Certain it R. De Puma in CVA, United States of America, fasc. 34, The J. Paul is that an important source for stylizations and motives was Getty Museum, Malibu, fasc. 9 (Malibu, 1996), pl. 470.1, with eastern Greece, but it would be a mistake to overemphasize this reference to P. Amandry, “Plaques d’or de Delphes,” AM 77 aspect of these styles.” (1962): 53–54, pl. 11.1 (Florence 3046), a bucchero pesante oinochoe from Chiusi. 12. For the date, see Brown 1960, p. 89; and Emiliozzi 1997, p. 219. 18. See, for example, Black and Green 1992, p. 43. The 13. For relevant Geometric and Archaic animal-and-prey figurines, accompanying inscription on one kudurru probably named the seeLangdon 1993, pp. 57–58; W.-D. Heilmeyer, Frühe olympische Kassite god Harbe. Bronzefiguren: Die Tiervotive (Berlin, 1979); and H. G. Buchholz, G. 19. Ibid., p. 119. Jörens, and I. Maull, Jagd und Fischfang, Archaeologia Homerica Bd. I, Kap. J (Göttingen, 1973). Cat. no. 5 125

6. Pendant: Paired Lions cracks and has overall crazing and pitting. In ambient light, the piece is translucent and dark brownish black; in transmitted light, it is translucent and orange. There are some small fissures but no visible inclusions. Before entering the Getty Museum, the pendant is reported to have been mechanically cleaned. Description Although the two sides of the pendant are nearly identical, the side with fewer natural flaws is here designated the obverse. The pendant is composed of two compactly designed reguardant lions in repose that are book-matched along their ventral surfaces. At the top, functioning as a suspension device between the two felines, is a protrusion of amber. At the bottom is a section of amber that, together with the encircling tails, forms a calyxlike base. On the reverse are two crevices, a deep, polished groove extending from the chest to the flank and a smaller indentation near the knee, both resulting from the removal of a fissure or inclusions before the pendant was figured. Other traces of manufacture—the engraved lines, scraped areas, and multidirectional abrasion marks—can be seen around the muzzles, haunches, and legs, and near Accession 77.AO.81.3 the base of the tails. A drill was used for the interstices Number between the pads and toes of the lions’ feet and at the Culture Etruscan corners of their mouths. The pendant has a triangular set of suspension perforations, each 2 mm in diameter. One Date 600–550 B.C. extends laterally between the forepaws and intersects Dimensions Height: 56 mm; width: 82 mm; depth: 20 mm; with two others, each of which goes from the top of the Diameter of perforation holes: 2 mm; Weight: pendant (in the middle of the flange) to an exit of the 54.4 g lateral bore. When strung, the pendant would have hung Subjects Egypt; Lion with the lions’ heads at the top. Discussion Provenance There is no exact parallel for this pendant. 77.AO.81.3 –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. belongs to the same Getty group as 77.AO.84 (cat. no. 1), Paul Getty Museum, 1977. 77.AO.85(cat. no. 2), 77.AO.81.1 (cat. no. 3), 77.AO.82 (cat. no. 4), and 77.AO.81.2 (cat. no. 5). The lions of 77.AO.81.3 Condition are nearly identical with the lion of 77.AO.81.2 and to a pair of amber lions’ heads in the Louvre.1 They are also The pendant is in a good state of preservation. The generally related in style to the hares of 77.AO.82. As is surface is firm and stable, although it is laced with many discussed in the entry for Addorsed Females (77.AO.81.1), 126

there are also few other contemporary amber objects of challenge perhaps similar to that of squeezing them into a doubled subjects with which to compare the two frontal composition for the handle of a bucchero kyathos. pendants. The only other amber of doubled lions is the The antithetical compositional type, one especially (possibly) early-fifth-century B.C. fibula decoration from popular for upright lions, has ancient roots in the Near Belmonte Piceno, which represents the foreparts of two East. The confronted-lion compositions employed in the lions.2 In 77.AO.81.3, the lions are ventrally positioned, or Aegean Bronze Age and in Orientalizing Greece are heraldically posed (rather than addorsed). related to Hittite types.9 The composition bears remarkable similarity to the confronted lions of the The pendant is drilled for suspension so that the lions’ Hittite Dagger God relief carving in chamber B at flanks would be presented. This is also the case with the Yazilikaya.10 other double-subject amber pendants, the twinned animal and human figures from Tomb VI at Satricum in the Villa The composition of the doubled lions may have had a Giulia,3 the double lion with single face pendant from special set of functions, focusing or going beyond the Pianello di Castelbellino in Ancona,4 and the two-figure meaning of the single-lion subject. The doubling may pendant in Philadelphia, perhaps from Ascoli Piceno.5 In signify two lions, or it may represent repetition, a basic every case, as P. G. Warden pointed out, the pose tool of magic. Repetition is an age-old formula for “emphasizes the frontality of the figures and the possibly increasing the potency of any amulet, spell, or curse. apotropaic nature of pendants of this sort.”6 Another way to read the imagery of the pendant is as an extract of the Potnia Theron schema, such as the pairs The two lions of 77.AO.81.3 appear to be identical, but adorning the handles of the bucchero kyathoi. On these they are not. The differences are minimal and may offer buccherocups, the lions announce the presence of the an opportunity to “see” something of the hand of the divinity.11 The divine and solar aspects of the amber may carver. The ease with which right profiles are worked (in have automatically called up the presence of a divinity at contrast to the left ones) suggests that the carver was the same time that the material underlined the meaning right-handed. The most notable difference between the of the lions. two lions is the tips of their tails: one is curled back and terminates in a volute (obverse left), and the other is A lion image is one of the oldest of all signs. Considering spear-shaped. On both obverse and reverse, the right- the importance of the lion as a subject of Egyptian hand profiles of the lions are more carefully defined, with amulets, the most widely dispersed in the circum- rounder mandibles and the heads slanted slightly Mediterranean world, 77.AO.81.3 likely embeds upward; the left-hand profiles are squarer, with more something of earlier amuletic symbolism, the Egyptian angular mandibles and the heads carved parallel to the and Near Eastern particularly. In Egypt, the lion was a ventral line. Overall, the form of the pendant, especially solar animal and a protective sentinel, a powerful symbol with the calyxlike form of the tails at the bottom, is of defense.12 As a desert dweller, the lion was believed to reminiscent of a pommel, and although no close analogue have regenerative powers. From early times there, a exists, it may indicate the experience of the carver or double-lion deity, Aker, the lions of yesterday and point to a specific model in another hard material: ivory, tomorrow, guarded the sun’s passage through both ends bone, wood, antler, or horn. of the day and protected the horizon.13 The pairing and style of the lions of 77.AO.81.3 is NOTES comparable to that of the pairs of lions held by a Potnia Theronon two types of bucchero kyathos handles found at 1. Metzger 1991. Poggio Civitate and other northern internal Etruscan 2. See cat. no. 5, n. 14. sites,7 and on a bucchero infundibulum.8 The schema is unusual because the divinity holds the confronted 3. For the Satricum Tomb VI material, see Waarsenburg 1995. animals in front of her body. The similarity between the 4. Ancona, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 4427 (from Pianello di buccherodecorations and 77.AO.81.3 may be taken as Castelbellino): Rocco 1999, pp. 51–52, no. 37, pl. XX. additional evidence for locating the manufacture of the Getty Orientalizing ambers to northern internal Etruria. 5. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology MS 2538: Warden 1994, no. 2, Although the subject of two confronted lions is age-old, figs. 13.4–6; and Turfa 2005, p. 226, no. 241. they are not usually presented in a crouching position or with the bodies joined heraldically. This may be a function 6. Warden 1994, p. 139. of fitting the lions into the amber blank’s original form, a Cat. no. 6 127

7. Berkin 2003, pp. 38–40, nos. 22–23, figs. 13–14.1, pls. 6–7 (his Archaeologist 58, no. 2 (1995): http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/ type 1), with reference to Valentini 1969. For the related projects/gol/ba95.html. Yener refers to S. Kosak, Hittite Inventory bucchero at the J. Paul Getty Museum, see CVA, United States of Texts (CTH 24150) (Heidelberg, 1982). America, fasc. 31, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, fasc. 6 11. For the concept, see Nagy 1994 (in n. 3 in the “Orientalizing (Malibu, 1996), pp. 17–20, pls. 305.4, 306.4, and 308.1. Group” section) in relation to a group of terracottas from 8. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 72733: Valentini 1969, Cerveteri. p. 428, pl. XI, no. 67. 12. Wilkinson 1992, p. 69. For additional discussion of lion 9. See the excellent survey of the subject in Marangou 1969, pp. symbolism, see 77.AO.81.2, 76.AO.78 (cat. no. 31), and 63–65. 77.AO.81.8 (cat. no. 32). 10. A. A. Yener, “Swords, Armor, and Figurines: A Metalliferous View 13. Wilkinson 1992, p. 159. from the Central Taurus,” electronic version of article in Biblical 128 ORIENTALIZING GROUP

Ship with Figures 129

7. Pendant: Ship with Figures deterioration pittings) throughout the piece, mostly on the port side. While in the donor’s collection, the piece was lightly cleaned and the two broken sections of the bow reattached. Description The pendant is worked fully in the round. The ship has a deeply rounded hull and a heavy keel. At one end, identified here as the stern, is a curved, knoblike protrusion that must be the aphlaston, or sternpost, which is shaped like a schematic bird-head device. In front of the aphlaston is a raised structure, probably the stern castle, articulated on its sides by five parallel vertical Accession 76.AO.76 indentations, with a division down the center on the top, Number and uneven protrusions (the sheet and cordage?). At the Culture Etruscan bow, in front of the figures, is an undifferentiated section Date 600–575 B.C. of amber and, above it, a rectangular form that protrudes over the bow. This forward structure, a bow screen, or Dimensions Length: 120 mm; width: 35 mm; depth: 10 possibly a flexible upper deck, is described by two narrow mm; Weight: 66 g horizontal fillets within which are short vertical incisions; Subjects Funerary use of amber (also Burial); Jewelry; on its top, it is marked off with transverse parallel lines. Magic Seven figures are aboard ship. On each side are three figures, represented by their frontal heads and necks. On Provenance each side is carved the profile of a long-haired, bearded man (head, neck, and a small section of the torso are –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. represented); in front of him is a tied sack or other cargo. Paul Getty Museum, 1976. This figure sits in front of the stern castle and looks forward. Condition The six outward-facing figures are nearly identical. They There is a break at the bow, a large chip in this break, a have similarly shaped oval faces, centrally parted caplike break at the bow set of suspension holes, and a number of hair, and cursorily modeled features. Their eyes are small chips on the top side. A section of the keel is broken almond-shaped, blank, and bulging; their noses are off, and there is an old fracture loss on the starboard side triangular; and their mouths are formed as parallel bars. just above the keel. There are large fissures on the top, The bearded figure sits taller in the ship and is slightly port, and starboard sides near the stern. The crazing is larger in scale than the frontal figures. His almond- uniform overall. shaped eyes are set high in his face. He has a sharp, triangle-shaped nose, a prominent pointed beard, and The object is dark reddish brown in ambient light and long hair falling over his ears to the back hairline. translucent and dark reddish orange in transmitted light. There are a number of inclusions (or, possibly, The pendant preserves evidence of its original form and its preparation before the figuration. Portside is a smoothed depression, and on the bottom is a smoothed 130

lacuna in the keel. Three sets of through-bores perforate the unbearded figure of the Pania ivory is alone in the the pendant, at the bow, at the stern, and amidships ship and handles double rudders (and his cargo consists between two of the passengers’ necks. Each set forms a of two amphorae). The ivory, bronze, impasto, and triangle: one hole perforates the body of the pendant from buccheroobjects not only suggest an approximate date for obverse to reverse, and the other two holes intersect this 76.AO.76, but also suggest where in Etruria it may have transverse bore at the exits. The latter two holes are been made and buried. drilled at an acute angle and meet at the topside of the piece, forming an apex. A filament or cord would have The ship of 76.AO.76 has many earlier and contemporary run from the apex of the triangle through the transverse comparisons in the archaeological remains and in the art bore and back up to the apex. of the ancient Mediterranean, especially among small three-dimensional representations in terracotta, bronze, Discussion and other materials, carved stone reliefs, Etruscan wall painting, and most particularly Greek vase painting. The There is no close parallel for 76.AO.76; only one other subject also figures on coins and gems. The Etruscan related amber carving is known, a ship with sailors from shipwrecks at Giglio, Antibes, Marseilles, and Pisa offer Padula (Lucania), which likely served as the bow of a extraordinary information about the actual vessels. Taken fibula (see below). 76.AO.76 is generally related in style to together, the corpus of ancient material allows a very the ambers discussed in cat. nos. 1–6 and was included in particular knowledge of ships and ancient seafaring, even the same donation. though in the images “some elements of the ship’s The shape of the pendant links it to a much older type of architecture [may be] telescoped, others expanded or ornament, the crescent-shaped necklace, found in metal otherwise exaggerated, while others [may be] disproportionately small or ignored entirely.”8 and amber, a fashion that flourished in the north and in Western Europe during the Beaker period and the early The Getty ship is a different kind of vessel from that Bronze Age.1 The form, materials, and symbolism of such represented on the Pania pyxis. The Getty amber clearly pectorals were exclusive to high-status individuals. The represents a rounded hull but has no oars, oarlocks, or pendant is also related to the engraved decoration of holes. It must be one in a class of merchantmen, or cargo- ships on two Daunian stone stelae of females.2 carrying ships, which the Greeks called a holkadikon 76.AO.76 may be “located” in Etruria (with debts to Greek ploion or holkas (towed ship)—that is, a vessel dependent art) and dated by the compact format of the carving and on masts and sails to propel it. Unequipped with oars, the holkas would have been towed into and out of harbor.9 the style. The frontal figures (whether passengers, sailors, Although the carver of 76.AO.76 has provided much detail or marines) are related to the Getty Kourotrophos group— about the ship (aphlaston, keel, stern castle, etc.), much is 77.AO.84(cat. no. 1) and 77.AO.85 (cat. no. 2)—and share not indicated: there is no rudder, mast, sail, or cordage. many sculptural comparisons. The ship’s frontal figures Certainly, there were limits set by the form of the amber are akin to the Etruscan bronze votives in Emeline blank. As noted in the description, the lumpy material aft Richardson’s Swordsman Series A, which she dates to the may be the stowed mast and sailing gear; alternatively, if early sixth century B.C.3 A work such as the male sphinx acroterium from Poggio Civitate (Murlo) of about 575 B.C. the carriers extending from each of the three suspension also helps to place it.4 76.AO.76 gives evidence of its points were joined up, they would form the schema of a connection to Etruscan art when compared to seventh- mast and lines. The three sets of suspension holes would century ivories and caryatid figures from bucchero have enabled the pendant to hang from three separate chalices.5 The seated figure’s profile is similar to that of points or to be attached to clothing or another, larger Aristaios in the Spartan ivory plaque in London, and in its ornament, in three places. Then again, a carrier attached silhouette and harsh modeling is generally comparable to at each point might have been pulled up to a central point a variety of Etruscan works dating to between the late above the pendant, the lines of the carriers then forming eleventh and mid-sixth centuries: some of the early male a bisected triangle—a pattern like that of a mast and lines. “canopic” heads from the Chiusi area, the limestone With the pendant suspended this way, the rails would be cinerary urn in the form of a seated man from Chiusi, and parallel to the horizon, very like the position of a ship at profile warrior heads in bucchero.6 The ivory pyxis from sea. Pania, Chuisi, of circa 620–580 B.C., likely carved in Another important ship comparison is an ivory pectoral southern Etruria,7 offers up important analogues for both decoration from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at frontal and profile heads and for the schematic Sparta,10 whose scene is perhaps a disembarkation. The illustration of the ship. However, there are differences: Cat. no. 7 131

subject has been interpreted as the carrying off of Helen questions, some first posed by M. L. Nava.15 Do these to Troy.11 Both ornaments are lunular in shape, with just represent objects, such as pendants? Are they part of the a few figures. dress? And what role does such prominent imagery play for the deceased individuals? There is only one other published amber in the form of a ship, from a burial at Padula, Lucania. First published by Although it is probable that the Getty pendant, like the Amadeo Maiuri in a short, illustrated note in 1914, it was Padula amber, was unearthed from a grave, both found along with numerous other objects during pendants may have had similar previous quotidian roadwork in the early twentieth century. Maiuri identified functions. If this is so, we might ask on what occasions or the disturbed find as the remains of a woman’s grave.12 for what reasons the pendants were worn. The Getty While the Padula amber ship is generally similar to the pendant and the Padula ship offer no evidence of wear. Getty ship in subject, size, shape, suspension technique,13 degree of relief carving, and the absence of a mast, they It is possible that the original forms of the amber lumps differ in artistic style, type of ship, characterization of the informed the imagery—that is, the form of the raw amber figures, and implied narrative. determined which kind of ship would be represented, and the narrative followed. If the ship imagery symbolizes the The Padula ship is an oared galley with a dolphin-figured same thing, it was surely augmented by amber’s magical forefront or ram. Stowed nautical equipment—mast, sail, aspects. It is conceivable that there was always a and cordage—is visible at the top on the starboard side connection of amber with sailing, and with particular and above and behind the figures on the port side. Aboard ships and voyages, real or legendary, which inspired the are four figures facing aft and a single figure facing formation and embellishment of the raw material into forward. Only the upper parts of each figure are these pendants. represented; all are in profile. The figure astern has a rudder (perhaps one of a pair). The two sides of the Amber’s natural buoyancy in saltwater may be one of the Padula amber are dissimilar. To port, only two of the simplest explanations for the choice of a marine subject. sailors are fully indicated. To starboard at the prow is a The ship may represent, in a general sense, journey by large shield, the blazon of which is an eagle in flight to the sea, sea trade, or colonization. In the Archaic period, a left. successful sea journey held the promise of incredible wealth, but it was also a dangerous and risky The Padula amber is generally similar to the Getty ship undertaking. A ship-shaped amber pendant may have had and calls to mind the same stylistic comparisons. The a direct talismanic function. Was it a charm that brought Padula pendant compares well with many early-to-mid- good luck and good sailing?16 A ship as an amuletic sixth-century B.C. objects, including Greek vases. This subject could also represent the “vehicle” on which proposed early date is commensurate with that of the danger could be sent away. A curse against a night- other amber objects illustrated by Maiuri, especially wandering demon commands, “Go away upon swift bulla-shaped amber pendants, which were popular ships!”17 throughout much of the Italian peninsula from the early seventh century. This ship amber, too, may have been On the other hand, did this portafortuna once promise carved in Etruria, perhaps in a southern Etruscan center success in trading ventures or in the establishment of a such as Cerveteri. colony? It must have been the elite who sent abroad trading ships, themselves symbols of status and prestige. The two ship pendants present many questions: why a A ship could also stand for some of the values of pendant with a ship subject, for whom were they made, aristocratic society, such as the entrepreneurial spirit or why were they buried in a grave (as is assumed for the Odysseus-like cleverness and ingenuity that was 76.AO.76), and once there, how did they work? The ship required on dangerous journeys to unknown places. (with and without sailors) has a long history of funerary Successful marine enterprises, whether for business or use, from early Egypt as well as Old Europe. The amber for the establishment of colonies, contributed to the self- ships may have had a comparable function in tombs as definition of the aristocrat. Figures such as Odysseus that of ship models, wall paintings with ships, and vases becameLeitbilderfor Greek and Etruscan aristocrats decorated with ships (some with figures and some traveling far from home.18 Owning, wearing, giving, or without).14 The Tarquinian tombs with ships, the Tomb of being given an object like the Getty ship pendant might Hunting and Fishing and the Tomb of the Ships, underline offer or affirm an identity with Odysseus, might articulate the high status of such imagery. The carving of ships with a colonial Greek, Etruscan, or Italiote’s ethnic identity, or sailors on two Daunian stelae of women opens up many might even affirm a genealogical connection to Odysseus. 132 SHIP WITH FIGURES

At the least, because the pendants are made of amber, “the only one with a beard,” and, interpreting Homer’s they can be seen as objects of high-status material words, he added, “Menelaus was left behind to build embellished or reinforced with an inherently high-status Phrontis a tomb and to pay him the due rites of burial.”23 subject. Certainly, a depiction that would recall Homer, Menelaus’s Return, and Nestor would have carried strong The ship ambers are also open to more concrete epical associations with burial, honor, and magic and might and mythological readings. Some of the relevant Greek even have been a compelling reason for the choice of stories are Theseus’s voyage to Crete, Jason and the subject and for the subsequent burial in the tomb of an Argonauts’ search for the Golden Fleece, and Odysseus’s elite personage—even if that personage were a woman. adventure with the sirens. There is a close connection between the Argonauts and amber. In one of the amber- In this regard, it is useful to recall the gold votive origin stories, the Argo sailed up the Eridanus River and inscription from the coastal sanctuary at Pyrgi, which the Argonauts came upon the body of water in which mentions “Uni/Astarte, Ino/Leukothea, and Eileithyia[,] all Phaethon had fallen. A Homeric subject might have had a mother goddesses who were supposed to help mortal particular relevance for an amber amulet. Homer’s words women in childbirth and watch over the growth of young were magical. “Quotations from his work could heal children, as well as save sailors.”24 people when whispered in their ears or hung around their necks written on amulets, which should be Both the Getty and Padula ships may allude to the barque 19 of the sun.25 If there is a solar connection, the object may preferably of gold.” Odysseus in particular was a magical figure, for he had survived transport within a be linked to Bronze Age illustrations of the solar journey, the metaphor for rebirth,26 and to a unique Etruscan mystically powerful, precivilized natural world; he went to locales where the heavens seemed to touch the land depiction of the sun barque (with three passengers) and sea, places between the celestial and earthly sailing eastward, above the solar god driving his horses, realms.20 on a mirror from Orbetello (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. MA 73798). One part of the route to the Odysseus’s challenge to the sirens had particular resting place of the dead was over the sea, to a place resonance in southern Italy: sirens ranged along the “which evoked an occidental archipelago of the blessed, Tyrrhenian coast, and their home was an island offshore an Afterworld beyond the ocean, in the sector belonging (perhaps real, perhaps mythical), or perhaps they were to the netherworld’s gods,” as Jean-René Jannot writes, turned into rocks after their suicide.21 The bearded figure and it is “a sea monster or a ship of the high seas” that of 76.AO.76 could depict Odysseus or perhaps the captain. brings the dead to the other shore.27 Such a vision of the The omission of Odysseus may have functioned as an afterworld may owe much to the Bronze Age in northern intentional ellipsis; the wearer could symbolically replace Europe, the source of the amber. the hero. NOTES Another story known from the Odyssey that deserves our consideration—and one not, to my knowledge, previously 1. L. Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Princeton, associated with surviving images in Greek and Etruscan 1971), p. 2. This was brought to my attention by J. Bouzek and E. art—is an episode of Menelaus’s Return. The bearded Pleslová-Štiková. For an overview of the type, see E. Pleslová- helmsmen of each pendant might, from this perspective, Štiková, “A Crescent-Shaped Necklace from Velvary, Bohemia,” have been associated with Phrontis, the helmsman of in Beck and Bouzek 1993, pp. 147–52. A crescent necklace was Menelaus, “whom no man has yet surpassed in piloting a the attribute of a high-ranking individual; the finds of amber ship when storm winds blast.” This is how, in the Odyssey, and metal examples, and the representations of them on the horseman Nestor pays tribute to Phrontis, who was engraved anthropomorphic stelae, establish the early date. struck by Apollo “with his gentle shafts” as the ship 2. Museo di Manfredonia 0806: M. L. Nava in Ambre 2007, p. 221, bearing Menelaus and Nestor neared Sunium, the sacred fig. 2, no. III.230. headland, “while his hand held fast the steering rudder.” 3. Richardson 1983, pp. 64–70; compare, for example, Arezzo “So Menelaus, although he was keen to journey on, 11490, 11492, 11493, 11495 (ibid., pls. 24–31); and Volterra 18, 23, stopped then at Sunium to bury and to honor his 24, 28 (ibid., pls. 29–32). companion.”22Menelaus’s Return was one of the subjects painted by Polygnotos in a section of his murals in the 4. Poggio Civitate, Antiquarium 68–100. Knidian Lesche at Delphi. Pausanias singled out the figure 5. Compare, for example, the pair from the Tomb of the Animals at of Phrontis in his long ekphrasis of the Lesche program as Cerveteri (Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia S10V3: Cat. no. 7 133

Bartoloni et al. 2000, pp. 302–5, no. 420); and the two female Geometric oinochoe, the manned pair engraved on an eighth- figures from a large ivory find from Comeana in Florence century B.C. fibula from Sparta, or the two painted on one side (Museo Archeologico Nazionale 194541–42: ibid., p. 260, nos. of the “Aristonothos krater” from Cerveteri (Rome, Capitoline 318–19a). Museums 172). The last’s two ships are variously interpreted: 6. The ivory plaque showing Aristaios in the British Museum (GR some scholars identify one as Greek and the other as Etruscan, 1954.9–10.1) is possibly from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Phoenician, or Italic. Whether consciously made to represent Sparta; the Chiusine limestone urn (of circa 540–520 B.C.) is Greek versus non-Greek, or whether there are just two types of British Museum GR 1847,1127.1. For the Chiusine canopus urns, ship actually engaged in battle, the krater may have a function seeGempeler 1974. as a grave good similar to that of the amber ship-shaped carvings. For the Italo-Geometric oinochoe with ships and fishes 7. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 73846, from a in the University of Missouri (Columbia) Museum of Art and plundered chamber tomb in the Pania necropolis, Chiusi. See Archaeology (71.114), see Torelli 2000, p. 556, no. 50, with bibl. Sprenger and Bartoloni 1981, p. 85, figs. 34–35, with earlier bibl., For the Spartan fibula, see J. W. Hagy, “800 Years of Etruscan including Y. Huls, Ivoires d’étrurie (Brussels, 1957), pp. 62–63, Ships,” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and 165–68, pls. 27–29; and M. Cristofani, “Per una nuova lettura Underwater Exploration 15, no. 3 (1986): 221–50. For the krater, della pisside della Pania,” StEtr 39 (1971): 2ff. Haynes 2000, pp. see C. Dougherty, “The Aristonothos Krater: Competing Stories 110–11, concludes that it was “probably imported from of Conflict and Collaboration,” in The Cultures within Ancient Southern Etruria, not made in Vulci or Cerveteri as has been Greek Culture: Contact, Conflict, Collaboration, ed. C. Dougherty proposed. It is probable that the artist who carved the friezes and L. Burke (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 35–56; M. Torelli, “The drew for his models on Greek painted pottery, particularly Encounter with the Etruscans,” in Pugliese Carratelli 1996, pp. Corinthian.” 567–76; and L. Basch, Le Musée imaginaire de la marine antique (Athens, 1987). 8. S. Wachsman,Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant (College Station, TX, 1997), p. 198. 15. Seen. 2, above. 9. Casson 1971 (in n. 1, above), p. 169, nn. 2–3. In addition to 16. Amulets with ship images of later date are documented as Wachsman 1997 (inn. 8, above), critical bibl. for this entry having special powers. G. Kornbluth, Engraved Gems of the includes F. Kaul, Ships on Bronzes: A Study in Bronze Age Religion Carolingian Empire (University Park, PA, 1995), says, “One and Iconography, Publications from the National Museum, Byzantine text describes how [a Palestinian pilgrim’s] token was Studies in Archaeology and History (Copenhagen, 1998); L. L. used during a winter storm and ‘all those on the boat were Walker, “A Study of Minoan Ships in Prehistoric Aegean Art,” impregnated with perfume, the sea water surrounded the boat master’s thesis (Queen’s University at Kingston, 1996); and K. like a wall, and the waves were powerless against it.’” The agate Westerberg,Cypriote Ships from the Bronze Age to c. 500 B.C. used in one ship-subject gem was believed to be especially (Copenhagen, 1983). protective for sailors. The use of the Middle Low German word Bernstein for such a stone seems entirely plausible, although 10. For this seventh-century B.C. Laconian pectoral, “Helen Led to there is no evidence for this. the Ship,” see Marangou 1969, pp. 83–90, no. 38, fig. 68. 17. This much-discussed iambic chant (written down by the second- 11. Ibid., p. 90. century Festus, his source the first-century Verrius Flaccus) is 12. A. Maiuri, “Avanzi di suppellettile d’una tomba preromana,” NSc revisited by Johnston 1995, pp. 386–87, in reference to her study 11 (1914): 403–6. The Padula furnishings included a number of of aversion rituals against child-killing demons. What she finds small amber pieces, including parts of fibula decorations, beads unusual is the command to go away on a ship. and pendants of several types, fragments of bronze sheets Rituals from the old, middle, and new Babylonian periods … decorated in repoussé (one possibly a pendant), and fragments attempted to send Lamashtu away by means of a ship, a donkey of ceramics. The ship pendant, the bulla-shaped amber or both. The rituals involved dedication of small clay ships and/ pendants, and the plain beads of the grave may have belonged or donkeys to a statuette of Lamashtu, as well as provisions and to one or more pieces of body ornamentation, including gifts such as malt, food, water, spindles, sandals, fibulae and earrings, necklaces, pectorals, armlets, pins, girdles, and combs, which were supposed to keep her happy on her journey. clothing decoration. Some ritual texts tell her to use the ship to go across the river, 13. Both were drilled with three sets of perforations, one set each at which may mean the river that separated the land of the living the bow, at the stern, and amidships. Three separate filaments from the land of the dead in Mesopotamian thought, or go could have been secured at the three perforation sets, then across the sea. (p. 386) joined at a point above for attachment to a carrier, fibula, or 18. T. Hölscher, “Immagini mitologiche e valori sociali nella Grecia girdle. arcaica,” in Im Spiegel des Mythos: Bilderwelt und Lebenswelt / Lo 14. The two amber ships are as different in type as the unmanned specchio del mito: immaginario e realtà; Symposium, Rom, 19.–20. vessels painted on an early-seventh-century B.C. Italo- 134 SHIP WITH FIGURES

Februar 1998, ed. F. de Angelis and S. Muth (Wiesbaden, 1999), 22. Odyssey 3.276–85 (A. Mandelbaum, The Odyssey of Homer: A New pp. 11–30. Verse Translation [Berkeley, 1990], p. 51). 19. S. Sande, “Famous Persons as Bringers of Good Luck,” in Jordan 23. Pausanias 10.25.2–3 (Description of Greece, trans. W. H. S. Jones et al. 1999, p. 233. Sande refers to C. A. Faraone, “Taking the IV [Cambridge and London, 1935], p. 513). ‘Nestor’s Cup Inscription’ Seriously: Erotic Magic and 24. Haynes 2000, p. 183. Conditional Curses in the Earliest Inscribed Hexameters,” Classical Antiquity 15 (1996): 83–85. 25. The dismantled mast and the furled sail may have special 20. Helms 1993, p. 467; Helms 1988, chap. 2. meaning; compare the composition of 76.AO.76 to the Egyptian hieroglyph of a ship without a furled sail (Gardiner’s Sign List 21. Sirens are a popular subject of amber pendants dating from the no. 48). Among its functions, it means “to sail downstream.” In Early Archaic period onward, becoming one of the most Egypt, the solar boat is a subject of magical amulets. common subjects by the end of the fifth century B.C. For 26. Kaul 1998 (in n. 9, above). discussion of sirens in amber, see the introduction, in particular “The Archaic and Afterward.” 27. Jannot 2005, p. 62. Cat. no. 7 135

Korai 136

8. Pendant: Standing Female Figure (Kore) Condition Upon acquisition by the museum, the piece (which had been broken at the waist and reglued) was cleaned mechanically and treated with an amber-oil distillate. The treatment resulted in improved translucency and slight darkening. There are pinpoint losses over all the surface and small breaks along the proper right side, on the veil, the right breast, and the right arm from elbow to hand; and along the left side, on a section of the veil and the upper torso below the breast and below the left elbow. There are also breaks on the stephane, or crown, and at the proper right of the flange. The bottom of the figure from the lower hem area to the feet is missing. There is a hairline crack around the neck and shoulders. Two small spalls on the reverse reveal unweathered amber. In ambient light, this pendant has a uniform dark orange- red translucency, and in transmitted light, a bright orange-red color. There are no visible inclusions. Description The amber has not been chemically analyzed, but its appearance is consistent with Baltic amber. The object is flat on the reverse and concave on the obverse, suggesting the form of the piece of amber from which it was worked, but there are no depressions or grooves. The lack of Accession 76.AO.77 visible inclusions and flow lines suggests that it was Number carved from amber formed inside a trunk. The flange at the top of the head is drilled from both lateral sides Culture Etruscan toward the center for the insertion of a carrier. Under Date 525–500 B.C. strong light, the two borings are distinguishable. Some areas preserve the multidirectional scratches caused by Dimensions Height: 67 mm; width: 20 mm; depth: 9 mm; the use of a fine abrasive: between the arm and the Diameter of suspension holes: 2 mm; length: 9 bodice, on the long folds of the garment, and at the mm; Weight: 6 g juncture of face and hair. Subjects Artemis; Childbirth; Egypt; Fertility; Ionia, The figure wears a chiton with belt, a veil, a crown, and Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Magic bodice jewelry. She holds the chiton skirt in both hands and poses with her left leg slightly in front of her right. Provenance Her face is a full oval, the brow smooth. The smallish, narrow eye sockets are shallow and empty and likely held –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. inlays. The nose is indented slightly at the root and is set Paul Getty Museum, 1976. at a low angle relative to the forehead and chin. The cheeks are flattish and full. The mouth, formed in a half 137

smile, has a short upper lip (with the tubercle indicated) precious materials, including ivory and gold or silver that protrudes over a full lower lip indented slightly at the sheet. The metal figures, in addition to serving as center. The nodes at the corners of the mouth and the pendants, also adorned earrings, headwear, and dress. In mouth angle furrows are indicated by short, nearly addition to 76.AO.77, ten other miniature amber korai are vertical indentations. The mentolabial sulcus is shallow; extant. The ambers are all perforated, and seem all to the chin is small and round. have been designed to hang from carriers or pins. Nine are complete or nearly so, and two are fragmentary. The The hair framing the forehead is parted in the middle, eleven ambers of female figures in the form of korai are and the two sections are dressed to each side in a series of (1) Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum, 76.AO.77, figure in four rounded waves, each undulation plastically swelled. chiton and veil; (2) Perugia, Museo Archeologico Each side section is pulled over the top of the ear and then Nazionale 101185, from Monteleone di Spoleto (Colle del behind it. The figure’s hair is worn loose down the back in Capitano), figure in chiton and himation;2 (3) Berlin, a fall that is curved at the bottom; it reaches the top of the Staatliche Museen (Antiken Museen, lost during the thoracic vertebrae. Over her hair is a long veil of fine Second World War), figure in chiton and veil;3 (4) fabric. Atop the veil is a crown, worn at the position of the Dresden, Albertinum 1384, larger figure in chiton, veil, bregma. The pendant flange at the top of the head is and mantle;4 (5) Dresden, Albertinum 1384 (sic), smaller carved with a bead and reel. figure in chiton with mantle;5 (6) Belgrade, National The torso section of the chiton falls into two vertical folds Museum 689/1, from Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s Church, kore in chiton, veil, and mantle;6 (7) Belgrade, National that overfall the waist in full sections as far as the position of her wrists. The skirt is drawn closely against the body. Museum 688/1, from Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s Church, kore in chiton, veil, and mantle;7 (8) Belgrade, National In her left hand, with her thumb over the cloth, she grasps the central portion of the chiton, which is delineated by Museum 692/1, from Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s Church, kore in chiton and mantle;8 (9) New York, Metropolitan three narrow pleats. In her right hand, the thumb also atop the cloth, she holds a section of the skirt, which is Museum of Art, Philanthropic Fund, fragmentary figure in chiton and veil;9 (10) Basel, Switzerland, private pulled horizontally. It forms a vertical section of several 10 folds. The draping of the skirt forms six evenly spaced collection, kore in simple chiton; and (11) Malibu, J. Paul folds, patterned into almost parallel, horizontal sections. Getty Museum,82.AO.161.6(cat. no. 9), fragmentary figure At the waist, three raised horizontal bands signify the in chiton and veil. A related amber is the two-figure belt. At the neckline is a curved raised area and, at about pendant in New York, a draped woman in chiton and the clavicles, a pectoral ornament. It may be attached to mantle holding a child (the child’s head is now missing), a kourotrophos.11 the neck edge of the chiton or to the inside edges of the veil lappets. The joining up of the sides of the chiton to Only four of the above have secure documentation, the form “sleeves” is indicated on the tops of the sleeves by three from the large Novi Pazar “princely” burial and the two adjoining parallel raised lines. The narrow hems at single figure from a disturbed burial at Monteleone di the elbow are clearly indicated. The veil falls forward to Spoleto. Robert Heidenreich recounts that the Dresden her shoulders, covers her ears, and forms deep lappets ambers came from a grave near Rome. In the Getty that reach to the level of her armpits. The veil leaves the Museum collection, 76.AO.77; three of the ram’s-head tips of the shoulders free and drapes down her back in a pendants, 76.AO.82 (cat. no. 39), 76.AO.83 (cat. no. 40), and straight fall to about the position of her ankles. In the 77.AO.81.7 (cat. no. 41); and a pendant with the foreparts back, the veil is patterned into a series of vertical pleats to of a boar, 76.AO.84 (cat. no. 37), are related in style, a level just above the hem of the chiton. The center of the technique, and state of conservation and are alike enough veil is flat, unpleated, and plain; the sides of the garment to consider the hypothesis that they may have been found are turned back, folding onto the center portion. This in the same burial. The combination of subjects is results in the terminal edges patterning into swallowtails. plausible, given that the Novi Pazar burial included three Drop-shaped fabric weights (two) are discernible at the korai and eighty rams’ heads. uppermost edges of the veil’s zigzag folds. Discussion The pendants that retain their feet (all but 76.AO.77 and one of the kore from Novi Pazar, National Museum 688/1) 76.AO.77 is comparable in style and dress to a number of appear to be wearing smooth, pointed boots. The Berlin much larger objects (marbles, bronze statuettes, and and the larger Dresden korai stand on plate bases, but the terracottas) as well as to a number of other tiny figures in lower part of the amber from Monteleone di Spoleto is the form of either a kore1 or a kouros made from other difficult to discern. Apart from the three kore from Novi 138 KORAI

Pazar, which were perforated for suspension in the feet The kore’s chiton—belted, with long kolpoi, an area, all of the complete pendants were suspended from emphasized verticality in the portrayal of the bodice folds, the head.12 The suspension flange on 76.AO.77 closely and a central bunching of folds—finds its best parallels matches that of an amber kouros pendant in London among Ionian marbles, including (1) the figure on a votive (British Museum 41). The only other kore pendant with a relief from near Cyzicus (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1851); flange is the smaller Dresden draped female. (2, 3) two fragmentary marble korai figures from Miletos (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1577 and 1744); (4) a marble These objects and those in precious metal and ivory from Didyma (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1793); and (5) a display a similar compact sculptural form, indicating that Milesian-influenced marble from Theangela, Caria they were designed to be worn. The korai are typified by (London, British Museum B319).13 The amber kore short, thick necks, long hair or veils, wide shoulders, long displays the South Ionian marble sculptors’ feeling for the garments, legs and small feet close together, and arms thickness of the chiton’s fabric and a correspondingly rich and hands attached to the body. Some have plate bases. plasticity in the modeling. The nude kouroi stand with one leg slightly forward, a pose that helps the carver close the gap between the legs. The kore’s long veil is distinctly South Ionian, and perhaps These sculptural solutions provide extra support for characteristic of Miletos. The cloth surrounds the face and potential weak spots such as the neck, arms, or feet. neck, covering the ears before falling down the back.14 Two small lappets are formed at the shoulders, so that the 76.AO.77 has features in common with each of the other presence of the garment is obvious from a frontal view.15 pendants, but it is most like the similarly sized Berlin In contrast with the tighter Samian arrangement, “around pendant. There is no extant photograph of the reverse of the temples the veil swells to suggest the hair the Berlin figure, but the two korai are similar in contour, underneath.”16 Characteristically South Ionian (and volume, stance, and hand position, as well as general perhaps even distinctly Milesian rather than Samian) are body proportions: large head on diminutive neck (their the zigzag folds of the veil.17 The cloth weights attached to heads make up roughly a fifth of their total height), wide the ends of the veil show how well the carver understood shoulders and full upper arms, and a short stature. Both the light garment. 76.AO.77, which can be viewed in the wear chitons with deep kolpoi and have similar long, round, may be one of the best available illustrations of the capelike veils with lappets of cloth on the front and Ionian long veil, since all of the other extant examples shoulders. Although the two pendants are close in style, from the area are partial figures or are represented and probably descend from a common artistic tradition, frontally on reliefs. there are notable differences between them. Whereas 76.AO.77 has a bead-and-reel flange carved as part of the The physical type might also be said to be Milesian. piece, the Berlin amber has a carrier hole bored through Analogues for the head include a group of terracottas the head from temple to temple. The Berlin amber is more attributed by F. Croissant to Miletos: two in London cursorily modeled than 76.AO.77. The expression of the (British Museum 205 and 206), one in Athens (National Getty figure suggests the beginning of a smile; the face of Archaeological Museum 5669), and one in Paris (Louvre the Berlin amber communicates greater gravity. (Is it a MNC 681),18which show a similar emphasis on question of age?) The larger of the Dresden amber horizontality in the design and placement of the features. pendants is also veiled, but the veil does not form frontal The serene faces all communicate a sense of an lappets. 76.AO.77 and the Berlin, Dresden, and two of the immediate and living presence. Four marble heads, one Novi Pazar figures (688/1 and 689/1) are holding folds of from Miletos (Berlin, Staatliche Museen Sk 1631),19 one drapery in both hands. Novi Pazar 689/1 displays the most from Samos (Berlin, Staatliche Museen Sk 1874),20 one marked instance of cloth grasping (as if the figure is from Miletos(?) in Paris (Louvre Ma 4546),21 and another starting a curtsy). The woman of the New York in İzmir (Archaeology Museum 15136),22 are similar in kourotrophospendant balances the child with her right anatomical structure to 76.AO.77. The eyes of the tiny hand and holds the cloth of her garment in her left (a amber, though different in being hollow, are still gesture mimicked by the child’s left hand). 76.AO.77 and distinctively alike in form. the other extant amber korai and kouroi (including the Novi Pazar ambers) were probably carved in Italy. The The hairstyle appears to be unusual, but this may be similarities of style and form among the amber korai owing to a paucity of comparisons. The curved lower suggest that there is a common invention behind them. contour is distinct from the common horizontal The particularities of the dress and adornment of termination. Comparable coiffures on Greek kore figures 76.AO.77 help to locate its origins. include an early-sixth-century terracotta in London said Cat. no. 8 139

to be from Tanagra, a marble kore from Andros in Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones summarizes the evidence for Copenhagen, a late-sixth-century bronze mirror stand in veiling in Greece and shows the multivalency of the veil’s London (said to have been found in Rome), and a late- meanings, including a woman’s place in the social sixth-century (with later interventions) marble kore in order.28 He reviews the complex range of the Greek terms New York, said to be from the neighborhood of Laurion.23 for “veil” and the difficulty of matching them up with The hair of the late-sixth-century B.C. marble Leto found their artistic counterparts. Nevertheless, it is tempting to in the Delian temple of Artemis (Athens, National identify the veil of 76.AO.77 as the delicate and glistening Archaeological Museum 22)24is slightly longer than that ampekhonē.29 of 76.AO.77, but the bottom-edge contour is the same. This “pageboy” style is seen more frequently on Middle Besides the veil, the marble Leto from Delos wears Archaic votive bronzes (both korai and kouroi) in Etruria another distinctive element, a double chain ornament than among Greek Archaic korai. The most relevant (which once supported six pendants) that attaches the two examples include the Middle Archaic korai in Florence veil lappets together like an old-fashioned sweater chain. (Museo Archeologico Nazionale 266 and 231), and an 76.AO.77 wears a single, pendantless ornament across the unnumbered bronze in the Villa Giulia, Rome.25 The breast. Is it attached to the garment, or does it secure the Etruscan absorption of this style may help to locate where two lappets? In the final argument, Ridgway identified 76.AO.77 was carved. Athens 22 as Leto, partly because of the veil, and partly because of the marble female figure found with it, which Who is represented in 76.AO.77? It is hypothesized here she identified as Artemis. (There is no comparable jewelry that the amber represents a goddess. The material of the on the smaller marble.) pendant and the crown determine its divine identity. If the figure represents an Olympian, Artemis, Leto, The hair of Athens 22 is worn long and, like that of Aphrodite, and Eos would be possibilities. Each one is a 76.AO.77, is curved at the bottom, which, as noted above, brilliant goddess associated with light. However, details of is not common in Greek sculpture, being more frequently the hairstyle and dress, and the South Ionian or even seen in Archaic Etruscan small bronzes. This, and the more specifically Milesian style, may preclude any formulaic rendering of the skirt of 76.AO.77, may aid in identification other than Artemis or Leto. The veil and further situating the amber and even help to identify hairstyle, and perhaps the breast jewelry, are significant. which divinity is represented. Although there is disagreement among scholars about the The formula of representing a chiton skirt of fine fabric meaning of the veils worn by kore figures, they are drawn into near-parallel folds is found on many marble generally agreed to be of considerable significance. Since, representations of South Ionian female figures, standing as Brunilde Ridgway summarizes, the kore type and seated; examples are a votive relief and a fragmentary torso from Miletos.30 originated “probably as a divine image … heavily indebted to Oriental prototypes, both in rendering and in This is very similar to the patterning of horizontal folds items of clothing[,] … [which was] further exploited to found on Etruscan kore figures (even on figures with the portray specific goddesses, usually by the addition of an feet placed close together). Two key parallels for the attribute or extra garment,”26 the context, the attributes, chiton skirt of 76.AO.77 are the Etruscan veil-wearers in and the details of dress are all important. For Ridgway, the Emeline Richardson’s Tomba del Barone group of Leto from Delos raised questions about the interpretation bronzes, and a superb “Ionian” bronze kore from Rimini of all East Greek and Samian veiled korai, and she came to in Copenhagen.31 A very similar presentation of the the conclusion that the veil drawn over the head must chiton skirt is found on a number of sixth-century imply more than regional fashions, that it Etruscan (Caeretan?) gold plaquettes of korai, with three said to come from Cerveteri and one from Palestrina.32 must at least stand for matronly status or even outdoors versus indoor attire.… Even strict The divinities (since they are crowned and made from gold, they must be divinities)33 fill the rectangular dependence upon Oriental religious iconography would not ensure a similar divine identification for all aediculae of the plaquettes, and in the London pair, the of [them] … [but the] possibility however exists, and slope-sided hats overlap the edge. The gold figures wear we should be open to it since we have too easily diadems with colored glass or paste inserts, and the extended to all female figures that generic meaning of London pair each wears a necklace from which hangs a agalma which, to be sure, applies to many of them.27 large inlaid pendant. The conical hats of the Etruscan examples are critical for the figures’ identification: are they Artemis?34 These Etruscan objects are further 140 KORAI

evidence of the impact of South Ionian artisans in Etruria, eastern Mediterranean, such as the numerous perhaps the same ateliers responsible for 76.AO.77 and multisubject Rhodian plaques (seventh century B.C.),39 or the other extant amber korai and kouroi, including the a work like the semicircular gold plaque (Island Greek Novi Pazar ambers. work) from Aydın (Tralles) of circa 600 B.C.40 The most complex of the Rhodian ornaments include female figures The chiton grasping is a significant gesture of 76.AO.77 (clothed or nude), human heads, animals and animal and all other korai figures and is a subject of considerable masks, pomegranate blossoms and other flowers, or solar discussion. Helmut Kyrieleis has established the point that symbols. A winged Potnia Theron with felines and a sculpted korai may represent movement in stasis (and not centaur grasping a fawn are also common subjects. The lose their essential meaning) in the way that a running or Aydın pendant is among the most elaborate compositions: hunting Artemis painted on a Greek vase can the female figure is in the “mastery of the animals” pose communicate violent movement.35Read as if it were an and is joined by griffin’s, bull’s, and ram’s heads and Egyptian image, 76.AO.77 (and related images) represents nonfigural solar imagery. a pose frozen at the most important or recognizable part of a ceremony, which “can only be understood in terms of Much remains to be understood about the origin, the meaning of the larger ritual in which it was meaning, and function of the large-scale kouroi and korai, embedded.”36For the tiny amber korai, is the pose frozen but it appears that these sculptural types could serve both in running or dancing, specifically cultic and ritual as votives and in funerary roles, to represent a divinity, a dance? If a dance, lines from the Homeric Hymn to heroized dead person, or an idealized youth. Both kore Artemismight be recalled: and kouros could be a pleasing offering, an agalma.41 Furnished with suitable attributes, the kore or the kouros This huntress who delights in arrows slackens her could become a hero or divinity: one of the Dioskouroi, supple bow and goes to the great house of her dear Apollo, or Athena, for example.42 While much has been brother Phoebus Apollo, to the rich land of Delphi, written about the life-size and larger korai and kouroi, there to order the lovely dance of the Muses and there is a relative paucity of discussion about the Graces. There she hangs up her curved bow and her miniatures.43 arrows, and heads and leads the dances, gracefully arrayed.37 76.AO.77 and the other amber korai may have served for the living as well as for the dead, in body adornment, as The active pose, the “attributes” of transparent clothing, amulet and ornament, roles that the large-scale objects veil, crown, chain, and long loose hair, and the material of were never called upon to play. The compact format of the 76.AO.77 suggest that the tiny pendant represents pendants, the incorporation of suspension devices or specifically Artemis or Leto. Given that Leto, like her plate bases into their designs, and the occasional evidence daughter Artemis, is a birth goddess, and given the age- of use wear (rubbed surfaces, as on the Novi Pazar and old association between amber and childbirth, it is likely Berlin korai), replacement of suspension holes (as might that 76.AO.77 and her kin served as special ornaments, be argued for the Novi Pazar korai), or enlargement of the ones with fertility aspects, either in direct magic or as stringing holes (as on the Basel kore) suggest a significant powerful danger-averting amulets. The clinging use in life (or lives) before interment with the deceased. transparent clothing and the position of the figure’s hand The ultimate “user” actually may have been the deceased. on the skirt both emphasize the pubic area, the location of These tiny korai also may have been gifts and thus part of the primary sex characteristic. This composition is the funerary rituals. For the works that show no signs of comparable to the Egyptian manner of representing elite wear, it is possible that they were made expressly, or adult female fertility figures in the cases where nudity acquired especially, for setting on the body or for was inappropriate.38 A fertility subject represented in a placement in the grave at the time of burial. In death, the substance associated with fertility would enhance the amber korai might have provided aid and protection meaning of the object, since subject and material are during the fraught journey to the afterworld, if the beliefs inextricably intertwined in all ancient amulets. Here the attendant on such uses were current in Italy as they had subject might well function as did its Egyptian been for millennia in Egypt. counterparts, the fertility figures linking the process of giving birth in this world with that of being reborn into NOTES the next. If 76.AO.77 and the amber animals were originally buried together, the group might be compared 1. The term “kore,” commonly used for the many kinds of images to the more complex precious metal plaques from the of Archaic standing draped females, is misleading but useful. See, for example, Ridgway 1977, pp. 85–86. Cat. no. 8 141

2. This kore pendant is one of two ambers (the other, 101184, is a 17. See, for example, Karakasi 2003, pp. 40–41. bust of a female, possibly a siren) found in the disturbed sixth- 18. Croissant 1983, chap. 2, group B. century B.C. Tomb 21 from the group excavated at Monteleone di Spoleto, Colle del Capitano: see Gens antiquissima Italiae: 19. Berlin, Staatliche Museen Sk 1631: Richter 1968, p. 59, no. 95, Antichità dall’Umbria a New York, exh. cat. (Perugia, 1991), pp. figs. 293–95; and Croissant 1983, passim, pl. 1. 175–76, 356, fig. 3.4. M. C. De Angelis, “La necropoli di Colle del Capitano: Nuove acquizioni,” in Romagna tra VI e IV secolo a.C. 20. Berlin, Staatliche Museen Sk 1874: Karakasi 2003, pl. 19; Richter nel quadro della protostoria dell’Italia centrale: Atti del Convegno 1968, p. 60, no. 98, figs. 30–45. (Bologna, 1985), p. 288, fig. 9, considers the ambers to be local 21. Louvre Ma 4546: Hamiaux 1992, p. 57, no. 49. products influenced by the amber-working of the Basilicata. 3. Heidenreich 1968, p. 655, pl. 9.1 (Bernsteininventar Nr. 1). 22. İzmir Archaeology Museum 15136: Karakasi 2003, pl. 50; and E. Akurgal, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 4. Ibid., p. 655. Istanbuler Abteilung 42 (1992): 67ff. 5. Ibid. 23. For the Tanagra terracotta (British Museum 75.39.20), see Richter 1968, p. 102, no. 61, 204–5; for the Copenhagen kore (Ny 6. Palavestra and Krstić 2006, p. 136, no. 47, with earlier bibl. Carlsberg Glyptotek 1544), Johansen 1994, pp. 56–57, no. 13; for 7. Ibid., p. 137, n. 49, with earlier bibl. the mirror stand (British Museum 242), Richter 1968, p. 109, fig. 661; for the New York marble kore (Metropolitan Museum of Art 8. Ibid., p. 137, n. 48, with earlier bibl. 07.286.110), Richter 1968, p. 85, no. 138, figs. 441–44. Also 9. Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.21, Purchase, Renée and compare the torso (from Paros?) in New York (Metropolitan Robert A. Belfer, Philanthropic Foundation, Patti Cadby Birch, Museum of Art 07.306): Richter 1968, p. 89, no. 151, figs. 483–86. and The Joseph Rosen Foundation, Inc. Gifts and Harris Brisbane 24. Ridgway 1977, p. 111. For relevant discussion of the pair from Dick Fund, 1992. the Dodekatheon on Delos, see F. Zafeiropoulou, Dīlos: Martyries 10. Unpublished. apo ta mouseiaka ekthemata (Athens, 1998), p. 225, no. 72; P. Jockey in Sculptures déliennes, ed. A. Hermary et al. (Paris, 1996), 11. Richter 1940, p. 32, figs. 104, 105. pp. 48ff., nos. 18–19; and Fuchs and Floren 1987, p. 167, n. 56. 12. The orientation of the figures may be significant. If the objects 25. For Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 266 (votive deposit were perforated to hang feet upward and head downward, the at Fonte Veneziana, Arezzo), see Richardson 1983, p. 262, figs. orientation may have been purposely danger-averting, as it 588–89; for Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 231, ibid., makes reference to the underworld (the opposite, or mirror, pp. 63–64, figs 597–98; for the Villa Giulia bronze, ibid., p. 264, world of the dead). Alternatively, the orientation may allude to figs. 601–2. the nocturnal rather than just the diurnal phases of the sun or 26. Ridgway 1977, p. 114. moon—that is, to their complete passage. 13. For Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1851, see Richter 1968, p. 93, no. 27. Ibid., p. 112. Karakasi 2003 has made a strong case for the veil 165; for Staatliche Museen 1577, Karakasi 2003, pls. 46 a–b, 47 being worn during religious festivals. c–d; and Richter 1968, p. 92, no. 161; for Staatliche Museen 1744, 28. L. Llewellyn-Jones, Aphrodite’s Tortoise: The Veiled Woman of Karakasi 2003, pl. 22; for Staatliche Museen 1793, Richter 1968, Ancient Greece (Swansea, 2003). See also D. L. Cairns, “The p. 92, no. 162; for London, British Museum B319, Karakasi 2003, Meaning of the Veil in Ancient Greek Culture,” in Llewellyn-Jones pl. 51 a–d; Tuchelt 1970, pp. 127 (L84), 150, 186; and Richter 2002, pp. 73–94; Ridgway 1977; U. Kron in Athen 1986, p. 56, n. 1968, p. 93, no. 167. 30; K. Tuchelt in ibid., pp. 32ff.; and Freyer-Schauenburg 1974, 14. Ridgway 1977, p. 97. passim, on the meaning and interpretation of the veil as it relates to the kore. As Llewellyn-Jones 2003 outlines, the outer 15. The lappets that form on the shoulders of a figure from a relief garment could denote stages in a woman’s life cycle and found in Caltidere (Myrina) in the İzmir museum (which E. appears to have played various social and symbolic roles Akurgal dates to about 570–560 B.C.) are very like those of the throughout Greek culture. In Homeric epic, noblewomen (and in amber kore: see E. Akurgal, “Bemerkungen zur Frage der notable cases their serving women), the focus of the cycles, örtlichen und zeitlichen Einordnung der griechischen wear the veil, and in seventh-century B.C. painting, goddesses archaischen Grossplastik Kleinasiens,” in Studies in Classical Art (Athena and Aphrodite) and well-born wives (Eriphyle and and Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen, Helen) are depicted with various types of outergarments worn ed. G. Kopke and M. B. Moore (Locust Valley, NY, 1979), p. 38, pl. over the head. A girl’s passage to womanhood was marked by 8.12. her use of the veil; she offered her veil to Artemis on the eve of her wedding (when the bride comes under the protection of 16. Ridgway 1977, p. 97. Aphrodite) before donning a special matrimonial veil; and as a 142 KORAI

married woman she wore a veil in public, going without it only 37. “To Artemis,” XXVII, from Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and in the first stages of mourning. Homerica, trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb Classical Library 57 29. Might the veil of the amber kore be the ampekhonē (or (London, 1914). ampekhonon), the fine, expensive outer garment, most probably 38. On the representation of transparently robed elite female a veil, noted in antiquity for its delicacy and semitransparency? figures in Egypt, see G. Robins, “Dress, Undress, and the Llewellyn-Jones 2003 (in n. 28, above), p. 27, notes that although Representation of Fertility and Potency in New Kingdom in texts ampekhonē is noted as associated with hetairai Egyptian Art,” in Kampen 1996, pp. 27–40. (prostitutes) and even an Arcadian shepherdess, it has divine 39. Laffineur 1978. associations. It is listed among the textile dedications to major goddesses, in several cases at sanctuaries of Artemis. “On the 40. For the ornament from Aydın in the Louvre, see Becatti 1955, no. Athenian Akropolis, an ampekhonē is recorded as being draped 149; and Higgins 1980, p. 115 (as “almost certainly Island over the statue of Artemis.… The word occurs three times in the Greek”). See also Boardman 1980, p. 99, fig. 117; Laffineur 1978; clothing inscriptions at the Artemis Brauronia sanctuary: on two and E. Coche de la Ferté, Les bijoux antiques (Paris, 1956), pp. 30, occasions the garment is draped around the statue.… One of 44, 56, pl. 6.2. The ornament incorporates rosettes and zigzag [them] has woven into it, ‘sacred to Artemis’”: ibid., pp. 27–28. patterns in granulation, as well as plastic figures of four heads 30. Some examples are Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1792 and 1898 in flat disks, two bulls and two rams. Higgins points to a (Richter 1968, p. 51, no. 72), and an unnumbered marble (ibid., Boeotian terracotta of the eighth century B.C. wearing a similar p. 51, nos. 70–71). ornament and suggests that both show Syrian influence. 31. For Richardson’s Tomba del Barone group (her Late Archaic 41. Ridgway 1977, pp. 49–59 (for the meaning of the kouros) and Series A, Ionians, Group 2), see Richardson 1983, pp. 283–85. For 108–13 (for the meaning of the kore). Convincing is C. M. Danish National Museum 4203 (from Richardson’s Late Archaic Keesling’s argument that Greek and Cypriot votive korai did not Series A, Ionians, Group 1A, Traditional Sturdy series), see ibid., represent human votaries, since, without evidence to the pp. 279–80, fig. 651. The Danish bronze has many older and contrary, the ancient viewer would expect to see a divinity in the unusual features. She wears two crescent-shaped diadems, one image: C. M. Keesling, “Finding the Gods: Greek and Cypriot in front, one in back; two chitons and an Ionian diagonal Votive Korai Revisited,” in Divine Images and Human Imaginations himation; and scalloped waves around the face, two curls to in Ancient Greece and Rome, Religions in the Graeco-Roman each side, and a long fall in back. She holds her right hand on World 170, ed. J. Mylonopoulos (Leiden and Boston, 2010), pp. her breast, fist closed. Does the bronze represent an older type 87–103. of statue, perhaps a cult figure, with an accumulation of related 42. Stewart 1997, p. 65. The extensive bibliography on the functions ornaments and dress? and meanings of kouroi includes the following, which were 32. Two of the plaquettes are in the British Museum (Jew. 1267–68, helpful in this study of amber kouroi and korai: B. S. Ridgway, said to come from Cerveteri), and two are in Rome (Museo Second Chance: Greek Sculptural Styles Revisited (London, 2004), p. Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 40875, said to come from 755; G. Ferrari, Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Cerveteri, and 53492, from Palestrina, Castellani Collection: Greece (Chicago, 2002), chaps. 5–6; Kyrieleis 1995, pp. 119–20; G. Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pp. 300–301, nos. 192–94). Schäfer, “Gepickt und versteckt: Zur Bedeutung und Funktion Decorating some slightly earlier sixth-century gold earrings in aufgerauhter Oberflächen in der spätarchaischen und Berlin (Staatliche Museen 30219, 442 a/b) are figures of Potnia frühklassischen Plastik,” Jdi 111 (1996): 25–74; Ridgway 1977; H. Theron; she lifts high the left side of her skirt with her left hand, von Steuben, Kopf eines Kuros, Liebieghaus Monographie 7 places her right hand on her breast, and stands between lions: (Frankfurt am Main, 1980); and Richter 1968. As Sourvinou- ibid. pp. 291–92, no. 142. Inwood 1995 (see cat. no. 3, n. 25), p. 143, writes about the kouros as grave marker, “The metonymic sign of the deceased 33. L. Khalil (LIMC 2 [1984], s.v. “Artemis,” pp. 738–40) surmises that could represent metaphorically the now-perished beauty of the the tiny gold images found in the sanctuary of Artemis at deceased, and it generally enhanced and colored positively the Ephesus probably represent the goddess herself, because of the memory of that deceased.” This might be true for a female or a precious material of which they are formed. child, as well as a male, deceased person. In this regard we 34. For discussion of the conical hat and Artemis, see 77.AO.84 (cat. might also ask, What was the role of the tiny bronze sheet no. 1). kouros figures on the Etruscan chariot from Monteleone in New York (Metropolitan Museum 03.21.1, Rogers Fund, 1903)? 35. H. Kyrieleis, “Der Tänzer vom Kap Phoneas,” Istanbuler 43. Perhaps something of the Egyptian approach to the minuscule Mitteilungen 46 (1996), pp. 119–20, n. 43; also noted by Karakasi was retained in the tiny korai and kouroi images, especially 2003, p. 50. when they are made of high-status, magical materials. 36. Wilkinson 1994, p. 205. Miniature figures might provide magical, potent assistance for the deceased’s afterlife. Wilkinson 1994, p. 42, in his section on Cat. no. 8 143

“the miniscule,” registers the symbolic function of miniscule scale in commemorative ritual and mythical purposes, the Egyptian delight in intricately formed tiny objects as a display of skill, the suitability of the minute for objects of adornment, and the cases in which miniatures served as magical replacements for full-scale objects in funerary contexts. 144 KORAI

9. Pendant: Head Fragment from a Standing Female Figure (Kore) suggested by the weathering. Overall, the surface is worn and grainy but not friable. The surface is covered by a yellow-orange crust that obscures the underlying red- orange amber. There are new chips in several areas, especially along the edges, that have exposed glassy amber below. In natural light, the piece is opaque and yellowish brown. At the new breaks, which expose the interior, it is red-orange. It is not translucent under artificial light, and it is impossible to see if there are any inclusions. There is a stopped bore on the back of the head, and just below the right ear is a stopped bore with a plug of amber still inside it. Description This is a fragmentary and weathered object. What remains is the head and neck of a female figure. The brow is short, and the cheeks are modeled and full. The large, almond-shaped eyes have narrow rims. The nose is eroded, but its general form is still evident: it is triangular, short, and relatively narrow through the nares. The mouth is wider than the nose. The jaw area is wide. The hair at the brow is dressed in a wave pattern. In front of the right ear is a large coil of hair. The rest of the Accession 82.AO.161.6 figure’s hair is covered with a veil. Number There is no surviving suspension device. However, the Culture Etruscan groove at the break on the left side of the head and the Date 525–500 B.C. groove and break on the underside of the neck are likely two sides of a triangular suspension system. Dimensions Height: 31 mm; width: 20 mm; depth: 18 mm; Weight: 2 g Discussion Subjects Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, Greek) 82.AO.161.6 was donated along with a large and varied group of amber beads and pendants about which little is Provenance known. –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, This fragment is unlike any other figured carved amber. CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. Because of the odd break at the bottom of the piece and Condition the remains of a triangular perforation system, it is proposed here that 82.AO.161.6 is the upper part of a The amber is fragmentary: a large section of the left side standing figure and not a head-pendant. The three holes of the head and the neck and a portion of the back of the would have allowed the sculpture to hang upright. A pendant were broken off at some remote time, as is number of other figured ambers from Italy, or said to be from Italy, and dating to between the seventh and fifth 145

centuries were perforated for stringing in a similar amber and the Didyma marbles have in common another manner.1The best parallel is another fragmentary amber detail of hairdressing, the thick curl of hair in front of the pendant, in a London private collection, which represents ears. The latter firmly places 82.AO.161.6 in the same a seated woman and child. It dates to the mid-seventh sculptural tradition as that of the Louvre and Berlin century B.C. and was probably carved at Vetulonia. marbles and aids in establishing a terminus post quem. The long veil of 82.AO.161.6 is also characteristic of South The figure of 82.AO.161.6 is similar in physiognomic type Ionian kore figures, as described in the previous and dress to a group of sixth-century B.C. marbles from catalogue entry. This is the same long veil intimated by Ionia, from the area of Samos, Miletos, and Didyma. The the presentations of the Getty amber pendant of a female telling comparisons are (1) a small marble head of a kore head, 77.AO.81.25 (cat. no. 26). from Miletos(?) in Paris; (2) the statue of Dionysermos in the Louvre (from Samos? Miletos?); (3) two votive reliefs NOTES of standing women in aediculae from Miletos in Berlin; and (4) the fragmentary figures from the column bases 1. 77.AO.81.12 (cat. no. 52) is a significant example of a pendant found near the temple of Apollo at Didyma, also in with multiple perforations. Berlin.2 2. For the Milesian kore head (Louvre Ma 4546), see Hamiaux 1992, The amber, like the marbles, has a wide face with full, p. 57, no. 49; for the statue of Dionysermos (Louvre Ma 3600 round cheeks, high cheekbones, slightly sunken areas at [MND 2283]), ibid., pp. 59–60, no. 51; for the two Milesian votive the lower edge of the eyes, and almond-shaped eyes. reliefs in Berlin (Staatliche Museen 1792 and 1647), Richter 1968, Those of the amber appear to be larger, but the shape and p. 51, nos. 70–71, figs. 228–29; and Karakasi 2003, pl. 42; for the tilt are the same. The position of the veil on 82.AO.161.6, column base figures in Berlin (Staatliche Museen F724–25), behind the brow-framing waves, is the same as that of the Richter 1968, p. 60, nos. 96–97, figs. 296–300. Louvre kore and the Berlin column base heads. The 146 KORAI

Human Heads The human head is the most common of all amber The earliest surviving head-pendants in amber date to the pendant subjects and enjoyed the longest duration, from late eighth century B.C., but they became more the late eighth to the late fourth century B.C. From the widespread during the second half of the sixth century, beginning, they appear to follow a much older the same period in which the subject of a detached head convention, whereby one part of a figure is sufficient to was popular in other media, from architectural represent the whole. The symbolic meaning of the decoration to vessels and coinage. The format of the detached head as a pendant varies according to its type earliest documented en face amber head-pendant is very and use, but the head always represents a demon, hero, or like that of the earliest Sumerian and Egyptian detached divinity. heads. The Sumerian profile heads used in inlays (various materials) date concurrently with the earliest Sumerian In this catalogue, I refer to this type as “head-pendants.” ornament-amulets in the form of frontal heads and faces. These can be divided into four basic schemata: a frontal The frontal heads are in two basic types, those without face that is plain on the reverse; a complete head (the horns (identified as goddesses) and those with bull horns neck or a part of the neck is included, and the pendants (identified as gods). The earliest Egyptian amulets in the are made to hang frontally); a frontal head with the neck form of detached heads are flat-backed, front-facing included, but a plain reverse side; and a profile head with heads and are exclusive to the late Old Kingdom and the the neck included, the reverse plain, and the pendant First Intermediate period. Carol Andrews summarizes made to hang in profile. Female subjects (humans or their appearance: short beard, prominent ears, and a anthromorphs), with dressed hair, ornaments, or head suspension projection on the top of the head; made coverings, and satyrs are found in all four schemata. predominately of cornelian. Each is “intended to give its Heads of indeterminate sex (probably representing wearer the use of the senses in general.”3 Related to this youths or sphinxes), Herakles in a lionskin helmet, and type is another: human-head scaraboids, current from the bearded male heads with human ears occur only in the New Kingdom onward. The enhancement of the scarab— form of a frontal face with no neck, like a mask, the the amulet par excellence of new life, regeneration, and strongest form of the facing head motif.1 This is also the resurrection—with a human face augmented its case with the rarely represented gorgoneion, the frontal properties.4 Mycenaean objects with detached heads face that precedes the appearance of the whole Gorgon in include engraved gems and metal vessels. A signal ancient art.2 Minoan work is the bead in the shape of a human head in the Jewel Fresco at Knossos.5 The heads of female and All head-pendants of Greece and ancient Italy used in adornment have ancient small-scale antecedents in the male figures made of faïence (glazed composition) from art of Egypt, the greater Near East including the Syro- Apadana, Mari, and other sites in Mesopotamia dating to Phoenician area, and the Aegean, as well as in the image the late second millennium B.C. must have had great making of Ice Age Europe. The antecedents are of the influence on the development of the head-pendant as ornament and amulet.6 utmost significance for the amber head-pendant: it should be seen as a late manifestation of a millennia-old tradition Antecedents for the amber head-pendants from Etruscan of wearing miniature decapitated heads, or heads pars tombs are the protomes embossed in North Syrian pro toto, made in materials of high value, on the head, metalwork, such as those on the bronze paterae and cups around the neck, or on the upper torso (and much more interred in the Barberini Tomb at Praeneste (those on the rarely elsewhere on the body). cups are winged);7 the faces of possibly Syro-Palestinian 147

Tridacna squamosashell figure-vessels, alabaster and Etruscan imagery, such as the so-called Canopic heads on stone cosmetic palettes, and ostrich-egg and other the “metopes” of Caeretan dolii, or terracotta architectural Oriental oinochoai;8 the human heads on Etruscan decorations (on antefixes and raking simas), indicates the buccherovessels with relief decoration;9 and the two significance of the subject.21 types of ivory faces from the Barberini Tomb (the bearded faces and the single perhaps female face).10 The importance of the detached head in early-sixth- century Italy is indicated by the variety of materials in The female heads on some late-eighth-century B.C. Cretan which it is found, the range of its use, and its geographic and Cycladic gold objects may be the direct ancestors of distribution.22 The amber head-pendants of the sixth the earliest amber head-pendants. These include the century gained currency at the same time that the subject frontal heads attached to a crescent-shaped gold pendant was more frequently employed in other media: in Greek from the Khaniale Tekke Tomb from near Knossos,11 and vase painting; in early Greek facing head coinage;23 on three gold “buttons’” from a tomb at Megara (and a contemporary gemstones; as precious metal adornment related pendant from Naxos in Berlin).12 Contemporary worn directly on the body (as on a necklace)24 or attached with these gold ornaments are the earliest surviving to dress, or as ritual headgear;25 as an attachment on amber head-pendants: a pair of indeterminate sex from bronze vessels; in architecture, as antefixes and on the the sacred deposit at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, raking sima; as the subject of terracotta votives; and for and three undocumented faces from Italy (perhaps small votive(?) bronzes.26 A key amber of this period is Vetulonia), that of a youthful female(?) figure whose hair the early-sixth-century head of a female figure (a siren or is braided back from the brow, an unbearded, helmeted sphinx) wearing a slope-sided hat, excavated from an figure, and a female divinity (possibly) who wears an amber-rich grave, Tomb 96 at Chiaromonte–Sotto la elaborate bird headdress.13 Croce.27 The next generation of frontal heads and faces includes Further study of the female heads on Etruscan the numerous seventh-century precious metal objects Orientalizing metal reliefs and Etruscan bucchero and on made in East Greece and Etruria. These include objects Greek and Etruscan vessels, thymiateria, and lamps,28 as where the face is the single image, and others in which well as of the bearded male heads and demonic figures of the face or detached head is one of many. Two objects “Phoenician” glass pendants—and their relationship to exemplify the pervasiveness of this imagery: a pair of the early amber heads from Italy—should reveal a related Etruscan armlets from Vetulonia, whose two terminal purpose and iconography. They all must represent registers are made up of trios of faces (perhaps those of danger-averting divinities, heroes, and fantastic beings. sphinxes), and an electrum temple pendant from Cameiros, a complex work that includes two frontal heads Amber head-pendants of the second half of the sixth at the top.14 Numerous bone and ivory protomes from century were made during a period of considerable East Greece and Sparta date to this period.15 Although amber availability in Italy, but most are small, from 10 to they are not independent works, the amber faces set into 50 mm. Notable examples are the six female faces from a ivory and bone reliefs—a Laconian ivory sphinx and a tomb at Eretum: a frontal head-pendant of a woman from pair of Laconian winged fertility divinities, flanked by Certosa, two frontal female head-pendants from Tomb smaller figures—should be mentioned.16 The detached 102 at Braida di Vaglio (Basilicata), the Getty Head of a female heads protecting a number of sanctuary-dedicated Female Divinity or Sphinx (76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86, cat. Greek bronze vessels of the seventh century are related in no. 10), and two heads (one possibly male) in the 17 Louvre.29 The earliest of the profile amber head-pendants both subject and function: the female protective goddess represented on a vessel support from Olympia18 date to the second half of the sixth century. From that is probably the same divinity as the one gazing outward point onward, until their virtual disappearance in the last from the Rhodian metalwork19and the early ambers. In quarter of the fourth century B.C., female subject head- addition, noteworthy seventh-century analogues for the pendants in both profile and frontal format coexist. gold, ivory, and amber heads are those represented on Just after the mid-sixth century, the first male head- early electrum coinage.20 pendants appear, first satyrs (in both facing and profile Although there are many instances of detached heads in formats) and then, a few decades later, faces of the seventh-century art, especially in East Greece, Crete, and Cypriote-type Herakles and a type of unbearded males Etruria, the subject was more widespread during the next with human ears. The latter two types are uncommon. century. The prominence of the detached head in There are no male heads with bull’s horns, a not uncommon subject in other media.30 The earliest 148 HUMAN HEADS

examples of satyr-subject head-pendants are the Getty no. 15). The winged head-pendants vary in type. Some, Satyr Head (82.AO.161.1, cat. no. 13) and a trio (found such as 76.AO.85.2, represent a youthful female. Others, together) in a New York private collection.31 The satyr- such as 77.AO.81.5 (cat. no. 23), represent a heavier-faced, subject head-pendants precede ambers representing full- mature, and unsmiling type. bodied Bacchic revelers (perhaps all satyrs) by at least a decade, if not more, in the early fifth century, and Most amber female head-pendants wear headgear in the continue to be a popular subject until the early fourth Archaic Ionian Greek or Etruscan fashion, as most century B.C., when figured ambers ceased to be made. modern students of the material have commented. The From their earliest appearance in Greek art, and enduring figures are dressed in the manner of the elite—sometimes in popularity throughout late antiquity, satyr heads were they are clearly divine or heroic figures, sometimes actual considered especially efficacious in averting danger, evil, persons; in other cases, they represent persons in ritual and particularly the evil eye.32 In Italy and in Etruria roles as votives, celebrants, and offerants. Parallels are especially, they were frequently employed as antefixes, found in Greek, Campanian, and Etruscan art, for both often coupled with female heads, usually identified as style and dress, such as the women painted in Etruscan maenads. Satyrs, in Etruscan art of the sixth century tombs and on vases, molded in relief on Etruscan onward, were present in sacrifice scenes, and, as Jean- buccheroor terracotta antefixes, engraved on Etruscan René Jannot points out, it is not clear whether this alludes mirrors, or made into small bronzes, many of which are to a cult of Dionysos or to one of nature more generally.33 votives. The other identifiable male subjects of head-pendants The findspot and context of only a small percentage of the include the unbearded Herakles in a lionskin helmet. hundreds of facing and profile amber heads that have Other male types are images of bearded males with come to light since the nineteenth century are naturalistically shaped ears and a number of unbearded documented, and of these, even fewer were excavated faces of indeterminate sex that seem to represent youths. under controlled conditions. Seventh-century examples The latter, though nameless, probably represent heroes or are few but are recorded as coming from sanctuaries divinities appropriate to the material of amber. Apollo is a where they were dedicated to the Greek divinities good candidate; the god was worshipped as the Averter of Aphrodite, Artemis, and Apollo Daphnephoros. The Evil (Greek: Alexikakos, Apotropaios), the Protector recorded examples of sixth-to-fourth-century date almost (Epikourios), and the Purifier (Katharsios).34 all came from female grave contexts (those of women or children), and in only one case from an Italic sanctuary, Eye size varies among the earliest head-pendants of the that of the goddess Mefite (a goddess with kourotrophic seventh and sixth centuries: in some the eyes are and chthonic powers), who is identified with Aphrodite/ naturalistically scaled; in others they are huge, staring, Venus.35 and rimmed with heavy lids. From the fifth century onward, large, “old-fashioned” staring eyes are the norm The identities of the various female figures represented in for both profile and frontal head-pendants, with the the amber head-pendants are still an open question. A exception of a few classes, notably one attributed to number of proposals have been put forward, all with the Canosa and another to Campania. apparent assumption that in every case, similar-looking heads represent the same being. A female goddess, a From their earliest appearance, female head-pendants protective genius, or a maenad—these are some of the wear their hair elaborately dressed. In addition, they hypothesized identifications.36 wear one or more kinds of head decoration or covering, sometimes in complex combinations: bands, crowns, caps, In the view of this author, amber head-pendants hats (various styles of poloi and various cone-shaped represent a variety of beings, including divinities, styles), kekryphaloi (kerchiefs), wrappings made from supernaturals, and demons, and the identities are not strips of cloth (sometimes over hats), and veils or other fixed. The material of the head-pendants, the amber, drapery-type head coverings. Not only are the facial types seems to preclude identifying them as images of their and artistic styles diverse, but the grooming and owners, or even of mortal mourners. Although it is adornments also differ. Headgear, hairstyles, and jewelry unlikely that the head-pendants represent votives, vary, and the ambers in the Getty collection include most supplicants, or offerants—identifications often made for of these variants. A number of the female head-pendants, related figures in other media, such as Etruscan in various kinds of dress, are carved with a wing or wings. bronzes—it is still possible that they may do so in light of Among the earliest is a large profile head, 76.AO.85.2 (cat. ethnographic analogies. Amber female head-pendants were made over centuries and descend from different Human Heads 149

iconographic types. The same image type may have been body, and thus held special power. A head alone could used to represent different beings, depending on the convey the hieratic implications of the complete body. The circumstances. In the case of buried heirlooms or prestige facing head and the frontal eye—an excerpt of the facing gifts, it is possible that a treasured piece may have had head—were highly potent foci and functioned several owners and even different identities over time. apotropaically.38 The glaring eye, guarding against danger and averting evil with its “terrifying gaze” (phobon Roger Moorey’s recent words about the identity of blepon), underscores the protective role of the image.39 terracotta idols are pertinent to this vexing issue. In his The number of head-pendants with large (disfiguring) Schweich Lectures, he proposed of anthropological holes in the faces may be critical evidence for one kind of research that use and identity. It is possible that they were disfigured by in the first place it highlights the fact that figures of drilling in order to nullify the possible negative powers of the image.40 similar appearance may have represented different beings, natural or supernatural; that the same type of The identifiable pendants of Herakles are of the Cypriot figurine might have multiple functions; and that in type and underline the renowned potency of the one assemblage the same type might have had more immortal hero-divinity: Herakles is a savior and a healer, than one function. In the second place, it indicates a protector of springs, and a danger-averting deity (in that terracotta anthropomorphic figurines do not Etruria, his close connection with Uni clearly establishes have to conform to the tendency to regard them as him thus). In each of the amber Herakles heads, he is necessarily representative of supernatural beings.… frontal and wears the skin of a lion, a symbol of his They may have embodied aspects of prevailing strength, prowess, and deadly force. His glaring eyes ideologies, whilst also reflecting contemporary society emphasize his affinity with wild and dangerous fauna: he by encoding a variety of ritually significant knowledge could be deinon paptainein (terrible to behold). In the one relevant to the world of man and nature.… In light of instance where the context of the Herakles head-pendant ethnographic analogies … clay figurines do not have is known, its figured amber counterpart is a satyr, servant to conform to our expectations for them to be of Dionysos.41 This juxtaposition of ambers parallels the representations of supernatural beings or forces subjects of the main gate at Thasos, Herakles on one side rather than of living human beings acting as votaries with drawn bow and Dionysos on the other with the or worshippers or perhaps of dead human beings as thyrsus.42 The two dangerous gods acted as guardians of ancestors or ghosts.37 the city. Attributes may have modified the basic types into more Anelectronamulet of Apollo might well connect his fiery individualized representations. The addition of a wing or missiles with amber’s solar origin. Apollo, Herakles, and wings, a diadem, or a necklace might signal an aspect of a Artemis, Apollo’s twin—the three bow-bearing gods— divinity or demon and act as a determinant. Just as is the were, for good and ill, death dealing. The divine twins case with votive terracotta heads, the types might be were sharp shooters in their murder of Niobe’s children; modified by additions or adjustments. Identical terracotta the twin gods could also deliver peaceful deaths to the votives may in one circumstance represent the offerant, elderly.43 What better all-around amulet than one that in another, the divinity, and in still others, both at the could protect, ward off death and danger, promise same time—since the gods were represented in human rebirth, and heal? (Apollo’s son is Asclepius; fiery amber form. could function sympathetically to ward off fever; Apollo is That the amber head-pendants are made from a potent one of the deities powerful for both the living and the material traditionally employed for divine, demonic, and dead.) heroic subjects, a material valued for its protective, The dual natures of deities like Herakles and Dionysos or apotropaic, and regenerative aspects, seems to limit the Artemis and Apollo are often played up in their range of possible identities to certain female divinities, iconography: their power to protect is directly related to nymphs, protective geniuses, guides or psychopomps, their powers of destruction. In Italy, and specifically in demonic anthromorphs such as a sphinx or siren, spirits Etruscan religion, the deities powerful for this life, the or souls, and, possibly, magical subjects like Medea or transition to the afterworld, and the afterlife itself were Circe. critical to funerary imagery. A special role was reserved What is critical is how these head-pendants might “work.” for those deities with light and rebirth aspects. Erika The bodiless heads and faces were pars pro toto of the full Simon illuminates this eloquently: “Thus also the 150 HUMAN HEADS

Etruscans wished their dead to have light. They gave them 4. The scarab is the Egyptian solar subject par excellence. It amulets with astral symbols and painted the holy laurel represents the morning manifestation of the sun-god. Andrews grove of Apulu/Usil on the walls of their tombs.”44 1994, p. 51, outlines: “Because of the underlying ideas inherent in its shape, the scarab form of itself offered the hope of new NOTES life and resurrection, but these magical properties could be enhanced even further by the inscription motifs or pictorial 1. The origins of the facing head must lie in the efficacy of the representations added to the flat underside.” Amuletic scarab severed heads of real animals positioned as trophies in public or seals can also have human elements, and a human head with cultic places. In P. Erhart Mottahedeh’s view (Mottahedeh 1979, hair can replace the whole back, as on scaraboids produced in pp. 274–75), the Naucratis faïence factory at the end of the seventh and in the sixth century B.C.: V. Dasen, “Squatting Comasts and there exists no better vehicle for conveying hieratic and demonic Scarab-Beetles,” in Tsetskhladze et al. 2000, p. 91. Dasen associations. Deity and demon alike were most powerful and establishes that the image of scarab beetles was associated with impressive if encountered face to face, and in pictorial art only Dionysos (p. 95, with essential bibl., including her Dwarfs in the facing head allowed direct confrontation between image Ancient Egypt and Greece [Oxford, 1991] and Hölbl 1979). Two and viewer. The facing head was, in effect, the pictorial other Egyptian amulet types relevant for the amber head- equivalent of the cult image in the round. It could express more pendants are the faces of Bes and of Hathor. The relationship of ably than the profile head the presence or actuality of deity or the heads of Meskhenet to Greek and Etruscan female head demon, for immediacy was potency. From earliest times the representations may also prove significant. The head of facing head motif reveals a fundamental duality and polarity in Meskhenet was “frequently attached to a type of brick that art; it exhibits, so to speak, two faces—one hieratic and godly, Egyptian women crouched upon when giving birth. Meskhenet the other demonic and monstrous. Opposed to the profile head, was also believed to appear at the time of an individual’s it can assume either a positive or a negative role, signifying death—perhaps to preside over ‘birth’ into the afterlife—and good or evil, sacred or profane, and similar polarities. This the goddess is sometimes depicted in this way in vignettes from duality and polarity of the facing head motif was engendered by the Book of the Dead”: Wilkinson 1992, p. 41 (with reference to ancient religious beliefs in an elemental godhead which E. Russman, Egyptian Sculpture: Cairo and Luxor [Austin, TX, combined polarities—one both threatening and protective, 1989], pp. 19–21, 214, n. 5). beautiful and monstrous, fertile and barren. 5. Higgins 1980, p. 63, fig. 9. She continues, “Its strongest form is the Mask, which is able to capture essence alone, undiluted by activity.… The motif was 6. For the faïence head-pendant from Susa (Apadana) in the initially reserved for highly symbolic figures.… For human Louvre (Sb 03588), see Faïences de l’Antiquité: De l’Égypte à l’Iran, figures it served to strengthen divine nature, while for certain exh. cat. (Paris, 2005), p. 65, no. 159. The following are all in the animals and hybrid creatures it served to underscore demonic Louvre and illustrated in the above-cited catalogue: example force.” For other discussions of the mask form and its from Ougarit (Minet el-Beida, Tomb VI, AO.15731), no. 154; two apotropaic role, see the sources listed in Mottahedeh 1979, n. from Mari (Tomb 236, AO.19078, and Tomb 255, AO.19488), nos. 198; Steiner 2001, pp. 196–97; Faraone 1992, pp. 37–38; and, 155–56; the other two from Mesopotamia (AO.07089, AO.06685), most important, Frontisi-Ducroux 1991. Carpenter 1986, p. 97, no. 157. discusses the eyes and masks of late-sixth-century B.C. Greek 7. Large bowl mounted on three legs, Rome, Museo Nazionale cups and amphorae. While he admits that they “may have had Etrusco di Villa Giulia 13131, from the Barberini Tomb, their original stimulus in magic or cult,” he believes that their Praeneste: C. Densmore Curtis, “The Barberini Tomb,” Memoirs “meaning can be found in the realm of humour.” However, he of the American Academy at Rome 5 (1925): 42–44, no. 79, pls. does not address the importance of humor as a time-honored 26–27. aversion technique. 2. On Gorgo, Medusa, and the gorgoneion, see W. A. P. Childs and 8. For the engraved Tridacna squamosa shell figures, sirens(?), D. Tsiafakis in Centaur’s Smile 2003; R. Mack, “Facing Down falcons, and other creatures, see the recent discussion in B. Medusa (An Aetiology of the Gaze),” Art History 25, no. 5 (2002): Brandl, “Two Engraved Tridacna Shells from Tel Miqne-Ekron,” 570–604; S. R. Wilk, Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 323 (2001): (Oxford and New York, 2000); Rocco 1999, n. 199 (with other 49–62 (with earlier bibl., including R. A. Stucky, The Engraved relevant bibl. not listed here); J.-P. Vernant, “Death in the Eyes: Tridacna Shells [Sao Paulo, 1974]; A. Rathje, “A Tridacna Gorgo, Figure of the Other,” pp. 114–15, and “In the Mirror of Squamosa Shell,” in Italian Iron Age Artefacts in the British Medusa,” pp. 141–51, in Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays Museum: Papers of the Sixth British Museum Classical Colloquium, by Jean-Pierre Vernant, ed. F. I. Zeitlin (Princeton, 1991); LIMC 4 ed. J. Swaddling [London, 1986], pp. 393–96; and D. Reese and C. (1988), s.vv. “Gorgones” and “Gorgones in Etruria” (I. Sease, “Some Previously Unpublished Engraved Tridacna Krauskopf); and Mottahedeh 1979. Shells,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 52 [1993]: 109–28). For the other imported vessels, see A. Rathje, “Oriental Imports in 3. Andrews 1994, p. 69. Etruria in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries: Their Origins and Human Heads 151

Implications,” in Ridgway and Ridgway 1979; and A. Rathje, to a Tarentine manufacture); and Rolley 1996, p. 389 (which “Some Unusual Vessels with Plastic Heads on Their Necks,” in identifies the place of manufacture as Picenum and the style as Studia Romana in Honorem Petri Krarup septuagenarii, ed. K. Laconian, but without ruling out Greek, possibly Tarantine, Ascani (Odense, 1976), pp. 10–19. The head on the umbo of the workmanship). For the Picene plaques with standing winged British Museum shell (GR 1852.112.3) is identified as that of a divinities between acolytes, see Rocco 1999, pp. 82–85, nos. woman on the museum’s website. 135–36, pls. XLIV–XLV. 9. For example, the bowl with twelve human heads from the Tomb 17. Marangou 1969, pp. 154–58, nos. 88–101. of the Painted Lions, Cerveteri, third quarter of the seventh 18. For Olympia Br 10881 (Athens, National Archaeological Museum century B.C. (Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 6201), see W. Gauer, “Gerät- und Gefässefüsse mit 13234): Haynes 2000, fig. 39. Löwenpranken und figürlichem Schmuck aus Olympia,” AM99 10. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 13396 (bearded (1984): 38–40. males) and 13421 (female; possible sphinx) from the Barberini 19. Among the plaquette-ornaments (garment decorations; Tomb, Praeneste: M. L. Uberti, “Gli avori e gli ossi,” in I Fenici closures?) is a group of eight silver-gilt objects from Bologna 1988, pp. 404–21, 743, nos. 935–36; M. E. Aubet, Los Marfiles (Aureli necropolis, Tomb 11) dating to the last quarter of the orientalizantes de Praeneste (Barcelona, 1971), pp. 165–68, pl. 25; seventh century B.C. (Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico and Curtis 1925 (in n. 7, above), pp. 31, 101–2, nn. 47–49, pl. 10. 25681–88): Bartoloni et al. 2000, pp. 362–63, no. 517. Is the 11. Heraklion, Archaeological Museum: Musti et al. 1992, pp. severe and unsmiling figure Potnia Theron? 243–44, no. 53.2. 20. For early electrum coinage with faces and heads, see, for 12. Paris, Louvre 13638: ibid., p. 246, no. 60 (with references). example,Kraay 1976; and R. W. Wallace, “The Origin of Electrum 13. The youthful face is in a private collection in Basel. In the Coinage,” AJA 91 (1987): 385–97. Metropolitan Museum of Art are the helmeted male pendant, 21. Among the earliest heads used as antefixes in Etruria are the 1992.11.14b, and the female bird-hatted divinity(?), 1992.11.14a Potnia Therons from the Orientalizing “workshop” building at (both are Purchase, Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer, Patti Cadby Poggio Civitate: see E. Nielsen, “Interpreting the Lateral Sima at Birch and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris Poggio Civitate,” in De Puma and Small 1994, pp. 64–71. W. A. P. Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992). Childs in Centaur’s Smile 2003, p. 64, proposes Artemis for the 14. For the armlets in Florence (Museo Archeologico Nazionale female heads interspaced with gorgoneia at the early temple of 92600–92601), see Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pp. 137, 280, no. Hera at Corfu. N. A. Winter, Greek Architectural Terracottas from 96; for the complex electrum temple ornament, with rosettes, the Prehistoric to the End of the Archaic Period (Oxford, 1993), pp. poppy flowers, a nude, necklaced female, a lion’s face, and two 62–63, reiterates, albeit with skepticism, the proposal by M. frontal heads, in Paris (Louvre S 1208), Musti et al. 1992, p. 121, Torelli (“Terrecotte architettoniche arcaiche da Gravisca e una no. 80, with bibl. nota a Plinio, NH XXXV, 151–52,” Nuovi quaderni dell’Istituto di archeologia dell’Università di Perugia 1 [1979]: 307–8) that two 15. SeeLaffineur 1978. For the plaquettes from Cameiros, Rhodes, Cretan immigrants to Italy invented antefixes decorated with in the British Museum (Jew. 1103-6, 1108), see Marshall 1911, pp. heads. F. Kenfield, in his review of Winter (Bryn Mawr Classical 85–87, pl. XI. Review 94.11.05), finds the Cretan-origin hypothesis attractive. On the subject of identity and meaning, Winter proposes that 16. For the sphinx appliqués with amber faces from a couch in the female-headed antefixes represent sphinxes. Kenfield calls Iron Age Celtic tomb at Grafenbühl, Asperg (Stuttgart, attention to M. Mertens-Horn, “Una nuova antefissa a testa Würtembergisches Landesmuseum), the key first publication is femminile da Akrai ed alcune considerazioni sulle Ninfe di H. Zürn and H. V. Hermann, “Der ‘Grafenbühl’ auf der Markung Sicilia,” BdA 66 (1991): 9–28, where she proposes an alternative Asperg, Kr. Ludwigsburg, ein Fürstengrabhügel der späten interpretation specific to Sicilian female head antefixes. Kenfield Hallstattzeit,” Germania 44 (1966): 83, 100–102, pl. 12. Later suggests, “Female head antefixes could have different discussion includes Rocco 1999, pp. 83–85, (with a critical meanings in different places.” The same is possible for the assessment); J. Fischer, “Zu einer griechischen Kline und female amber head-pendants, and for comparable reasons. The weiteren Südimporten aus dem Fürstengrabhügel Grafenbühl, metope-stampeddoliiinclude a right-facing bearded male head, Asperg, Kr. Ludwigsburg,” Germania 68 (1990): 120–21; J.P. but no female heads or other female subjects, as L. Pieraccini MohenTrésors des princes celtes, exh. cat. (Paris, 1987), pp. makes clear in “A Storage Vase for Life: The Caeretan Dolio and 24–26; B. Shefton, “Zum Import und Einfluss mediterraner Güter Its Decorative Elements,” in Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on in Alteuropa,” Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor und Frühgeschichte 22 the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era, ed. J. F. (1989): 214, n. 34; Mastrocinque 1991, pp. 84–85; A. Hall (Provo, UT, 1996), pp. 92–113. Mastrocinque, “Avori intarsiati in ambra da Quinto Fiorentino,” BdA10 (1991): 3ff. (where he assigns the Belmonte Piceno appliqués to the same atelier as the Asperg sphinx, and points 152 HUMAN HEADS

22. For the origin and religious significance of the terracotta 29. For the amber heads from Eretum, see Losi et al. 1993; for the protome, see Croissant 1983, p. 18. On the origin of the Etruscan Tomb 102 Braida di Vaglio heads (Potenza, Museo Archeologico terracotta votives, see Smithers 1988. Nazionale “Dinu Adamesteanu” 95201, 95204), Bottini and Setari 23. For early Greek coinage, see, for example, Mottahedeh 1979; 2003, p. 40, nos. 136–37, pl. XLVI. The amber heads in the Louvre andKraay 1976, pp. 20–29. Relevant examples are the “Apollo” (originally pendants?) are modern additions to a gold bracelet staters from Colophon, the silver Aegean Dionysos type, and (Louvre Bj 2347). The heads are separately inventoried as two electrum “satyr” types, from Phocea and Cyzicus, and the Louvre Bj 23471 a and b. Bj 23471 a is probably a male figure, as Cyzicus Athena head. The following comparable gemstones are comparison with the bronze votive kouroi in Richardson’s illustrated in Boardman 2001: the chalcedony lentoid from Middle Archaic Series A (Florence, Museo Archeologico Melos in Boston (Museum of Fine Arts 27.678) with a facing Nazionale 62, 63, 68, 84 [from Arezzo]) suggests. The hairstyle of satyr (p. 137, pl. 274); the pale green steatite pseudo-scarab Bj 23471 b is comparable to that of contemporary sphinxes, with a crowned double head (one bearded, one unbearded) in such as the sphinx on an Etruscan gold fibula from Vulci in London (British Museum 480) from Cyprus (p. 180, pl. 281); also Munich (Antikensammlungen 2338): Cristofani and Martelli in London (British Museum 492), the Island pseudo-scarab of 1983, pp. 183, 296–97, no. 171. green steatite with a back in the form of a frontal satyr face, 30. It is significant that there are no extant amber head-pendants of signed by Syries (p. 184, pl. 350); and the Greek pseudo-scarab male figures with horns, considering how popular the subject of of carnelian made in Etruria with Dionysos on the back in a horned, bearded male figure is in pre-Roman art, in goldwork Boston (Museum of Fine Arts LHG 35 ter), by the Master of the and ivory, and as a device on early coinage. This lack is even Boston Dionysos (p. 186, pl. 408). more surprising given the existence of four complete amber 24. Some examples are the sixth-century B.C. gold head-pendants pendants in the form of recumbent bull-bodied, bull-horned (female?) on a necklace found at Ruvo di Puglia in Taranto anthromorphs, one in London (British Museum 68 (Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 6429): Guzzo 1993, p. [“Achelous?”]), another in Paris (Louvre Bj 2123), a third in New 52, 191, CII A 1 (necklace), and pp. 71–73, 228, PV2 (pendants). York (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.57, Purchase, Renée and Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Foundation, Patti Cadby 25. The silver-gilt frontal heads (and the kore, acorns, and lion’s Birch, and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris head) from a tomb in Taranto (Florence, Museo Archeologico Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992), and a fourth in a Geneva private Nazionale 12024–31) may have decorated a polos; there are no collection. The style of the four taurine ambers is Ionian traces of holes for attachment, and they were presumably influenced; they have few comparanda apart from East Greek “glued on.” For the group, see Guzzo 1993, pp. 106–8, 266, 332, L plastic vessels in the form of similar creatures. The full-body IV A 1. Comparable heads (female heads, gorgoneion, Herakles’ anthromorph types derive from the ancient Near Eastern bull- face) are in the Getty Museum (96.AM.110–415: J. Paul Getty man and are often identified as Achelous (whose realm, as first Museum2002, pp. 122, 126–27), and a group of four (one male stated in Hesiod’s Theogony, is streams and water), but could be and three females) allegedly from Policoro are in the Ortiz identified as Eridanus. Their antecedent is the human-headed collection, Geneva: In Pursuit of the Absolute: Art of the Ancient bison or bull-creature that was associated with the sun-god World—from the George Ortiz Collection, exh. cat., rev. ed. (Bern, Shamash; it is linked with the eastern sunrise. Since amber has 1996), no. 123. Several other heads were said to be found with both solar and aqueous associations (ocean, river, and stream), this group. these amber pendants, which follow a millennia-old compositional format, may incorporate both the ancient Near 26. Two small bronzes, an Archaic female head in Toronto and a Eastern solar associations and the watery ones. The four amber Severe-style male head in New York (which also has a bull-men pendants revert their heads and were perforated to suspension loop in the top of the head), are apparently both hang head downward. Does this pose connect them to funerary from Italy. See S. Haynes, “A Bronze Head from South Italy,” in use? On the early human-headed bison or bull-man, see P. Miscellanea Etrusca e Italica in onore di Massimo Pallottino ArchCl Hansen in First Cities 2003, pp. 230–31, nos. 157a–b. See also W. 43 (1991): 96–99. A. P. Childs, “The Human Animal: The Near East and Greece,” 27. For the head (inv. 210442), see Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 45; and pp. 49–70 (with key references, including LIMC 1 [1981], s.v. Ornamenti e lusso 2000, p. 15, fig. 7, no. 152. “Acheloos” [P. Isler], p. 13, no. 1), and S. Gavel, “Human-Headed Bull,” pp. 108–10, no. 1, in Centaur’s Smile 2003. Both Gavel and 28. Two comparable ritual objects of seventh-century B.C. date are Childs emphasize the iconography of the bull-man as protector the terracotta lamp from Gela with rams’ heads and of flocks and of the Tree of Life. Mottahedeh 1979, pp. 104–6, polos-wearing female heads (Museo Archeologico Regionale di addresses issues relevant for the ambers in her analysis of Gela 7711: P. Orlandini, “Gela: La stipe votiva del Predio Sola,” Achelous images on early Greek coinage. MonAnt46 [1963]: 33–41, no. 1, figs. 14–16, pls. 8a–c, 9a–b) and 31. Unpublished. the marble lamp from the Selinuntine Malophoros sanctuary (Museo Archeologico Regionale “A. Salinas” di Palermo 3892: 32. In Roman times, the satyr mask was thought to be effective in Magna Graecia 2002, pp. 292–93, no. 75). warding off the evil eye: see M. Henig, “Roman Sealstones,” in Human Heads 153

Collon 1997, p. 99. Faraone 1992, p. 557, discusses the use of and G. Colucci Pescatori, Il Museo Irpino (Cava dei Tirreni, 1975), heads in apotropaic imagery and gives the examples of the p. 33, pl. IX. images of Hephaistos on the furnaces of bronze workers; the 36. D’Ercole 1995 suggests that the Lavello-Casino head-pendant “laughable images” (geloia, called baskania), grotesque faces, may represent a protective deity (see cat. no. 55, n. 3). Losi et al. and satyrs’ masks on other ovens; and bird and animal 1993, p. 203, incline toward identifying the head-pendants as protomes on other structures, all used in protection against ill representing “a female goddess or protective genius.” will (phthonos, sometimes translated as “evil eye”). Faraone also Mastrocinque 1991, p. 151, wonders whether they might be cites the fragment of a lost Aeschylean satyr play in which maenads or nymphs, even perhaps the Heliades. effigies (eidola and mimemata, exact portraits) of satyrs are fastened to the exterior of a temple, from which vantage point 37. Moorey 2003, pp. 7, 49. they will frighten off wayfarers. In the tenth century A.D., Al- Beruni (The Book Most Comprehensive in Knowledge on Precious 38. On the facing eye, see Winter 2000; and Faraone 1992, p. 379. Stones, trans. H. M. Said [Islamabad, 1989], p. 181) stated, “The 39. Faraone 1992, pp. 45, 58–59. only reason for liking [amber] is said to be that it averts the evil eye.” For the evil eye, see “Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets,” n. 40. On the destruction of images to abort power, see Gager 1992; 152. andFaraone 1992. 33. Jannot 2005, p. 38. 41. See “Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets,” n. 171. 34. Mottahedeh 1979, p. 277 (with reference to L. R. Farnell, The 42. Faraone 1992, pp. 58–59. Cults of the Greek States, vol. 1 [Oxford, 1896]). 43. Faraone 1992. 35. For the amber necklace with at least six heads from the Mefite sanctuary in Valle d’Ansanto in the Museo Irpino, Avellino, see 44. E. Simon, “Gods in Harmony: The Etruscan Pantheon,” in De Losi et al. 1993, p. 210, n. 20; NSc 30 (1976): 503–4, no. 1309g; Grummond and Simon 2006, p. 48. 154 HUMAN HEADS

10. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx Condition The two sections, 76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86, were acquired as separate objects by the donor and accessioned as such into the museum. After their entry into the collection, it was discovered that the two joined and composed one object. Before the donor purchased the pieces, they were cleaned to remove dirt and some encrustation. At the museum, the surfaces were treated with an amber-oil distillate, which made both pieces relatively more translucent but also darker. There are no visible inclusions in either section. The front of the face section, 76.AO.85.1, is in fair condition; it is covered with minute cracks and some chips, and the tip of the nose and a section of the right cheek are broken off. The back of the rear section, 76.AO.86, is in good condition. It retains a high polish on the exterior surface but is marked by opaque spots and tiny fissures, and there is a small loss on the left side. The interior surfaces of both sections are in good condition, with the exception of a small chip at the edge of the inside of the back section. Degraded amber is found in the abrasion scratches of both insides. In ambient light, the amber of 76.AO.85.1 is a deep reddish orange; in transmitted light, it is more transparent and a brighter orange. 76.AO.86 is dark red under strong light and almost opaque in ambient light. Accession 76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86 Description Number The two parts of the head were joined after being Culture Etruscan accessioned into the collection. When they are joined, the Date 550–525 B.C. frontal aspect is an exaggerated egg-shaped oval, widest across the forehead, curved at the headdress, and almost Dimensions Height: 32 mm; width: 26 mm; depth: (face) 12 pointed at the chin. In side view, the amber is a flattened mm, (back) 5 mm, (joined) 17 mm; Weight: 9 g oval. The wide forehead is arched at the top, with the Subjects Jewelry; Samos, Greece (also Samian, Greek); brow line mirroring the jawline; the chin is small and Sphinx pointed, protruding forward to the level of the zygomatic arches. The under-chin area is cut inward. Positioned so Provenance that the plane of the two joined sections is perpendicular to the ground, the face tilts slightly forward, the forehead –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. is in front, and the chin is regressed toward the neck. In Paul Getty Museum, 1976. this orientation, the eyes appear to be downcast. There is a sharp cessation of the design at the back of the front section. Above the forehead is an ornament, a crown or ornamental band. It is decorated with a pattern of 155

pinnate-shaped sections or rays in two levels. It emerges common with Samian and other South Ionian works. above a narrow fringe of hair, which is divided in the Among them are (1) the ivory “Artemis” from the Halos center and rendered by closely spaced vertical striations. deposit at Delphi;2 (2) a marble head from Miletos in The volute-shaped ears are high on the head, nearly Berlin (Staatliche Museen Sk 1631);3 (3) the over-life-size parallel to the back plane, but so close to the head marble kouros from Samos now in Istanbul;4 (4) a bronze ornament that they seem to be attached to it. The mass of horseman from the Heraion at Samos;5 (5) a bronze the hair is dressed in beaded tresses, like cornrows, which statuette of a woman from Samos;6 and (6) three Samian run in a rostrocaudal direction, the rows separated by black-figure female head kantharoi, one from Vulci and a closely engraved lines intersected by even more finely pair from Chiusi.7 The potters of these kantharoi have engraved ones. exploited the open shape of the vessels, resulting in wide, heart-shaped faces, an exaggeration of the facial type of The eye cavities are empty and flat, and likely once held the amber, the comparanda above, and another Getty inlays. The eye sockets are carved with an elongated head (83.AO.202.12, cat. no. 21). sinuous opening, the outer canthus of each eye higher than the inner canthus. The eyes extend from the frontal Who or what is represented in this amber? The plane around to the sides, so that in side view the eyes physiognomy suggests that the subject is female. Because look hooded. The nose is indented at the bridge, with the of the material, the type of head ornament, and the bright line of the nose inclined at a modest angle away from the smile, it is hypothesized here that this Head represents a face. The corners of the mouth abut the inside curves of divinity or a sphinx, as must the amber head-pendant of a the cheeks, and both lips are pulled tightly upward (the crowned female subject in London (British Museum 57).8 upper overhanging the lower): this makes the mouth into The crown of 76.AO.86 is similar to the headdresses of a full smile. Since the mouth is recessed from the main some of the ivory and bone images of Artemis Orthia facial plane, the effect of a prominent chin is increased, from the Spartan sanctuary,9 to the feathered crown worn which also emphasizes the smile. by the female divinity of the Laconian Grächwil krater (Artemis? Potnia Theron?),10 and to some of the Tool marks or polishing abrasions are evident on the headdresses worn by many of the female heads on the inner surfaces of both halves and just behind the ears on handles of Laconian hydriae.11 (The relationship of these the face. The two sections fit together perfectly. There is headdresses to those of Hathor and Bes in Egyptian and no evidence of an adhesive. Phoenician art may be more than a visual similarity.)12 Discussion The crowns and smiles of the tiny female divinities The lack of a suspension perforation, the high polish of (Potnia Theron, Artemis, or her Etruscan counterpart?) front and back sides, and the sharp cessation of the hair embellishing a number of sixth-century Etruscan at the circumference suggest that the two sections, (Caeretan?) gold ornaments are important comparisons 76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86, were fitted into a metal bezel, for 76.AO.86, not only for the identity of the amber, but ring mount, or similar kind of setting. Light would have also because of the East Greek connection of the gold working.13 An earlier Greek parallel for this Head’s crown shone through it, and the large “drop” of amber would is the headdress worn by a seventh-century ivory sphinx have glittered, marvelous to behold. from Perachora.14 In turn, the Perachoran ivory’s crown This amber has no exact parallel in style or form. It was might be seen as a latter-day, schematic version of a likely unearthed in Italy and may have been made there, Mycenaean fashion—such as those sported by the but the style is that of East Greece. 76.AO.86 is remarkably intensely smiling pair of sphinxes on an ivory lid from close to a group of terracottas put together by François Mycenae, or the head ornament worn by the sphinx on an Croissant, which he named H Group, Knidos(?).1 Croissant ivory from the Athenian Acropolis.15 linked the group to two of his Samian subgroups, Type A1 If 76.AO.86 were mounted in a bezel, the mount may have and Type A5, hypothesizing that a foreigner (a Knidian?) resembled the earlier oval ring mounts (of gold, silver, or produced these terracottas in a Samian atelier. In gilt silver) of a special class of seventh-century pendants, comparison to the protomes of Croissant’s H Group, some of them scaraboids. Excavated examples include 76.AO.86 has a similar facial structure—the same silver-mounted ambers from mid-seventh-century graves triangular form, eyebrow placement, wide and high arc of at Cumae and Veii, and a gold one from Vulci.16 Three the brow edge, and sharp angle of the jawline, and a other hypothetical options for the setting of 76.AO.86, two similarly shaped nose, recessed mouth, tucked-in lower Etruscan and one Egyptian, are the embossed gold lip, and prominent chin. 76.AO.86 has many features in 156 HUMAN HEADS

aedicula cradle mounts bent around three Egyptian 12. SeeBulté 1991, passim. faïence pataikos/dwarf amulets for a necklace buried in a 13. The smile is very like that of the winged figures in the Potnia tomb at Vulci,17 the embossed strip mount bent around a broken amber (for use as a pendant),18 and the Egyptian Theronschema (she stands between lions and atop confronted gold settings for royal heart amulets and heart scarabs of recumbent waterbirds) on the pair of earrings in Berlin 19 (Antikenmuseum 30219) and the single figures from Praeneste precious nephrite. However, while the silhouette of the and Cerveteri in London (British Museum, Jew. 1267–68) and in Egyptian pendants is almost identical to that of 76.AO.86, the Villa Giulia (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 40875, the stones are flat on the reverse, not rounded like the 53492). For the goldwork, see Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pp. amber. 58, 292, 300–301, nos. 144, 192–94. The plaquettes from Cerveteri are aedicula-like and are reminiscent of the Milesian NOTES votive reliefs with a standing figure in Berlin (see cat. no. 9, n. 2). For the East Greek aspects of the gold ornaments, see Laffineur 1. Croissant 1983, pp. 18–34. 1978, especially pp. 56–66 (“Visages humains vus de face”), with 2. Delphi Museum 10414: Lapatin 2001, no. 33. This ivory head is critical references. probably Samian, as first suggested by P. Amandry, “Rapport 14. Athens, National Archaeological Museum 16519 (from the préliminaire sur les statues chryséléphantines de Delphes,” BCH sanctuary of Hera Limenia): T. Dunbabin, ed., Perachora, vol. 2 63 (1939): 86–119, seconded by Croissant 1983, p. 38. (Oxford, 1962), p. 403 A I, pl. 171. Illustrated in Hampe and 3. Karakasi 2003, pl. 44 ac; and Freyer-Schauenburg 1974. See also Simon 1981, pl. 411. Croissant 1983, pp. 35–37. 15. Athens, National Archaeological Museum 7634. The box lid is 4. Istanbul Museum 1645 (which fits on the body of the draped from the House of the Sphinxes, Mycenae: see Poursat 1977, no. kouros Samos 5235): Freyer-Schauenburg 1974, pls. 41–46 (the 138, pl. 12; and Hampe and Simon 1981, pl. 332. For the crown of views of the Istanbul head on pl. 42, upper right, correspond the Mycenaean ivory sphinx from the Athenian Acropolis, see most closely to 76.AO.86). Poursat 1977, no. 493, pl. 53; and Hampe and Simon 1981, p. 229, pl. 341. 5. E. Buschor, Altsamische Standbilder I–V (Berlin, 1934–61), figs. 16. Strong 1966, pp. 48–49. In addition to the examples in London 198–99; and Croissant 1983, pp. 40–43, pl. 5. Compare the lower (British Museum 12–15: ibid., pl. III), there are many others in eyelids, which curve slightly upward in the center. collections both old (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) 6. Samos, Vathy Museum B1441:Croissant 1983, pp. 129–40, pls. and new (the Getty Museum). There is the remote possibility 38–39. The resemblance of the statuette to the Getty Head is that the mounting may have been of amber, on the basis of one enhanced by the similarly empty eye sockets. Comparable also known parallel: one of the possibly male heads (686/1) from the are the structure of the head, the arch of the forehead, the head Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s church, find was originally set into an oval width (from ear to ear), the smile and placement of the lips, and amber frame, which is now lost but known from photographs. the upward tilting and general shape of the eyes, although There is a notch cut above the right ear, but no perforations. As there are differences—the nose is more prominent, and the chin an argument against this idea, the back of the Getty pendant is more recessed—reasons why Croissant placed this bronze in his rounded and polished, while the Novi Pazar example has a flat chap. 5 Phocaean(?) group. back and appears to be more roughly finished: see Palavestra and Krstić 2006, pp. 129, 131, fig. 57, no. 41 (with earlier bibl.). 7. The head kantharoi, of both male and female subjects, provide revealing parallels. For the head kantharos from Vulci (Munich, 17. M. Cristofani in Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pp. 134, 279, no. 93 Antikensammlungen 2014), see Walter-Karydi 1973, no. 484, pl. (dated to the second quarter of the seventh century B.C.). One 56. For the Chiusi pair (Berlin, Staatliche Museen F4012–13), see of the faïence figures is missing; one was given a gold perizoma. ibid., nos. 482–83, pl. 57. Compare the short nose, wide smile, The mounts are stamped with lions, sphinxes, and monkeys. and elongated eyes. 18. The gold mount of the broken amber pendant are embossed 8. Strong 1966, p. 73, pl. XXIII, describes the head ornament as “a with a meander and a rosette (D.C.A. collection, Geneva, stephane like the slats of a Venetian blind.” Switzerland): Art of the Italic Peoples, exh. cat. (Geneva and Naples, 1993), p. 178, no. 80. 9. See cat. no. 2. The ivory plaque of the Potnia Theron / Artemis from a dress pin, of mid-seventh-century B.C. date, and a bone 19. Compare, for example, the Eighteenth Dynasty heart amulet, head of the goddess, of about 600 B.C., are illustrated in Hampe “Royal Wife, Manhata,” in New York (Metropolitan Museum of and Simon 1981, pls. 354–55. Art 26.8.144, Fletcher Fund, 1926): Hatshepsut 2005, p. 215, no. 137. 10. For the Grächwil hydria, see cat. no. 2, n. 23. 11. For pertinent Laconian bronzes, see Stibbe 2000, passim. Cat. no. 10 157

11. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx on the left side of the hair that join to form a fine diagonal crack; there are tiny losses on the right cheek and right ear. There are small chips and losses on the back of the object. It is red-brown and opaque in ambient light and bright orange in transmitted light. The metal insertions (wire or pins?) in the top of the head are broken off; one is rectangular in cross section. (They have not been scientifically analyzed but appear to be of silver.) Description The amber is convex on the obverse; the reverse is smooth and curved so that in profile to right, the back is C-shaped. Only the front of the head is depicted—that is, the face and the front part of the hair. The eyebrow ridges lie flat on the surface of the face; the upward curves are slight (the left somewhat more curved than the right), with a delicately suggested transition to the root of the nose. The shallow, feather-shaped eye sockets (which may have been intended for inlay) incline sharply upward at the upper corners. The lids are indented at the inner canthi, swelling above the eyes with the lids overhanging the lower rims. The area under the lower lid is sensitively Accession 76.AO.79 modeled around the shape of the eye itself. The cheeks Number are full, especially around the mouth area. Culture Etruscan The head’s facial features are not precisely symmetrical: Date 550–525 B.C. the right eye turns up more at the outer canthus, its inclination more manifest, while the nose lists slightly to Dimensions Height: 34.5 mm; width: 24 mm; depth: 16 the right, its right nostril higher. The smallish nose sits mm; Weight: 7.7 g close to the frontal vertical plane of the face. Straight and Subjects Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Jewelry; tipped upward, the wings of the nose are somewhat Sphinx fleshy, with the nares clearly defined. The mask has bow- shaped lips, the upper one overlapping the lower one, Provenance that are slightly pointed at the center, and the corners of the mouth are tucked in, to create the impression of a –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. slight smile. The mentolabial sulcus is deep. The chin is Paul Getty Museum, 1976. wide and rounded, jutting forward to the plane of the brow. In full-face view, the ears are hardly noticeable, but Condition in side view, they are clearly defined. They are large and placed high on the head. The antihelices are indicated, the There are no visible inclusions. The overall condition is antitraguses not indicated, and the lobes are separate. good; the surface is firm and stable, although an extensive crack network is visible in transmitted light. There are The back is less polished than the front. There are traces small chips above the left eyebrow, near the left eye, and of abrasion around the circumference and on the reverse. 158

The individual strands of hair were cut with a graver. scaraboids, and gemstones have characteristically flat There are the remains of three metal inserts (silver?) in backs. It is possible that the head was fitted with a gold the top of the head, the central one larger than the two bezel, comparable to the way that an Etruscan mounted flanking it, and the residue of a green (bronze) corrosion three Egyptian faïence pataikos figures for a necklace.4 product on the reverse. However, the corrosion product on the back of 76.AO.79 Discussion suggests it was in direct contact with bronze. If the amber was set into bronze, the bronze support would have had 76.AO.79 has no exact parallel. No conclusion may be to fit the curve of the amber’s back. (Could it have been set into the base of a vessel handle?)5 All other extant drawn about the sex, function, or identity of the figure. It amber faces used as inlay are flat on the back, and all are is not drilled for suspension, nor is there a mount; it has a mounted in amber, ivory, or bone.6 curved back; and the green (bronze?) corrosion product on the reverse appears to be the result of direct contact If the mounting of the Munich pendant is original, when with metal. The metal inserts in the top of the head are suspended against a flat surface, the head would appear placed in the position of a crown, and although a to look upward; however, if it were the single pendant of suspension device could have been incorporated, there is a carrier and worn high on the neck at the jugular notch, no apparent parallel for this method. the amber would have fit snugly into the depression and 76.AO.79 was accessioned as the head of a girl and the mask would have looked straight out. There are many published in 1993 by this author as that of a male divinity. Archaic illustrations of figures male and female wearing If this latter identification holds true, the divinity could be simple necklaces with one pendant (or a few) at this Apollo. The sexing of the head now seems less sure; it may position or even higher up, as a choker. Might the same be be that the original designation was the correct one. If true of 76.AO.79? 76.AO.79 indeed represents a female figure, the amber For the style of the head, the best comparison for 76.AO.79 may represent a “brilliant” divinity such as Artemis or among amber carvings is the Getty amber kore pendant Aphrodite, Potnia Theron, or perhaps a beautiful sphinx. 76.AO.77(cat. no. 8), which is attributed to a South Ionian In form, 76.AO.79 is related to the previous catalogue carver. Both compare well with a number of Archaic East entry, 76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86 (cat. no. 10). They both Greek sculptures in terracotta and marble, especially have curved backs, although that of 76.AO.79 is curved on those from the ambient of Miletos. 76.AO.79 shares the one plane only and is not rounded. The one other amber general stylistic qualities of the Milesian school—the head-pendant that has a similar curved back is a female frontality, the horizontality, the solidity, the “Massigkeit”— head-pendant in Munich.1It, too, has no visible boring for as outlined by François Croissant. He convincingly suspension; instead, the Munich head has a metal demonstrated that there are two great artistic tendencies (bronze?) suspension loop (of uncertain date) inserted in in Milesian sculpture, a “style graphique” and a “style pictural.”7 It is within this latter trend, within the the top of the amber. naturalistic vein of Milesian art, that 76.AO.79 seems to The purpose of the three metal (silver?) inserts in find its proper berth. 76.AO.79 may have been to suspend the head, but since 76.AO.79 can be linked to specific Milesian works, there are three, two small and one large, it is more likely especially the terracotta protomes of Croissant’s Type that they are the remains of a crown or other head B3–B6 series.8 They have in common a relatively flat face, decoration (silver would suit such an ornament).2 Although unlikely, an incorporated suspension loop the nose at a low angle relative to the cheeks, a short and should not be ruled out. The only parallel for such added overlapping upper lip, and a short, squarish chin. The decoration is a head-pendant of a female figure (a siren?) amber head also compares well with a number of marbles in London (British Museum 60), said to be from Armento from East Greece: the head of a draped woman from near and probably dating to the mid-fifth century B.C. Metal Ephesus in London (British Museum B89); a siren in remains (silver? wire or pin?) are in the lateral Copenhagen, from near Cyzicus; the head of a sphinx from Keramos, in İzmir; and the Louvre Dionysermos.9 suspension boring, and further remains are in a larger The Keramos marble is closest. The head shape, the plastic vertical boring in the top of the head.3 transitions from area to area, the sweet smile, the air of The curved back of 76.AO.79 and the green residue on it quiet self-confidence, and the composition of the features make difficult a hypothetical reconstruction of any are very alike. The relation of the eyes to the eyebrow support. Contemporary mounted scarabs, amber arcs is the same. Cat. no. 11 159

The eye shape is a distinguishing feature of the amber. demonic being. The metal attachments, if they are part of The eyes of 76.AO.79 are akin to those of many of the a headdress and of silver, do not allow another terracottas in Croissant’s Samian and Milesian groups, interpretation.13 As Brunilde Ridgway has argued, the South Ionian marbles, and the Getty amber Kore, but the very presence of elaborate head decorations in Archaic best parallel is the large ivory “Artemis” from the Halos art “serves to indicate superhuman or divine beings.”14 As deposit at Delphi.10 Her distinctive eyes are feather- she concludes, “The metal attachments on the heads of shaped, turned up at the outer corners, swelling in the Archaic statues should be read as part of elaborate center, with the lids stretched over the orbit and the headdresses functioning as attributes and helping in the upper lid overhanging the lower and drooping slightly. identification of the figures.”15 (Those of 76.AO.79 turn up more sharply, are spaced farther apart, and are even narrower and smaller in If the head represents a siren or a sphinx, 76.AO.79 would proportion to the face.) This affinity is noteworthy not be another example in amber of the liminal creatures. only because it establishes a stylistic connection between Whether their images were worn in life or in the grave, the amber and ivory but also because it offers further the “work” of these creatures was established: they were evidence for the argument that amber carvers worked effective in protection and aversion, and in the journey to ivory and vice versa. the afterworld, both were reputed guides. Both have regenerative aspects. If 76.AO.79 is the head of a female The hair of 76.AO.79 is elaborately dressed: the front divinity, it may be the image of Artemis or another deity sections are combed forward, apparently secured by a with solar aspects. Then again, if it represents a youthful band, and then flipped back toward the crown, forming a male divinity, the amber head may denote Apollo. The series of curved bunches of hair framing the head. The head, as a glittering object in the form of a divine or hair sections just above the ears take the form of so-called demonic being carved with the greatest skill and detail in Ionian wings. Although the hairstyle may have originated high-status materials, amber, silver, and perhaps ivory for in Ionia, it was quickly absorbed in western Greece and in the eyes, was worthy of the attention of the gods; it is, it Etruria. Variants are worn by male and female figures in was, a marvel to behold. The materials, the image, the the Archaic period. Such hairstyles are found on the exquisite craftsmanship—all were worthy of the gods’ female figures (both heads and caryatids) of a group of attention. During funerary rituals and in the tomb, terracotta lamps from Magna Graecia, a type that likely 76.AO.79 could have played a small but important role. A originated in the Achaean cities of the Ionian coast, but shining tear crafted into the form of a beautiful, youthful which was further developed in the colonies of Magna face was surely appropriate as a funerary gift, especially Graecia.11 The hairstyle of 76.AO.79 is analogous to those if the deceased had died young. If the figure is Apollo, it worn by certain sirens and sphinxes. The hair of the might have brought to mind the stories connecting the marble siren from Cyzicus (Milesian work?) in solar material, the solar deity, and the mourning by the Copenhagen, a number of Etruscan stone sphinxes from sun-god for the premature deaths of Phaethon and Vulci, and the sphinxes of a gold fibula from Vulci in Asclepius.16 Munich allow the possibility that 76.AO.79 represents an Etrusco-Ionian version of the fantastic creatures. NOTES An exotic comparison is the Tridacna squamosa shell 1. Munich, Antikensammlungen 15.003. made into a female figure (siren?) by a Syro-Phoenician(?) 2. See cat. no. 10, n. 16 and n. 18, for discussion of amber artisan; an example in the British Museum excavated at pendants in metal mounts. Vulci.12 The face carved into the shell’s umbo is very like that of 76.AO.79. 3. Strong 1966, p. 74, no. 60, pl. XXIV. Strong concludes that the figure is probably female, pointing out that while the hair on the The comparisons presented above point to a date for the forehead divides like that seen on males, it is bound by a fillet. head in the period of circa 550–520 B.C. and to a skilled How the metal element and the caplike hair covering might carver from East Greece, perhaps in Etruria, where the have functioned together is not apparent. In style, it is very like impact of artisans from South Ionia and elsewhere in the two of the flying figures from Sala Consilina in the Dutuit east had such impact on art in the second half of the sixth Collection, Petit Palais, Paris (see introduction, n. 219). century. Whether 76.AO.79 was originally the inlay (face) 4. See cat. no. 10, n. 17. of a figure in another material or the centerpiece of a pendant, the amber itself determines that the subject of 5. The peculiar form of the back of 76.AO.79 would have allowed it the head is a divine or heroic figure, a supernatural or a to fit neatly into the indentation of the jugular notch, one of the 160 HUMAN HEADS

most vulnerable spots on the body and the place where many Croissant, and the difficulty in isolating specific stylistic elements early single pendants are represented as hanging. raise again the more general problem of defining colonial 6. The amber pendant from Novi Pazar with an amber mounting is styles.” See F. Croissant, “Sybaris: La production artistique,” in Sibari e la sibaritide: Atti del XXXII Convegno di studi sulla Magna discussed in cat. no. 10, n. 16. Ivory and bone examples are the Grecia, ed. A. Stazio and S. Ceccoli (Taranto, 1993), p. 548. This amber faces of the sphinxes of two Laconian relief plaques, one position does not necessarily contradict the Ionian-origin of ivory, the other of bone, from a kline dating to about 600 B.C., hypothesis of C. Sabbione, “L’artigianato artistico a Crotone,” in and the now-lost faces of a divinity and her two “acolytes” set Crotone: Atti del XXIII Convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia, ed. A. into bone plaques from furniture excavated at Belmonte Piceno, Stazio and S. Ceccoli (Taranto, 1983), p. 272. dating to the early sixth century. For the bone plaques from Belmonte Piceno, see Rocco 1999, pp. 82–85, nos. 135–36, pls. 12. For the London shell and further bibliography, see n. 8 in the XLIV–XLV, where there is fruitful discussion of the identity “Pendants in the Form of the Human Head” introduction. (Potnia Theron? Artemis?). For the two sphinx appliqués with 13. A crown of silver, which appears “brighter and more like amber faces from a couch in the Iron Age Celtic tomb at daylight than gold” (Pliny, Natural History 33.19.9), may, like the Grafenbühl, Asperg (Stuttgart, Würtembergisches amber, establish the figure as divine. The brilliance of the Landesmuseum), seen. 17in the “Pendants in the Form of the materials and the attention to detail no doubt added to its Human Head” introduction. marvelousness as a work worthy to behold (see “Ancient Names 7. Croissant 1983, p. 181. for Amber” in the introduction). 8. Despite the inherent generational transformations in the 14. Ridgway 1990. See also B. Ridgway, “Metal Attachments in terracotta series, the profiles of the amber and the terracottas Greek Marble Sculpture,” in Marble: Art Historical and Scientific are markedly similar. Perspectives on Ancient Sculpture (Papers Delivered at a Symposium 9. For British Museum B89, see Croissant 1983, p. 62 (which he Organized by the Department of Antiquities and Antiquities Conservation and Held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, April 28–30, finds to have a rapport with the Milesian school); for the 1990) (Malibu, 1991), pp. 485–508. Copenhagen siren (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 2817), Johansen 1994, pp. 44–45, no. 7; for the Keramos sphinx head (İzmir, 15. Ridgway 1990. Archaeology Museum),Akürgal 1961, figs. 229–32; Tuchelt 1970, 16. Apollonius (Argonautica 4.611–18) refers to a Celtic myth that p. 125 (L 53); and Croissant 1983, pp. 64, 67, pls. 15–16; for the drops of amber were tears shed by Apollo for the death of his Paris Dionysermos (Louvre Ma 3600), Hamiaux 1992, pp. 59–60, son Asclepius when Apollo ventured north in a visit to the no. 51. Hyperboreans. See “Ancient Literary Sources on the Origins of 10. Delphi Museum 10413: Lapatin 2001, no. 33. Amber” in the introduction. 11. As M. Cipriani (Magna Graecia 2002, pp. 122–23) states: “The eclectic character of this production, as cleverly emphasized by Cat. no. 11 161

12. Pendant: Satyr Head in Profile loose flakes; some surface flake losses are 1 mm deep. Before the pendant entered the Getty Museum, the surface was treated with a surface consolidant, likely in an attempt to strengthen it. (This probably contributed to the overall cracking pattern, causing further surface deterioration and shrinkage.) In ambient light, the pendant is light to dark brown, with some areas of translucency. In the places where modern chips have exposed the interior, it is dark orange and translucent. In transmitted light, the amber is bright red-orange. There are various inclusions. Description The pendant is a large piece of amber, relatively flat on the reverse and rounded on the obverse. It represents the head and partial neck of a satyr in profile, facing right. The short, rounded forehead is modeled with a brow ridge and an eyefold in a manner close to the appearance of a human. The almond-shaped eye is plastically modeled, following the curve of the head. The eyeball area is recessed from the upper and lower lids. The lids are represented as filletlike lines and are of equal Accession 83.AO.202.1 thickness. The upper lid line is more arched than the Number lower one, and overlaps it at the outer canthus. The short, upturned nose is deeply indented at the root, is rounded Culture Etruscan at the tip, and includes carefully modeled wings and Date 525–480 B.C. nares. Rather small in proportion to the rest of the face, the long, teardrop-shaped ear is plastically modeled; the Dimensions Height: 65 mm; width: 68 mm; depth: 35 mm; tip is acute. Weight: 53.4 g Subjects Dionysos, cult of (also Satyr); Inclusions A long mustache begins just under the nose. It is articulated with sweeping engraved lines, curving at the Provenance upper part and more horizontal below. The mustache overlaps the beard. The beard juts forward and ends in a –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, rounded point. Closely engraved lines, straighter in front Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the and more curved at the jaw, represent the beard hairs. A J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. shallow ridge marks it off clearly from both the face and the neck. Just below the lower lip of the small mouth is Condition carved a small patch of beard. Small sections in the hair at the front top and reverse of In front of the ear and surrounding the face are two rows the head are broken off. The amber surface is in poor of hair rolls, separated by a raised, filletlike line. At the condition, with an extensive network of cracking and loss, forehead, the hair rolls bulge slightly, giving them the mostly on the reverse. The surface is fragile, with many impression of volume. The lines defining the hairs in the 162

bangs section are curved, the upper ones tilting slightly to have small noses and mouths similar to those of the Getty the right and the lower ones slightly to the left. Behind the head-pendant, and both 83.AO.202.1 and one of the British top row is another raised line, perhaps a fillet, defining Museum satyrs (BM 35) sport luxuriant, long mustaches the rolls from the crown portion of the hair. The cap of and extremely neat beards of rather short and straight the hair is plain and follows the shape of the amber hair (vertically delineated), barbered in two tiers. The two nodule to suggest the form of the skull. An engraved line figures’ coiffures are also similar, typified by a full bang separates it from the hair at the back of the head. The that is longer in front of the ears. The mustache of BM 36 sweep of hair is modeled, with the midsection the most is less full and shorter, his beard more pointed, his hair prominent. It is defined with nine horizontal rows shorter, and instead of a plastically rendered eye, his is separated by parallel curving grooves. Each of the rows is hollowed out and flat, as for an inlay. further described by short, finely engraved lines, giving the impression of coils of tightly curled hair pulled into a The reverse or main side of BM 35 is a figural group that low-hanging bun. The neck is long and smooth and includes a dancing pair, a nude bearded male and a connects to a tiny section of the shoulder. draped female, with a young fawn leaping up between them; on the obverse is a large bearded snake, coiled and The idiosyncratic form of the pendant suggests that the upright. The finial is a dolphin. BM 35 has been variously carver closely followed the natural shape of the cleaned identified: Donald Strong called it a satyr and maenad piece of amber. The head and neck are skillfully adapted (even if the male figure does not have pointed ears, to the surface’s irregularities. On the obverse is an hooves, or a tail), and it was formerly identified as indentation at the top of the head and a shallow groove at Artemis and Zeus and as Artemis and a giant. In the view the top of the beard line on the cheek, and on the reverse, of this author, the main figures are better read as Bacchic a long smoothed groove at the back of the head. There are revelers, with the male figure wearing the mask of no visible tool marks because of the severe cupping of the Dionysos. The bearded snake may be a symbol of the surface. spirit of the dead, or it may act as a chthonic symbol that refers to Dionysos (and perhaps Orphism). BM 36 In the break are the remains of a shallow, drilled groove, represents a figure with normal ears (it is also hoofless all that is left of the suspension perforation. There are and tailless), accompanied by a wineskin and grapes, four stopped bores: two on the obverse—one at the point crowded in the amber with a pointed amphora and a where the beard meets the neck, another at the base of vine, and on the reverse, a coiled and rearing bearded the ear—and two on the reverse, at the back of the head serpent. The figure may represent a satyr, but it is more and at the neck. The two on the obverse retain their plugs likely that he, too, is a Bacchic reveler wearing the mask (which are darker in color than the surrounding amber). of “the god, who does not appear.” The bearded, coiled When hung, the head would have fallen into position with snake on the reverse may also refer to the chthonic the nose upward. Dionysos. For the initiated, the imagery of BM 36 may Discussion have conjured up Dionysos’s mythic vineyard on Naxos, the wine of which was divine and held the promise of This is one of the largest and most finely worked of all eternal life.3 Reveling dancers are the subject of nine extant pre-Roman figured ambers. It has no exact parallel. other carved amber pendants. Single male dancers Satyrs are the second most common subjects of head- ornament pendants in Boston and New York,4and single pendants and date from the late sixth to the late fourth female dancers are the subject of many more pendants, century. This profile head-pendant of a satyr and the including three from excavated graves in South Italy—one other head-pendant of a satyr in the Getty collection from Oliveto Citra and two from the Rutigliano-Purgatorio (82.AO.161.1, cat. no. 13) are among the earliest portrayals Necropolis (one is armed).5 In addition to BM 35, a high- of the subject in amber. They are also the two most stepping couple is the subject of an amber pendant in the common types, the profile head-pendant and the frontal Louvre.6 face. Only a trio of satyr heads in a New York private The active pose of 83.AO.202.1 is demonstrated by the collection is earlier.1 The Getty and New York satyrs are of three different types and styles and reveal three different forward position of the head and neck as well as by the traditions of satyr illustration. satyr’s hair, streaming out behind him. Parallels for the head position are numerous; it is characteristic of many The two best comparisons for 83.AO.202.1 are the satyrs Attic black-figure painters and is a hallmark of the of two ambers in London: Satyr and Maenad (BM 35) and Etruscan black-figure vase painter known as the Micali Vintaging Satyr (BM 36).2 Both British Museum satyrs Painter. The Attic examples include the active satyrs on Cat. no. 12 163

anaryballosby Nearchos, three dancing satyrs on an Strong thought the group to be South Italian, very amphora in the manner of the Lysippides Painter (an probably Campanian, especially BM 459, which is made of aulos-playing satyr on side A and a pair on side B, where sard, with a siren on the scarab side and Apollo(?) on the one crushes grapes and the other attempts an abduction flat.15 J. D. Beazley, writing earlier, was more cautious of a nymph), the dancers on an amphora by the Painter of about the London sard: “The style of the stone may Cambridge 47, and the ithyphallic harvester on an Amasis perhaps be called Etruscan rather than Greek. If it is Painter amphora.7The beard and hair of 83.AO.202.1 are Etruscan, it is one of the earliest Etruscan gems.”16 P. most similar to those of the satyrs of the Amasis Painter Zazoff, J. Boardman, and, most recently, J. Spier have and the Micali Painter. The Etruscan master’s rendering noted the key role of the Master of the Boston Dionysos of the hair and beards of his fast-moving, ithyphallic (as he is now called) in the story of gem engraving in satyrs—the dancing, aulos-playing, and running satyrs of Etruria.17 Two silver objects from Lydian Usak have Louvre CA 3185, the racers on his amphorae in Baltimore suggested to Spier a possible explanation for the and Palermo, and those on the column krater in Berlin— immigrant master’s training in a specific East Greek are especially similar.8 atelier.18 Boardman’s latest thoughts on the gem cutter are relevant for 83.AO.202.1: Etruscan artisans working in bronze and in ivory refined the millennia-old manner of indicating fast movement— Other gems by the same artist (Master of the Boston the stretching out of bodies with hair flying out behind. Dionysos) have their backs detailed in an “Etruscan” The rendering of the acrobats’ hair on a tripod excavated manner, and the style of the figures—stocky, big- at Vulci and the running figure of Perseus on a tripod foot headed, flat-footed in stance—is very close to that of from Orvieto are two outstanding parallels mirroring the peripheral Etruscan work in bronze and stone (as the speedy satyr of 83.AO.202.1. P. J. Riis has attributed these Volterra stelai). This does not mean that the artist was bronzes to his Group of the Mainz Censer, the earliest one not a Greek, since we may only be witnessing the of which he describes as “Late Ionizing (Late Ripe establishment in Etruria of an immigrant and highly Archaic) or early Late Archaic.”9 The motif is current in individual Greek style. But it is not one as yet well ivory and bone carvings of male figures engaged in attested in the west so, whatever his nationality, the strenuous activities: driving chariots, wrestling, or artist might be considered the first of the “Etruscan” fighting sea monsters.10 gem engravers. There are later and still purely Greek works made in the west which contributed to the Many of the descriptive details of 83.AO.202.1—the very development of the local studios.19 fine striations of the hair and beard, the tongue of hair beneath the lower lip, and the form of the eye—draw it Was a gem engraver or bronze worker responsible for close to the design and cold working of a group of bronzes 83.AO.202.1, as might have been the case for earlier thought to be Northern Etruscan, perhaps Chiusine, from figured ambers? Was the head-pendant made in Vulci? about 500–480 B.C.: (1) a banqueter in London (British Might it even have been made by the Master of the Boston Museum GR 1831,1201.1); (2) the “Herakles” from Dionysos? Contarina (Rovigo); (3) the “Fufluns” in Modena; and (4) the Getty Statuette of Tinia.11 83.AO.202.1 is also very close In spite of its state of preservation, this satyr is a striking to a group of Vulcian bronzes first brought together by object. The large size of the piece of amber and the Mario Del Chiaro (but which are for Riis part of his exquisite artisanry of 83.AO.202.1 must have occasioned extended Mainz Censer group, as noted above).12 Del admiration from the day it was finished. In its function as Chiaro’s group includes sirens, satyrs, and acrobats, in an amulet, it may have been considered “homopoeic,” addition to the Cortona lamp. meaning that through assimilation it would endow the wearer with the subject’s characteristics, the swift and 83.AO.202.1 and the two Dionysiac ambers in London, BM nimble satyr promising its owner fleetness of foot, the 35 and BM 36, are strikingly similar to the earliest pseudo- ability to speed away from danger or pain, as would a scarabs made in Italy. Strong was the first to connect the hare amulet. It may have been considered especially figure of BM 36 with a cornelian in Boston,13 on the back lucky, the magic and potency of the image being enhanced of which is a splayed, bearded Dionysos that “immediately by the material. Satyrs were apotropaic images that could argues a close stylistic connection with a whole group of work on the “like banishes like” principle. An “active” S. Italian ambers. Other examples of such pseudo-scarabs, satyr could call up the god Dionysos, the dance, and the a number of which are in the British Museum, exhibit ceremonies of sacrifice. Tied onto the body, in life or in several of the same characteristic elements of style.”14 164 HUMAN HEADS

death, such an amulet could place the wearer under the 2. Strong 1966, pp. 61–63, nos. 35–36, pls. XV–XVI. BM 36 is said to protection of Dionysos. come from Canosa. The provenance of BM 35 is confused. Rival stories have it found at Ruvo, Armento, and Canosa. Ibid., p. 63, Since satyrs were not just useless hedonists but were also records the existence of another amber satyr, referring to understood to be wise and to be participants in religious Schultz (Bullettino dell’Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica ritual as servants of Dionysos (Strabo),20 “accomplished in 1843, p. 39), who “mentioned a fragment of a similar piece in dancing and in secret rites or initiations of Dionysos” (as the collection of Signor de Jorio, who also had an amber ram described by Eustathios),21 the pendant may have been and a lion from the Basilicata.” involved in related activities. Etruscan funerary rites 3. Hedreen 1992, pp. 86–87, n. 149. were not complete without the dances of reanimation, which took place at the cremation or burial place. 4. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 02.2547 (“from Palestrina”); New Dancing satyrs are endlessly depicted on vases found in York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.4, Purchase, Renée tombs throughout Italy, notably in Archaic Etruria. On the and Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Foundation, Patti Cadby Micali Painter’s famous vase of a funeral procession, Birch, and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris satyrs figure prominently, dancing among veiled women, Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992. important insignia-bearing personages, and others. As 5. For the Oliveto Citra dancer (Paestum, Museo Nazionale OC/ Jean-René Jannot notes, the most archaic Etruscan 00082), see Mastrocinque 1991, pp. 129, 133, fig. 84; and P. C. illustrations of sacrifice “place very odd sacrificants in the Sestieri, “Ambra intagliata da Oliveto Citra,” ArchCl 4 (1952): 16, scene: Sileni and satyrs, who impart a Dionysiac pl. 14. For the Rutigliano-Purgatorio Necropolis dancing figures, atmosphere, or at least invoke the savage character of the seeNegroni Catacchio 1993, p. 199, fig. 7.6. sacrificial act.”22 6. The Louvre amber of a couple, Bj 2253, is unpublished. If the head-pendant were sufficient to represent the 7. See the figures on an amphora in London (Fitzwilliam Museum whole and the satyr was understood as dancing, the GR.26.1864) by the Painter of Cambridge 47, and on an amphora subject may have alluded to the ceremonies of the funeral by the Amasis Painter in Würzburg (Martin von Wagner and reanimation through death. If the satyr were Museum 265). abstracted from an activity such as vintaging and the 8. For Louvre CA 3185 (from Vulci), see Spivey 1987, p. 7, no. 3, fig. image understood to be a “quote,” the Getty Satyr Head in 1; for the Early II amphora in Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery 48.7, Profile could allude to Dionysos’s magic vineyard on from Castel Campanile), ibid., p. 10, no. 27, fig. 5; for the Middle I Naxos. If the satyr were completed as ithyphallic, the amphora in Palermo (Museo Archeologico Regionale 1498, from pendant may have called up the phallic aspect of Chiusi), ibid., p. 13, no. 55, fig. 11a; for the “late” column crater Dionysiac religion, and the head-pendant could have in Berlin (Staatliche Museen F4204), ibid., p. 28, no. 184, fig. alluded to Dionysos Oipholios. Then again, 83.AO.202.1 31a–b. may have conjured up a specific episode in Dionysian myth—the arrival of Dionysos by sea, or the union of 9. Riis 1998, pp. 42–52. Does this manner of painting derive from Dionysos and Ariadne. Certainly, the amber’s optical Laconian vase painting? Compare the flowing hair of the characteristics, recalling the rejuvenating sun or the color speeding harpy on the Boread Painter’s name piece in the and sparkle of wine, would have been especially apt in Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia (a vase found in Etruria) underlining an association with the divinity for one of and that of the flying figure on a cup fragment by the Arkesilas Dionysos’s servants. Painter from the Samian Heraion (Berlin, Staatliche Museen 478x). That 83.AO.202.1 is of amber, the golden “tear” of 10. Compare, for example, the bone plaque of a charioteer in a biga Phaethon’s mourning sisters transformed into poplars, pulled by winged horses from Tomb 15, the Crocifisso del Tufo may be of special relevance for this head-pendant. If the necropolis, Orvieto (M. Bizzarri, Le necropoli di Crocifisso del Tufo gloss in the late lexicon of Harpocration is to be believed, in Orvieto [Orvieto, 1963], p. 85) and the small plaques from a that those who were initiated into the “Bacchic rites” chest in Paris (Louvre S. 2028: Martelli Cristofani 1985, p. 208, (Bakkhika) were crowned with a wreath of white poplar figs. 1–4; and A. Hus, Les Etrusques: Peuple secret [Paris, 1957], “because the tree is chthonic, and chthonic also is pp. 66–68). Dionysos, the son of Persephone,”23 what better material 11. The “Herakles” from Contarina (Rovigo) is Adria, Museo for an adherent to wear than Phaethonic amber? Archeologico Nazionale 9996; the “Fufluns” is Modena, Galleria Estense 12505; the Statuette of Tinia is Getty Museum 55.AB.12 (J. NOTES Paul Getty Museum 2002, p. 133; J. Paul Getty Museum 2010, 129; andKozloff 1981, pp. 219–23). 1. Unpublished. Cat. no. 12 165

12. M. Del Chiaro, Etruscan Art from West Coast Collections (Santa 19. Boardman 2001, p. 153. Barbara, 1976), pp. 12–13, no. 64. Close in spirit and technique is 20. Hedreen 1992, p. 168, nn. 83–84, refers to Strabo (10.3.11 [C a small bronze in the Thorwaldsen Museum: T. Melander, 468]) and cites R. Seaford, “On the Origins of Satyric Drama,” Thorvaldsens antikker—en temmelig udvagt samling (Copenhagen, Maia28 (1976): 214–15. Seaford draws the conclusion that the 1993), pp. 116–17, no. 93. satyrs reflect initiatory practices. 13. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 21.197. 21. Hedreen 1992, p. 168, referring to R. Seaford, Euripides: Cyclops, 14. Strong 1966, p. 31. and to Eustathios on Homer’s Iliad 1.311.25. 15. Ibid. 22. Jannot 2005, p. 41. 16. J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems (Oxford, 23. The reference to Harpocration (s.v. “leuke”) comes from W. 1920), p. 8. Burkert Greek Religion, trans. J. Raffan (Cambridge, MA, 1985), p. 17. SeeBoardman 2001, pp. 153, 420; J. Spier, “From East Greece to 294, n. 13. For the translation, see F. Graf, “Dionysian and Orphic Etruria: A Late Sixth-Century B.C. Gem Workshop,” in Eschatology,” in Masks of Dionysus, ed. T. H. Carpenter and C. Tsetskhladze et al. 2000, pp. 333–35; Boardman 1968, pp. Faraone (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1993), p. 244. In the Suda, s.v. 162–63; Zazoff 1968, pp. 17–24; and Zazoff 1966, pp. 63–78. “leuke” (“poplar”; Adler no. λ 319), “Those celebrating the Beazley 1920 (in n. 16, above), pp. 31–33, was the first to note Bacchic rites used to be crowned with white poplar because the the connection between carved amber pendants and the plant is from the nether world and the Dionysos of Persephone, pseudo-scarabs. See also Strong 1966, p. 31; and D’Ercole 1995, too, is from the nether world. He [Harpocration] says that the p. 286, n. 94. Bissing 1931 was the first to suggest that Early white poplar grew by the [river] Acheron, which is why in Homer Etruscan amber scaraboids were carved by gem engravers. it is called acherois.” 18. Spier 2000 (in n. 17, above), p. 335. 166 HUMAN HEADS

13. Pendant: Satyr Head orange where the interior is exposed by modern breaks, and bright orange and generally translucent in transmitted light. There are inclusions or deteriorated material visible in the fissures. Description This relatively large head is egg-shaped in front view and is like a rounded slab in profile view. It is slightly convex on the obverse, flat and plain on the reverse. Despite the poor condition of the piece, its subject is still legible. The hair is caplike, delineated by eleven rows of snail-like curls in even rows. The head is widest at the position of the ears. Traces of the right eyebrow remain; the brow itself is wide and smooth. The plastic, almond-shaped eyes are located equidistantly between the top of the head and the chin. The inner and outer corners (canthi) appear to be on the same line. Although broken, the ears are long, pointed, and prominent and are set high up on the head. The cheeks are wide and flat and the face long. The remains of the nose suggest that it was small and short. The mouth area is small and surrounded by a short Accession 82.AO.161.1 mustache and low, close-cropped beard. Number Culture Etruscan There are two suspension perforations, a narrow-gage lateral bore through the top of the head and a second, Date 525–480 B.C. larger, rostrocaudal hole in the center of the forehead. All Dimensions Height: 53 mm; width: 48 mm; depth: 16 mm; four exits show enlargement at the upper parts, abrasion Weight: 11 g troughs, and chipping. There is a stopped bore in the top left of the head. When suspended from the lateral bore, Subjects Dionysos, cult of (also Satyr); Jewelry the head hangs with the brow tipped forward and the chin recessed. Suspended from the large hole, the head Provenance hangs perpendicular to the ground. If the large hole were used to secure the head to a support, its chin would have –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, been back, the top of the head forward. CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. Discussion Condition The condition of this head—the evidence of pulling on the The piece is intact, although the surface condition is poor upper edges of the perforations, the frontal perforation and the surface is covered by a thick, flaking yellow that is likely secondary to the lateral bore, and the wear alteration crust. There are also many small chips on all on the prominent surfaces of the head—suggests that it sides. There is a large fissure on the top of the head and saw substantial use before it was buried. A number of smaller fissures on the reverse side. A whitish pre-Roman figured ambers have a narrow-gage encrustation covers some areas. The amber is yellowish transverse perforation for stringing and one or more brown and opaque in ambient light, translucent and large front-to-back borings. Some have been found still 167

attached to fibulae. Others retain only metal nails, or their attributed to an East Greek or East Greek–trained carver. traces (some bronze, others silver), perhaps used to attach Many of the comparanda important for 76.AO.85.1 and the amber onto a wood (or other material) support. There 76.AO.86also elucidate 82.AO.161.1. In addition to these are other significant examples of figured ambers with are coins and glyptics with frontal faces of Dionysos and both narrow-bore lateral perforations and larger front-to- his male followers. Three key comparisons are the “satyr” back borings.1 They include a female head from of an early electrum hecte from Cyzicus;7 the device of a Rutigliano still attached to a silver fibula, documented as reclining satyr on an agate scarab in London, the name from the early fifth century B.C.; a dancing figure from piece of the Master of the London Satyr, an East Greek Oliveto Citra, which was first perforated with a transverse carver working in Etruria;8 and the Dionysos wrapped hole for suspension as a pendant and then with five front- around the back of the cornelian pseudo-scarab in Boston, to-back holes, one large one in the middle and four the name piece of the Master of the Boston Dionysos.9 slightly smaller holes surrounding it; a fragmentary (The work of the Boston Master is very close to that of female dancer (probably once joined by a male figure) in 83.AO.202.1, cat. no. 12.) A number of satyr heads on Attic a New York private collection, which has a transverse black-figure vases are also important comparanda for the perforation and four large holes with the remains of above-listed images of satyrs in amber: the large and bronze rivets; and two profile female head-pendants and staring eyes and the carefully groomed hair and beards a horse’s head on the London art market (perhaps from are but two of the striking similarities.10 the same findspot), whose frontal holes still retain silver nails. In each case, the large rostrocaudal holes are The only other amber satyr head related in format and disfiguring and appear to be secondary to the lateral size to 82.AO.161.1 is a well-preserved pendant from suspension bores, which are worn from pulling, with Tomb 106 in the necropolis at Braida di Vaglio (Basilicata).11 Although the Braida amber differs in the characteristic abrasion troughs on the upper inside edges of the exits. satyr type, the face exhibits the same sober expression. The Braida satyr’s hair is deeply waved around the brow, The Getty Satyr’s Head is illuminated by comparison with his beard long, and his large ears prominent. This is in six female-subject head-pendants in the British Museum: contrast to the short beard, small ears, and curly hair of BM 55, whose findspot is unknown, and five bequeathed the Getty satyr. The context of the Braida satyr pendant is by Sir William Temple, which are said to have come from the early fifth century B.C., but it must have been carved Armento (BM 54, 56, 57, 58, and 60).2 82.AO.161.1 is most earlier, perhaps as early as the third quarter of the mid- like BM 57, a head of a female figure wearing a feather sixth century. It also shows considerable use wear and crown.3The London heads and this amber satyr have a secondary working. The face is especially worn on the distinctive softness in the modeling, especially in the prominent surfaces, and the inserted suspension loop in planar transitions, which must have been accomplished the top of the head is likely secondary to the narrow-gage by abrasion. This is contrasted with the outlining of the lateral boring. The same British Museum heads presented eyes, probably done with a use of a graver, and with the above as comparisons for 82.AO.161.1 are also instructive description of the hair, perhaps accomplished with a for the Braida di Vaglio satyr, especially BM 56. carving tool such as those used for ivory or wood. The visual effect is more like stone carving and the best of For a discussion of the iconography of a satyr in amber, ivory working or fine woodworking, and less like that of see the entry for Satyr Head in Profile (83.AO.202.1). gem engraving. Donald Strong suggested that the London NOTES head-pendants, though said to have been found at Armento, were very likely made in Campania or “under 1. This group is discussed in “The Working of Amber” in the the strong influence of Campanian art of the sixth century introduction, n. 266. BC.”4 A comparison of the London pendants to selected Campaniancoroplasticsbears out Strong’s observations.5 2. BM 58, which is carved fully in the round, appears to be the Marked, too, are the East Greek aspects of 82.AO.161.1 and earliest of the group: see Strong 1966, pp. 71–73, no. 58, pls. the London group; this is highlighted when they are XXIII–XXIV. compared to East Greek sculpted and molded works, and 3. Ibid., p. 73, no. 57, pl. XXIII, bears a resemblance to images of to the most East Greek–looking of Etruscan bronzes and Hathor wearing a feathered crown, although her ears are painted vases.6 human, not bovine. Strong describes the eyes of BM 57 as carefully worked and large in proportion to the other features. 82.AO.161.1 has stylistic and iconographical features in This head in London is also discussed in the entry for 76.AO.85.1 common with76.AO.85.1 and 76.AO.86(cat. no. 10), and 76.AO.86. 168 HUMAN HEADS

4. Ibid., p. 73. 9. See entry for 83.AO.202.1. 5. SeeRiis 1981; Riis 1938; and W. Johanowsky, Materiali di età 10. For the relevant satyr heads on Attic black-figure vases, see, for arcaica dalla Campania (Naples, 1983), pp. 72–73. example,Hedreen 1992, pp. 169–70; Carpenter 1986, p. 97, n. 93; 6. This is borne out by a comparison of British Museum 58 with a G. Ferrari, “Eye-Cup,” RA 1986: 520; Mottahedeh 1979; and E. E. small marble head from Miletos in the Louvre (Ma 4546): Bell, “Two Krokotos Mask Cups at San Simeon,” University of Hamiaux 1992, no. 49 (circa 520–510 B.C.). The marble’s California Studies in Classical Antiquity 10 (1977): 115. Carpenter squarish face and strong jaw, upward cant of the eyes, serious cites the amphorae with heads listed in ABV 275 and examples expression, waved hair at the brow, and crown, which encircles of cups with satyr heads in the Group of Walters 48.42: see ABV, the head, are all similar to BM 58. nos. 15, 206. 7. SeeMottahedeh 1979, no. 5. 11. Potenza, Museo Archeologico Nazionale “Dinu Adamesteanu” 96684: Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 117; Bottini and Setari 2003, p. 66, 8. London, British Museum 465. For the Master of the London no. 311 (satyr), fig. 37. The satyr head-pendant is discussed in Satyr, see Boardman 2001, pp. 153, 181, 420 (with earlier bibl.). the introduction and in the entry for 83.AO.202.1. Cat. no. 13 169

14. Pendant: Female Head in Profile lower edge of the eye, and several places on the cheeks; and wear on the suspension perforations are likely evidence of use wear. The amber is opaque in ambient light and reddish in color. With transmitted illumination, the interior appears bright orange and is transparent. There is a cloudy inclusion (possibly bubbles) at the top of the headdress. Description The shape of the pendant is nearly triangular. The obverse is rounded and the carving curves around the form of the amber except on the back, which is plain but uneven in surface. The figure is wearing a conical cap, and over it a veil and another overgarment. She also wears a circular earring. No hair is showing. The face is set off from her neck by an indentation. Her eye is large and almond-shaped, and is set off from the plane of the face by a continuous filletlike line, which represents the Accession 77.AO.81.4 eyelids. The nose follows the same plane as the brow, with Number only a slight indention for the root. The upper lip area is Culture Etruscan short, and the barlike lips are pulled into a smile. The lower lip is wider than the upper. The horizontal sulcus is Date 525–480 B.C. shallow and the chin prominent. The under-chin is fatty. Dimensions Height: 57 mm; width: 56 mm; depth: 30 mm; The point of the chin extends forward, to the level of the Weight: 49.8 g tip of the nose. The neck is plump. Subjects Jewelry The uppermost layer of clothing, a shawl or the top portion of a cloak, covers a conical hat and veil. The Provenance grooves parallel to the edge of the overgarment are perhaps its border or the imprint of the edge of the hat –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. beneath. The veil’s front border is finished with a band, Paul Getty Museum, 1977. represented by fine parallel lines. Five soft, narrow grooves represent the fabric’s folds as it hits the shoulder Condition area. A shallow indentation in the overgarment, at about the jawline, indicates a break in the fall of the fabric. The piece is in a good state of preservation. The surface is smooth and firm, despite a number of recent as well as When suspended, the head would have hung with the older (weathered) small breaks and chips. There are chin forward; an imaginary line drawn from the tip of the fissures extending from the apex of the headdress to the nose to the chin would have been perpendicular to the eye, and from under the eye to the corner of the mouth. ground. The slope of the forehead and the slope of the All fissures and cracks contain yellow-ocher residue. The chin would have been at approximately 60 and 120 smoothing of the prominent surfaces (a wear pattern degrees to the perpendicular. different from overall erosion); the patination covering On the reverse is a deep groove, probably a cleaned some of the breaks, including on the tip of the nose, the fissure. A 3 mm perforation for suspension extends from 170

the flat area on the bottom side of the pendant and exits Ionian chiton properly understood (a rare feature; they at the deep cleft on the side of the headdress. There are are draped like the Samian sisters from the Genelaos two bores stopped with amber plugs: one is located on the dedication), and by the upright solar disk at the back of upper part of the headdress, and a second, 3 mm in their heads. Richardson considers them images of the diameter and about 11 mm deep, is under the chin. Mater Matuta, the goddess of daylight and a light bringer.7 The figure of BN 204 is unusually pretty and her Discussion unusual dress uncommonly delicate: she is wearing an This head-pendant has no exact parallel. The pendant’s unbelted chiton, and her hairstyle is otherwise unknown in the Middle Archaic period.8 The profiles of 77.AO.81.4 triangular shape is unique. The dress of the figure, and BN 204 are so alike as to be from the same model, or however, is similar to that worn by 76.AO.85.2 (cat. no. to be products of the same ambient: the angles of the nose 15). Moreover, there are several parallels for the and the chin relative to the perpendicular are the same. physiognomic type and the style of the pendant. BN 204 might even allow us to imagine how 77.AO.81.4 77.AO.81.4 is related to a number of images of women would have looked in full face: that is, wide through the from Samos and other Ionian centers of the third quarter temples, with eyes slightly far apart, and narrowing to the of the sixth century B.C. Although the comparison can be chin. made only from an old photograph, 77.AO.81.4 is remarkably similar to a now lost (unfinished) head once Who or what might 77.AO.81.4 represent? She wears a in Berlin, which was uncovered in the Heraion at Samos.1 large earring and elaborate dress: cap, veil, and The pendant also is akin to a family of East Greek overgarment. Not one strand of hair is showing. At the terracottas. Other pertinent parallels include two mid- least, this is the adornment of the elite. Does this indicate sixth-century alabastra in Paris and London, and a half- the figure’s maturity or outdoor activity, two explanations figure statuette of the second half of the century in offered for head coverings in Greek sculpture? On the Copenhagen.2Although the chin of 77.AO.81.4 is more other hand, does the dress indicate religious-political prominent than those of the terracottas, their other activity (for example, sacrifice or attendance at another morphological similarities are compelling. ritual)? The material precludes that the representation is Still closer comparisons are to be found in Etruscan art. that of a mortal; it signals, rather, that the image is that of For the dress of 77.AO.81.4, the most striking parallel is a heroic, divine, supernatural, or demonic being. If a the Etruscan bronze votive in Florence (Museo divinity, then perhaps it is one whose powers were Archeologico Nazionale 277), which belongs to Emeline connected to the sun and to its regenerative powers. The Richardson’s Tomba delle Barone group, one she Ionian dress and style of the head, too, may indicate characterizes by its Ionian associations. (Florence 277 is something of its identity, as well as saying something discussed in more detail in the entry for 76.AO.85.2). An about where, why, and by whom 77.AO.81.4 was carved amber head-pendant in London (British Museum 53) and used. The style and dress point to South Ionia, wears similar dress, although her veil is drawn more Etruria, and “Latin” Etruscan imagery. tightly in front and forms stronger horizontal folds.3 77.AO.81.4 could represent a divinity of light, similar to For the style of 77.AO.81.4, other Etruscan small bronzes the Latin Juno Licina or the dawn goddess Mater Matuta, and bronze reliefs are instrumental in situating the both of whom share some aspects of the Greek Artemis amber. Three figures (Peleus, Thetis, and a female (perhaps in her guise as Artemis Phosphoros), notably companion) in one of the panels of the Loeb Cauldron C midwifery. Since the dawn is also a potent symbol of new are very similar in physiognomy and expression, although life, this may be a South Ionian Eos or the Etruscan their eyes are smaller and their hairstyles different.4 Thesan. Two other alternatives are Artumes and the Latin Eight small bronzes are important comparisons for both Juno Gabina; Richardson records that bronzes of a “Latin” the iconography and the style of 77.AO.81.4. They are an type, some of them wearing sun disks, have been found at Gabii, near the so-called temple of Juno Gabina.9 If Etruscan votive in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet 77.AO.81.4 does indeed represent a light and life divinity, des Médailles 204); the four bronze corner figures from one that might be called upon with some regularity for the box of a carpentum, now dispersed among Perugia, aid in childbirth, in protection, or in the care of young Munich, and Paris;5 two “Latin” bronzes from Satricum in the Villa Giulia (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia children, such an identity may help explain the use wear 10519 and 10922); and a “Latin” bronze in the on the face of the pendant. Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (BN 205).6 The Villa Giulia bronzes are distinguished by the fact that they wear the Cat. no. 14 171

NOTES 5. See discussion by S. Bruni in Torelli 2000, p. 581. 1. Berlin, Staatliche Museen 1875: Richter 1968, no. 157, figs. 6. Richardson 1983, pp. 21–23, 26–67, 361. 504–5; Freyer-Schauenburg 1974, p. 41, no. 18, pl. 10. 7. Ibid., p. 265, pls. 605–6. 2. Paris, Louvre MC681; London, British Museum 60.44.57; 8. E. Richardson, “Moonéd Ashteroth?,” in In Memoriam Otto J. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 949. Brendel: Essays in Archaeology and the Humanities (Mainz, 1976), 3. Strong 1966, p. 71, no. 53, pl. XXII. pp. 21–24. See also Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 461–62. 4. SeeHöckmann 1982. 9. Richardson 1983, p. 265, pls. 605–6. 172 HUMAN HEADS

15. Pendant: Winged Female Head in Profile Condition A piece broken off at the neck in modern times was reattached with an adhesive before the donor acquired it. There is evidence of ancient use wear on the prominent parts (cheeks, nose, head, chin, and wing) and abrasion troughs on the uppermost parts of the suspension perforations at the top of the head. (The weight of the pendant, gravity, movement, pulling, or other abrasive action caused the carrier to deepen, or “saw,” the holes.) Modern damage includes pitting on the neck and cheek and large fracture losses at the right profile edge, at the forehead, and in the front section of the hair. The surface of the amber is firm and stable although abraded slightly and crazed overall. Several large fissures (with inclusions and degraded material inside) run throughout the piece, and there are other small areas of inclusions throughout the pendant. In ambient light, the surface of the amber is dark red-brown and opaque; in transmitted light, the pendant is dark red and translucent. Description The pendant depicts the head and neck of a female figure in profile facing to the right. It is rounded and decorated on the obverse, flat and plain on the reverse. The area around the eye is subtly modeled. Brow ridge, eye fold, Accession 76.AO.85.2 and eye bag are all indicated. The spherical shape of the Number eye is suggested and set off from lids that are represented as raised lines. The cheeks are full, raised, and puffed; the Culture Etruscan face is smiling widely. The chin is full and rounded, and Date 525–480 B.C. the jawline is set off from the neck by a groove as well as modeling. The neck is plump. Dimensions Height: 79 mm; width: 49 mm; depth: 25 mm; Weight: 51.3 g The hair is visible at the brow and at the right side. At Subjects Inclusions least five overlapping scalloped waves once framed the face; the remaining ones lie close to the head and are defined with finely engraved parallel curving lines. Provenance Horizontal indentations behind the ear area and a curved line at the bottom indicate the shape of the hair fall. The –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. shape and bulk of the head covering shows that over a Paul Getty Museum, 1976. cap (the conical projection at the back of the head is its apex) is worn a veil and, over it, a shawl. The outermost layer of the headdress is banded with a pattern of finely 173

engraved parallel lines, perhaps a decorative woven edge, other Archaic Etruscan human-form figures. It is one or an addition. found on a number of Greek marble korai, sirens, and sphinxes, and is comparable to that of a unique image, A striking feature of this piece is a large volutelike wing, possibly Etruscan, possibly Magna Graecian, of a bronze projecting from the right top side of the head and curving of a crowned and curiously robed figure from Villa Ruffi, back to the neck. Diagonal engraved lines at the top and Covignano (Rimini), now in Copenhagen.2 back indicate secondary feathers. In front of and below the wing are sections of hair, engraved with horizontal There is a distinct “Greekness” about the physiognomy parallel lines; the mass of the hair is curved at the bottom. and style of 76.AO.85.2. This is brought out by comparison to three different marbles: a small head of a sphinx from The smoothed grooves and craters are likely the result of Aegina in Athens,3 a kore head from Lindos in the clearing away of surface inclusions or fissures in the Copenhagen,4and a small kouros (unfinished) from Paros amber blank. The object incorporates the natural in Paris.5 There are especially striking correspondences undulations of the amber, especially at the back and in between the Paris kouros and 76.AO.85.2: the full cheeks, the wing area. which extend all the way from the angles of the mouth to The pendant has two through-bores for suspension. The the edge of the jaw, the form and depth of the nasolabial first is a lateral perforation at the crown 2.5 mm in furrows, the placement of the eyes, and the hair framing diameter, with a hole in the front of the head, at the the face. These Archaic marbles all date to the second half border of the head covering, and another in the top of the of the sixth century, with the Paros kouros close to the head. At the position of the ear is the second through- mid-century mark and the female heads in the later sixth century.6 bore, 9 mm in diameter, which appears to have been made after the head-pendant was carved. There are also The hairstyle of 76.AO.85.2, a complex fashioning of five stopped bores; the longest, 22 mm in length by 4 mm overlapping rounded waves, is an ancient one, first found in diameter, begins under the chin, ascends vertically to in the Near East for gods and kings and refashioned in the hairline, runs parallel to a long internal fissure, and Early Archaic art for male and female figures, including does not retain a plug. Two other stopped bores, one of sphinxes. which retains its plug, are located on the forehead. The two others, at the back of the head and on the reverse, are 76.AO.85.2 may be the earliest extant representation of a without plugs. It is not possible to determine how this winged amber head-pendant. The wing—growing or pendant would have hung, because of the multiple attached behind the ear—implies the existence of a through-bores. symmetrically placed ear on the other side of the head. Discussion This is not the only amber head-pendant to have a wing: a number of heads have a wing or wings. 76.AO.85.2 offers One of the largest of the extant amber head-pendants, the opportunity to consider how an amber carver might 76.AO.85.2 has no close counterpart. It is also significant address the concept of the head and wings of a winged within the corpus of head-pendants because of its style, divinity. iconography, evidence of use wear, and quality. The choice to represent one wing or a pair must have The figure wears several elements of dress that cover her depended on the form of the amber blank. For obvious head: a cap, veil, and shawl or mantle. In this, the technical reasons, wings projecting upward from the combination is comparable to the dress worn by shoulders would be difficult to represent convincingly. 77.AO.81.4 (cat. no. 14). For the dress, the best parallel is Certain forms inherent in the undulating forms of the raw an Etruscan bronze in Florence (Museo Archeologico material might even have provided inspiration for the Nazionale 277). The outer garments worn by Florence 277 images: the rounded volute wing of 76.AO.85.2 may have and 76.AO.85.2 both display a decorated band on the front started out as a natural high point on the resin. Other edge. Emeline Richardson noted the unusual style of the winged amber head-pendants are a pair from the Tomb of the Ambers, Ruvo (Naples);7 a head-pendant in profile to bronze figure, including her unique banded scarf, and right, with one clearly represented wing, from an amber- compared the work to a group of Greek-Ionian-looking rich grave of the Rutigliano-Purgatorio Necropolis;8 a bronzes, her Tomba del Barone group, named after the fragmentary head-pendant of a frontal female head with eponymous Tarquinian tomb. Richardson dated Florence one wing in New York;9 two others in the Getty collection, 277 to the end of the sixth century B.C.1 The amber’s hairstyle, however, is different from that worn by most 77.AO.81.5 (cat. no. 23) and 77.AO.81.29 (cat. no. 16); a large frontal head with two wings in the Steinhardt 174 HUMAN HEADS

collection, New York;10 and three unpublished examples 3. Athens, National Archaeological Museum 1939. in a London private collection. Many of these winged 4. Copenhagen, National Museum 12199. heads are closely related in artistic style and in manner of dress to other, wingless amber head-pendants. 5. Paris, Louvre Ma 3101 (circa 540 B.C.): Hamiaux 1992, pp. 80–82, no. 73. Two heads comparable to the kouros, which are finished The wing might well be an attribute of the head, acting as but are worn, are in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt (H. von Steuben, pars pro toto of a divinity, demigoddess, or demon; the Kopf eines Kuros, Liebieghaus Monographie 7 [Frankfurt am winged head might be considered the sculptural Main, 1980]), and in the Iolas collection (C. Rolley, “Tête de compression of a complete winged figure. kouros Parien,” BCH 103 [1978]: 41–50, figs. 1–7). The large and disfiguring frontal hole in 76.AO.85.2 was 6. Croissant 1983, pp. 60, 77, 98, places the Louvre kouros in his bored through the ear and surrounding area. As noted in Paros group of the mid-sixth century and the Aegina head with the introduction and in the “Pendants in the Form of the his Chios group, dating it to the later sixth century, and Human Head” opening, such large holes are found on a associates the Lindos head with Knidian coinage of the years number of other figured ambers, of both male and female around 500 B.C. Gisela Richter placed the Lindos and Aegina subjects, and of complete figures as well as both frontal heads (“kore or sphinx?”) in her Samian Cheramyes Genelaos and profile head-pendants, including satyr head- group, dated to the second quarter of the sixth century, and the Louvre kouros in her Melos group, with a date of about 550 B.C.: pendants, female head-pendants, a dancing female, a pair Richter 1968, no. 66, figs. 214–16 (Athens head); no. 77, figs of sirens, a horse head–pendant, and a head of Herakles 244–47 (Lindos head); no. 116, figs. 356–58 (Paros kouros). in a lionskin headdress.11 Was this pendant formerly attached to a fibula, as is the case with a head-pendant 7. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 113644, 113646 excavated at Villalfonsina (Chieti) and the two pins with (excavated in 1876). No. 113644 has symmetrical wings; no. amber heads threaded on them from Rutigliano, a satyr 113646 is by another hand and shows a different approach to head on a silver pin and a female head on a bronze pin?12 the subject (it has a single small wing on the right side of the head). These winged heads are two of the five surviving figured 76.AO.85.2, like the large profile head-pendant of a satyr, carved ambers from the Ruvo tomb. The others are an 83.AO.202.1 (cat. no. 12), has four stopped bores, a plug elongated female head (fragmentary) by still another hand; a retained in one of them. Were they part of the original piece with an indeterminate subject; and a large pendant of a production or made later? All the physical evidence—the kneeling warrior, armored with helmet, shield, and sword (no smoothed prominent surfaces13(this is not the typical known inv. nos.) and attended by a crow. G. Prisco in I Greci in Occidente: La Magna Grecia nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico breakdown of the cortex from oxidation), the multiple di Napoli, exh. cat. (Naples, 1996), pp. 114–16, figs. 10.5–9, through-bores, the abrasion troughs, and the central identifies the warrior pendant as Achilles, and dates it to the end hole—indicates that this pendant must have been used of the sixth or beginning of the fifth century B.C. For a possibly over a period of time before its final interment. The relevant interpretation of Achilles in relationship to the cult of inherent evidence of 76.AO.85.2 suggests that it served as Apollo, see Simon 1998. An amber Achilles pendant would be a an important amulet-ornament for the living long before powerfulapotropaion, the color of the amber reinforcing the it was finally placed in a grave, perhaps pinned to the potency of the martial subject. funereal dress of a girl or woman, in protection and in 8. Taranto, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 138144 (from the male “mourning attending the death of the young.”14 The wing, Tomb 9, fifth century B.C.). the old-fashioned coiffure, the Etruscan dress, and the style suggest that it was made in an Etruscan ambient 9. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 23.160.97: Richter 1940, where a Greek (perhaps Parian or Greco-Etruscan) p. 32, fig. 100. artisanal tradition was significant. 10. New York, collection of Michael and Judy Steinhardt: Grimaldi 1996, p. 151; and Negroni Catacchio 1999, pp. 289–90, fig. 5. NOTES 11. Tomb 9, Rutigliano-Purgatorio Necropolis (Taranto, Museo 1. Richardson 1983, pp. 285–86, pl. 198, figs. 669–71. Archeologico Nazionale 138144: Ornarsi d’ambra: Tombe principesche da Rutigliano, ed. L. Masiello and A. Damato 2. Copenhagen, National Museum 4203. The bronze likely records [Rutigliano, 2004]; Mastrocinque 1991, p. 131, n. 408; and G. Lo an older image type from Ionia or elsewhere in East Greece, one Porto in Locri Epizefirii: Atti del XVI Convegno di studi sulla Magna that looks back to older Oriental models. It is possibly Etruscan Grecia [Naples, 1977], pl. CXV). On the subject of pendants with and has been compared to the korai of northeastern Etruria; B. large secondary holes see “The Working of Amber,” in the Bundgaard Rasmussen inTorelli 2000, p. 622, no. 278, makes a introduction, n. 266. convincing suggestion that it is Magna Graecian, perhaps from southern Sicily. Cat. no. 15 175

12. The head-pendant from Villalfonsina, pierced through the top of 13. The touching, rubbing, and kissing of faces in prayer, adoration, the hair, dangles from the pin of the fibula: Negroni Catacchio propitiation, warding away danger or evil, and communication 1975, pp. 314–15; R. Papi, “Materiali archeologici da Villalfonsina of other kinds are the subject of an enormous body of literature. (Chieti),” ArchCl 31 (1979): 83–85, 91. The head-pendants from See the introduction, particularly n. 176. Tomb 9 (satyr) and Tomb 10 (female) from the Rutigliano- 14. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.23–24: amber “is commonly Purgatorio Necropolis are discussed in the introduction. used in connection with the mourning attending the death of the young.” 176 HUMAN HEADS

16. Pendant: Winged Female Head Condition The piece is largely intact, except for a large loss at the top proper right of the pendant. The lateral suspension perforation passes through two fissures and is broken off at the top of the left exit. There is wide-interval cracking and crazing over the entire surface. Degraded amber residue, yellow-ocher in color, covers parts of the surface and is inside the cracks. In ambient light, the piece is opaque and dark reddish brown; in transmitted light, it is translucent and red. There are no visible inclusions. Description This head-pendant of a female figure includes the head and neck, which are contorted and abbreviated to fit the natural shape of the amber blank. The pendant is rounded on the obverse and nearly flat on the reverse, which is undecorated. The composition is asymmetrical: the figure is more deformed on her right side and more naturalistic on her left. The woman’s face is round but relatively lean. The high forehead is flat and smooth, and her brow ridge is modeled. She has full, wide cheekbones, shallow cheeks, and a small, pointed chin. The eyes are small and deep-set, with the orbits plastically rendered. The eyelids are indicated by engraved lines. The outer Accession 77.AO.81.29 corners of the eyes turn up slightly. The nose is indented Number at the bridge, and its tip is missing. The lips curve up slightly; below them is an indentation representing the Culture Etruscan mentolabial sulcus. The area below the chin is flat. The Date 525–480 B.C. junction of the neck is higher than the point of the chin. Dimensions Height: 40 mm; width: 20 mm; depth: 18 mm; The headdress, a conical hat with veil, or perhaps a cloth- Diameter of suspension hole: 6 mm; Weight: 8.7 wrapped hat, sits directly on the forehead and is g separated from the smooth brow by an engraved line. No Subjects Etruscan culture hair shows on the forehead. Four horizontal grooves and a finer horizontal engraved line suggest the layers or wrapping of the headdress. On the upper left side of the Provenance figure’s head is a volute-shaped wing. At the side of the neck is a long, narrow segment of undifferentiated amber, –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. which is set off from the neck by a long groove. It Paul Getty Museum, 1977. probably represents a long, single hank of hair. The suspension perforation is drilled in the upper part of the headdress and is 6 mm in diameter at its widest point. 177

Tomb 106 at Banzi. The latter is one of a group of thirteen Discussion pendants, of different types and styles, from a grave dated Both the iconography and the style of this amber are to the second half of the fifth century B.C.3 Etruscan. The rounded, almost egg-shaped head is that of Emeline Richardson’s Middle Archaic korai, which she NOTES dates to the third quarter of the sixth century B.C. What Richardson has proposed about this series of bronzes 1. Richardson 1983, pp. 258–59. might also describe 77.AO.81.29: “The longest axis [is] 2. Ibid., pp. 259–62, figs. 583–84 (Florence 258), figs. 590–91 from crown to chin, at an angle to the vertical.”1 The best parallels for 77.AO.81.29 among this Richardson grouping (Florence 265), figs. 588–89 (Florence 266), and figs. 590–91 (Florence 267). Florence 266 is the earliest bronze to wear the are bronzes in Florence from the votive deposit of Fonte diagonal Ionian mantle. Veneziana, Arezzo, including Museo Archeologico Nazionale 258 and 265–67.2 3. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese “Dinu Adamesteanu” 116846:Bottini 1990, pp. 59–61, no. 8, fig. 2.8. 77.AO.81.29 belongs to a family of amber head-pendants The Getty amber may also be compared to two head-pendants that are characterized by their sharp features—wide from two different tombs at Banzi, one from the early-fifth- cheekbones, thin cheeks, pointed chins—vestigial necks, century Tomb 106 (illustrated in Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 50) and single locks of hair hanging down, and high headdresses. the other from the end-of-the-fifth-century Tomb 428 (ibid., p. 77.AO.81.29 is a relative of the oldest-looking head from 125). 178 HUMAN HEADS

17. Pendant: Female Head in Profile The front perforation exit is smoothly worn on its upper edge, suggesting pulling. Details are smoothed at the tip of the cap on the obverse and at the middle of the pendant’s back more than elsewhere, probably through use. The opaque brown surface reflects the original surface level, visible on the cheek and jaw. The surface is crazed, and extensive flaking and cracking all over reveal a reddish, sugary, translucent sublayer. In ambient light, the amber is yellow-brown. At the modern breaks, the interior is translucent and bright orange. In transmitted light, the pendant is translucent and dark red. There are no visible inclusions. Description This pendant is oblong, its obverse slightly convex, and its reverse flat and plain. 82.AO.161.3 represents the head and neck of a female in profile. The forehead is broad and rounded. The large, almond-shaped eye is plastic, bulging out almost as in nature; it is recessed at the corners. The lids are rendered as shallow grooves with slightly curved upper and lower rims of varying thickness. Above the eye is the eyebrow ridge, which continues into the temple area. A longer and deeper groove extends from the inner canthus of the eye to the chin, a combination of the nasolabial line and the mouth furrow. The nose is indented at the root. The ears are smooth, rounded shapes Accession 82.AO.161.3 at the angle of the jaw; the right ear is more legible than Number the left. The area between the nose and the upper lip is short. The upper lip slightly overhangs the lower. The Culture Italic mentolabial sulcus is a shallow curve. Although the chin Date 500–450 B.C. is prominent, it is recessed from the line of the brow. The jaw intersects the neck, forming a small, recessed Dimensions Height: 46 mm; width: 45 mm; depth: 11 triangular area. mm; Weight: 3 g The figure wears a conical cap covered with a wrapping Provenance of cloth (showing three distinct sections), and over it a crown. No hair shows on the forehead. At the back of the –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, head is a fall of hair (a ponytail-like section?) marked with CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. diagonal grooves, except for the plain terminal section. Condition The carver has taken advantage of natural protrusions in the original amber blank for the modeling of the face. The The pendant is intact, but there are losses on the head and long groove that runs from the temple to the top of the at the suspension perforation exit on the back of the head. cap is plausibly a trace of fissure removal. The suspension 179

perforation runs laterally through the top of the common sculptural prototype. The Roscigno tomb is dated headdress, causing the pendant to hang slightly to its left, to the end of the fifth or beginning of the fourth century, with the forehead tilted forward, the chin backward. and the terminus ante quem for the burial of the Spina Discussion head-pendants is no later than the mid-fifth century B.C. This head-pendant is similar to a large and varied group NOTES of female head-pendants that includes works documented 1. La Genière 1961. See also Losi et al. 1993, pp. 205–6. as coming from various sites in peninsular Italy and Corsica.1 82.AO.161.3 is especially close to two head- 2. For the Salerno pair, see La Genière 1961, pp. 75–88. For the pendants from a sporadic find, a tomb group at pendants from Tomb 740B at Spina (Museo Archeologico di Roscigno–Monte Pruno (Salerno, Museo Provinciale), and Ferrara), see Due donne 1993, pp. 42–47, nos. 20–21. For with two head-pendants from the Spina–Valle Lege Tomb additional discussion of the type, see D’Ercole 2008, pp. 69–75. 740B.2 They may all be of comparable date and reflect a 180 HUMAN HEADS

18. Pendant: Female Head Condition The pendant is intact, but the nose is broken off. The surface is in poor condition and flaking, there are small losses over the entire piece, and it has a network of cracking. The surface is slightly glossy, suggesting an applied consolidant coating. The entire surface of the pendant is covered in a weathered yellow-ocher crust. In ambient light, the amber is yellowish brown and opaque; in transmitted light, it is dark red and clear. There are no visible inclusions. Description The contortion of the form and the asymmetry of the headdress suggest that the original amber blank influenced the form of the head. The pendant represents the frontal head and a small section of the neck of a female. The reverse is flat and plain, the obverse much more rounded and figured. Although the piece is worn and looks almost inorganic, the anatomy of the narrow face is modeled, including the eyeballs. The transitions from plane to plane are smooth. The brow is high and smooth, with the edge of the hair set well back. Above the eyes, the brow ridge swells slightly. The large, almond- shaped eyes meet at the root of the nose and tilt up sharply, the outer canthi higher than the inner, and both the upper and lower lid lines curve. The eyelids are unusual, flat and circumscribed by even, filletlike raised Accession 83.AO.202.4 lines. The upper parts of the ears are not discernible. Number Where the lobe of the ear would be is a small rounded Culture Italic area: is it the lobe or an earring? The mouth is small and curves upward. The lips are separated by a groove. The Date 425–400 B.C. lower lip is wider than the upper one. The sulcus is Dimensions Height: 40 mm; width: 23 mm; depth: 16 mm; curved, leading to the sharply pointed chin. The under- Diameter of suspension hole: 2 mm; Weight: 4 g chin area is flat and angles backward to the jaw. The juncture of the head and neck is indicated by a groove. Subjects Etruscan culture More of the neck vestige is visible on the left side. Framing the face at the brow are scalloplike waves, the Provenance individual strands indicated with curving parallel lines. Above the hair is a headdress that is wider than the brow –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, and ends in a soft point. At its base is a slightly rounded, Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the raised area bordered by two parallel engraved lines, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. which probably represent either the turnup of a felt(?) hat or the bottom of the hat and the edge of the veil. 181

Alternatively, they may represent just the edge of the veil. head-pendants of a heavy-faced woman in London There is no evidence of hair at the back or sides of the (British Museum 48–51).3 Two unprovenanced profile head. head-pendants in a London private collection represent a figure of the same physical type. They each wear a cap A 2 mm suspension perforation extends through the and have hair coifed like that of 83.AO.202.4. The profile, headdress near the top, but both holes are on the left side. but not the garments, of 83.AO.202.4 is comparable to the This would have made the frontal head hang in profile. faces of a pair of legless sirens excavated from Tomb 43 at When suspended, the head tilts forward, with the back Melfi, to one of the heads from the Melfi Tomb 48 burial, perpendicular to the ground. and to one of the heads from Tomb 428 at Banzi.4 The Discussion profile is also not far from that of a head-pendant in London (British Museum 52).5 This head-pendant was in the same donation group as This group of female head-pendants are characterized by four other female head-pendants: 83.AO.202.5 (cat. no. 19), their elaborate hair fashions and head coverings—hats, 83.AO.202.6 (cat. no. 20), 83.AO.202.12 (cat. no. 21), and veils, and crowns—and occasionally by their earrings. The 83.AO.202.18 (cat. no. 22). All five are alike in size, dress depends on Etruscan fashion, and the style can be condition, and general typology. All are asymmetrical and traced to Etruscan inventions. Despite their schematic have off-center suspension perforations that cause them depiction, these tiny amber pendants clearly reflect the to hang crookedly. Although they are different in style and art of the votive bronzes placed by Emeline Richardson in details of dress, it is possible that they come from the her Late Archaic Series, many of them in her Group A, same original context. Figured ambers of different style, Ionians.6 date, and type are often found in the same burial. 83.AO.202.4 is dressed in a high conical hat covered with a NOTES veil. 83.AO.202.5 and 83.AO.202.6 each wear a conical cap that is set off from the straight bangs by a pair of spaced 1. Strong 1966, p. 68, no. 45, pl. XX. engraved lines, perhaps representing the turnup or roll- 2. Cleveland Museum of Art 1992.61 (Andrew R. and Martha up of the cap (perhaps made from felt). The flange of Holden Jennings Fund). amber at the back of the head of 83.AO.202.5 likely 3. Strong 1966, pp. 69–71, nos. 48–51, pls. XXI–XXII. represents a wing. The combination of cap, earrings, and veil of 83.AO.202.4 4. For illustrations of the comparable head-pendants, see Magie is the same combination worn by the figure of another d’ambra2005, pp. 70 (siren), 121 (head from Melfi), 122, 125, 127 (head from Banzi). Getty head-pendant (77.AO.81.4, cat. no. 14) and by one of the British Museum heads in-the-round (BM 45).1 The 5. Strong 1966, p. 71, no. 52, pl. XXII. Strong compares this head to Getty head-pendant 77.AO.81.30 (cat. no. 25) is dressed in one found at Populonia (NSc ser. 6, 2 [1926]: 326), to a head in a cap (but has no veil). A much larger head-pendant in Bari (inv. 6598), and to the Valle Pega heads from Tomb 640B Cleveland has her hair dressed in scalloped waves at the and Tomb 514A. I know the heads from Populonia and Bari only brow like 83.AO.202.4, but like 77.AO.81.25 (cat. no. 26), from photographs. The Valle Pega head from Tomb 514A looks the Cleveland figure wears a crown in addition to the less like this Getty head-pendant than does that from Tomb cap.2 The straight bangs topped by the cap of 83.AO.202.5 640B. and83.AO.202.6is a more common fashion than that of 6. Richardson 1983, pp. 271–302. 83.AO.202.4—which is also worn by the imposing frontal 182 HUMAN HEADS

19. Pendant: Female Head The surface is chipped and flaking, with many minute losses. The outermost, brown alteration layer is flaking; the layer below is more compact and stable. Opaque and yellow-brown in ambient light, the pendant is translucent and dark orange in transmitted illumination. There are no visible inclusions. Description The pendant was carved from a lobed piece of amber. One section was used for the face, and a small spur for a section of the neck—this is located to the back of the mouth. A third lobe, at the back of the head and flangelike in shape, is plausibly a wing. It does not have any engraved lines. 83.AO.202.5 represents the head and a section of the neck of a female. Although the piece is fragmentary, it is evident that the head was wide across the brow and tapered at the chin, much like that of 83.AO.202.4 (cat. no. 18). The left eye and the bridge of the nose are broken off. The nose was clearly triangular in form, although much of it is missing. The upper lip area is short. The mouth is almost straight, but the bottom lip turns up slightly. The engraved line that separates the lips is curved upward slightly in a smile. The sulcus is short and shallow, and the Accession 83.AO.202.5 chin wide and full, with a prominent chin boss. Above the Number brow is a fringe of bangs, the strands marked by vertical Culture Italic striations. Behind the bangs is a smooth, rounded-top cap. The two engraved lines separating the hair from the hat Date 425–400 B.C. depict the rim, which is either a flat turnup or a rounded Dimensions Height: 29 mm; width: 38 mm; depth: 14 mm; roll-up. Diameter of suspension hole: 2 mm; Weight: The suspension perforation runs through the top of the 10.5 g head. When worn, the head would have been seen in Provenance profile to the left, the forehead tilted forward, casting the eyes downward. –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, Discussion Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. From the front, the lips, mouth, and chin resemble those of two heads, one from Tomb 164 and one from Tomb 428 Condition at Banzi.1 The lower part of the face bears a familial likeness to a seated figure from Tolve.2 For further The pendant is in poor condition, and most detailed discussion, see 83.AO.202.4. features are lost. The nose and the left eye are broken off. 183

NOTES 2. For the Tolve figure, see Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 114. 1. For the ambers from Banzi, see Bottini 1987. Illustrated in Magie d’ambra2005, pp. 122, 125. 184 HUMAN HEADS

20. Pendant: Female Head in Profile Condition The pendant is in extremely poor condition. The lower parts of the face (and possibly the neck) are missing. A break, perhaps ancient, starts at the middle of the lower eyelid, and losses include the nose, mouth, and chin. There are many other large losses and chips all over the pendant. The surface is friable, with deeply cracked and pitted weathering layers. A thick yellow-ocher crust covers much of the surface. The pendant is opaque and yellow-brown in ambient light except at the breaks, where the amber is red. In transmitted light, it is translucent and red. There are no observable inclusions. Description This fragmentary pendant represents a female head in profile to the left. On the obverse, the relatively flat piece of amber is figured, and on the reverse, plain. Despite the Accession 83.AO.202.6 condition of the piece, many engraved lines are still Number visible. A large hole in the area of the jaw is likely a Culture Italic stopped bore. Some features remain legible. The brow is wide and smooth. Below this, a large, almond-shaped eye Date 425–400 B.C. is set off by two engraved lines indicating lids. At the top Dimensions Height: 51 mm; width: 51 mm; depth: 15.5 are bangs described with parallel vertical striations. mm; Weight: 23.3 g There is a rounded protrusion at the area of the ear, perhaps an ear and earring. Provenance The two parallel engraved lines at the front of the hat represent the rim of the hat, either a flat turnup or a –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, rounded roll-up. The cap is rounded at the top and more Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the oblong at its back. J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. Discussion See83.AO.202.4(cat. no. 18) and 83.AO.202.5 (cat. no. 19). 185

21. Pendant: Female Head A large modern chip is on the left side of the head, and there are many other, smaller modern losses over the entire surface: these reveal the dark red-brown translucent amber beneath. In ambient light, the pendant is opaque and light yellow-tan; in transmitted light, it is dark red and translucent. There are no visible inclusions. Description This head is worked from a small, flattish piece of amber. There is no indication of a neck. The reverse is uncorked and flat, and the obverse is slightly more rounded and carved. The face covers half of the pendant, while the other half is devoted to the hair and headdress. The face is widest at the eyes, narrower at the top of the head, and tapered at the chin. The brow is flat and smooth. The large, diamond-shaped eyes wrap around the head, extending from the front plane of the face to the sides of the head. The eyeballs themselves bulge slightly. Both top and bottom rims, indicated by narrow fillets, are angular at the midsection. The eyelid fillets taper in slightly at both of the canthi; they meet at the outer corners but not at the inner ones. The apexes of the upper eyelids nearly meet the lowest horizontal section of the headdress. The flat, triangle-shaped nose is set off from the cheeks by Accession 83.AO.202.12 a long groove that continues to the jawline, incorporating Number the nasolabial and mouth angle furrows. The mouth is Culture Italic or Campanian almost straight, with a groove separating the barlike lips. The mentolabial sulcus is also grooved. The small chin Date 500–480 B.C. projects forward to the level of the lips. Above the brow is Dimensions Height: 30 mm; width: 26 mm; depth: 4 mm; a bandlike section of the headdress, composed of three Weight: 2.4 g rounded horizontal sections separated by grooved lines. Above the horizontal sections is a tapered, plain section of Subjects Magic the headdress that is squared off on top. Provenance There is a stopped bore (1 mm in diameter) at the left side of the head, which still contains its plug. A perforation –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, extends laterally across the head at the headdress. When Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the suspended, the head would have tilted forward, the chin J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. back. Condition Discussion The pendant is intact but in poor condition, with a friable, This head and 83.AO.202.18 (cat. no. 22) have many flaking surface. The surface has an overall crack network. features in common with 83.AO.202.4 (cat. no. 18), 186

83.AO.202.5 (cat. no. 19), and 83.AO.202.6 (cat. no. 20). (For When the Getty faces are compared to the small, late- a discussion of the common features of the group, see sixth-century B.C. faces from Sabine Eretum,3 the 83.AO.202.4.) This pendant and 83.AO.202.18 depict the commonalties in sculptural approach are apparent: they frontal face rather than the complete head. They are both are all small, flat, and schematic and represent a severe, much flatter and more schematic in conception than mature figure. The morphological differences between 83.AO.202.4 and seem to represent an older female than the Getty faces and those from Eretum are less marked the other three. Most importantly, the headdress worn by than those between the Getty faces and a pair from a 83.AO.202.12 and 83.AO.202.18 is distinctly different: it is larger group of amber pendants from the earlier- characterized by horizontal bands on its lower edge discussed tomb at Roscigno–Monte Pruno,4 perhaps to be (83.AO.202.12 has three bands; 83.AO.202.18 has four). The dated to the early fifth century. While 83.AO.202.12 and headdress of 83.AO.202.12 sits directly on the brow, with 83.AO.202.18 are closer to the Eretum and no hair showing. The headdress of 83.AO.202.18 sits Roscigno–Monte Pruno sets, they also have features in farther back on the head, behind the straight bangs. common with two grave groups of amber head-pendants from female tombs of the first half of the fourth century. The headdress of 83.AO.202.12 and 83.AO.202.18 is a The examples are from Tombs 2 and 3 at Melfi, variant of the commonly represented head wraps of Cappucini.5 The three amber head-pendants of Tomb 2 amber head-pendants. A striking comparison is an were found with other figured amber pendants—a Etruscan terracotta votive figure in Kansas City. She wears strange siren, a schematic “Achelous,” and three faces. a comparable head covering, about which Stephen Smithers noted that the three bands incised into the lower How might this continuity be explained? These rather third of her cylindrical polos probably represent the ugly objects demand answers to this, one of the most winding of a cloth headdress.1 83.AO.202.18 has straight compelling questions concerning the working of amber in bangs but no hair showing in back, 83.AO.202.12 has no pre-Roman Italy. Certainly, the makers of the head- hair showing at all, and the Kansas City terracotta head pendants are part of the explanation. Another part lies in has hair showing in front: it is parted in the middle at the the origin of or prototype(s) behind the type, which must brow, sweeps to each side in waves, and is short in back. date to the earlier sixth century, if not before, in Etruria. That all of the heads were perforated to hang crookedly The almost insectlike eyes of 83.AO.202.12 and may be evidence of their use and identity. Is this meant to 83.AO.202.18 (and of the amber head-pendants cited as convey that they are reverted, and thus specifically refer comparisons above) are similar to those of bronze korai to death, guardianship, and other magical workings? in Emeline Richardson’s Late Archaic Series C, Group 3A (“Perugians”), such as those in Florence (Museo NOTES Archeologico Nazionale 261) and Leiden (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden C.06).2 These bronzes are sophisticated in 1. Smithers 1988, pp. 214–15, compares the votive to a marble kore design and mannered in details, and some have old- in Athens (Acropolis Museum Akr. 688) dated circa 480 B.C. fashioned features. Although Richardson does not single 2. Richardson 1983, pp. 314, 744–46. These same insectlike eyes out for mention the thickly outlined, wide-open eyes are seen on a number of amber heads. The earliest is the late- which wrap around the face from the front to the side eighth-to-early-seventh-century head from Stephens Tomb 108, planes, this manner of representing the eyes must have Cumae (E. Gabrici, “Cuma,” MonAnt XII [1913]: col. 609, fig. 220). recalled to its viewers the most ancient of hieratic female For two now-lost heads from Cumae, two from Oliveto Citra, one images to be found in Italy. So, too, must be the case with from Canosa, and three from Termoli (Molise), see Losi et al. the amber head-pendants with huge and staring eyes. 1993, p. 210, n. 20. 83.AO.202.12 and 83.AO.202.18 gain from a comparison 3. For the ambers from Eretum, Colle del Forno, Tomb XIII, see, for with four other groups of amber heads. All have features example,Losi et al. 1993. stretched and skewed, all are asymmetrical, and all would 4. Seecat. no. 17. For a recent discussion of this group, see Losi et have hung crookedly. All are related, even if the al. 1993, p. 203. workmanship of 83.AO.202.12 and 83.AO.202.18 is more precise. The Getty pieces show how more was 5. Bottini 1990, pp. 61–63, no. 5 (22ab, 23ab). accomplished with a fine graving tool. Cat. no. 21 187

22. Pendant: Female Head tip of the nose is missing. On the reverse, the amber’s surface-layer flaking is particularly severe. A yellow- ocher crust covers most of the surface. Areas with crust losses reveal a more compact and less altered amber beneath, and under transmitted light, additional subsurface cracking is visible. The pendant is opaque and yellow-brown in color in ambient light. Under transmitted illumination, it is translucent and dark red-brown. There are no visible inclusions. Description The original amber nodule seems to have determined the form of the pendant. The obverse is more convex, the highest point at the bridge of the nose. The reverse is plain and flat. The asymmetrical, triangle-shaped face tapers from a wide brow to a small, pointed chin. The hair and headdress are wide at the base but narrow at the chin. The holes for suspension are located in the top of the headdress on obverse and reverse. When hung, the head exposes its right profile. The brow is flat above the enormous bulbous eyes. Each eyelid is rendered with two filletlike rims that are the same width both above and below the eyes. They meet at both inner and outer canthi. The eyeballs are on the same plane as the eyelids and bulge as in nature. The glabella is wide. Despite the losses to the nose, its form can be discerned as being short and Accession 83.AO.202.18 narrow. The upper lip area is also short, and the mouth is Number small. The lips are rendered as two bars, the upper one Culture Italic set off from the nose by a short groove. Two short vertical grooves, which run from the wings of the nose to the chin Date 480–450 B.C. line, demarcate the mouth angle furrows. A slight ridge Dimensions Height: 30 mm; width: 21 mm; depth: 9 mm; sets off the thick bangs from the brow. The bangs Weight: 4.3 g continue from the obverse onto the narrow sides; the pattern of the hair is indicated by fine diagonal grooves fanning out from the center. There are neither ears nor Provenance neck indicated on this figure. Atop the head is a headdress separated from the hair by a slight ridge. This headdress –1983, Antike Kunst Palladion (Basel, Switzerland); 1983, is made up of four rounded horizontal fillets. Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1983. Discussion Condition This pendant has many features in common with 83.AO.202.4 (cat. no. 18), 83.AO.202.5 (cat. no. 19), The pendant is intact but in poor condition. The surface is 83.AO.202.6 (cat. no. 20), and 83.AO.202.12 (cat. no. 21). For friable and has suffered many small chips and losses. The 188

a discussion of 83.AO.202.18 in relation to related face and complete head-pendants, see the entries for 83.AO.202.4 and83.AO.202.12. Cat. no. 22 189

23. Pendant: Winged Female Head Condition The surface is stable, firm, and clean, but it is worn, especially on the front of the face. There is a large fracture loss on the reverse at the top; large losses behind the left ear, above the right ear, and at the top front of the head around the cracked suspension hole; and small chips under the right eye and below the jaw. Fissures run downward along the right side of the nose to the chin as well as along the right temple. There are cracks on the face, beneath the chin on the left side, on the temple, and running from the crown to the right ear. There are traces of yellowish degradation residue in the cracks and grooves. The surface is slightly glossy, suggesting an applied consolidant coating. The amber is translucent and dark red-brown in ambient light. Under transmitted light, the pendant is transparent and red. In the large fissure extending from the top, near the eye, to the chin is an inclusion. Description 77.AO.81.5 represents the head and neck of a female figure. On the back of the head is a wing. The pendant is carved fully in the round. The eyes are large and lozenge- shaped, with the proximal corners nearly joined over the nose. The eyes curve around from the front to the side planes. The lids are indicated by parallel grooves, roughly Accession 77.AO.81.5 carved and relatively angular. What remains of the nose Number suggests that it was a flattish triangular bar. The mouth is small and turned up slightly, as if in a smile. The lips are Culture Italic rendered as curved bars. The nasolabial furrow continues Date 500–480 B.C. to the jawline, giving the face a jowly look. The ears are small, flat, semicircular nubs. They are located high on Dimensions Height: 42 mm; width: 23.5 mm; depth: 32 mm; the head and overlap the edge of the headdress. The chin Diameter of suspension hole: 2 mm; Weight: is small and the under-chin area fleshy. The neck is set off 11.9 g from the face and from the hair by two deep grooves. Subjects Magic The figure wears a conical hat with a high rounded Provenance crown. It is cloth-wrapped. None of her hair is showing in the front. However, at the back of the neck, a section –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. carved with finely spaced engraved lines must represent a Paul Getty Museum, 1977. long tress. The secondary feathers of the wing on the back of the head are indicated with upward-directional engraved lines. 190

The shape of the pendant suggests that the original form thirteen other head-pendants in a “princely” tomb at of the amber was teardrop-shaped. The long smoothed Roscigno–Monte Pruno, the context dated to the early fifth grooves are the result of a precarving cleaning of surface century B.C.2 The second is a head-pendant from Tomb fissures or inclusions. The vestigial neck of the figure is 106 at Banzi, from a context dated to the first quarter of formed from a spur of amber. A 2 mm perforation for the fifth century.3 The third is a much-worn head-pendant suspension passes laterally through the top of the in the Getty, 77.AO.81.25. The schematic carving of the headdress. When suspended, the chin was recessed close eyes, nose, and mouth of 77.AO.81.5 is comparable to that to the wearer’s neck, making the eyes look downward. of one of the heads from Tomb 428 at Banzi.4 Discussion NOTES The smoothing on the prominent surfaces—nose, eyes, 1. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 5534, found on Elba: H. mouth, and chin—is evidence of considerable preburial Jucker, “Etruskische Bronzen,” AA (1967): 620–21, figs. 5–6; H. use wear. For the figure’s dress, see the entry for Jucker, “Etruscan Bronzes from Populonia,” in Art and 77.AO.81.25 (cat. no. 26); for a discussion of wings on Technology: A Symposium on Classical Bronzes, ed. S. Doeringer, amber head-pendants, see the entry for 76.AO.85.2 (cat. D. G. Mitten, and A. Steinberg (Cambridge, MA, 1970), pp. no. 15). In frontal view, this head has an uncanny 199–203, figs. 8a–f; and Richardson 1983, p. 232, figs. 522–24. similarity to a unique and odd Etruscan votive bronze of a 2. For a recent discussion of the find, see Losi et al. 1993, p. 206, n. togate male figure in Naples, who wears a close-fitting hat 20. or net incised with a scale pattern. (Or is this the hair?) Hans Jucker places this togate figure in his Populonia 3. SeeBottini 1990, p. 59, no. 4, fig. 2.4. group; Emeline Richardson places it in her Late Archaic 4. For an illustration of the head-pendant from Tomb 428 at Banzi, grouping, Type 2A, Ionians.1 Although there is no close parallel for 77.AO.81.5, it corresponds in dress and type to seeMagie d’ambra2005, p. 125; for discussion of the ambers from the tomb, see Bottini 1987. three other amber head-pendants. One was found with Cat. no. 23 191

24. Pendant: Female Head chips: at the perforation, on the left and right sides of the face, and at the top and right sides of the head. On the reverse is a fissure. The lack of detail on the prominent surfaces of the face strongly suggests use wear. There is a scattered, spotty, yellow-ocher degradation overall, with some associated surface pitting. The amber is friable in the vicinity of breaks. The amber is opaque and yellow- orange in ambient light. Under transmitted light, it is translucent and dull red. With the exception of the material in the fissure, there are no visible inclusions. Description This frontal face of a female figure is concave on the obverse and flat on the reverse. The figure is wearing a high soft hat and a veil. The visible section of the brow is short and broad. There are no indications of ears. The widely spaced large eyes are flat and almond-shaped and are bounded by rims composed of thick fillets. The nose is broad and snubbed. All that remains of the mouth are two grooves. Nevertheless, it is clear that the upper lip hung over the lower one. The jaw is squarish and the chin pointed. Above the brow are straight bangs with vestiges of vertical striations. The softly rounded high hat has a turnup, indicated by two parallel engraved lines. The veil covers the hat and ears but not the bangs. Accession 82.AO.161.7 Because of the surface erosion of this piece, no tool marks Number are visible. A suspension perforation was drilled laterally Culture Italic through the top of the piece. When it was suspended, the back would be perpendicular to the ground, with the head Date 500–480 B.C. tilting forward, the chin close to the neck, and the eyes Dimensions Height: 48 mm; width: 28 mm; depth: 12 appearing downcast. mm; Weight: 5 g Discussion Provenance 82.AO.161.7 wears a costume similar to that of many other amber head-pendants; however, her hat is rather more –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, rounded on top than most. In its form and its manner of CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. hanging, the frontal face is akin to a face from a tomb at Kompolje, Croatia. In style, it is similar to the three well- Condition preserved heads from the tomb.1 The profile relates it to a head-pendant from Tomb 2 at Tolve.2 The pendant’s top proper right quarter was broken and reglued in modern times from three fragments. On the obverse are a number of both old and modern small 192

NOTES 1. For the ambers from the Kompolje tomb, see R. Bižiž-Drechsler in Vjesnik Arheološkog Muzeja u Zagrebu, ser. 2, no. 2 (1961): 109–13, pls. XXVIII–XXIX; and Mastrocinque 1991, p. 134, fig. 82, pl. VII.14. 2. For the Tolve head-pendant, see Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 115. Cat. no. 24 193

25. Pendant: Female Head in Profile object’s arrival at the Getty Museum. On the reverse are three large depressions, possibly from the removal of flaws or fissures by the carver, or weathering losses. In ambient light, the piece is somewhat translucent and dark reddish brown; in transmitted light, it is red and fully translucent. There are no visible inclusions. Description The pendant is composed of the head and a section of the neck of a female, carved from a relatively flat piece of amber. The figuration is on the obverse and the two sides. The back is plain, but uneven because of the shape of the original amber piece. The shallow crevices are the result of preparation of the amber nodule, by the removal of fissures or inclusions. The figure’s brow is smooth and on the same plane as the mouth and nose. There is a groove above the large almond-shaped eye, and the eye’s outside corner is higher Accession 77.AO.81.30 than the inner corner. The lids curve smoothly, taper Number slightly at the corners, and are outlined with a raised Culture Italic fillet. The nose is set off from the cheeks and upper lip area by grooves. The area above the upper lip is short. Date 500–480 B.C. The lips are large bar-shaped forms that curve from the Dimensions Height: 44 mm; width: 38 mm; depth: 16 mm; obverse to the front edge. They are separated from each Diameter of suspension holes: 3.5 mm and 4 other by a groove. The mentolabial sulcus is a deeper mm; Weight: 15.1 g groove. The receding chin is rounded and the under-chin area full. The triangular section of neck is described by Provenance two grooves. The area of the ear is indistinct, not only because the surface is much worn but also because there –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. is a natural concavity there. However, a slight swelling at Paul Getty Museum, 1977. the bottom of the bangs may indicate the ear. Condition Above the brow is a fringe of bangs, the strands of which are indicated by eight short diagonal incisions. Behind The surface of the amber is smooth and solid, but shows these is a cap set off from the hair by a raised filletlike an uneven pattern of abrasion and loss of detail on the form, which probably represents the rim of the cap. The most prominent areas, suggesting use wear. Before cap is a squared conical shape. At the back of the head is a purchase by the donor, the pendant was treated with a curved chignonlike section of hair extending to the nape surface consolidant. There are several ancient breaks of the neck. It is engraved with three lines perpendicular (they have the same degraded surface as the unbroken to those in the bangs. areas), including at the bridge of the nose and in a section The pendant was hung from a V-shaped suspension on the reverse. There are small chips on the cheek. A system, drilled from two sides through the top of the cap. more recent break at the back was reglued before the The front hole is 3.5 mm wide, and the rear hole 4 mm. 194

The pendant would have hung with the chin recessed, the The Banzi Tomb 164 head-pendants and 77.AO.81.30 brow forward. correspond in general type to Emeline Richardson’s series Discussion of Late Archaic bronze korai. A comparison with her Group 5D, especially with the group’s name piece, Naples, 77.AO.81.30 is generally similar in style and dress to Museo Archeologico Nazionale 5532 (provenance 77.AO.81.25 (cat. no. 26). It is closer, however, especially in unknown), brings out their common features. They look the overall format and in the hairstyle, to two well- to be of the same physiognomic type and are dressed in a 1 similar manner.3 As Richardson establishes, Naples 5532 preserved pendants from Tomb 164 at Banzi. The styling is an old-fashioned work, one that looks back to earlier of the hair at the back of the heads is remarkably similar conceptions of the kore type in Etruria, especially to the in all three works: it is short and curled under, with the Ionian series of the late sixth and early fifth centuries. lower edge forming a soft curve. The horizontal waves are rendered by fine engraved lines. However, there are NOTES differences in the hair treatment. 77.AO.81.30 has straight bangs, while one of the Banzi head-pendants has 1. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese 51436: Bottini horizontal waves at the brow and the other scallops. Both 1990, pp. 61–62, no. 17, fig. 4.17a–b. Related is the pendant from Tomb 164 figures also have a raised fillet at the neck edge, Tomb 55 at Banzi: ibid., p. 60, no. 5, fig. 2.5. For discussion of the perhaps a necklace, perhaps a mark evoking the form of Banzi heads, see ibid., pp. 59–63, nos. 1–2; Bottini 1987, pp. 1–16; the decorative protome—as is characteristic of amber andLosi et al. 1993. Bottini 1990 left open the question of horse’s-head pendants. 77.AO.81.30 does not have such a whether the parallel striations at the back of the heads fillet. represent coifed short hair or a kekryphalos. Angelo Bottini compared the Banzi amber head-pendants 2. Bottini 1990, p. 62. to coin types of Syracuse and Athens of the late sixth and 3. For the Late Archaic bronze korai, see Richardson 1983, pp. early fifth centuries and dated Tomb 164 “to the first 271–332. For Naples 5532, see ibid., pp. 323–25, figs. 770–71. quarter of the fifth century, at the latest.”2 Bottini made a Naples 5532 wears a short necklace and disk earrings. Unlike strong case for a local manufacture of the Tomb 164 head- the amber heads, she wears a low diadem and a veil. See also pendants but at the same time argued for a more careful the discussion of Naples 5532 in the entry for 77.AO.81.25. consideration of the territory and its cultural relations with the larger world. Cat. no. 25 195

26. Pendant: Female Head Condition The pendant was joined from two pieces along a slight oblique plane at the level of the eyes. Chips are missing at the breaks, on the eyes, at the area of the hair on the left side, behind the left ear, at the corner of the left jaw, along the right side of the neck, and in the region of the left eye. There is a large fissure along the left side of the head below the suspension perforation. Another fissure crosses laterally immediately above the perforation. The surface of the piece is crazed overall, and subsurface cracking is visible in transmitted light. There is a pocket of flaky yellowish residue under the left side of the chin. A cloudy inclusion at the center of the piece is visible at the break. In ambient light, the pendant is opaque and dark reddish brown in color; in transmitted light, it is translucent and a lighter red-brown. Description The ovoid head-pendant is composed of the head and a portion of the neck of a female figure. The pendant seems to follow the convolutions of the natural lump of amber from which it was worked: the face, neck, and headdress are on the more rounded obverse, while the flatter reverse is smoothed but not figured. A groove on the back Accession 77.AO.81.25 and a crater above the ear may be evidence of the Number removal of inclusions. The suspension perforation is located in the head: it is a lateral bore 3.5 mm in diameter Culture Italic or Etruscan that passes behind the crown on each side of the head. Date 500–480 B.C. Both exits are abraded on the upper inside edges, no doubt from friction from the carrier. This and the wear on Dimensions Height: 42 mm; width (across face): 24 mm; the prominent surfaces are evidence of ancient wear. depth: 29 mm; Diameter of suspension hole: 3.5 mm; Weight: 14.9 g Despite the shallow carving and wear to the object, its Subjects Etruscan culture; Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, features are still legible. The face is full and rounded. The Greek) eyes are large and almond-shaped, with thick and cordlike eyebrows. The outside corners of the eyes are Provenance upturned slightly, the left more than the right. The brow ridges rise slightly above the eyes. There is only a slight –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. indentation for the root of the nose, which is now flat. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Grooves running from the inner canthi of the eyes to the corner of the lips on each side incorporate the sides of the nose and the nasolabial furrows. The lips are almost straight, semicylindrical bars. The mouth angle furrows 196

are indicated by shallow grooves, the mentolabial sulcus important comparanda for 77.AO.81.25.5 The Getty amber by an indentation. The chin is full and the jawline head-pendant and the two Series A bronzes are all rounded. The figure has large ears and wears round recognizably Ionian in style, as the name given to the earrings. The neck is cylindrical, with a distinct fullness. bronzes by Richardson underlines. Richardson placed Vienna 71 and Copenhagen H224 into different subgroups Above the smooth brow are bangs that divide in the of Series A: Vienna 71 in her Group 2, Tomba del Barone, middle of the forehead and are brushed diagonally to and Copenhagen H224 in her Group 6, Late Korai. The each side; the strands of hair are individuated by diagonal physiognomy of 77.AO.81.25 is most like that of grooves. The figure wears a conical hat, a veil, and a Copenhagen H224 (which is bareheaded), but the dress is crown. The veil covers only the hair, cap, and ears. The more like that of Vienna 71—which, too, is capped, veil has straight pleated folds indicated by modeling on crowned, earringed, and veiled. the back of the head. The tiaralike crown is decorated with a grooved border at all of the edges. The lower edge A comparison to Naples 5532 brings out additional Ionian of the crown is set off from the bangs by an engraved line. and Etruscan aspects of 77.AO.81.25. This bronze kore The crown’s upper edge stands above the head. The sides represents a physical type very much like 77.AO.81.25; of the crown stop just above and in front of the ears. they both have the same “big head and long face.”6 The Discussion votive also provides a model for how 77.AO.81.25 would look if the amber were a complete figure. Richardson There is a parallel for this head-pendant in Munich, one describes the draping of Naples 5532’s veil as “pulled over also modeled fully in the round.1 The Munich amber is the cap so that two ends fall on the shoulders [with] the rest [hanging] in a long panel down the back.”7 This is the drilled with a lateral suspension hole in the top of the same South Ionian fashion of veil worn by the Getty head in the same position as that of 77.AO.81.25. In amberKore,76.AO.77(cat. no. 8). addition, the Munich head has a metal loop (date uncertain) inserted in the top of the head. The two figures NOTES differ in dress: although the Munich head has bangs, a cap, and a veil, it does not have a crown or earrings. 1. Munich, Antikensammlungen 15.003. Variants of this head-pendant’s elements of adornment— 2. Richardson 1983, pp. 258–70. hat, crown, earrings, veil, and styled hair—are characteristic of many other head-pendants worn by 3. Ibid., pp. 275–76. Etruscan Archaic bronze korai, the earliest of which are 4. Ibid., p. 323. in Emeline Richardson’s Middle Archaic series.2 The best Etruscan bronze parallels for the amber are found in 5. For Vienna 71, see ibid., pp. 284–85, fig. 663; for Copenhagen Richardson’s groupings of Late Archaic korai, especially H224 (perhaps made at Capua), ibid., pp. 295–96. Late Archaic Series A, Ionians,3 and a related group of 6. Ibid., p. 323. See also the entry for 77.AO.81.30 (cat. no. 25) for a bronzes, Group 5D, Naples, Museo Archeologico discussion of Richardson’s Group 5D and its relevance for the Nazionale 5532.4 Two bronzes from Series A, one in amber head-pendants. Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum 71) and one in 7. Richardson 1983, p. 323. Copenhagen (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek H224), are a set of Cat. no. 26 197

Animals 198

27. Roundel: Animal Description The disk-shaped amber is carved in high relief on the obverse and is plain and completely flat on the reverse. The sides are tapered inward slightly from the bottom. The animal’s head is depicted in top view, with the chin, throat, and neck ventrally flush with the base. The left flank of the body is presented in profile view, with only one each of the fore- and hindlegs shown. The large head is paddle-shaped, rather flat on top, and wide through the ear area. The lower jaw is narrow and flat, the mouth an engraved line that extends as far as the area of the eye. The neck is thin. The bulges and indentations on each side of the head at the point of its greatest width must represent the ears. There is no legible evidence of eyes. The long tongue is extended, touching the rear hoof. Flush with the curve of the pendant’s edge, the animal’s back is rounded, with a slight indentation just above and before the curve of the haunch, and just behind it is the tiniest Accession 82.AO.161.2 indication of a tail. The chest and abdomen areas are each Number approximately the same size as the head. The front leg is long and thin from knee to hoof and is bent at the ankle, Culture Italic or Etruscan as in nature. The powerful back leg and haunch curve Date 700–600 B.C. forward. The nonfigured area in the middle of the roundel is recessed below the animal. There are two sets Dimensions Diameter: 44–50 mm; depth: 16 mm; Weight: 6 g of holes: a perforation between the rear hoof and the Subjects Animals; Artemis; Dionysos, cult of (also Satyr); tongue, and a lateral perforation from one side of the Funerary use of amber (also Burial) animal’s neck to the other. Along the dorsal ridge, equally spaced from the neck to the ankle, are six tapered, Provenance stopped bores 3.5 mm deep. –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, Discussion CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. Unique in form and subject, the roundel is unlike any Condition other amber object. The round, thin form, with its flat reverse, beveled edge, perforations, and stopped bores, The piece has a severely degraded and friable surface. A suggests that 82.AO.161.2 was originally the lid of a small, large fragment on the lower edge of the animal’s head has round pyxis. If that is the case, the bores, the perforation been reattached. The surface has altered to an opaque, in the neck area, and the hole between the foot and the light tan degradation layer that is flaked and chipped tongue may have been used for attaching a lid to a overall, and there is a corresponding loss of surface detail. container. Alternatively, the lateral bore through the top In ambient light, the pendant is yellow-orange. It is not of the animal may have been drilled to allow for hanging, translucent, and there are no visible inclusions. perhaps as an ornament. This may have been a secondary use.1 199

One of the best parallels for the roundel is not an amber The condition of the amber and the schematic depiction object but an ivory lid from the Idaean Cave, Crete, of the animal do not allow for a sure classification of the published as North Syrian by J. A. Sakellerakis.2 This quadruped. However, the salient physiognomic beveled-edge lid is decorated with an overall geometric characteristics and the position of the tongue lead me to pattern and has a similar system of stopped bores, or think that it is a fawn. This identity is posited despite the mortises, on its edge. 82.AO.161.2 might also be compared lack of a close comparison and despite some resemblance to a group of Roman-period amber pyxis (or perfume to a number of seventh-century B.C. ivory and amber pot?) lids, three of them in the British Museum: a dogs.10 However, the feet of 82.AO.161.2 are entirely nonfigured lid (BM 115), turned with a series of convex different from the wide, multitoed feet of these dogs: they and concave moldings, engraved lines, and narrow fillets are tiny and undifferentiated. (very close in size to 82.AO.161.2),3 and two slightly larger figured lids, one of a sleeping swan with putti on his back An isolated fawn is an infrequent subject in ancient art, (BM 117) and the other, a satyr face (BM 118).4 uncommon as the subject of a pendant, and exceptional in amber.11The morphological characteristics of the animal The placing of an animal, resting or in movement, within depicted in 82.AO.161.2 compare well with those of a a circular format is age-old. A contorted animal within a number of Greek Late Geometric fawns, does, and groups tondo is a distinct subset of the schema.5 As John of a doe and her suckling fawn. Two bronze statuettes and Boardman notes, compositions with contorted animals a pair of bronze amphora handles assure the identity of whose form is characterized by the dislocation of the legs the amber animal. The bronze of a standing fawn on a or another portion of the body imply movement and rectangular base in the Harvard collections has a allow the circular field to be filled more symmetrically.6 similarly paddle-shaped head and nubs of ears set far Even though the contortion in 82.AO.161.2 extends only to back on the head.12 A standing fawn in the Menil the twisting of the animal’s head into top view and the Collection, Houston, which has a shorter, blunter head, body and legs into profile, the composition still calls to huge ears, and a dappled coat suggested by tiny mind the whirling compositions of Cretan stone seals, concentric marks, is another schematic representation.13 which More naturalistic are the early-fifth-century pairs of fawns (deer?) of two nearly identical Etruscan (Vulcian?) express the old Minoan feeling for torsion and for bronze amphora handles, one in Boston and the other in a spreading designs which own no top or bottom or private collection.14 On each handle, at the base, squats a sides. But these contorted animals are not simple syrinx-playing satyr. The connection between a satyr essays in the grotesque, as they are often described, playing panpipes and sleeping fawns may be relevant for but the artist’s rendering of a novel but natural the amber roundel. viewpoint, top three-quarter of a reclining animal with his legs before him, his hindquarters twisted to The subject of an animated fawn in amber, especially if it one side.7 were an ornament, calls to mind the most famous brooch of ancient literature, a daidalon, the cunningly fashioned A group of stone seals from the Greek islands, dating to gold pin worn by the disguised Odysseus: the second half of the seventh century B.C., appear to be the only comparable post–Bronze Age Mediterranean Godlike Odysseus wore a purple cloak of wool, double objects decorated with the “old Minoan” type of contorted thick; but on it was fashioned a pin of gold with animals. Boardman considers a group from Melos to be double clasps, with a daidalon in front: a hound was dependent on actual Bronze Age seals found on the island, holding in its forepaws a dappled fawn, preying on it noting that they “are of an importance and interest far while it struggled. All were marveling at it, how beyond their intrinsic merit, because they show us how though they were [of] gold, the one preyed on the artists could be influenced by the arts and artifacts of a fawn throttling it, but the other struggled with its feet past civilization, otherwise remembered only by the as it tried to flee. (Odyssey 19.225–31) poets.”8 Because 82.AO.161.2 may have been an ornament, a rare It may be that 82.AO.161.2 is a comparable seventh- image of a figure wearing a fawn pendant should be century response—although there is no Bronze Age object recalled: this is the bronze youth wearing a fawn’s head in with a comparable representation of a quadruped. The the Guglielmi Collection of the Vatican.15 tongue extension, too, is unusual. Does the animal lick its hind leg, or is the tongue extended in exertion?9 The only other amber fawn known to me is in the center of a large pendant in London (British Museum 35), a 200 ANIMALS

representation of Bacchic revelers.16 From between the 7. Boardman 1967, p. 34. two dancers leaps up a fawn, a scene from the Dionysian 8. Ibid., p. 105. thiasos.17 The fawns and satyr of the Etruscan bronze amphora handles link the vessel, wine, and Dionysos. The 9. If the animal of 82.AO.161.2 is a running dog whose tongue is fawn of 82.AO.161.2 may have been intended to refer to a extended, the subject finds many comparisons in ancient art nature divinity other than Dionysos. In the Geometric from the Bronze Age onward. The running dog may specifically period in Greece, deer (and fawns) were associated with refer to the hunt. If the animal is licking its hind foot, this action the Olympians Hera, Athena, and Apollo. In Archaic and may have been considered a medico-magical technique, as it Classical Greece, deer and fawns were most commonly was in Mesopotamia and Egypt. As Ritner 1993, p. 933, notes, associated with the children of Leto, although they were “The magical transfer of health or blessing by saliva reflects important in depictions of Dionysos, Herakles, and such naturally observable phenomena as the licking of wounds. hunting generally. There appears to have been a special As a magical technique, licking represents a ritualized extension association of deer with weddings and cultic activity in of such instinctive acts.” Licking could be equated with a solar Attica.18 Fawns are held in the arms of many Archaic blessing and solar “licking” with the rays of the early dawn, as ibid., p. 94, points out. For licking imagery in Mesopotamian terracotta images of Artemis or her votaries, and images magic, Ritner refers to J. Westenholz and A. Westenholz, “Help of fawns are found in sanctuaries of Artemis.19 for Rejected Suitors: The Old Akkadian Love Incantation MAD V Not only did young girls imitate she-bears for Artemis at 8,” Orientalia 46 (1977): 215 (“Then the ewe licked [literally ‘took the Attic site of Brauron, but in Thessaly, girls performed good care of’] her lamb”). The composition might also be compared to the motif of a trussed ibex licking its hind foot on a ritual in which they played the part of fawns. Both Egyptian toilet articles in the shape of ibexes. rituals were considered preparatory for pregnancy and childbirth.20 By the end of the sixth century B.C., the fawn 10. These include the single dog from Tomb VI at Satricum (see is pictured on Attic vases as a love gift between older and Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 452–53 and passim) and three from younger men, a custom that introduces Aphrodite into the Narce (a pair from the Monte Cerreto necropolis, Tomb 103, and picture.21 a singleton from the Pizzo Piede necropolis; for references, see Negroni Catacchio 1999, p. 283, n. 16). Three unpublished dogs Whether 82.AO.161.2 was lid or pendant, dog or deer, its that also have collars are Louvre Bj 2124–26. Bj 2124 has large ultimate use was funerary. The animated creature circular inlays, Bj 2125 is plain, and Bj 2126 is complete and embodied in the amber tondo, eternally circling in a retains fragments of a gold collar. These dogs are all close in whirling composition, a design without beginning or end, style and conception and are very like the ivory dogs from might signify the cycle of life. Here the idea of Cameiros, also noted by Waarsenburg 1995, p. 452, citing D. G. regeneration would be perfectly synthesized in material, Hogarth, Excavations at Ephesus: The Archaic Artemisia of Ephesus subject, and form. (London, 1908), pl. 30. The Italian amber dogs are from the same family as the confronted pairs embellishing identical ivory roundels from the Tomb of the Ivories at Marsiliana d’Albegna NOTES near Grosseto: see M. Benzi, “Gli avori della Marsiliana d’Albegna,” Atti dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconti 21 1. Theoretically, a filament strung through the through-bore in the (1966): 253–92. The importance of the dog in early Etruria is neck area would cause the pendant to hang perpendicular to indicated by the trios of dogs on the ritual tripod-basins from the ground, with the animal head downward. When suspended the Barberini and Bernardini (Praeneste) tombs. However, if from both perforations, the animal would have hung with head 82.AO.161.2 does represent a dog, the iconography would upward, as if trussed for carrying. match well with the roundel’s material, since the dog is 2. J. A. Sakellerakis, “The Idean Cave Ivories,” in Fitton 1992, p. 114, associated with female goddesses, including Hekate, Artemis, pl. 8. and Eileithyia: see Waarsenburg 1995, pp. 452–53, nn. 1268–73. Waarsenburg underlines the importance of the dog in Italy, 3. Strong 1966, p. 93, no. 115, pl. XLI. indicating key comparanda in art, and shows that it “played a 4. Ibid., p. 94, nos. 117–18, pls. XLII–XLIII. Might the dormant swan key role in religious and magical-superstitious beliefs. Popular be a direct connection to the Ligurian prince Cygnus, who beliefs connected the dog with ghosts, death, fertility, and mourned Phaethon? See “Ancient Literary Sources on the childbirth.… As was expressly declared by Pliny NH.39.58, and Origins of Amber” in the introduction. evidenced by the nature of the mentioned rites, the dog’s sacral association was very old … and the meaning of the rites related 5. For an illuminating study of whirling animals in Early Etruscan to dogs was not understood anymore, not even by the priest art, see L. Donati, “Rappresentazioni etrusche della capra e del performing them.” The origin of the amber dog must lie not in cervo di tipo ‘sciita,’” in Staccioli et al. 1991, pp. 919–38. Egypt but in the ancient Near East. The early Italian amber and ivory dogs are probably associated with healing and specific 6. Boardman 2001, p. 24. Cat. no. 27 201

goddesses. As Black and Green 1992, p. 71, summarize: “The many reasons for the tie between amber and Dionysos, among sitting dog first occurs as a divine symbol in the Old Babylonian them amber’s age-old association with fecundity, regeneration, Period and continues through to the Neo-Babylonian. and healing, its role in averting danger, its chthonic importance, Inscriptions on kudurrus identify it as the symbol of Gula, and its winelike optical properties. An Etruscan stone goddess of healing.… King Nebuchadnezzar II records the sarcophagus lid of an older woman who is joined by a fawn placing of statuettes of gold, silver and bronze dogs as deposits suggests the presence of Dionysos. in the gates of Gula’s temple at Babylon.… In the Neo-Assyrian 18. See S. Klinger, “An Attic Black-Figure Pyxis in Athens and Some and Neo-Babylonian Periods, the dog, sitting and standing, was Observations on Deer Escorting Chariots,” AA (2003): 23–44 also used as a magically protective figure, not attached to any (with earlier bibl., including S. Klinger, “A Terracotta Statuette of individual deity.” On dogs as large-scale talismans in the ancient Artemis with a Deer at the Israel Museum,” Israel Exploration world, see Faraone 1992. See also Waarsenburg 1995, n. 1099, Journal 51 [2001]: 208–24). See also Y. Morizot, “Autour d’un for a list of relevant examples. char d’Artemis,” in Agathos daimon, ed. P. Linant de Bellefonds 11. Although it represents a deer instead of a fawn, the unique (Paris, 2000), pp. 383–91; and Bevan 1986, pp. 389–93, where she amber seal from the Vetulonian Tomb of the Trident should be records the deer remains found in sanctuaries of Artemis. noted: see Massaro 1943, pl. XXVI, 1ab. 19. Bevan 1986, pp. 389–93. 12. Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 20. Cole 1998, p. 33, cites inscriptions from Demetrias (Pagasoi) in David M. Robinson Fund 1966.108: Langdon 1993, pp. 21–67, no. Thessaly and three from near Larisa of women who had served 86. Artemis or “played the fawn” for Artemis; Barringer 2001, p. 13. Boeotian, Late Geometric bronze fawn, formerly in the 246, n. 110, cites P. Clement (“New Evidence for the Origin of the collections of Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill and George Ortiz: Iphigeneia Legend,” L’antiquite classique 3 [1934]: 393–409) on ibid., pp. 21–45, no. 85. the cult of Artemis Pagasitis in Thessaly, in which young girls of 14. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, H. L. Pierce Fund 99.464, E. P. marriageable age were identified with deer rather than bears, Warren Collection: Comstock and Vermeule 1971, pp. 360–61, as they were at Brauron. no. 507 (with reference to the related handle in a Haverford, PA, Scanlon 2002 (see cat. no. 4, n. 15) discusses girls’ running in the private collection; includes bibl.). Brauronia and the Munichia, concluding that these races were 15. J. D. Beazley and F. Magi, La Raccolta Benedetto Guglielmi nel chases based on the analogy of the hunt. See also C. A. Faraone, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, vol. 2 (Vatican City, 1941), pls. 47–49 “Playing the Bear and Fawn for Artemis: Female Initiation or (cited by Brown 1960, p. 106). Substitute Sacrifice?,” in Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives, ed. D. Dodds and C. A. 16. Strong 1966, pp. 61–62, no. 35, pl. XV. Faraone (London, 2003). 17. As is noted in “The Archaic and Afterward” in the introduction, 21. The fawn’s vulnerability (and corresponding need for many other pre-Roman ambers from southern Italy, especially protection) may have been inherent in the image. For the fawn those of fifth-century date, are also carved with Dionysian as a love gift, see Barringer 2001, esp. pp. 88–98. She subjects, such as satyrs, vintagers, and maenads. Roman amber emphasizes that ancient Greek authors use the hunted fawn as objects—rings, perfume containers, boxes, small figures, and a metaphor for the pursued eromenos in the amatory activity of small figural groups—are often carved with Dionysian subjects. anerastes and shows how the fawn is also a metaphor for All of these survived because they were ultimately grave unwitting prey in contexts expressive of betrayal and furnishings. On Roman amber pyxides (or perfume pots?), entrapment (pp. 54–55). Dionysian themes are the most common of subjects. There are 202 ANIMALS

28. Plaque: Addorsed Sphinxes Description Addorsed sphinxes, in repose and reguardant, decorate the rectilinear plaque, which is carved in the round. The thin slab of amber is modeled in low, flat relief on the obverse, reverse, and sides; it is smoothed almost flat on the bottom. Despite the poor condition of the pendant, the salient features of the two sphinxes are still decipherable. Engraved lines in the lower central part of the composition are the remains of divisions between the vanes of the primary feathers. On the top side, the hatted heads (the hats may be flat petasoi) and the details of the Accession 78.AO.286.2 wing tips are clearly visible. On the lateral sides, indistinct Number details of the heads and the indentations for the necks, the breasts, and the legs remain. On the reverse, the backs of Culture Campanian the hair, the contours of the upper sectios of the wings, Date 575–550 B.C. the lower bodies, and the legs are still visible. The hair of each is fashioned in a shoulder-length cut, the Dimensions Height: 29 mm; width: 62 mm; depth: 15 mm; Etagenperüke, or stepped wig, and it is visible on the Weight: 16.7 g obverse, the short sides, and the reverse. The large frontal Subjects Color; Egypt; Jewelry; Sphinx faces are in higher relief than the bodies. The heads are wide and flat at the top and are large in proportion to the Provenance bodies and wings: each head measures over one-quarter of the width and over half the height of the composition. –1978, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. The sphinxes have broad, flat brows, the suggestion of Paul Getty Museum, 1978. long, prominent noses, high and wide cheeks, wide jaws, Condition narrow but prominent chins, and small mouths. The distance from the parting of the lips to the apex of the The plaque is intact except for two losses: a large chip on chin is short. The better preserved of the heads (at right) the reverse, at the bottom of the right-hand perforation, is carved with bulbous, slanted eyes, the outer canthi just and a portion of the obverse wall of the left-hand slightly higher than the inner ones. perforation, just below the jaw. The surface of the flat Little can be determined about the manufacture due to bottom is much less degraded than that of the rest of the the poor state of conservation. The plaque appears to object, which is in poor condition, with a uniformly reflect the shape of the original piece of amber, for the degraded top layer that is granular and friable. Dirt and level of relief varies over the obverse, the reverse, and the white-gray encrustations adhere to the surface on all sides. The obverse has a greater depth of relief than the sides, especially inside the top of the left-side bore. No other sides. The upper contours are asymmetrical, and inclusions are visible. Where the surface is intact, the the bottom is uneven. amber’s color varies from sandy yellow to gray-brown; in the numerous areas where the internal material is Two large tapered perforations located 7 mm from either exposed, it is rich brown. Held against the light, the amber end were bored on the same vertical line as the medial is orange. line of the creatures’ heads. At the top, the holes are 4.5 203

mm in diameter, and at the bottom, 6 mm. The fragment seventh century.6 There is also an unmistakable of a bronze(?) tube, constructed from a roll of thin relationship between 78.AO.286.2 and some Archaic sheeting (0.3 mm thick), remains in one perforation, and Campanian sphinxes of later date: the bicorporal sphinxes the residue of a metallic corrosion product is found in the of horseshoe-shaped terracotta plaques from Capua (of other. This strongly suggests that both holes were circa 575–550 B.C.; a notable example is in Copenhagen)7 similarly lined. In the depression between the wings at and three small bronze sphinxes (one in Boston and two the top is a stopped bore, 5 mm deep and 3 mm in in Baltimore, possibly from the same bowl) thought to diameter (for an addition?). come from Cumae.8These similarities may be taken as Discussion evidence that the maker and/or model of 78.AO.286.2 had a lasting influence in Campania. A sixth-century date for This amber plaque has no parallel in subject or form. The 78.AO.286.2 can be extrapolated from the other amber sphinxes, while related to various Greek and Etruscan objects said to have been found with it, including the Getty Hippocamp,78.AO.286.1(cat. no. 29).9 types, have no close analogues. When the piece was new, the natural translucency and color of the amber would A double sphinx is a nonnarrative subject, unlike the have been augmented by the internal reflections of the single sphinx, the devourer, which might call up the story metallic sheaths lining the two vertical perforations. of Oedipus. The double sphinxes may have held special These perforations must each have carried a filament, force, since they look backward and forward, left and and because of this it does not seem likely that a right, perhaps doubling the power of a single sphinx. The suspension device was inserted into the stopped bore on motif of a double sphinx had a venerable history as a the top edge. An additional decorative element (of amber potent subject in the circum-Mediterranean area. or another material) was almost certainly placed there Generally, repetition is an age-old formula for increasing instead. The direction of the through-bores and the figural the potency of any amulet, spell, or curse. design imply that the plaque functioned in a horizontal position, perhaps as part of a larger object, hanging from Generally related in form to 78.AO.286.2 are the Egyptian a pin, head ornament, or necklace (in front, or in back as amulets in the form of addorsed lions and of back-to-back a counterweight). foreparts of bulls and rams, the latter having a full moon with a crescent nestling between their backs.10 Metal-lined perforations are not found on any other Contemporary with 78.AO.286.2 is one variant of the figured amber objects but are common on many fibulae Egyptian addorsed lions amulet type. The suspension loop and on many other kinds of amber objects. The technique was placed between the animals’ backs in such a way that is an old one and is known in eighth-century B.C. Greece, it resembles a sun disk, suggesting an underlying with examples from Lefkandi, Tekke, and Salamis.1 connection with Rwty, “over whose back the sun rose Seventh-century examples are the fibulae and other kinds each day.”11 Might the stopped bore on the top of of amber objects from the opulent burials of Verucchio 78.AO.286.2 have once supported an added image and Cumae.2The metal linings not only offered protection (perhaps a device in the form of a solar disk or other from abrasion and breakage, but also added to the symbolic element)? brilliance of the amber, exploiting its natural clarity, brilliance, and luminosity. There is no evidence for the preburial function of the amber (the condition prevents any conjecture about signs The sphinxes of the plaque exhibit many conventions of of wear). If it were worn in life, 78.AO.286.2 may have seventh-century representations: large triangular faces functioned in a way parallel to that of the Egyptian projecting from small squat bodies, a stepped hairstyle, addorsed animal and sphinx amulets. The amber may and low, flat hats. The style of 78.AO.286.2 is a complex have brought to the wearer the underlying savagery of blend, one that shows connections to earlier North Syrian the lion, as the sphinx subject did in Egypt. (Since at least objects3 and to even earlier Mycenaean ivory-carving the Middle Kingdom, the single-sphinx amulet had been traditions. The latter is demonstrated by comparison with understood to link the wearer with the pharaoh’s early sphinx-subject ivories from Mycenae and Athens.4 protective power and authority and the lion’s power.) The The low-relief carving and squared-up sphinxes of doubled sphinxes could have invited the protective and 78.AO.286.2 are similar to a number of small seventh- propitious powers of the composite creature. Double century B.C. ivories from Greece and Italy, from Ephesus, sphinxes of amber might double the curse of “fighting fire Sparta, and Perachora, and from Comeana.5 However, with fire.” Certainly, the inherent potency was magnified perhaps the best analogues are the relief metope-sphinxes and focused, and the object more efficacious, when amber of certain Cretan amphorae and terracotta pinakes of the 204 ANIMALS

was carved with such a time-honored potent subject. In Laconian-influenced sphinxes, see S. Descamps-Lequime, “Une the grave, 78.AO.286.2 would have played a powerful sphinx en bronze: Élément de décor d’un trône archaïque?,” in guardian role: the sphinx who escorts the dead, the Clark and Gaunt 2002, p. 116. For a miniature sphinx from watchdog who punishes those who disturb the dead, Poggio Civitate (Antiquarium 71–198), see Phillips 1993, pp. 75, could also protect the “house” of the grave.12 78, n. 219; and N. Spivey, Etruscan Art (London, 1997), p. 27, no. 28. For the fragmentary ivory sphinx from Comeana, see NOTES Bartoloni et al. 2000, p. 262, no. 328. 1. For the technique and its eighth-century B.C. history in Greece, 6. Compare the metopes with pairs of sphinxes on Cretan see introduction, n. 48 and n. 50. amphorae. For the relief amphorae, see W. Hornböstel, “Kretische Reliefamphoren,” in Dädalische Kunst auf Kreta im 7. 2. For the Verucchio material, see Verucchio 1994. For the amber Jahrhundert v. Chr.: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg objects from Cumae, see Strong 1966, pp. 23, 32. The relevant (Hamburg, 1970), pp. 56–59; and J. Schäfer, Studien zu den fibulae and ring pendants that I have studied firsthand include griechischen Reliefpithoi des 8.–6. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. aus Kreta, those in the Getty Museum, the British Museum, the Rhodos, Tenos und Boiotien (Kallmünz, 1957); for the sphinxes, P. Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a Geneva private collection. I Müller, Löwen und Mischwesen in der archaischen griechischen owe both the discovery of the metal tubes and observations Kunst (Zurich, 1978). For the Cretan terracotta pinakes, see P. about their probable original effects to John Tucker. Blome in Orient und frühes Griechenland: Kunstwerke der Sammlung H. und T. Bosshard (Basel, 1990), p. 50, no. 78. 3. Compare, for example, eighth-century B.C. North Syrian harness attachments ornamented with a frontal nude female under a 7. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek HIN 157 (from ancient sun disk: see J. J. Orchard, Equestrian Bridle-Harness Ornaments: Capua): T. Fischer-Hansen et al., Campania, South Italy and Sicily: Ivories from Nimrud I, 2 (Aberdeen, 1967), pls. XX–XXI, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Catalogue (Copenhagen, 1992), p. 196, no. XXVIII–XXXII. 148. 4. For the ivory sphinx from the Athenian Acropolis (Athens, 8. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 51.2469, Frederick Brown Fund National Archaeological Museum 2486), see Poursat 1977, no. (circa 540 B.C.): Comstock and Vermeule 1971, p. 37, no. 35, with 493, pl. 53. For the Mycenaean sphinxes on the lid from the reference to the two bronze sphinxes in Baltimore (see also D. House of the Sphinxes (Athens, National Archaeological K. Hill, Catalogue of Classical Bronze Sculpture in the Walters Art Museum 7525), see ibid., no. 138, pl. 12. Gallery [Baltimore, 1949], p. 122, nos. 280–81, pl. 54). 5. For the ivory sphinx from the Sanctuary of Hera Limenia, 9. Many other beads, pendants, and fragments, all unpublished, Perachora (Athens, National Archaeological Museum 16519), see were part of this donation. T. J. Dunbabin et al., Perachora II (Oxford, 1962), p. 403, pl. 171; 10. For the relevant amulet types and their functions, see Andrews for the sphinx from Ephesus, Akürgal 1961, pp. 194ff., figs. 135, 1994, pp. 78–79, 89–90. 154; and D. G. Hogarth, Excavations at Ephesus: The Archaic Artemisia of Ephesus (London, 1908). For the sphinx from the 11. Ibid., p. 90. sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, see Dawkins 1929; and 12. Vermeule 1979, pp. 69–70, 171. Marangou 1969. For a recent discussion of Laconian and Cat. no. 28 205

29. Pendant: Hippocamp Description The pendant, carved fully in the round, represents a dormant hippocamp. The head is resting on the coiled body and tail. On the obverse are the head, the neck, the right lower leg, and, by implication, the upper body of the sea horse and a section of its tail, which loops in a counterclockwise fashion. On the reverse are the left front leg and the tail end of the coils, which curl in a clockwise direction. The ruffled edge on the tail must be a section of the dorsal fin. In profile view, the head is long, and it has a straight muzzle and jawline, a large, almond-shaped eye (in profile), and a full, rounded nose and mouth. The top of Accession 78.AO.286.1 the upright, pointed ear is visible at the poll. On the Number forehead lies a petal-shaped lock of hair. Behind it is an Culture Etruscan even ridge of short-cut mane that surmounts the arched neck, the hair depicted by regular, straight striations. Date 575–550 B.C. The obverse is convex, the reverse slightly concave. On Dimensions Height (i.e., length along major axis): 70 mm; the obverse at the lower right are two smoothed craters, width: 43 mm; depth: 27 mm; Weight: 39.6 g apparently resulting from the removal of faults. One is Subjects Animals; Etruscan culture; Inclusions hemispherical, 7 mm in diameter, and the other oblong, 10 mm across and 8 mm deep at its widest point. Provenance The object has two sets of perforations: one, 3 mm in diameter, passes through the piece from the top of the –1978, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. forelock to the middle of the mane. The second, 2 mm in Paul Getty Museum, 1978. diameter, has exits in the mane (near the first Condition perforation) and near the coronet of the leg. A short perforation, 2 mm in diameter, intersects with the latter Although the surface of the pendant is in poor condition one from a hole near the pastern. When the pendant was (with an extensive loss of surface detail), it is intact minus suspended, the nose would have been nearly vertical. The a triangular break in the mane. There is extensive flaking perforation holes would have forced the pendant to face on the surface. A surface coating may have been applied obverse side out when suspended. before it entered the Getty Museum. This piece is opaque, Discussion but part of its surface retains some of the original integument, which is tan-brown; the rest of the surface is This pendant is one of four amber pendants of darker reddish brown. Illuminated with transmitted light, hippocamps. A pendant in London (British Museum 73)1 the amber is translucent and orange-red. Several areas shares with 78.AO.286.1 the same basic configuration of a have small inclusions. coiled monster, but its style is different. BM 73 does not have the strong forelegs of the Getty Museum hippocamp. It is more snakelike and less subtly modeled, described instead with engraved lines. Both the London and Getty 206

pendants have two sets of suspension perforations at the worked with fine striations, and a comparable form of rostral end. When the pendants are suspended, the eye. The head shape of 78.AO.286.1 is closer to that of creatures’ heads are in a vertical position.2 An amber BM436. When suspended, the London and Getty ambers hippocamp pendant in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is have a position identical to that of the Vulcian brazier perforated so that it hangs in a sejant position, much like protomes. that of a seahorse in motion.3 One of six amber pendants, now lost, which was excavated at Marzabotto in the The hippocamp first appeared in Etruria during the nineteenth century, was thought to be a hippocamp.4 A Orientalizing period and gained greater popularity in the Archaic.10 The monster as found in ancient art must owe hippocamp also may be represented on one side of an exceptionally large amber pendant in London (BM 38), something to the appearance of the tiny fish Hippocampus the subject(s) of which remains unexplained. On the main antiquorum, common in warm seas. There are far more side is a charioteer driving a four-horse chariot. The head representations of the hippocamp in the art of Etruria and of the distant horse on one side corresponds with that of South Italy than in that of the mainland and East Greece. the hippocamp(?) on the other. On the reverse is a male Throughout the sixth century and into the fifth, the figure (perhaps nude) who is similar to the charioteer, hippocamp appears in tomb paintings and on bronze perhaps struggling with a hippocamp, perhaps pulling in vessels and stands, cinerary urns, and sarcophagi. It joins the creature, using his legs and feet to secure the slack in other sea monsters on Caeretan ceramics of the mid-sixth a thick rope, or, more likely, half-astride the creature, century. At first, marine creatures like the hippocamp and holding on for a wild ride.5 The subjects must be related, the sea dragon are dreadful and powerful monsters, since when the amber was newly carved, the image on inhabiting an unknown and dangerous place. Only heroes one side would have been visible on the other, and there like Herakles or Perseus can defeat such marine do not appear to be pre-Roman ambers with unrelated monsters. This changes during the sixth century, when the subjects. Do both sides show aspects of the cycle of the hippocamp becomes an ally of humans and gods. In later sun, the infant sun drawn by the charioteer (Apollo?) on times, the hippocamp is associated with Thetis, the the main side, and the nighttime passage of the sun daughter of Nereus, mother of Achilles, and wife of beneath the ocean, drawn by the hippocamp, on the Peleus. In Italian Hellenistic-period representations, the reverse? The use of amber, a solar material with a hippocamp is Thetis’s mount when she descends into the waterborne phase in its formation, augments the oceans to get the armor of Achilles. (Is there a connection iconography and magic of the image; this may help to between Thetis’s steed and safe travel across the ocean to explain the existence of other hippocampic carved the Blessed Isles?) ambers. The significant part played by the hippocamp in Etruscan The horse part of 78.AO.286.1 is generally similar in style and other Italian sepulchral symbolism is underlined by and type to horses painted on Middle and Late Corinthian its frequent appearance on objects made purely for vases and Early Attic black-figure ware. They share funerary purposes. The outstanding examples in Etruscan common features: heavy forelock, large profile eye with art date from the middle of the sixth century to the carefully outlined rims, full, rounded nose and mouth, middle of the fifth and include the Etruscan stone figures large nostril, and diagonal grooves above the nose. The of hippocamp riders, such as the famous example from Vulci in the Villa Giulia, of about 550;11 the hippocamps of amber mane is shorter, however, than those of the horses on the painted examples. Illustrative sculpted parallels Etruscan black-figure amphorae; and the images of that bring out the Etruscanness of 78.AO.286.1 are the hippocamps in Etruscan painted tombs. The best visual protomes (with perhaps hippocamp rather than equine explanation of the amber hippocamps’ meaning may be forepart?) on various bronze, bucchero, and terracotta found in the Tomb of the Bulls’ pedimental, heraldic works. From the same family are the horse protomes of composition of hippocamp riders racing toward a central island.12 In the fifth century in Etruria and elsewhere on two bronze braziers from the Vulcian “Isis Tomb,” British Museum 436 and 437, dated by P. J. Riis to the second the peninsula, hippocampic imagery is joined by that of quarter of the sixth century,6 and other Vulcian bronze other hybrid beings of the sea. The message is the same, horse protomes, among them attachments to the tripod in too, in fourth-century South Italian red-figure vases, 7 Canosan vases,13 and the gilded terracotta reliefs once Cap d’Agde. Comparison can also be drawn with the protomes of various bucchero vessels and offering trays ornamenting Tarantine sarcophagi. (focolare)8 and with a terracotta of a horse head in Basel.9 For the Etruscans, the hippocamp ferries the dead to the The Getty Hippocampshares with the protome type of afterworld beyond the ocean. In tomb paintings, the BM437 the same rounded, curving neck, the short mane Cat. no. 29 207

hippocampic scenes are not simple allusions to the sea, as worn with the hope of acquiring the nature of the Jean-René Jannot emphasizes: “Painters used dolphins to hippocamp and thus gaining access to its characteristics evoke that element.… It is highly probable that the and particular powers. As a sea creature, the hippocamp hippocamps … served the function in Etruscan imagery of was likely believed to have the gift of prophecy, as Emily psychopompoi, guides for the dead.… These Vermeule reminds us: representations show death as a voyage toward an island Afterworld. The hinthial [soul, shade] rides the sea Almost all sea-creatures have the gift of prophecy. It monsters across the sea (or ocean) toward a land where may be minor and limited, but some who were born he will dwell.”14 with the beginning of the world, older than the Olympian gods (Hesiod, Theogony 131, 233), had vast Why a pendant in the form of a hippocamp? The subject’s aboriginal experience combined with knowledge of the Bronze Age antecedents (Mycenaean rather than Minoan) intense constant changes of the sea under wind and show how important the subject was for adornment and sun, and their prophetic power had an authority for seals—and for the grave. “The sea-horse is frequently which land oracles and newer gods could not rival. It found in the Mediterranean, and is mentioned by several was a knowledge of multiple possibilities, of ancient authors because of medicinal (or poisonous) transformations, mutations, and grandeur because it properties that were imputed to it,” as Campbell Bonner was not limited to the simple affairs of men on land.16 writes.15 This must account in part for its presence on representations with (unexplained) magical significance. NOTES It might be assumed that the lore of the sea horse predated writing about it by Dioscorides and Galen. 1. Strong 1966, pp. 79–80, no. 73 (“Snake [?]”), pl. XXIX. Strong Whether worn in life or in death, a hippocamp carved found the interpretation of the amber problematic. This author from amber would bring together two aqueous and interprets the grooves and hatching of the top edge as the magical subjects. Amber, being naturally buoyant in dorsal fin. The form and pattern of the skinny neck and the thin, ordinary water, could float in saltwater, and the closely striated mane hairs are similar to the finely incised hippocamp’s home was the salty sea. No matter which of manes of a number of seventh-century B.C. ivory horse heads from the Temple of Artemis Orthia at Sparta (Dawkins 1929, pl. the amber origin stories were current in sixth-century CXLIX, 1–2) and to a mid-seventh-century Etruscan ivory arm southern Etruria (where 78.AO.286.1 was likely carved, or ring from Tivoli in Oxford (Ashmolean Museum Pr. 323: Brown where it was buried), the amber was believed to have 1960, p. 33, pl. III). been produced by the action of solar powers combined 2. Strong 1966, p. 71, refers to G. Gozzadini, Di ulteriori scoperte with falling into a river or the ocean before being carried nell’antica necropoli a Marzabotto nel Bolognese (Bologna, 1870), onward. Amber, before carving, had already experienced pl. 15. The amber hippocamp(?) was found with amber rams’ a successful watery voyage. heads and frontal and profile female head-pendants. The undulating forms of both the Getty and British 3. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.23, Purchase, Museum hippocamp pendants recall both the natural Renée and Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Fund, Patti Cadby form of the fossil resin and the movement of water and Birch, and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris suggest that the carver incorporated the original shape of Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Annual the raw amber into the carving. The subject may even Report (1991–92), p. 37. have originated in the appearance of the nodule. The New 4. Strong 1966, p. 64. York hippocamp, in contrast, is much more like contemporary sculpted and painted examples. When 5. Ibid., no. 38, pl. XVIII. Strong thought the youth on the reverse newly worked, 78.AO.286.1 would have been an arresting side to be nude, riding the hippocamp, and unrelated to the sight: because of the waterlike translucency of the amber, subject of the main side. He considered the style to be “closely the head, front legs, and long tail would have been visible connected with Etruscan work and this may be explained … if we all at the same time. Worn on the body, a couchant suppose it was made in Campania or under the influence of hippocamp, its eyes open in quiet watchfulness, might Etrusco-Campanian art.” For this author, the amber reveals a have conjured up the sea, its myriad dangers, and the close link with the art of Southern Etruria, and is characteristic necessity of a guardian monster. The hippocamp, as a of “Ionian” works from the last quarter of the sixth century B.C. demonic creature, was a protective, danger-averting The hippocamp tamer evokes both Iolaos grasping one of the subject that could work on the amuletic principle of “like Hydra’s necks on the Getty Caeretan hydria (83.AE.346) and banishes like.” Additionally, the hippocampic pendants some of the cavorting comasts on the Getty “Campana” Group dinos (83.AE.249), both wares “probably the product of East might have functioned by assimilation—that is, they were Greek (Ionian) artists working in southern Etruria”: R. De Puma, 208 ANIMALS

CVA,United States of America, fasc. 31, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 10. For the hippocamp, see, for example, M. Boosen, Etruskische Malibu, fasc. 6 (Malibu, 1996), p. 31. Meermischwesen: Untersuchen zu Typologie und Bedeutung (Rome, 6. Riis 1998, pp. 22–25, 121 (with bibl.). As Riis has argued, relatives 1986); and K. Shepherd, The Fish-Tailed Monster in Greek and of the two London protome types are found on other Etruscan Art (New York, 1940). The significance in Etruscan bronzework produced in the same active Vulcian workshop. funerary art of the hippocamp in the afterworld is outlined in F. Roncalli, “Iconographie funéraire et topographie de l’au-delà en 7. Cap d’Agde, Musée de l’Éphèbe ME 1171: O. Bérard-Azzouz, Les Étrurie,” in Briquel and Gaultier 1997, pp. 37–54; and Jannot bronzes antiques du musée de l’Éphèbe: Collections sous-marines 2005, esp. chap. 4. (Agde, 1997), pp. 40–42. 11. For the stone rider, see A. Hus, Vulci étrusque et étrusco-romaine 8. For the bucchero horse protomes, see CVA, Getty 6 (in n. 5, (Paris, 1971), p. 76, pl. 4. above), pl. 304 (with extensive bibl.). 12. For the Tomb of the Bulls, see Steingräber 2006, passim. 9. A. Bignasca, in her catalogue entry for the publication of the 13. See, for example, A. Rinuy, F. van der Wielen, P. Hartmann, and horse protome in Basel (Antikenmuseum, Collection Ludwig F. Schweitzer, “Céramique insolite de l’Italie du Sud: Les vases BO153,Orient und frühes Griechenland: Kunstwerke der hellénistiques de Canosa,” Genava 26 (1978): 141–69. Sammlung H. und T. Bosshard, ed. P. Blome [Basel, 1990], pp. 115–16, no. 172), establishes links with South Italian works such 14. Jannot 2005, pp. 60–61. as the Grumento horse and rider (see cat. no. 55, n. 7). 15. Bonner 1954, p. 142. Bignasca’s comparisons are significant also for this amber, 78.AO.286.1. 16. Vermeule 1979, p. 190, n. 16. Cat. no. 29 209

30. Pendant: Cowrie Shell / Hare Description This teardrop-shaped pendant is an amalgamation of two sculptural forms, a crouching hare and a cowrie (Cypraeidae) modeled on the adult shell of the mollusk. The body of the hare is elevated from the ventral surface by a sort of platform. This is the edge of the cowrie shell. The rounded form of the pendant is a conflation of the hare’s back and the swelling of the cowrie’s dorsal surface. The hare is wide at the shoulders and narrow at the rump. Neither the front nor the hind legs are indicated. The hare’s ears are long, point straight backward, and lie flat on the animal’s head. Its almond- shaped eyes are carefully incised, tapering to a point at the outer canthi. The ventral surface is smoothed but not flat; it curves gently upward at the base of the cowrie’s Accession 79.AO.75.28 anterior canal and at the edge. The aperture is Number represented as a long groove. Culture Italic or Etruscan The pendant retains evidence of the prepared amber Date 600–500 B.C. blank from which it was carved. The indentation on the left side of the hare’s body and the three declivities in the Dimensions Height: 37 mm; width: 26 mm; depth: 14 ventral surface (each approximately 6 mm wide by 7 mm mm; Weight: 3 g in length) are likely the result of the prefiguration Subjects Color; Egypt; Fertility; Hare; Transparency removal of imperfections. The amber’s natural form, perhaps originally a large drop, may have directed the Provenance figuration. Its shape may also have conditioned the position and shape of the hare’s eyes. The use of a graver –1979, Stanley Silverman (Huntington Beach, CA), donated is seen in the working of the eyes and the articulation of to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1979. the long groove of the ventral surface and the groove Condition separating the body from the base. The pendant was suspended from a perforation that The pendant is intact, with the exception of a large passes laterally through the cheeks of the hare; the exit fracture loss to the nose and chips between the ears. The holes are each 2 mm in diameter. When suspended, the surface is smooth and firm. Minute surface crack patterns animal would have faced upward, its back facing the are visible on the dorsal surface and the ventral side. viewer. Before acquisition by the donor, the pendant was Discussion consolidated with a coating material that likely cemented together the consolidant, the yellow-ocher degraded This pendant is an extraordinary combination of four amber, and soil, probably unintentionally. The amber is things: amber, a recumbent hare, a cowrie shell (the opaque and brownish yellow in ambient light, except at ventral side mimics the aperture), and, when hanging, the the break, where the rich red translucency of the interior shape (in silhouette) of the Egyptian sign of the East, the is exposed. There are no visible inclusions. flame of the new sun’s light. The lustrousness of the fossil resin echoes that of the shell, and its transparency the 210

light of the sun. Like amber, the cowrie was highly valued The Getty cowrie-hare is one of six amber cowroid for its rarity, distinctive colors, and luster; like the cowrie, pendants known to me. A unique combination is the amber had a marine aspect: amber was made, found, or pendant from Tursi, dated to the first half of the eighth transported by water, and some specimens may still have century B.C., which incorporates a cowrie and a scarab included encrustation of shells. Amber is like the color of (but differently than in Egypt): one side of the Italic amber the sun and flame. is a scarab and the other side that of a cowrie.7 The others are a cowrie-hare pendant in the Metropolitan Museum of “Cowrie” is the common name applied to marine Art,8 a schematically rendered cowrie / crouching hare, gastropods belonging to Cypraeidae, a large family of teardrop-shaped and with a plain underside, in a London marine snails abundant in the Indian Ocean, particularly private collection,9 and three hare-subject pendants in a in the East Indies and the Maldive Islands. (Cowries are German private collection.10 The Getty, New York, and also found off the coast of Southern California.) They London hare-cowrie pendants are all relatively close in characteristically have massive, smooth, shiny shells with size, although each is different in style and shows striking patterns and colors. As is the case today, only variations in form. The New York cowrie-hare is the most some species of cowrie were highly prized (and imitated) naturalistic: the raised base at the anterior canal of the in the ancient world; the most sought after then as now cowrie, the distinctive caudal elongation of the hare’s were those deemed “exotic,” that is, particularly rare, head, and the rangy muscularity of the hare’s long body lustrous, or distinctly colored.1 Cowries were traded to are faithfully captured. Egypt as early as the fifth millennium B.C., and cowrie- shaped pendants used as ornaments are documented as This trio is related to the amber frog-cowrie pendants early as the late Old Kingdom period in Egypt. The much- found at Vetulonia and to an example (now in the British valued cowrie shell inspired various kinds of jewelry, Museum) said to come from Armento.11A similar direct transfers in hollow electrum, gold, and silver,2 as pendant was once in the Stroganoff collection,12 and well as the cowroid, a mixture of the scarab and the another (allegedly from Metaponto) is recorded as once cowrie, in which the scarab back was replaced with the being on the art market.13 As with the scarab-cowrie cowrie shell and the underside engraved.3 combination, these hare-cowrie and frog-cowrie pendants bring together powerful subjects with age-old fertility, Cowries are among the most popular of all pendant protection, and regenerative significance in amber, a shapes in pre-Roman Italy and are among the first material with the same properties. subjects to appear in amber, the earliest dating to the late eighth century B.C. Amber cowries gained popularity in The silhouette of this pendant, and of cowrie-shaped the seventh century in Etruria, the mid-Adriatic, and the pendants in general, forms the shape of the Egyptian south of Italy and remained popular until the end of the flame of sunlight, the sign of the East. The Egyptian flame fifth century B.C., when the shell was imitated in silver accompanies the infant sun, the East, the direction of the and in gold.4 Amber cowrie-shaped pendants come in all sunrise and rebirth, an important step in the formation of sizes, from 20 to 90 mm in length, and range in their the world.14 degree of naturalism. Some pendants are schematic; others include greater morphological detail, as is the case In Egypt, from the late Old Kingdom through the Late with 79.AO.75.28. The evidence from controlled Period, both males and females wore hare and frog excavations of Orientalizing-period sites in South Italy amulets, but the cowrie seems to have been worn exclusively by women.15 In Italy, the hare as a subject of shows that amber cowroids are documented exclusively in female graves, where they were the primary elements adornment may have had resonance for both men and of necklaces and girdles. Other uses are documented, women; it might have symbolized a specific divinity: however. A unique pectoral with cowries and tiny female Dionysos, Artemis, or another female goddess of nature or figures was buried with a woman in a grave at Ascoli the hunt. The hare and the frog were both associated with Piceno.5 A late-seventh-to-early-sixth-century grave fertility, but a hare pendant might have had an additional (Tomb 315) at Alianello-Cazzaiola documents another significance in the tomb, offering its wearer special sight unusual use: the deceased woman was buried with an even in the dark, speed (away from danger and for fast elaborate headband composed of small disk-shaped beads passage through the afterworld), and the possibility of rebirth.16 The symbolic meaning of the hare in the of ivory, bone, amber, and faïence, as well as with Egyptian faïence scarabs, real cowries, and a small amber iconographic tradition of Syria (the ultimate source of imitation cowrie.6 Phoenician hare images?) “grew out of its biotope (animal of the open fields and desert) on the one hand, and out of Cat. no. 30 211

its stunning reproductive capacity (the superfecundatio directed towards obtaining (maintaining) access to material was known since antiquity) on the other hand.”17 “Hare manifestations of the power and potency that imbues their amulets may have stood for the vital forces connected cosmos, thereby continuing their close association and inclusion with fertility …, alert quickness, and swiftness of the with the dynamics of the universe of which they are an integral animal, and are to be viewed as life-giving symbols.”18 part.” This idea is more fully developed in M. W. Helms’s Access (See Divinity Holding Hares, 77.AO.82, cat. no. 4, for to Origins: Affines, Ancestors and Aristocrats (Austin, 1998). additional discussion of the hare as a symbol.) The cowrie was associated with fertility and the sea, whose tides The mature cowrie has been likened in appearance to the are controlled by the moon, the effect of which on women was human eye and female genitalia, both powerful danger- well established. For this reason, among others, the moon is 19 associated with many female fertility divinities in the averting subjects. The cowrie shell has been used to Mediterranean, among them Artemis (with whom amber is also “replace” the eyes of the deceased and in Egypt and Italy closely linked). An amber cowrie could be seen as a material is especially important for women. The long and narrow manifestation of the dynamics of the universe. aperture on the underside of the cowrie recalls the external appearance of the vulva, and with the animal 2. An early outstanding example is the girdle formed of gold emerging from it, birth itself. The overall shape of the cowries belonging to Queen Mereret (Dynasty 12) in the Cairo shell may have been thought to intimate the shape of the Museum: see, for example, Andrews 1994, p. 42. womb, “so when beads of its shape formed an element of 3. Ibid. Amber scarabs were among the first carved amber objects a woman’s girdle, they were in exactly the right place to to appear in Italy in the Orientalizing period, with many ward off evil influences from the relevant bodily part of excavated examples. Although many demonic subjects of the wearer, especially if she were pregnant.”20 Egyptian and Near Eastern origin appear to have lost or changed their meaning as the visual forms were adapted in The function of a cowrie amulet would have been to Greece, Etruria, and elsewhere in Italy, the scarab seems never enhance the particular bodily functions of the organs it to have lost its original associations with the sun, life, and represented (the eyes or the genitalia) and to act as a regeneration. The early amber scarabs and scaraboids are substitute for them in the afterworld. The amber, itself evidence of this. See A. F. Gorton, Egyptian and Egyptianizing magic and regenerative, no doubt enhanced the fertility Scarabs: A Typology of Steatite, Faience and Paste Scarabs from properties of the cowrie, as did the image of the Punic and Other Mediterranean Sites (Oxford, 1996), p. 158, n. 65. proverbially fertile hare. That the hare and the cowrie are 4. For example, the precious metal cowries buried with the woman two animals in which the females are larger than the in Tomb 419 at Banzi (along with three amber profile head- males must have added to the amuletic aspects of the pendants): Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 126. pendant. In the tomb, the combination of hare and cowrie 5. I. Dall’Osso, Guida illustrata del Museo Nazionale di Ancona in a beautiful ornament-amulet might have been (Ancona, 1915), p. 303 (referred to by Waarsenburg 1995, p. 454, especially valuable for protection in rebirth or for the n. 1276). journey to the afterworld. In the beliefs of some in ancient Italy, this was a complicated voyage, part by land, part by 6. For the headband from Tomb 315 at Alianello-Cazzaiola sea, and part submarine.21 (Heraclea, Museo Nazionale della Siritide 209862), see I Greci in Occidente: Greci, Enotri e Lucani nella Basilicata meridionale NOTES (Naples, 1996), pp. 152–53, no. 2.12; and Ornamenti e lusso 2000, p. 17, fig. 10. 1. White 1992, p. 549, theorizing a source-distance gradient for 7. Magie d’ambra 2005, pp. 87–88 (discussed by S. Bianco). The Aurignacian-period personal ornaments, underlines that they amber was excavated from a woman’s tomb in the necropolis of were usually made of materials exotic to the regions in which Santa Maria di Anglona–Valle Sorigliano. they were found. This continues to hold true for the prehistoric period and the early historic period in Italy for amuletic and 8. Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.13, Purchase, Renée and exotic materials, such as amber, ivory, and cowries. Shennan Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Fund, Patti Cadby Birch, and The 1993, pp. 62–66, discusses amber’s value, especially in light of its Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris Brisbane Dick acquisition by political-religious elites living spatially distant Fund, 1992: Art of the Classical World 2007, pp. 295, 473, no. 343. from amber sources, and cites Helms 1988, p. 114: “Many exchanged items have inherent magical or religious significance 9. Unpublished. as ‘power-charged’ treasures acquired from extraordinary 10. These appear, from the photographs, to be similar to the realms outside their own heartland.” Indeed, as Helms 1988 London hare pendant: see K. A. Neugebauer, Antiken in concludes on p. 130, “the ultimate goal of those seeking [shields deutschem Privatbesitz (Berlin, 1938), no. 255. or shell or stones or holy incense, or amber] may well be 212 ANIMALS

11. For the amber in the British Museum, see Strong 1966, p. 79, no. 15. For the frog/toad, see Andrews 1994, p. 63; for the cowrie, ibid., 72 (“Frog or toad”), pl. XXVIII. The effluent fertility of both frogs p. 42. Both of the latter subjects are known in third-millennium and toads (rarely differentiated in Egypt, according to Andrews) amulets from Sumer and ancient Susa. apparently led to their association with fertility generally and 16. For the hare in Egypt, see S. Schroer, “Hare,” in Iconography of the renewal of life after death. The frog was seen as a chthonic Deities and Demons: Electronic Pre-publication (last revision animal that alluded to the forces which brought life into being. November 15, 2006), www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd The Egyptian goddess Heket, who manifested herself in the /prepublication_3.php. shape of a frog or as a woman with a frog’s head, was also associated with childbirth. The goddess had “participated in the 17. Schroer (see n. 16), p. 2, col. 1. creation of the divine child, crouched beside the potter’s wheel on which Khnum shaped the small naked immortal, [and thus] 18. Ibid., col. 2. all frog amulets might be intended to represent the goddess in 19. Pinch 1994, p. 107, notes that cowries have been used against her animal manifestation”: Andrews 1994, p. 63. the evil eye in many cultures. In addition to its rarity and Representations of frogs are to be found on apotropaic wands, lustrous beauty, other reasons why the cowrie accrued amuletic objects associated with the protection of new mothers and their powers include the facts that the females of the Cypraeidae babies: see E. Sullivan in The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of family are larger than the males; the shells secrete a purple Ancient Egypt, ed. E. Hornung and B. M. Bryan (Washington, DC, staining liquid; and the life cycle of the cowrie includes a 2002), p. 157, no. 71; and Andrews 1994, p. 63. The frog amulet development metaphorically similar to that of female genitalia. first appears in burials of predynastic date in Egypt, and similar Some cowries have coloration that looks like the skin of spotted amulets are known from Mesopotamia and Susa (for example, cats, some have “eyes,” and some of the rarest cowrie species the lapis lazuli frog bead from a find at Early Dynastic IIIB Susa: are thought to resemble female genitalia. Culled from R. J. First Cities 2003, pp. 303–4, no. 202c). Griffiths, “Size and Sex in Cypraeidae,” Proceedings of the 12. Pollak and Muñoz 1912, vol. 1, pl. XL, 3. Malacological Society of London 34, no. 6 (1961): 322; and F. Lorenz and A. Hubert, A Guide to Worldwide Cowrie, 2nd ed. 13. Strong 1966, p. 79, records that “a piece much nearer the style (Hackenheim, 2000). of this one was part of a find at Metapontum.” This find, which Strong refers to on p. 30, was on the London market in 1953; the 20. Andrews 1994, p. 42. Pinch 1994, p. 107, notes the similarity of photographs of the group were in the British Museum at the Egyptian representations of cowrie-girdle wearers to the time of his writing, but are now lost. contemporary custom of women wearing cowries on girdles in some parts of the Sudan. See also G. Clark, Symbols of Excellence: 14. A depiction of this initial stage in the formation of the world is Precious Materials as Expressions of Status (Cambridge, 1986), pp. found on a Ptolemaic granite sarcophagus, illustrated in 23–26, for further parallels in contemporary societies. Desroches-Noblecourt 2006, p. 24. 21. See, for example, Jannot 2005. Cat. no. 30 213

31. Pendant: Lion Condition The pendant is intact, with a smooth, firm surface in most areas. The tip of the nose, the right side of the animal’s muzzle, and the two distal digits of the right forepaw are broken off. There are also small breaks on the right haunch and foreleg. Small chips and pitting occur on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces and on the animal’s sides. Some of the pitted areas contain yellowish degraded material. The amber is crazed all over. Near the right shoulder blade is a large inclusion, which is also visible on the ventral surface. This piece is translucent and dull reddish brown in ambient light and pale ruby-red in transmitted light. After entry into the museum, the pendant was mechanically cleaned and then treated with an amber-oil distillate that increased the translucency and darkened the color. Description The lion is dorsally convex and ventrally concave, full through the upper body, with the right shoulder area thickest in volume. There is a noticeable asymmetry of form, with the body and head curving slightly toward the left and the right lower leg protruding outward. Delicate sculptural transitions in the abdomen area suggest its softness. Subtle modulations in the carving indicate the subcutaneous structure of the shoulders and back. Between the root of the tail and the hocks on the Accession 76.AO.78 underside is a long declivity, made when the amber was Number being prepared for carving. The thick, tubular tail begins Culture Etruscan or Campanian its curve to the left, courses right, and curves again to the left, with the tip of the tail lying on the right flank. The tip Date 525–480 B.C. of the tail has four lobes. Dimensions Length: 105 mm (as preserved; estimated The lion is positioned with all four legs drawn up under original length 115 mm); width: 40 mm; depth: the body, the right front paw placed under the chin and 18 mm (at chest); Weight: 35.5 g the left curled up under the chest. The left foreleg is Subjects Egypt; Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Lion; represented in side view, the outer two toes in overlapped Transparency profile, while the right front foreleg and paw are straight and the footpad flat. The right foreleg is unusual in that its Provenance dewclaw is indicated, as a modeled zigzag indentation. The hind legs draw close together against the abdomen, –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. the haunches and legs as though in profile, the feet Paul Getty Museum, 1976. 214

flattened, with all of the toe pads in a line. Each of the bulls, goats, gazelles, hippocamps, human-headed bulls four feet has four large hemispherical toe pads. (Achelous), sirens, and sphinxes. The compositions emphasize the dorsal and ventral sides of the animals. The lion’s forehead has a deep medial indentation and Their faces are flush with the ventral plane, one or both two lateral indentations sweeping back to the mane. The paws are beneath the chin (or lower jaw), and both pairs almond eyes are set back, deep-set under the eyebrow of legs are drawn up close to the body. The more convex ridges, which flow in a naturalistically undulating line to side is used for the animal’s back. No two of these are the wide cheekbones. Despite the losses to the top of the alike, because in each one the animal is accommodated to pendant, the nose can still be traced. Just above the break, the peculiarities of the amber nodule. When the pendants there are two horizontal wrinkles. The muzzle, mouth, were new and the amber translucent, the features of one and chin are smoothly defined, with a groove for the side would have been blurrily visible from the other, mouth. The upper lip has two bulbous undulations on the inviting handling so as to see the figures from every surviving side and overlaps the lower one. The chin is angle. The pendants would have needed to be turned over short, and the throat is subtly carved to suggest the in order to see the entire animal, especially the sculptural underlying anatomy. A shallow groove separates the face tour de force of the curled-under paw. from the mane. The mane itself is bilaterally divided, with the median line of the forehead continued into the fur. Of this type of amber animal pendant, the couchant lion is Heavy tufts of the mane are separated into a somewhat the most numerous. The group includes, in addition to symmetrical array. The mane hangs down onto the sides 76.AO.78, two pendants in Numana from a tomb at Sirolo; of the figure’s head and continues onto the shoulders and one from a recent find at Bologna (Tomb 12); two chest. On the ventral surface, above the left foreleg, five pendants in London, British Museum 64 and 65; one in hanks of hair are rendered. Large, softly modeled, folded Copenhagen; one each in private collections in Hamburg, ears commence at the front edge of the mane and are New York, and London; and two on the art market, one in tipped upward. The antihelix is represented as a raised London and the other in Basel.1 A lion nearly identical to fillet. BM 65 is part of a group of a lion attacking prey, the bow decoration of a bronze fibula from Tomb 72 at Belmonte The curve of the lion’s body, the thinness of the pendant, Piceno. Related in format are a pendant in the form of a the concavity of the ventral side and convexity of the feline (77.AO.81.8, cat. no. 32) and two other fibula bow dorsal, and features such as the declivity on the flank of decorations from Tomb 72 at Belmonte Piceno, one of a the animal indicate the general outlines of the original lion attacking a deer and the other in the form of a pair of shape of the amber blank. It was likely carved from an addorsed lions’ heads.2 amber sheet (see introduction). The pendant closest to 76.AO.78 is BM 64. The correlations Evidence of manufacture includes the scrape marks include the overall conception of the design, the located on the larger planes of the legs, back, and ventral treatment of the volumes, the subtle transitions from one surfaces. Around the eyes and in between the hanks of plane to another, and individual details such as the the mane are traces of a graver. Multidirectional abrasion placement of body and limbs on the amber nodule, and marks are found near the transitions between body parts, the curve of the tail. Next in kin is BM 65, which is, such as the intersection of haunch and body. however, less organically modeled and more simplified in The break in the muzzle offers a clear view of a triangular key details, such as the mane and the number of toe pads set of perforations for suspension: there is a cross-bore (it has three each to the four of 76.AO.78), and has a just below the top of the nose bridge and two perforations flange, a bead-and-reel device, at the rump, which would connected to an exit hole at the tip of the nose. Suspended have suspended the pendant head downward. These are from a filament in the cross-bore, the lion would have enough alike in lion type and format that it might be hung with its head uppermost, its body curving slightly hypothesized that they descend from a common downward to the right. The medial line of the lion’s mane sculptural invention, one close to 76.AO.78. The other would have been roughly perpendicular to the ground. lions’ heads are carved in a more schematic manner, flatter and harsher, and perhaps likely descend from a Discussion variant model or prototype. 76.AO.78 belongs to a large group of Archaic and Sub- The style of 76.AO.78 (and its closest relations) is Archaic ambers carved fully in the round in the shape of elucidated by comparison to objects in various scales and resting animals and demonic creatures—lions, rams, media, but especially to large-scale marble sculpture. It is Cat. no. 31 215

similar to a number of Archaic marble lions from the The tradition of small sculptures of resting animals and Greek East and Lydia,3 with one of the best parallels being other creatures carved fully in the round was age-old by the fragmentary marble lion’s head from Ephesus in the the sixth century B.C. Amulets in this format are British Museum.476.AO.78 shares with these marble lions documented in third-millennium Sumerian and Egyptian an analogous formation of the head, a comparable fine- graves. Related to such imagery are the contorted and featured, slightly pointed face, similar modeling, whirling animals, such as trussed antelopes or geese, cut especially around the eyes, and most noticeably, a parallel into Bronze Age Aegean seals or Egyptian containers, or treatment of the long mane locks. Characteristically, the the ritual utensils (spoons or containers) shaped as a manes of this group are divided into coifed hanks swimming nude woman or a running dog. Parallels rendered as separate, plastically modeled lobes. In the among objects closer in date to 76.AO.78 and the related arrangement around the head and on the back, the design amber animal subjects are the amber pendants that varies from a full petal-like blanketing to a bifurcated represent sirens and other flying anthromorphs. Their overlap patterning. 76.AO.78 has in common with a antecedents are perhaps the precious metal pendants of complete marble lion from Miletos in Berlin and a birds and flying figures, such as the seventh-century owls fragmentary lion from Miletos in Paris5 an exposure of from Ephesus or the bee-goddesses from Kameiros.9 the ventral surface of the paws and the same rounded flame-shaped hanks of the mane. However, the contemporary precious objects most like 76.AO.78 and the other amber resting animals carved The hypothetical prototype of 76.AO.78 is as likely one of fully in the round are a number of extraordinary Greek amber as of ivory and was probably the work of a South gems (dating from the late sixth century onward) of Ionian artisan or someone trained in an ambient where equidae in unusual poses, among them rolling and falling the language and techniques of South Ionian sculpture horses and centaurs shown in various activities.10 The were alive. This and the likely late-sixth-to-early-fifth- horse-subject gemstones found in Cyprus, East Greece, century date of 76.AO.78 argue for manufacture in the and the Greek islands11 and the seventh-century Ephesian west, in Italy. So does the material: it is in these decades and Rhodian gold pendants may point to the area of that large pieces of jewelry-grade amber were used for origin for the sculpted “invention” behind 76.AO.78 and ornament-amulets found in Etruria and the areas its relatives. It is not only the pose, the sculptural bordering it—in the mid-Adriatic, Campania, and parts of accomplishment, and the nature of the subject that link inland South Italy. Manufacture on the west rather than these diverse classes of objects. They also have in the east coast of the peninsula is supported by similarity common a similar sculptural approach, softness in the to some Campanian small bronze lions and to the lions anatomical description, minimal use of line, and incorporated into the top of the handles of several types smoothing of the planar transitions, all of which of Etruscan bucchero vessels.6 The lions’ backs emerging underline the artistic connection. from the surface are remarkably similar in conception. The lion of 76.AO.78 conflates many aspects of a lion’s The provenance of only the fibula lions from Tomb 72, behavior: the elongated body, lowered head, and Belmonte Piceno, is established. BM 64 and 65, from the crouching hind legs suggest that the animal is lying in Sir William Temple bequest, are said to have come from wait, ready to pounce; its ears are laid back and the nose Armento—the same alleged provenance as that of three wrinkled, indications of the animal’s ferocity. Yet the other stylistically related amber pendants from the closed mouth and the curled right paw belie imminent Temple bequest, the “Man-headed bull-couchant action. (Achelous)” (BM 68), a couchant sphinx (BM 69), and a couchant gazelle (BM 70).7 In turn, this ex-Temple group Such an image may have conjured up the power of the is stylistically related to the large sphinx pendant from deities of the wild, and the heroes and gods who Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, a burial of circa 500 B.C.8 conquered the animal. When the object was worn, the While Belmonte Piceno, Armento (if the provenance is wearer may have taken on by assimilation the power of accurate), and Braida di Vaglio were the final resting such a vanquisher. On one level, a lion amulet might have places, they are not necessarily the places of manufacture brought to its wearer the celebrated power, bravery, and of these ambers. In this author’s view, the carved ambers ferocity of the legendary animal (probably never seen by under discussion are Etruscan or Campanian, made by an any of the amber lion carvers). By assimilation, it may artisan from South Ionia or under the strong influence of have endowed its wearers with the same qualities. A lion a South Ionian invention. amulet might also incorporate danger-averting and protective functions for the owner. The lion of 76.AO.78 is 216 ANIMALS

vigilant, a guardian and protector, and as an amulet, it 247773: Ambre2007, pp. 151–53, no. III.85. The other lion is one would have been powerful in both life and death. of eleven pendants from Tomb 11/1986 from the necropolis of However, might the lion amber pendants also have the Giardini Margherita, now in Bologna (Museo Civico incorporated aspects of more ancient customs? In Archeologico SBAER240863): ibid., pp. 154–55, no. III.88. For the Mesopotamia, the lion was a favorite metaphor in British Museum lions, see Strong 1966, pp. 75–76, 78, nos. 64–65, literature for warlike kings and fierce deities. In the Neo- pl. XXV. H. Hoffman, AA (1969): 364, fig. 49a–b, discusses amber Assyrian period, the lion was considered “a generally lions in a Hamburg private collection, in Copenhagen, and in the magically protective type, known as urgulû.”12 Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York. For the last, see also Hoffmann inNorbert Schimmel Collection 1974, no. 72. The lions In Egypt, the lion was a symbol of the sun-god Ra, and by on the art market in London and Basel are unpublished. extension a symbol of the god Amun. As a desert dweller, 2. For the fibula decorations from Tomb 72 (Ancona, Museo the lion was believed to have regenerative capabilities Archeologico Nazionale 11014 [lion and prey (perhaps a bull)], and as such was an essential amulet for the dead. If the 11015 [lion attacking a deer], 11016 [addorsed lions’ heads]), amber lion pendants incorporate Egyptian symbolism (as seeRocco 1999, p. 75 (as mid-Adriatic production); Cristofani well as aspects of Egyptian style), what better material for 1996, p. 138 (as probably Magna Graecian); Negroni Catacchio them than amber, a solar substance? What better form 1989, pp. 679–80 (as mid-Adriatic); Strong 1966, p. 76 (as imports than a tear? from southern Italy); Brown 1960, p. 100 (as locally made by an immigrant craftsman from Etruria [perhaps from Orvieto or At the time of their making or burial, these amber lions Chiusi], because they served a purpose to which amber was may have been described with the Etruscan or Italic commonly put in Picenum); and P. Marconi and L. Serra, Il equivalent of the Latin fulvum (English: tawny, like the Museo Nazionale delle Marche in Ancona (Ancona, 1934), p. 29. hides of wild animals), which Pliny records was used to 3. H. Gabelmann,Studien zum Frühgriechischen Löwenbild (Berlin, describe one kind of amber. 1965); Tuchelt 1970; P. Müller, Löwen und Mischwesen in der Two of the lion ambers indicate how they might have archaischen griechischen Kunst: Eine Untersuchung über ihre been worn in the grave: the Belmonte Picero lions formed Bedeutung(Zurich, 1978); C. Ratté, “Five Lydian Felines,” AJA 93 the bows of bronze fibulae, and we might assume were (1989): 379–93; and B. Pfeiler, “Die Silberprägung von Milet im 6. worn on the upper part of the deceased’s body. The Jahrhundert v. Chr.,” Schweizerische numismatische Rundschau 45 smaller lion in the London private collection was one of (1966): 5–26. three amber pendants hanging from a hip-encircling 4. British Museum B 140: Brown 1960, LXIII a. reticulated amber girdle. In both cases, the location (and 5. Berlin, Antikensammlung Sk 2708; Louvre Ma 2790: Hamiaux the method of attachment) could have focused the 1992, p. 58, no. 50 (dated end of the sixth century to beginning amuletic powers of the ambers. The lion pins would guard of the fifth century). the heart and soul; the girdle pendant would protect the pelvic region. For the latter, a Late Antique prescription 6. Compare the lions of the handles of Etruscan bucchero such as used in “aggressive magic” is relevant: amulets with the those found at Poggio Civitate: see Berkin 2003. head of a lion were believed to have the ability to calm 7. The three British Museum examples are Strong 1966, p. 78, no. the womb (the roaring of the lion counteracting the 68, pl. XXVII (“Man-headed bull-couchant [Achelous]),” no. 69, “roaring” of the womb) and were to be worn in its pl. XXVIII (“Sphinx couchant”), and no. 70, pl. XXVIII (“Gazelle[?] proximity.13 couchant”). NOTES 8. For Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, see Bottini and Setari 2003. 9. Laffineur 1978. 1. The pair in Numana, Antiquarium Statale 1548a–b, come from the sixth-century B.C. “Tomb of the Regina Picena,” Circolo 1, 10. See E. Zweirlein-Diehl, “A Centaur Playing Kottabos,” in Fossa A, 1989 excavation, and were found with two lions’ heads: Tsetskhladze et al. 2000, pp. 397–401 (with list of examples and seeAmbre2007, p. 174, nos. III.121–22; and M. Landolfi, “La bibl.). tomba della Regina nella necropoli picena ‘I Pini’ di Sirolo- 11. For a gray chalcedony cut horse of about 500 B.C. in a Swiss Numana,” inEroi e regine 2001, p. 358, n. 129. Landolfi compares private collection, see Boardman 2001, p. 398, no. 1027. See also them to a lion on the art market illustrated in Mastrocinque Zweirlein-Diehl 2000 (in n. 10, above), p. 399. 1991, p. 77, fig. 22. Both of the Bologna lions come from female grave contexts of the late sixth to early fifth century. The lion 12. Black and Green 1992, p. 119. from the necropolis of the ex–Manifattura Tabacchi in Bologna was one of five necklace pendants from Tomb 12/2004/2005, 13. Bonner 1950, p. 126. Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Emilia Romagna Cat. no. 31 217

32. Pendant: Female Animal (Lioness?) flat and the top convex, tapering at the nose end. The animal is stretched out, with her open-eyed head placed on her paws. The head and body curve slightly to the right, with the animal’s left shoulder and leg extended farther on the left. The head is square, with a full forehead that gently slopes to the bridge of the nose, a flat muzzle, and a small mouth. The jaws are square. Dividing the head from the body at the thick neck is an engraved line. From it spring two triangular ears. The animal’s back is full and rounded, arching all the way through the lumbar region. The front and back legs have a similar shape. The haunches are drawn forward, with the lower legs next to the abdomen and advanced past the point of the knee to midbody. The back lower legs are Accession 77.AO.81.8 comparatively thin and angular, with long, hooklike feet. Number In comparison, the front feet are small. The left foreleg is Culture Etruscan farther forward under the head; an object may be held Date 500–480 B.C. beneath it. The five pairs of large dugs lie in neat rows. Dimensions Length: 55 mm; width: 23 mm; height: 23 Because of the state of preservation and the chemical mm; Weight: 7.2 g treatment of the amber, only the traces of engraved lines are witness to the pendant’s manufacture. A perforation Subjects Animals; Fertility; Inclusions; Lion with holes each 2 mm in diameter passes directly under the neck in line with the root of the ears. If suspended by Provenance the boring through the head, the animal would have hung head upward; if a suspension device were attached to the –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. holes in the rump, it would have hung nose downward. A Paul Getty Museum, 1977. pair of stopped bores, each 2 mm in diameter, are located Condition at the sides of the tail, to a depth of about 3 mm. Below the left side of the lower lip is a similar bore, 2 mm in The pendant is intact except for small losses to the left diameter and about 2.5 mm deep. lower jaw and center of the chest. The surface is crazed Discussion and cracking, with flakes missing from the cortex. Before entry into the donor’s collection, the pendant was Feline, dog, sow, or hare? The physiognomic mechanically cleaned and treated with a thickly applied characteristics of 77.AO.81.8 are not like those of any surface consolidant that added shine to the surface. In other animal, or of any other ancient representation of an ambient light, the pendant is light brown, and in animal, known to me. It has no parallels within the corpus transmitted light, red-brown. The untouched surface of pre-Roman carved amber. Nevertheless, in its general inside the perforations may indicate the appearance of format, 77.AO.81.8 is similar to many other types of amber the amber before treatment. in the form of dormant animals—for example, 76.AO.78 Description (cat. no. 31), to name one Getty pendant. The curve of the upper part of the animal’s body, the short, fat body, and The original shape of the amber blank may be reflected in the positioning of the right paws are similar to the features of a group of Orientalizing amber dog pendants1 the compact, droplike shape of the pendant. The bottom is 218

and to many Archaic amber lions. The ancestral schema as mediator but also as nurse.7 Nigel Spivey suggests that of the amber lions may be Mycenaean. 77.AO.81.8 is the lactating felines of Etruscan funerary art allude to particularly close to an extant pendant, the gold couchant breastfeeding, to the feeding of children, to the infantile lion from Tomb 5 at Hagia Triada (circa 1500–1450 B.C.).2 condition, and to rebirth, and that the passage to the This said, the form of the head and ears, the manner in afterworld is expressed simply by a return to the infantile which the animal crouches, and the dugs invite state.8 J. Bulté shows how in Egypt, images of a lactating comparison to a small group of Orientalizing lioness (or of a figure with a feline body and a human representations of felines. (The legs and feet of 77.AO.81.8, head) were not uncommon as the subject of faïence however, are more lagomorphic than leonine.) The short, (glazed-composition) amulets, which she shows to be curled tail is the one big difference between 77.AO.81.8 associated with happy maternity (“l’heureuse and76.AO.78and the other related amber felines (as well maternité”).9 A lactating feline carved from amber must as the comparable Bronze Age gold lions). Although a few have been a powerful amulet, one in which the fertility Etruscan felines appear to have short tails,3 the short associations and regenerative aspects of the material curly tail of 77.AO.81.8 is more like that of a pig or some were enhanced by the subject (especially if the breeds of dog, including Canis familiaris Studer, the big, attachments were tiny kittens). smooth-haired, heavy dog with small ears represented in Mesopotamian art.4 NOTES The stopped bores near the jaw area and to either side of 1. For the small amber dogs, see 82.AO.161.2 (cat. no. 27). the tail are equally without parallel. They were likely used 2. Heraklion Museum 140 (from Tomb 5 at Hagia Triada): Higgins for attachments, perhaps a collar at the neck if the animal 1980, p. 65, pl. 5B; and A. Marinatos and M. Hirmer, Crete and is a dog, or for the attachment of pendants (nursing Mycenae(London, 1960), p. 48. young?). The prominence of the milk-laden breasts of the amber animal emphasizes the fertility and regenerative 3. Brown 1960, pp. 176–77. aspects of the pendant amulet. If it represents a dog, there 4. D. Bonatz, “Dog,” in Iconography of Deities and Demons: may have been an association with guardianship, Electronic Pre-publication (last revision November 4, 2008), www protection, and healing. The ancient Near Eastern .religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublication_2.php. association of the dog with Gula, “the great physician,” is allied to the later importance of the dog in the 5. Ibid. iconography and cult of the healers Apollo Asgelatas and 6. Andrews 1994, p. 35. Asclepius.5 Some Egyptian Late Period amulet types of glazed-composition sows (the sky goddess Nut, or Isis?) 7. See also A. H. Ashmead, “Etruscan Domesticated Cats: Classical were intended to endow their wearers with fecundity.6 Conformists or Etruscan Originals?,” in De Puma and Small Comparable are Archaic Etruscan painted 1994, pp. 144–64. representations, such as the felines painted on vases 8. N. Spivey, “Il Pittore di Micali,” in Il Pittore di Micali, exh. cat. (primarily found in tombs) by the Micali Painter, or the (Rome, 1988), p. 19. mammiferous feline painted on the walls of the Tomb of the Lionesses at Tarquinia, where the lioness acts not only 9. Bulté 1991, pp. 52–55, 84, chap. 7. Cat. no. 32 219

Lions’ Heads After rams’, lions’ are the most numerous of all pre- visibly their Oriental antecedents—their Assyrian, Hittite, Roman animal heads in amber. The Getty collection and East Greek connections. In the case of 76.AO.80 and reflects the relative popularity of these two animal 76.AO.81, the Assyrian elements are salient through subjects: there are four lions’ and fifteen rams’ heads. A comparison to the beasts of Ashurbanipal. The East Greek feature found on almost all the amber animal heads is the elements are brought out by comparison to marble lions collarlike finial section in imitation of a metal mount, such as those from Miletos and Ephesus,9 to an East Greek which shows that the amber examples imitate pendants terracotta vessel in the shape of a lion protome,10 and to made entirely of gold (or another precious metal) or of various carved gems and tiny ivories. Of the last, salient another material such as ivory set in a metal mount. comparisons are the lions (and lions’ heads) engraved on a number of Ionian Greek gemstones, notably a plasma The list of amber lions’ heads now includes the four scarab signed by Aristoteiches11 and a pair of Ionian ivory examples in the Getty Museum, 76.AO.80 (cat. no. 33), lions’ heads from Smêla, whose eyes are inset with 76.AO.81(cat. no. 34), 77.AO.81.9 (cat. no. 35), and amber.12The longevity of the Ionian lion types in 77.AO.81.10 (cat. no. 36); a pair now serving as the finials adornment might be exemplified by the finials of a pair of of two gold bracelets of Hellenistic date in the Louvre, late-fourth-century B.C. silver bracelets with gold lions’ findspot unknown;1a pair from an amber-rich find at 13 heads from Pantikopaion, now in St. Petersburg. Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s Church (Etruscan? late sixth century B.C.), and a single lion’s head from a tomb at Comparable Etruscan contemporary lions’ heads in other Atenica of the same date;2 a single(?) lion’s head from media (which have known provenances) come from Canosa(?) in London (British Museum 78);3 and the dozen southern Etruria, mainly Vulci, but also from Cerveteri, or more tiny lions’ heads on three Etruscan necklaces, one Orvieto, and Tarquinia. These include the tiny gold finials in Paris from a controlled excavation and two others on of a blue glass bracelet from Vulci,14 gold pendants in the London and New York art markets said to be from Berlin, Paris, and Edinburgh,15 and the larger lions’ heads Etruria.4 On each necklace, the lions’ heads are joined by of hammered bronze, especially an example from Orvieto, an equal number of rams’ heads and plain beads. now in Boston.16 The above-noted examples have in common a similar anatomical form, a similar modeling of Parallels for the amber heads include complete amber the eye area, tipped-up noses, deeply carved mouths, and lions, as Donald Strong noted about a lion’s head in the comparable ferocious expressions. The Orvieto bronze is British Museum,5and lion-foreparts pendants, one remarkably like 76.AO.80 in the length, depth, and form of excavated with context from the girl’s Tomb 102 at Braida the head, and in the schema of the dagged mane ruff. di Vaglio, near Melfi,6 and another from Armento, now in London.7 The only extant Etruscan painting of lions’ heads is found on one of the many necklaces and garlands hanging from There is a difference between these Late Archaic lions the branches of the sacred grove painted in the first and the earlier, sixth-century examples in the Getty and chamber of the Tarquinian Tomb of Hunting and Fishing elsewhere (i.e., 77.AO.81.2, cat. no. 5; 77.AO.81.3, cat. no. 6; (see introduction, figure 40). The painted lions’ heads and two in Paris). The later Etruscan and other Italian- correspond closely with extant contemporary gold, ivory, made lions of the Late Archaic are characteristically a and amber lions’ heads. This depiction suggests an mélange: the style is a complex blend not borrowed from amuletic or religious function for the objects.17 Demonic any one source.8 The earliest amber lions’ heads in the Getty, and a related few amber examples, demonstrate forces are attracted and repelled; propitious forces are invited. 220

As noted earlier, a lion of amber combined a potent tomb may illustrate Dionysian religiosity.22 In any case, subject with a potent material, one where the magical the dance is apotropaic and purificatory. In either aspects of amber and subject, the color of the material interpretation, the lions’ and rams’ heads were and the representation, were matched up. Lion and appropriate to the painted events.23 amber were from earliest times associated with the sun, as was much-prized carnelian, which is very like amber in Although the Getty amber lions’ heads are generally appearance. Carnelian was traditionally employed in similar in format and function to one another (as well as Egypt for pendants of lions’ heads and lions’ foreparts.18 to amber heads in other collections and to protomes in Most early Greek and Etruscan gemstones of lion subjects other media), each is idiosyncratic. The Getty lions’ heads are also carnelian. A subject—such as the lion—that demonstrate both a close relationship to existing types enhanced the inherent danger-averting, protective, and and models and the distinctive hand of individual carvers. regenerative aspects of these solar materials might have 76.AO.80, 77.AO.81.9, and 77.AO.81.10 are pendants, bored been a straightforward choice. laterally in the neck area. 76.AO.81 is perforated with a large rostrocaudal through-bore and has a beveled edge. Amber lions’ heads likely served as permanent amulets— This indicates a usage different from those of all other that is, as both ornament and magical object. For almost amber lions’ heads. 76.AO.81 may have served as a finial, two thousand years before the series of amber and gold such as a finial bead on a necklace, the likely purpose of head-pendants were produced, lion, lion’s-head, and lion- one of the amber ram pendants in the Getty collection foreparts amulets similar to them in schema and (77.AO.81.12, cat. no. 52). However, the size of the hole materials had been popular in Egypt. As a symbol of the and the delicacy of the carving of the lion’s mouth suggest sun-god, Ra, the lion was, by extension, a symbol of the other functions; possibly it served as the added spout of a pharaoh. Worn in life, a lion-subject amulet could small vessel. In addition to the pendants, there are two symbolize fierceness and bravery, endowing its owner other amber lions’ heads in the Getty collection, the finials with the same qualities; thus, in life or in death it could of 77.AO.83 (cat. no. 38), a plaque with a walking boar as function as a protective, danger-averting amulet. The lion- its subject. foreparts amulet, unique to the Egyptian late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate periods, was set at the NOTES neck to protect the deceased from a second death and endowed the owner with the ability to come forth from 1. For the lions’ heads in the Louvre, see Metzger 1991 and the the realm of the dead and “become an excellent spirit.”19 discussions under 77.AO.81.2 and 77.AO.81.3. The Egyptian beliefs in the regenerative capabilities of the 2. For the material from Novi Pazar, St. Peter’s Church, and lion (characteristic of all desert dwellers) are assumed to Atenica, see Palavestra and Krstić 2006. underlie the symbolism of the lion’s-head amulets that 3. Strong 1966, p. 81, no. 78, pl. XXX. were current from the late Old Kingdom through the Late Period.20 Both lion-foreparts and lion’s-head types were 4. The amber necklace included in the 1992 Paris exhibition Les almost exclusively carved from carnelian. Etrusques et l’Europe was hors catalogue. One of the other necklaces was on the London art market in 1982 (it included Because of the Assyrian typological and stylistic aspects of nine small lions’ heads and two rams’ heads of very similar size 76.AO.80, the important role played by the lion in [height: 12 mm; length: 15 mm; width: 13 mm], and one large adornment and architecture during the Neo-Assyrian lion’s head [height: 21 mm; length: 30 mm; width: 24 mm]); the period should be recalled: as noted earlier, the lion was a second, with even smaller pendants, is in a New York private generally magically protective type (known as urgulû).21 collection. I thank B. Aitken for facilitating my study of the New York necklace. There are demonstrable connections in Greek myth and the material culture of Greece among Apollo, the sun, and 5. Strong 1966, p. 81. the lion. If the trees on the walls of the first chamber in 6. For the Braida di Vaglio necropolis, see Bottini and Setari 2003. the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing depict Apollo’s sacred grove, as some scholars have posited, the necklace with 7. Strong 1966, p. 80, no. 75, pl. XXIX. (amber?) lion’s-head pendants (and the necklace with 8. Brown 1960, p. 94. ram’s-head pendants hanging on another tree) may take on special import. If, however, the dancers of the Hunting 9. See cat. no. 31, n. 3 and n. 4. and Fishing tomb are directly connected to Fufluns/ 10. This early Corinthian example and other, East Greek, examples Dionysos, the god of wine, as Sybille Haynes proposes, the are generally accepted by scholars as Rhodian. As W. A. Biers, “A Lions’ Heads 221

Lion in Kansas City,” in Clark and Gaunt 2002, p. 35, outlines, the Mariani) and the detail of one bush on p. 97; P. Romanelli, “Le lion vase has antecedents in metal drinking vessels of the Neo- pitture della Tomba della Caccia e della Pesca,” Monuments et Assyrian and Achaemenid periods. The secondary(?) use of Mémoires, Fondation E. Piot 1, no. 2 (Rome, 1938); R. Holloway, plastic vases in Etruscan graves may be connected with an “Conventions of Etruscan Painting in the Tomb of Hunting and amuletic aspect of the containers and the goods. For the Fishing at Tarquinia,” AJA 69 (1965): 341–47, where he is the first magical and medicinal aspects of oils, scents, and “perfumes,” to propose the apotropaic aspects of the subjects, including the see Brunner-Traut 1970 (in “The Archaic and Afterward” in the objects hanging from the branches in the grove, and his more introduction, n. 214); and L. Manniche, Sacred Luxuries: recent “The Tomb of the Diver,” AJA 110 (2006): 374–75; L. Fragrance, Aromatherapy, and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, Cerchai, “Sulle Tomba ‘del Tuffatore’ e ‘delle Caccia e Pesca’: NY, 1999). See also Lost Scents: Investigations of Corinthian Proposta di Lettura Iconologia,” Dialoghi di Archeologia 5 (1987): “Plastic” Vases by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, MASCA 113–34; A. Rouveret, “La tombe tarquinienne de la Chasse et de Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 11, ed. W. A. Biers, la Pêche: Quelques remarques sur la peinture de paysage à K. O. Gerhardt, and R. Braniff (Philadelphia, 1994). l’époque archaïque,” RA (1992): 170–71; Simon 1998; and 11. Boardman 1968, p. 134, placed the plasma scarab in East Haynes 2000, pp. 228–30. All these sources provide significant Greece: “The inscription points to the Ionic islands of the comments on the grove, which is discussed later in the section Cyclades rather than Ionia. Beazley adduced telling parallels introducing rams’ heads. with Cypriot coins of the early fifth century from Amathus and 18. Some archaeological ambers have been identified as carnelian Golgoi. Cf. also the terracottas of East Greece.” Boardman 2001, and vice versa: see, for example, Todd 1985 (in “Where is Amber p. 421, includes additional bibliography for the plasma. Found,”n. 37), generally in reference to the Bronze Age 12. Boardman 1980, p. 259, fig. 301; G. Minns, Scythians and Greeks material; and Waarsenburg 1995, p. 426, n. 1111, concerning a (repr., London, 1971), pp. 78, 193 (fig. 85), 266. carnelian scaraboid from Satricum (Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Guilia 10809), which was published as being of 13. Hermitage P. 1854.289: D. Williams and J. Ogden, Greek Gold: amber. The color and transparency ranges of carnelian and red Jewelry of the Classical World, exh. cat. (New York, 1994), pp. jasper are comparable to those of amber. On carnelian in the 156–57, no. 96. Etruscan burials included numerous lion subjects ancient world, see Caubet 1999. on items of adornment or as singletons. The single gold lion’s 19. AsAndrews 1994, p. 79nn., notes, this amulet type is specifically heads in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet des Médailles, required by Coffin Text no. 83. The Egyptian lion-foreparts Luynes 502: Brown 1960, p. 105) and Edinburgh (Scottish amulet is very close in form to the two extant ambers of the National Museum of Antiquities FF 34: ibid., p. 106) were likely type, British Museum 75 and a sphinx pendant from Tomb 102 single finds. The girl’s grave Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio at Braida di Vaglio. For the latter, see Bottini and Setari 2003 contained 290 worked ambers, 83 of them figured, but only one (with earlier bibl.); and Treasures 1998, pp. 224–25. lion subject, a pendant in the form of a lion’s foreparts. A pair of gold lion’s-head pendants (provenance unknown; circa 500 B.C.) 20. Andrews 1994, p. 65. in Berlin (Antikenmuseum GI 416/417: Cristofani and Martelli 21. Black and Green 1992, p. 119. 1983, p. 294, no. 157) and a fragmentary fifth-century gold necklace from Vulci in the Vatican (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco 22. The Dionysian interpretation “is confirmed by the 13542: ibid., no. 156), with three lions’ heads and four clasps representation of satyrs with drinking horns reclining in the that once held amuletic objects such as teeth, document the gable of the entrance wall” (Haynes 2000, p. 229). See I. burial of multiple lions’ heads. Krausfopf, “The Grave and Beyond,” in The Religion of the 14. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 59791 (from Etruscans (Austin, TX, 2006), pp. 77, 82–83, for a critical summary Vulci): Cristofani and Martelli 1983, pp. 173, 297, no. 174 (with of arguments for Fufluns/Dionysos in the Etruscan tomb and significant comparisons). interpretations of the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing, with bibl., including M. Torelli, Il rango, il rito, e l’immagine: Alle origini della 15. For the pendants in Berlin, Paris, and Edinburgh, see n. 13, rappresentazione storica romana (Milan, 1997); M. Cristofani, above. “Mystai kai bakchoi: Riti di passagio nei krateri volterrani,” 16. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 55.497. See also the hammered Prospettiva 80 (1995): 2–14; C. Weber-Lehman, “Spätarchaïsche bronze head once on the Rome art market (provenance Gelagebilder in Tarquinia,” RM 92 (1985): 19–44; and E. Simon, unknown):Brown 1960, p. 99, pl. XL b. “Die Tomba dei Tori und der etruschische Apollonkult,” Jdi 88 (1973): 27–42. Simon believes the large plants in the tomb 17. Ibid., p. 106, was the first to draw the connection between represent laurel trees. existing jewelry and the painted images. On the tomb, see 23. For further discussion of the ram’s-head necklace and the Steingräber 2006, pp. 20ff., especially the illustrations on p. 96 painted grove, see “Rams’ Heads” introduction. (the nineteenth-century watercolors of the first chamber by G. 222 LIONS’ HEADS

33. Pendant: Lion’s Head Description The pendant consists of the head and upper neck portion of a ferocious lion, mouth open wide, tongue extended, teeth bared, and ears flattened against the head. The forehead, medial indentation, areas around the eyes, and top of the snout are richly modeled, suggesting a subcutaneous musculature (even if it is not anatomically correct). The eyes are rendered plastically, in profile appearing narrow and hooded and in frontal view open and rectangular, in a gaze of focused concentration. Emphasizing the raised elliptical domes of the eyeballs, their upper lids are undercut. The pert nose is delineated by two outward-curving nasal wrinkles. The tip of the nose is flat on the frontal plane and tilted upward in profile. A raised philtrum separates Accession 76.AO.80 the halves of the muzzle; the wrinkled snarl lines on Number either side are engraved with four lines parallel to one Culture Etruscan another on the frontal plane and turned up on the sides. The edge of the mouth is smooth. The flews are not turned Date 550–500 B.C. out. The lips are undercut to reveal the ridges of the gums and the teeth. Only the stumps remain of the upper and Dimensions Height: 28 mm; width: 22 mm; depth: 38 mm; lower canines. The chin is narrower and shorter than the Weight: 13.6 g upper jaw. The extended position of the tongue (slightly Subjects Funerary use of amber (also Burial); Lion asymmetrical to right) and the cavern of the deeply hollowed palate emphasize the lion’s ferocious Provenance expression. From the front, the head is oval, with the mane fitting tightly around the head; in profile, the head –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. is long, with the mane flowing from the edge of the face to Paul Getty Museum, 1976. the edge of the skull. The ruff is composed of a pattern of pinnate, plastically rendered hanks of hair on top; Condition shorter, triangular sections of the mane are carved in the interstices. On the sides and under the neck, the mane is The pendant is in good condition, with a generally smooth more schematically rendered and the forms flatter. The surface. There is a large nonmodern chip behind the right soft folded-over ears emerge from the mane (the right one side of the chin and four broken teeth; there are also is more legible than the left). many tiny modern chips and cracks and crazing over the entire surface. Inclusions are visible in one crack on the The left side of the head is indented along a broad, right side of the neck. All over the surface are small shallow groove, making the head slightly asymmetrical, blotches of a pale yellow-ocher patina. Degraded amber and gives evidence of the original shape of the amber fills many of the fine cracks. The piece is dull brownish blank from which the object was carved. The pendant was red in ambient light and bright red in transmitted perforated with two 2 mm holes, each initiated on one illumination. side of the finial (collar?) and exiting caudally through the base. The finial consists of a 3 mm flute flanked on each 223

side by raised fillets. When suspended, the head would talismanically rubbed or kissed) or as an ornament have hung downward, with the top of the head showing. suspended from a branch, animal harness, or Discussion architectural element. Counterparts for 76.AO.80 were found in female graves in The signs of use wear of 76.AO.80 are significant. The controlled excavations, and it is possible that this piece pulling troughs on the upper edges of the perforation came from a similar context. While representations of demonstrate longtime use where gravity or human both ram’s head–wearing women and men are activity has caused the suspension cord to saw the amber. documented in funerary imagery, there is no comparable This is the only animal head in the Getty collection to image of a lion’s-head wearer of either sex. Whatever may demonstrate this use; the other ambers in the collection have been the pre-interment function of the amber, gold, with visible wear by abrasion are female head-pendants. and bronze lions’ heads, their ultimate role was funerary, Unlike on the female head-pendants, however, there is just like the necklaces with lion’s heads hanging from the little corresponding wear on the face. There is no internal branches in the grove of the Etrusco-Ionian Tomb of evidence to suggest the manner of the pendant’s use, Hunting and Fishing (see the “Lions’ Heads” introduction). whether as personal adornment (and whether it was 224 LIONS’ HEADS

34. Spout or Finial: Lion’s Head Description This amber is worked in the shape of the head and neck of a ferocious lion. The head is almost perfectly square. In frontal view, the object is tubular. In profile, the face tapers toward the nose and chin. The supraorbital areas are plastically modeled, with fine ridges carved to represent the eyelids. The eye sockets are deep, hollow, and asymmetrical: the right one is higher and more circular than the left one, which is amygdaloidal in form. The sockets may originally have held inlaid eyes (ivory and amber?). The snout slopes down to a step above the short, rounded nose. The nares and nostrils are detailed with fine horizontal grooves. Two additional horizontal engraved lines, wrinkles, cross the bridge of the snout just above the nose. Four engraved diagonal lines rise from each side of the upper lip, wrinkling the lion’s muzzle. The philtrum Accession 76.AO.81 is indented. The mouth of the lion is a large, hollow cavity. Number The lips are drawn back tightly and undercut to reveal the Culture Etruscan gums; a full set of incisors and matched small teeth rim the mouth. Below are flaps of the jaw, marked with two Date 525–480 B.C. incised lines on each side at the front. The end of the Dimensions Height: 19.5 mm; width: 17 mm; depth: 20 mm; tongue protrudes and is slightly transluscent. Diameter of through-bore: 6.5 mm; Weight: 3.1 The back of the head, which is beveled, is larger in g circumference than the mane. The mane is a raised collar. Subjects Lion On the upper part of the head, the hanks of hair are rendered as long pinnate lobes, with shorter triangular Provenance fillers. On the underside, the mane is not detailed. The lion’s large ears commence at the back of the mane, lying –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. flat to the head and pointing straight backward. Paul Getty Museum, 1976. There are many tool marks. Incision lines mark the Condition wrinkles of the muzzle and the nose and the details of the mouth. Abrasion is evident on the back of the head and The object is intact, in very good condition, with minimal around the lower edge of the collar. Faint drill marks cracking and crazing overall. There are minute chips in remain inside the bore. the mane on the right side and behind the right eye, and Discussion more degraded small areas on the lower right side of the head, marked by a lighter yellow-ocher alteration area. In The style (and form) of the lion of 76.AO.81 is not closely ambient light, the object is dull brown; illuminated by paralleled by any other lion’s head. However, an amber transmitted light, it is ruby colored. No inclusions are lion pendant in London (British Museum 64), of unknown evident. provenance, bears a familial resemblance. Both look as if 225

they would mew rather than roar. The similarities are the lower flaps), and the lion’s head of a lacunaria in most obvious in profile or top view. The rendering of both Perugia from Castel San Mariano has a remarkably animals is schematic, and they seem tame. They have similar profile and the same short face, set-in eyes, and simplified ruffs, flat muzzles, and wooden mandibles, and small tongue.4 76.AO.81 is also effectively compared in the eyes are crudely modeled bulges. type to the heads of the lions and chimeras on a group of Late Archaic Etruscan gold fibulae. There is one other figured amber with a through-bore, a stylized head of a ram in the Getty collection (82.AO.161.4, The distinctive physiognomic elements of the bronze cat. no. 53). Both lions’ and rams’ heads may have served comparisons place 76.AO.81 near to Perugia. The style of similar purposes. Perhaps they served as the tiny inset the pendant also shows a connection to Cerveteri and spout of a small vessel, as a decoration on a small Vulci, the locations where the gold pendants are thought container, or as the finial bead of a necklace or other item to have been made. of adornment. The faïence feline-head amulets on an Eighteenth Dynasty string of beads in New York are one Whether 76.AO.81 was an ornament finial or a tiny spout, prototype for the last.1 An object in the Norbert Schimmel the lion’s head would have played its traditional roles in collection, a unique Egyptian blue (light) finial of a lion’s protection and the aversion of danger. If liquid poured head holding in its open jaws a Negro head, provides from its mouth, such a use would relate it to the popular another idea. If reconstructed on this model, the Getty lion’s-head waterspouts on sacred (and secular) buildings5 and to fountain heads. lion’s mouth may have held a human leg or head, part of an animal, or small prey. Greek models for such a use are NOTES the incorporated animal protome spouts on terracotta and metal vessels, the earliest dating to the seventh 1. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926 26.7.1364. These century B.C. The lion’s-head spouts on three gold rhyta are pictured in Hatshepsut 2005, p. 203, no. 122. from the fourth-to-third-century B.C. Panagyurishte Treasure (Bulgaria) are a later model for such a 2. Plovdiv, Archaeological Museum 3200–3202: Ancient Gold: The hypothetical use.2 Wealth of the Thracians, Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria, exh. cat., ed. I. Marazov (New York, 1998), p. 142, nos. 68–70. The lions of 76.AO.81 and the London pendant (BM 64) fit 3. Brown 1960, chap. 5. in well with the group of Late Archaic–period Etruscan lions, small gold heads, and various objects of bronze 4. Perugia, Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell’Umbria 1390: brought together by W. L. Brown.3 As he showed, these Brown 1960, p. 101, pl. XLI. lions show strong stylistic relationships to earlier 5. For discussion of the historical and typological background of Etruscan lions and Greek models from both Ionia and lion’s-head waterspouts in Italy, with a succinct analysis of the Magna Graecia. The closest among them are the gold two diverse traditions there, Etrusco-Italic and Magna Graecian lions’ heads and a bronze lion once on the Rome art Sicilian, and with a study of their relationships to earlier and market. They have a comparable form of the mane and contemporary examples, see P. Pensabene, Terracotte del Museo the lower face, including the semicircular flaps, and deep- Nazionale Romano I: Gocciolatoi e protomi da sime (Rome, 1999), set eyes. A bronze head in Boston from Orvieto has a pp. 19–24. similar disposition of the teeth and lower jaw (including 226 LIONS’ HEADS

35. Pendant: Lion’s Head presumably the main view when the pendant was suspended, the impression of a compressed composition disappears. In fact, it reads very much like that of the head of 77.AO.81.10 (cat. no. 36), which is three- dimensional. From its general structure to the details of the eyes, mane, and chin, the head is a combination of flattened and plastically modeled forms. Engraved lines mark the mouth, the muzzle wrinkles, the circumscription of the eyes, the eyebrows, and the fillet at the back. The slanted- back eyes, of an almost rectangular form, are deeply carved, leaving the eyeballs protruding above the cheek plane. The folded-over ears, of triangular shape with soft Accession 77.AO.81.9 points, arise from the back of the mane. The snout is Number smooth and softly curved, stepping down to the tip of the Culture Etruscan nose, which tilts upward. The nose-to-chin line is even and tapers in slightly. The nostrils are drilled. Date 525–480 B.C. Dimensions Height: 9 mm; width: 17 mm; depth: 9 mm; The muzzle itself is flat and wrinkled, with five folds of Weight: 1.3 g flesh that are rendered by uneven diagonal grooves radiating from the mouth rather than from the philtrum. Subjects Lion Three ruffled bulges break the line of the mouth on the sides. The underside of the jaw and throat area is flat. The Provenance mane is schematically rendered as a smooth collar. At the back termination are two parallel grooved lines. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Patterns of tiny scratches caused by abrasion are visible Paul Getty Museum, 1977. on the back of the piece. Two holes 1 mm in diameter are Condition bored into the base, originating near the outer edge, sloping downward and inward toward the center. A pair The lion’s head is intact and in excellent condition; the of 1.5 mm–diameter perforations is drilled under the surface is smooth and firm. There are only a few small throat area: one bore originates below the right ear, and a chips, on the throat area and on the back of the mane. second begins below the left corner of the jaw. These Pale yellow mottling covers much of the surface. Pale latter perforations might have been secondary to those on yellow-ocher patina (degraded amber) surrounds the eyes the base. When suspended by the base borings, the lion and lies in other crevices. The amber is dark brownish would have hung nose downward. If it had been red in ambient light. In transmitted light, it is translucent suspended from the cross-bore through the head, it would and bright reddish orange. One long inclusion runs the have hung nose upward. length of the head. Discussion Description The pose of the head and neck encodes a mixture of lion In form and profile views, the narrowness and flatness of behaviors: repose is implied both by the closed mouth and this head are striking. The height is proportionally low in by the relaxed eyes; the inclination of the head suggests comparison to its width and length. From the dorsal view, 227

motion; and the position of the ears, which lie flat against manner. The only parallel for such a system known to me the head, signals a display of anger. is an Elamite lapis lazuli bull’s head from Susa.2 On that head, when the cross-bore in the head section is Although related in style to the following head connected to the base set, the resulting holes make an (77.AO.81.10), especially in dorsal view, this lion differs in anchored suspension loop. small physiognomic details from other representations in amber and other media. Distinguishing features of this NOTES head are the flatness of the pendant, the flat collar of mane devoid of fur markings, the muzzle wrinkles, and 1. Brown 1960, passim. the ruffled upper lip. According to W. L. Brown, the last 2. P. O. Harper et al., The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern might be considered a regressive trait in lion Treasures in the Louvre, exh. cat. (New York, 1993), p. 152, no. 97 representation of the period.1 There appears to be no other example of an amber pendant perforated in this (with bibl.). 228 LIONS’ HEADS

36. Pendant: Lion’s Head Description This pendant represents a calmly posed lion whose ears lie flat against its head. The neck portion is cylindrical. The modeling of the head is smooth. The forehead is gently rounded, and the snout slopes to the down-curving, rounded nose. The eye sockets are bored fairly deeply, which suggests that they might have been inlaid. The muzzle is relatively large and full, divided longitudinally by a shallow indentation; no philtrum is indicated. Fine lines are engraved on the muzzle to indicate creases. Similar lines detail the ears, the closure of the mouth, and the slits of the nostrils. The chin is distinctly bulbous. Raised only slightly from the surface of the head, the Accession 77.AO.81.10 collar of mane is carved with an undulating edge to Number suggest the texture of the ruff. There are finely engraved lines suggesting the hairs of the mane. Large ears, with Culture Etruscan the helixes flopped over, point downward (or backward?), Date 500–480 B.C. and commence at the back of the ruff. Dimensions Height: 15 mm; width: 16 mm; depth: 26 mm; The very slight asymmetry of the piece (the lion’s head Diameter of suspension hole: 2 mm; Weight: cants slightly to its left) might indicate something of the 3.6 g original shape of the amber blank. There is a perforation, Subjects Etruscan culture; Jewelry; Lion 2 mm in diameter, for suspension that passes laterally through the pendant about 2 mm from the surface of the base. It appears that a piece of the base was broken off in Provenance antiquity, leaving exposed a transverse section through the suspension perforation. The pendant would have –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. hung nose downward. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Discussion Condition Within the corpus of lions’ heads, this example stands out. The surface of the pendant is firm but rough because of It has no close parallel in amber or any other material. the degradation of the amber. The figured part of the Although the face exudes serenity, the representation also pendant is intact. On the reverse are an old loss and more includes more aspects of lion behavior. The flattened ears recent breaks on the back of the neck and top of the head. are in an attitude usually associated with roaring, leaping, On the obverse, the many fine cracks in the surface layers and anger or fear. extend through the piece; there is a large crack through the left eye and left part of the head. There are no The artistic style of this cat reveals its breeding: its apparent inclusions. The surface is a dull matte yellow- artistic-morphological characteristics depend on earlier brown to reddish brown on the old surfaces and a rich, traditions of lion representation. The softness of modeling glassy brownish red-orange on the newly broken areas. In is reminiscent of East Greek carving, as a comparison to transmitted light, the amber is transparent and bright some Lydian felines makes clear.1 Ultimately, the pointed, red-orange. folded ear laid back in anger on the head is borrowed 229

from Assyria. The narrow back of ruff has mainland head then could have served as a finial on a bracelet or as Greek and Magna Graecian parallels, and the lack of a a pendant in a necklace. back mane is common in Italian creations.2 NOTES 77.AO.81.10 is comparable to a series of Etruscan bronze objects dated by W. L. Brown to the Late Archaic period, 1. See C. Ratté, “Five Lydian Felines,” AJA 93 (1989): 379–93. The comparisons that locate this head to north-central Etruria. piece might also be compared to any number of Egyptian New Other bronzes might situate this amber pendant more Kingdom images of lioness divinities. precisely, to the early fifth century B.C., and to Orvieto 2. Brown 1960, chaps. 5–6, passim. specifically. Among these comparanda are the hammered bronze finial of a chariot pole from near Orvieto, now in 3. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 55.497 (Gift of the Estate of Dr. Boston (dated by M. Comstock and C. Vermeule to the Jacob Hirsch): Comstock and Vermeule 1971, p. 484, no. 712; and early fifth century),3 and, from the same find, the four Brown 1960, pp. 99–100, pl. XLc. couchant lions of a wheeled brazier.4 4. Brown 1960, p. 91, pl. XXXVIIb (formerly in the collection of Dr. The stepped taper of the pendant’s base might be Jacob Hirsch, New York). evidence that the head was set into a metal mount. This 230 LIONS’ HEADS

Boars 231

37. Pendant: Foreparts of a Recumbent Boar Description The pendant is carved fully in the round, including the head, forelegs, and upper trunk of a wild boar. The body is truncated about midway, at a point immediately behind the caudal end of the mane. The animal is in the pheonotype of repose, with its forelegs drawn up under its head. In side view, the narrow body portion of the pendant is rectangular and the head long and triangular. In frontal view, it is somewhat flat. The anatomy of the boar is sleekly modeled, with the details of musculature revealed by subtle surface modulations in the region between the shoulder and the base of the skull. The surviving eye cavity is shallow and Accession 76.AO.84 unfinished at the bottom edge. The lip is sharply upturned Number where it meets the protruding tusks and other teeth, which must have numbered three on each side, although Culture Etruscan none remain on the damaged side. The sensitively carved, Date 525–480 B.C. leaf-shaped ears lie close to the head and point straight back. Incised marks representing bristles mark the jowls. Dimensions Length (rostrocaudal): 50 mm; depth: 13 mm; The ridge of mane is smooth and rounded and projects height: 24.5 mm; Weight: 9.3 g only slightly above the backbone; it is incised with fine Subjects Amulets; Boar; Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, diagonal striations that point outward. The shoulder is Greek) minimized in comparison to the head and plump forelegs. Provenance The narrowness of the animal in frontal view suggests that the artist was constrained by the thinness of the –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. original amber blank from which this piece was worked. Paul Getty Museum, 1976. When suspended, the animal would have been seen in profile and hung head downward. Condition Discussion The pendant is in good condition, although it has suffered There exist a number of boar-subject amber objects, but some surface degradation and losses. The surface is no close parallel for this pendant. The boar is an grainy, with cracks and crazing overall. The tip of the uncommon subject in pre-Roman amber and an snout, a section of the right orbital area, and the tips of infrequent subject generally in Greek and Etruscan the hooves, especially on the right, are missing. There are jewelry; it is far more common in other media, as a small chips on the tips of both ears, the right side of the figurative subject on arms and armor or ceramic vases or mandible, and the underside of the left leg. Except at the stamped on coinage. Except for 77.AO.83 (cat. no. 38) and new breaks, the piece is opaque, the surface brownish tan a fragmentary plaque in New York,1 the other wild-boar with a pale yellow patina; in transmitted light, the reddish subjects in amber are pendants or the decorative bows of brown translucency of the inner structure is visible at the fibulae. In addition to this example, there are three other breaks. There are no visible inclusions. pendants in the form of boars, all in the recumbent position: a pendant in New York, a more schematic 232

example in London (British Museum 77), and a softer B.C. with boar devices, such as that of Clazomenae and type, one of the numerous pendants from Tomb 102 at Samos, should bear fruitful results. Braida di Vaglio.2 The boars-as-bows of fibulae are standing: an example in Cleveland arches its back (the The wild boar plays an important role in European myth, animal is similar in form and style to 76.AO.84);3 the for it was perhaps the most ferocious wild animal in fibula bow in a London private collection is stiff and Europe once lions were extinct. In Greek myth, Peleus simplified in modeling and unrelated to any other Greek was chased up a tree by a lion and a boar; Atys (the son of or Etruscan representation.4 Also probably meant to Croisus), Attis, and Adonis were slain by boars. Ultimately, represent a recumbent boar is a small amber in London it was the boar sent by Artemis (furious that King Oeneus (BM 76), titled by Donald Strong “pendant in the form of of Calydonia had forgotten to include the goddess in his the foreparts of a pig.”5 annual sacrifices to the gods) that led to the death of Meleager. In style, these wild boars invite comparison with contemporary Archaic representations in other media— As a symbol, device, or amulet the boar could work small bronzes, coins, gems, and paintings on vases. The amuletically by assimilation: the wearer, object, or boars of 76.AO.84, 77.AO.83, the New York plaque, and the building would take on the characteristics of the animal. Cleveland fibula bow decoration compare especially well In direct magic, a boar could frighten off danger and by with the boar represented on an amygdaloidal serpentine extension was protective. The boar is a common blazon gem in Berlin, which has been connected to Melos.6 The on Archaic armor; it might be woven into the decoration ambers and the gem share common forms of eyes, ears, of a divine robe or mounted as protection on a building. whiskers, and mane, to cite but four key traits. They also Boar waterspouts on the corners of a sima might play an share many sculptural similarities with a number of small even more important role than lions’ heads flanking the sculpted bronze boars: a winged boar at bay in the sides of a temple. Norbert Schimmel collection;7 a close parallel in the 8 Although many ancient representations of the foreparts of Hispanic Society, New York; a relative of theirs, although an active boar, including winged boars, exist—on gems, later and without wings, in the Walters Museum in on coins, and as the blazons of shields painted on Archaic- Baltimore;9 and two early-fifth-century bronzes, a period Greek vases—much rarer is the recumbent boar, Campanian (possibly) wild boar at bay from a large, whether complete or excerpted, as in the case of the circular vessel in Boston10 and a standing boar, one of the foreparts. In general, a recumbent animal is a tamed or Etruscan votive bronzes from the votive deposit of Fonte sleeping animal, not an active one, and this may be key to Veneziana, Arezzo.11 The two winged boars in New York its magical function. The 76.AO.84 boar may be latently present both dating and location problems, as Hans powerful; it rests in readiness, its aggressiveness to be Hoffman outlined. The stylistic conventions for (the few called upon when needed to viciously protect its charge extant) sculpted boars are virtually identical with those of and attack danger. the boars painted on Early and Middle Corinthian pottery. The absence of a break in the bronze boars’ manes, their NOTES taut modeling, and the rich use of incision argue against an Ionian origin for the bronzes. Hoffman concluded that 1. Fragmentary boar plaque: Metropolitan Museum of Art the two are Greek and to be dated to the second half of the 1992.11.17, Purchase, Renée and Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic sixth century, a general attribution and date appropriate Fund, Patti Cadby Birch, and The Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. also for 76.AO.84. Gifts, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992. 76.AO.84 may have come from the same original context 2. Boar pendant (Etruscan or Italic) in New York: Metropolitan as the kore (76.AO.77, cat. no. 8) and three of the ram’s- Museum of Art 1992.11.16, Purchase, Renée and Robert A. Belfer head pendants in the Getty collection: 76.AO.82 (cat. no. Philanthropic Fund, Patti Cadby Birch, and The Joseph Rosen 39), 76.AO.83 (cat. no. 40), and 77.AO.81.7 (cat. no. 41). This Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992 (Art is plausible because of the similar condition and the of the Classical World 2007, pp. 295, 473, no. 341). Boar-foreparts similar style of the five carvings. It is suggested in the pendant in London: British Museum 77 (Strong 1966, p. 81, no. 77, pl. XXIX). Pendant from Tomb 102, Braida di Vaglio: Bottini entry for the kore that it is a work of a South Ionian and Setari 2003, p. 40, pl. XLV, no. 133. artisan. The resemblance of 76.AO.84 to the Melian- attributed Greek serpentine gemstone might support an 3. Cleveland Museum of Art 1978.124. East Greek connection. Further comparisons with early 4. Unpublished. East Greek coinage of the late sixth to mid-fifth century Cat. no. 37 233

5. Strong 1966, p. 81, no. 76, pl. XXIX. 9. D. K. Hill, Catalogue of the Classical Bronze Sculpture in the Walters 6. Berlin, Antikensammlung: A. Fürtwangler, Die antiken Gemmen Art Gallery (Baltimore, 1949), no. 275, also cited by Hoffman (see (Leipzig, 1900), no. 92; J. Boardman, Island Gems (London, 1963), n. 7, above). p. 23, no. 2, pl. 1; E. Zwierlein-Diehl, Antike Gemmen in deutschen 10. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 10.163 (from Sirolo): Comstock and Sammlungen 2. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Vermeule 1971, p. 309, no. 435. Antikenabteilung, Berlin (Munich, 1969), no. 115, pl. 272; and 11. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 294: Colonna 1985, pp. Hampe and Simon 1981, p. 196, figs. 306–7. 174–79, no. 10.2; P. Bocci Paccini, “Alcuni bronzetti arcaici della 7. Norbert Schimmel Collection 1974, no. 24 (H. Hoffman). ‘Fonte Veneziana,’” in Studi di Antichità in Onore di Guglielmo 8. Ibid. cites as parallel the bronze boar in the Hispanic Society, Maetzke(Florence, 1984), pp. 119–23; and P. Bocci Paccini, “La New York; for which, see A. Garcia y Bellido, Hispanica Graeca 2 stipe delle Fonte Veneziana ad Arezzo,” StEtr 48 (1980): 73–91 (1948): 28, 95–96, no. 13. (with additional bibl.); also illustrated in Civiltà degli Etruschi 1985, p. 251, fig. 3.25. Like many of the other bronzes in the deposit, the boar is strongly Ionian in style. 234 BOARS

38. Plaque: Addorsed Lions’ Heads with Boar in Relief amber-oil distillate, which probably darkened its color. The background area is more matte in appearance than the (shinier) boar. The piece is darkish tan to brownish red in ambient light and is a dark ruby-red in transmitted light. There are no visible inclusions. Description In the central obverse panel of the flat, rectangular piece, a left-facing boar is carved in shallow relief (on the reverse, the central area is plain). The boar fills the panel, its forelegs extended widely, with its right foreleg back and its left forward. The rear legs are closer to each other, with the right hind leg at the back and the left hind leg forward. Accession 77.AO.83 The boar’s heavy head is in the relaxed position that is Number associated with walking; its chin is on the same level as its Culture Etruscan abdomen. The top of the head dishes in slightly above the Date 500–480 B.C. snout, which is long and pointed. The large, squarish almond-shaped eye is set low in the face and is framed Dimensions Height: 36 mm; width: 82 mm; depth: 12 mm; above by a heavy bulge. Only the lower part of the ear Length of boar: 46 mm; Height of left lion’s remains, the top obscured by one of the repairs. head: 23 mm; Height of right lion’s head: 26 mm; Weight: 19 g A ridge of bristles extends from the forehead and appears Subjects Artemis; Boar; Etruscan culture; Lion to continue all the way to the lower back. Swellings at the shoulder and above the elbow suggest the animal’s powerful musculature. The full-tipped tail hangs down Provenance behind the animal’s hocks. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. The heads of two open-mouthed lions, facing outward, Paul Getty Museum, 1977. flank the boar. While the lions’ heads are similar, they are Condition not identical. The two obverse profiles are more carefully detailed than are those on the reverse. The head Before its entry into the museum, the piece was broken composed of the obverse right and reverse left is larger into five pieces and repaired. The breaks, along or and more fully modeled; the ruff is more plastically through four of the five vertical perforations, were filled rendered, and it has fully defined ears on both sides. The with a tan resinlike material, creating a banded head composed of the obverse left and reverse right is appearance. The surface is stable, its upper surface layers smaller and more sketchily treated, and its volumes are mottled yellow-brown, with sporadic pitting, small chips simplified. at the edges of the breaks, and fine cracks overall. Yellow Despite all this, the two lions’ heads may be considered residue of degraded amber appears in cracks around the typologically to be of one style. The face is short and the outline of the boar and behind the lions’ heads, around muzzle is flat and slightly inclined. A bulge above the the lions’ eyes, and in their mouths and manes. After it protrusion of the eye and the depression of the cheek arrived at the museum, the object was treated with below the eye socket are rendered naturalistically. The 235

snout continues the incline of the head, but the nose tilts Campanian bronzes found at sites on the mid-Adriatic: a up very slightly at the tip. The muzzle is divided by an lion in Boston (from the marshes of Sirolo),4 which was indented philtrum, and the folds are separated by four once the rim or shoulder decoration of a lebes or another wrinkles. The lips are drawn back, revealing a set of small large, circular vessel, and a lion from a dinos rim from teeth, both sets of canines, and the gum ridges. The tongue Amendolara (in Ancona).5 The bronzes and amber lions’ is outstretched. The lower lip is boldly scalloped, and the heads have in common facial shape and modeling, chin is short and globular. A sharp indentation sets off the especially around the eyes, and have similarly scalloped angle of the mane from the jaw. The collar of mane is flews, angular breaks at the jaws and mane, and flamelike wider at the top, tapering and curving inward at the neck. locks. The individual hanks of hair, formed into unevenly shaped triangles, are set off from the face by shallow From the same vessel as the Boston lion is a bronze boar indentations but still give the impression of growing from at bay. It is related in type and style to the boar of the head; at the back, they are squared off. On the edges 77.AO.83, as is the bronze boar votive from the are the compacted frontal faces of the lions. extraurban deposit of Fonte Veneziana, Arezzo, in Florence.6 Each is sculpted with a sympathetic Engraved tooling lines are found on the lions’ manes, simplification of the features and softness and subtlety in teeth, eyes, noses, nostrils, and muzzle wrinkles. Such the modeling. The boar of the amber plaque and the two marks are also found on the boar’s back and above its bronze boars are the slim creatures of the sixth century, hooves. Linear abrasions (which appear to be file marks) not the heavier-set creatures of fifth-century Greek are seen on the lions’ jaw flaps and manes, and scraping gemstones. or abrasion marks appear around the contour of the boar. The boar and the lions of 77.AO.83 are tame beasts. The The piece is perforated vertically with five holes. Each boar gives little indication of its legendary strength or its hole was drilled from top and bottom: the holes meet viciousness when at bay; instead, the most dangerous midway. From left to right on the obverse, the holes in set beast to roam the ancient countryside and the fiercest a (above left lion’s ear) are 2 mm top and bottom; set b adversary of the most skilled hunter trots meekly to stage (behind boar’s ear), 2 mm top, 2.3 mm bottom; set c (at left. The lions of 77.AO.83 make the motion of roaring but boar’s mid-body), 2 mm top, 1.75 mm bottom; set d (at instead only drop their nutcrackerlike jaws, tamely rear termination of boar’s bristles), 2 mm top, 1.8 mm opening their mouths. bottom; and set e (behind lion’s mane), 2 mm top and bottom. Neither the top nor the bottom edge of the piece is Based on the form of the amber plaque, the horizontal truly flat. The upper edge of the pendant is slightly orientation of the subjects, and the five large vertical convex, while the lower has soft, concave undulations. perforations of equal size and placement that transverse it, it might be supposed that the plaque was part of a Discussion complex object. Strands must have run through the piece, with those above connecting to another section of this There is no parallel for this plaque in amber or in any object, a necklace, or a fibula. Those below may have other material. It is one of three pre-Roman-period attached another section, or perhaps terminated in small examples of figured amber plaques with low-relief pendants. Alternatively, the plaque may have been the carving. The two others are the Getty Addorsed Sphinxes main portion of a comb. If the body of a comb, it may (78.AO.286.2, cat. no. 28) and a hemispherical plaque with have resembled the earlier ivory comb with sphinxes a recumbent boar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.1 from the Tomb of Ivories, Marsiliana d’Albegna.7 The Getty plaque is very like ivory carving and can be compared to a wide number of Etruscan ivory and bone Why the combination of boars’ and lions’ heads on an plaques.2 In the modeling of the figures and the depth of amber plaque? In northern Europe, in the Greek-speaking the carving, the plaque looks back to the ninth-century world, and in Italy, but not in Egypt, the boar was an ivory plaques, from Assyria and North Syria especially, especially important subject, in particular for protective made for insertion into furniture. purposes.8 It is common as a device on armor and figures as the subject of waterspouts (but only on the corners of The lions of 77.AO.83 are generally comparable to a simas). Lions could serve as protective and danger- number of Etruscan lions of the Late Archaic, a large and averting symbols and represented the sun and varied group gathered together by W. L. Brown, with the regeneration. The boar was the most ferocious animal in closest parallels dating to the fifth century.3 In style and the pantheon of the hunt. The most famous boars scale, the plaque finials are related to two small, possibly recounted in Greek tales were the ravaging boars of the 236 BOARS

countryside, best known from the important hunts whom was likely the recipient of this amber. The use of organized to destroy them, which include Herakles’ killing boars and the pairing of boars with other animals of the of the Erymanthean boar and the hunt for the Calydonian hunt might have been the most powerful kind of “fighting boar. And as Ivan Mazarov notes, fire with fire” imagery. Like the wild youth, the boar is a largely NOTES undifferentiated creature: it is both herbivorous and predatory, and although it lives on land, it prefers 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.11.17, Purchase, Renée and marshes and swamps. Since ancient times, the boar Robert A. Belfer Philanthropic Fund, Patti Cadby Birch, and The has been a recurring metaphor for the ferocious Joseph Rosen Foundation Inc. Gifts, and Harris Brisbane Dick warrior. It has also signified death.… The boar could Fund, 1992. test the hero’s virtue. If he won, the powers of the 2. For Etruscan ivory carving generally, see Y. Huls, Ivoires d’Étrurie defeated antagonist passed on to him. In Thrace, the (Brussels, 1957); and M. Martelli,“Gli avori tardo-arcaici: principal adversary of a pretender to the Thracian Botteghe e aree di diffusione,” in Il commercio etrusco arcaico: kingship was the wild boar.9 Atti dell’Incontro di Studi, 5–7 dicembre 1983 (Rome, 1985), pp. The imagery of this amber plaque might have been 207–48. suitable for both male and female owners. If it was found 3. Brown 1960, chaps. 6, 9. in a woman’s or child’s tomb, the association of the boar 4. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 10.162 (circa 480 B.C.): Comstock in the feminine realm would be of importance. The and Vermeule 1971, p. 309, no. 435. pendant may refer to Artemis in her aspect as Agrotera (or to the Etruscan Artumes). As the goddess of the hunt, 5. C. Albizzatti, Dedalo 1 (1920): 153–61, pl. 157; and H. Jucker, AA the divinity roamed mountain forests and uncultivated (1967): 628–29, fig 17f. land hunting for wild animals, including especially lions 6. Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 294: see cat. no. 37, n. but also panthers, hinds, stags, hares, and boars. As a wild 11. and fierce animal, the boar was regarded as a symbol of one side of the goddess’s nature, capable of unleashing 7. Grosseto, Museo Archeologico e d’Arte della Maremma 93437: sudden, violent destruction on humans and property, and Bartoloni et al. 2000, p. 133, no. 89; and Civiltà degli Etruschi her sacred buildings were often decorated with images of 1985, no. 3.14.23. boars’ heads.10 8. The boar is rarely represented in Egyptian art, but in at least two The joining of lion and walking boar on 77.AO.83 is wall paintings the animal is connected with Seth, the archenemy significant. The two animals are featured in combat or of Osiris. The animal was almost never the subject of body adornment, but some small amulets are known: figurines with a paired in calmer modes throughout ancient art. The sow nursing her litter were intended to endow their owners with subjects are common shield devices in Greek and fecundity, fertility, and good luck, a subject carried over into Etruscan art, both individually and in combat. The two Greek engraved hard stones (see Andrews 1994, p. 26; and P. F. animals are also linked in one of the early stories of Greek Houlihan, The Animal World of the Pharaohs [New York and myth: Adrastus, the king of Argos, had learned from an London, 1996], pp. 25–28). oracle that he must yoke his daughters to a boar and a 9. I. Mazarov, ed., Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians, lion. He then saw Polynices and Tydeus, an exile from Treasures from the Republic of Bulgaria, exh. cat. (New York, Calydon, fighting. One of them had a boar painted on his 1998), pp. 59–60. shield, the other a lion. Adrastus immediately recognized the true meaning of the oracle, stopped the fight, and 10. SeeBevan 1986. married his daughters to the combatants. In the Iliad, the 11. Iliad 16.823. On the imagery of boars and lions in Archaic Greek combat of two great warriors is likened to that of a boar art, see, for example, F. Hölscher, Die Bedeutung archaischer and a lion.11 Artemis, alternatively, may be the key to this Tierkampfbilder (Würzburg, 1972); and for the hunting of representation in amber. She is associated with both wild animals, J. K. Anderson, Hunting in the Ancient World (Berkeley, animals and was a protector of women and girls, one of 1985). Cat. no. 38 237

Rams’ Heads The subject of a ram or ram’s head for adornment, included a range of flying figures, perhaps harpies or amulets, and amuletic jewelry is age-old, and the animal sirens.2 is one of the earliest to appear in these forms. Rams’ heads are among the most numerous of pre-Roman The parallels for the amber heads in other media have led amber subjects and range considerably in style.1 The to the conclusion that the earliest amber rams’ heads earliest ones can be dated to the third quarter of the sixth were made in the second half of the sixth century, in an century B.C., but the first documented examples date to ambient where Greek specialists (Laconians, Ionians, the last decade of the sixth. There are a number from Islanders, and other Eastern Greeks) were working, but fifth-century contexts and a group from the fourth the locations are elusive. Comparanda for the sixth- century. Some, such as 76.AO.82 (cat. no. 39), are minor century amber rams’ heads include the rams on the masterpieces of Archaic art, while others are vaguely handles of Greek bronze vessels, especially Laconian blocked out and defined with schematic scratchings. The ware, and on other kinds of Greek bronzes—statuettes, differences among the rams’ heads throughout the period mirrors, and other utensils; the sheep subjects engraved of their production suggest that they were made by any on Ionian Greek gems; a singular silver ram pendant in number of carvers, some highly skilled, others not, for New York; the pairs of rams on a silver East Greek acquirers from all parts of the Italian peninsula and areas oinochoe found in Lydia; and the rams’ heads struck on coinage from Cyzicus, Cyprus, Lesbos, Delphi, and Melos.3 within close sailing distance. The findspots include central and south Italy, two sites in ancient Illyria, and Alalia Plastic vases in the form of recumbent rams and ram (Corsica). Many others that can be dated by style to the protomes, the small plastic ram protomes on Greek and sixth and fifth centuries have come to light without secure Etruscan ceramics, and the drawings of rams on black- documentation. Of the examples in the Getty collection, and red-figured vases of various fabrics also provide a three are dated here by style to the sixth century, and mine of further comparanda. twelve examples to the fifth. Most of the amber rams’ heads appear to date to the fifth Amber rams’ heads are usually found in pairs or larger century. Parallels include gold works dated by specialists numbers, along with other amber objects—figured and to the late sixth century, but which may be later. These plain pendants, beads, and fibulae. In the sixth century, include a Greek gold ram’s-head pendant from Eretria in rams’ heads were the most numerous of all figured Berlin, and a gold fibula with the tip in the form of a ram’s head from Ruvo in London.4The amber rams’ heads subjects in amber. They were joined with korai; female head-pendants; birds; heads of lions, boars, gazelles, and dated to the second half of the fifth century have several horses; and floral and shell subjects. Ram subjects in good comparisons in precious metals, among them a gold amber are not documented in the company of human or necklace with nine rams’ heads excavated from a tomb of humanoid male subjects—satyrs, Dionysos, Herakles, or circa 450–425 at Roccanova and the spiral earrings any of the other unnamed bearded or unbearded males ornamented with rams’ heads worn by the nymph Arethusa on Syracusan tetradrachms of 405 B.C.5 represented in amber. Rare, too, is the interment of ram subjects with demonic subjects. Two exceptions are the The best evidence for early-fourth-century amber rams’ rams’ heads from Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, which heads comes from a sporadic find at Cumae and three also included a sphinx, and the rams’ heads in the Petit graves from the Andriuolo necropolis at Paestum, the Palais, Paris, from the Sala Consilina burial, which also latter datable to circa 380–370 B.C.6 In each case, rams’ 238

heads were all part of necklaces that also included female Monte Abatone necropolis, Cerveteri) is a reclining heads. Both types are schematic. woman who wears a necklace with seven pendants, two of them rams’ heads.15 The male banqueter painted in the An important antecedent for the joining of rams’ heads pediment of the main wall of the Tomb of Hunting and and other figured elements in jewelry is the “Island Fishing at Tarquinia wears three ram pendants on a Greek” or Lydian (perhaps) crescent-shaped gold pendant carrier. In addition, several necklaces (one with three from Aydın (Tralles) of about 600 B.C.7 In addition to lions’ heads) hang from branches in the grove of the first rams’ heads, this pectoral pendant includes the figure of chamber of the same tomb.16 The rams’ heads (amber) Potnia Theron with snakes, rosettes, and sun disks, and worn by the Monte Abatone figure are painted reddish in griffins’, lions’, and bulls’ heads. Potnia Theron is the color, the same color of the two tiny beads at the top of divinity who oversees plant life, the creatures and the necklace, in contrast with the yellow-orange (perhaps demons of the earth, the chthonic realm, and the sky. The gold) central pendants. The three rams’ heads worn by the Aydın pendant thus might be read as the ontological male banqueter in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing are statement of a divinity of great fecundity and the same reddish color as his skin and contrast in color protectiveness. Despite the difference in scale, the role of with the yellow- and white-limned vessels (perhaps of the ram here is similar to that of the ram protomes of the shiny bronze or silver) held by the banquet’s participants. large stone perirrhanterion, the ritual purification basin, The ram’s-head necklace in the first chamber is also from the Isthmian sanctuary of Poseidon: the bowl is held painted a reddish color, in contrast with the yellow- up by women who stand on lions, holding them by leash orange palmette and lion pendants (also gold, perhaps) in and tail, interspersed with large rams’ heads.8 A ritual 17 the murals of the first chamber. object such as the seventh-century terracotta lamp from a Gela sanctuary (the rams alternate with female protomes) Erika Simon interpreted the trees of the first chamber of may be an excerpt of such an ontological declaration.9 the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing as laurels and a sacred grove of Apollo as further evidence supporting her larger Rams’ heads are also a popular subject of “Phoenician” argument concerning the importance of Apollo in the glass pendants10 and the subject of one uncommon type funerary art and customs of Etruria (in contrast to his of Egyptian scaraboid, a blue frit amulet of the earlier Greek nature).18 If the grove is indeed Apollo’s and the sixth century made at Naucratis.11 The blue frit animal-head necklaces hanging from the trees are of scaraboids are unusual in their treatment as seals with amber, this could be taken as further evidence of the representational motifs or inscriptions on the flat sides. connections between amber, Apollo, and life in the tomb Their distribution is significant: Greece, the Black Sea, as well as the funereal realm. Although the rams’ heads Magna Graecia (Taranto), and one example from depicted in southern Etruria predate by several decades Cerveteri.12 Related Egyptian amulet types, representing the Delphic coin types with confronted pairs of mounted the king of the gods, Amun Ra, are the flat-backed amulets rams’ heads (perhaps pendants rather than rhyta), the of a ram’s head with a disk and uraeus, or uraeus alone, in coins may substantiate the Apollonian connection.19 hollow gold and lapis lazuli as well as glazed-composition Alternatively, it is possible that the tomb is Dionysian, as and frit, a feature of burials from the Third Intermediate Sybille Haynes argues.20 Stephan Steingräber points out period onward.13 Such is the role of the rams’ heads 21 its Dionysian aspects. flanking the necks on the pair of glazed-composition flasks found in the “Isis Tomb” at the Polledrara cemetery The ram has always enjoyed favor as a potent symbol at Vulci (British Museum GR 1850.2-27.57): the pair of because of the animal’s legendary strength and virility rams’ heads invoke Amun, and the hieroglyphic (and hence its creative powers), and its characteristics as inscription expresses greetings for the New Year, a a leader and protector of his flock. In the ancient Near potentially dangerous time of transition, just as was East, and from earliest times throughout the death. Mediterranean, the ram was associated with powerful divinities and heroic figures, wealth and the elite, and Archaic representations of ram’s-head pendants in use sacrifice. In South Italy, ivory figurines of recumbent include sculpted and painted examples, worn by both animals, including the ram (decorations of fibulae, for the females and males, both deities and mortals. Some most part), were excavated at Motte delle Timpone examples are telling: the terracotta statuette of an (Francavilla Marittima).22 At Argos and Perachora in enthroned chthonic(?) female deity from Agrigento wears Greece, ivory ram figurines have appeared in sanctuaries three superimposed pectoral strings, with bull, ram, and devoted to Hera, and at Ephesus, in that of Artemis. The satyr heads.14 The subject of a terracotta urn lid (from the single greatest number of ivory rams has come from the Rams’ Heads 239

sanctuary of Ortheia (Artemis Orthia) at Sparta. In each Throughout Greek culture, the ram figures prominently case, the ram is linked with a powerful female divinity as a metaphor of strength and courage (thus the and a potent and high-value material. The series of early- association with Ares). Accordingly, Homeric heroes are sixth-century bronze Laconian hydriai (whose shape likened to thick-fleeced lambs (Iliad 3.197). In Attic vase might be directly connected with women) with vertical painting, rams are sometimes represented in an explicitly handles animated by female heads, recumbent rams, and sacrificial context. More commonly, the context is heroic, lion could be other instances of this affiliation.23 The with the ram’s sacrificial role implicit only. Such is the fourth-century necklaces with rams’ and women’s heads case in the story of Phrixos, or of Odysseus. Both the ram from Paestum, the last gasp of pre-Roman amber carving, that carried Odysseus from the Cyclops’s cave (Odyssey may reflect the same pairing. 9.436ff.) and Phrixos’s mount are sacrificed as soon as The traditional importance of the ram’s head as a subject they have finished their tasks. Their sacrifice is part of the in the ancient Near East is exemplified by two lapis lazuli story. The emblematic power of the Golden Fleece recalls pendants dating to the third millennium, possibly from the story of Atreus and Thyestes: the kingdom belonged to Iran, and by a calcite Jemdet-Nasr-period amulet-seal of him who owned the golden lamb. circa 3000 B.C.24 In Egypt, the ram was connected to Almost all of the small-scale individual rams’ heads have several key deities.25 The ram with downturned horns been found in graves or, in the case of their was a symbol of the god Amun, and when he wore the representation in art, in funerary settings. This is critical solar disk between his horns or incorporated other solar to a better understanding of the subject in adornment. iconography, the ram’s head was one of two guises of Although ram’s-head adornments might be hung from Amun Ra (the other was a goose). A ram’s head in amber, trees in a painting, and worn by both male and female the subject enhanced and focused by the material from reclining figures, the amber heads from documented which the amulet was made, would put its wearer under contexts have come exclusively from female tombs. It is the protection of the deity represented and would by likely that in each burial, the rams’ heads functioned as assimilation offer the wearer access to its particular ornament and amulet, the subject and material powers.26 combining to create an elite object, a potent ornament, The ram, the most highly valued and sexually potent of one with a battery of allusions—religious, divine, heroic, domestic animals, was from earliest times the most mythic, magical. It may also have worked in aggressive prestigious sacrificial victim. Greek drinking vessels magic or medicine. Many Late Antique gems are engraved (rhyta) in the form of rams’ heads are the most numerous with a ram-headed god, one wearing the symbol of the by far and had an ancient ancestry. In Greece, the ram’s- sun (based on Amun Ra), and are specifically connected head rhyton, as Hans Hoffman first argued, is associated with the uterus. Such amulets were thought to check any with tragic heroes (he who must die, i.e., be sacrificed morbid condition, to prevent conception, or to favor and 27 facilitate parturition.29 himself). A ram’s head might have been worn to show the The solar aspects of amber may well have underscored patronage of, or devotion to, a deity. For a Greek or an the connection of the pendant subjects with regeneration, Etruscan, a ram’s-head pendant may have been an exotic, with the Egyptian ba, with solar divinities, with heroes “Oriental” magical amulet, a talisman of protection, one (Odysseus, Phrixos, or Jason), or with a magical figure that symbolized the power or knowledge of Egypt, the such as Medea. The Aydın (Tralles) pendant suggests the Punic world, or the Near East. place of the ram in the universe of a powerful female nature divinity. Of the Olympian gods, if Apollo (the solar In the Greek-speaking world, the most famous stories of divinity) were brought to mind (and to work) by the ram’s the ram’s apotropaic powers concern acts by Hermes, the head, then perhaps there was an association with his son Olympian responsible for the increase and protection of Phaethon and the Heliades—whose shining tears shed in flocks. At Tanagra, Hermes averted a pestilence from the mourning for their brother Phaethon were hardened by city by carrying a ram around its walls. A series of ram- the sun and turned into amber. If Hermes was evoked, it bearer statuettes found at Medma (Calabria) attest to the might allude to not only his legendary magical act at widespread influence of the cult of Hermes in the West.28 Tanagra, but also his role—and the ram’s—as It was Hermes, too, who sent the golden ram that flew psychopompos. As this survey reflects, the subject of ram Phrixos to safety in Colchis. The magic of the volant ram imagery in ancient art deserves continued study.30 did not cease at its sacrifice: the Golden Fleece displayed in the grove of Ares was believed to be magical. 240 RAMS’ HEADS

NOTES plastic art.) She sees Artemis’s role in this unique object (the 1. Recumbent and couchant rams of amber are much rarer than only perirrhanterion to have rams’ heads) as that of a protective rams’ heads. This author knows of only one complete ram from guardian, or goddess outside the doors. a controlled excavation dating to the fifth century B.C.: a 9. Museo Archeologico Regionale di Gela 7711 (from the necklace with eighty-four plain beads and a ram pendant from extraurban sanctuary of Predio Sola, Gela): P. Orlandini, “Gela: Tomb 21, a collective grave in the cemetery of Valle Oscura La stipe votiva del Predio Sola,” MonAnt 46, no. 1 (1963): 33–41, (Marianopoli) of circa 530–470 (Marianopoli, Museo figs. 14–16, pls. 8 ac, 9 ab. Archeologico 925: R. Panvini in Pugliese Carratelli 1996, p. 694, 10. Very few rod-formed glass pendants in the form of a ram’s head no. 44). Ram pendants are among the earliest subjects for are preserved. The type is first found in the seventh century, in a amulets and for ornamentation in the ancient Near East. In small, not very carefully executed version, and survives down to Greece, bronze ram pendants are current in the Late Geometric: the first century B.C. The later examples are larger and are seeLangdon 1993, p. 148; I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in rendered more naturalistically. The heads are of white or dark Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zür spätgeometrischen Zeit glass, the horns in the opposite color. The animal’s eyes, ears, (Munich, 1979), pp. 186–88; and C. Rolley, Les statuettes de and horns are various colors. The various kinds of “Phoenician” bronze, vol. 5 of Fouilles de Delphes (Paris, 1969), p. 81, no. 120, pl. glass pendants (bearded male heads, demonic heads, rams’ 21. heads, birds, bells, grape bunches, and phalloi) were made the 2. For Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, see Bottini and Setari 2003. For centerpieces of precious metal necklaces throughout the the Sala Consilina ambers in the Petit Palais, see introduction, n. Mediterranean. The few examples from controlled excavations 219. in Italy have come from graves. The rams are attributed to 3. Stibbe 2006 (esp. chap. 3) has looked closely at the rams of the Carthaginian workshops. See Uberti 1988, p. 482, no. 758; E. M. handles of bronze vessels. Nevertheless, much remains to be Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 done in the analysis of the animals. BC–AD 50: The Ernesto Wolf Collection (Ostfilden, 1994), pp. 180, 190–91; D. F. Grose, ed., Early Ancient Glass (New York, 1989), pp. 4. For the Greek gold ram’s head from a necklace (Berlin, 82–83; V. Tatton-Brown, “Rod-Formed Glass Pendants and Antikensammlung GI 15), see B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechische Beads of the 1st Millennium,” in Greek and Roman Glass, vol. 1, Goldschmuck(Mainz, 1985), p. 121, no. 69; for the London gold ed. D. B. Harden (London, 1981), pp. 152–53; and M. Seefried, fibula, Marshall 1911, no. 1408; and Higgins 1980, pl. 30A. “Glass Core Pendants Found in the Mediterranean Area,” Journal of Glass Studies 21 (1979): 17–26. One seventh-century example 5. For the necklace from Roccanova (Taranto, Museo Archeologico from Narce was strung with gold repoussé pendants in the form Nazionale 6452–59, 6461–63), Guzzo 1993, p. 230, VC6. For the of winged Hathoric figures: see Marshall 1911, no. 1453, pl. 23. Syracusan tetradrachm (a comparison first made by Higgins The late Catherine Lees Causey was of essential aid with the 1980, p. 128), see, for example, E. Boehringer, Die Münzen von glass literature. Syrakus (Berlin, 1929), no. 423. 11. A. F. Gorton, “Lions’ and Rams’ Heads,” in Tsetskhladze et al. 6. The now-lost tomb contents of a sporadic find from the 2000, pp. 110–14 (with previous bibl.), believes “the frit rams are Cumaean necropolis were recorded in 1913 by E. Gabrici, undoubtedly the inspiration for the later Greek gold rams’ “Cuma,”MonAnt22 (1913): col. 91, fig. 37. At the Paestum heads pendant seals, such as the example in London from necropolis, two rams’ heads were found in the early-fourth- Kourion.” century Tomb 19 (Museo Archeologico Nazionale 24904: Pontrandolfo Greco 1977, p. 51–52, figs. 18, 1, and 22, 6), three 12. For the Taranto example, see Hölbl 1979, vol. 2, p. 214, pl. 63.3; dating to the beginning of the second quarter of the fourth and for the Cerveteri seal, ibid., p. 29, no. 98. References are century come from Tomb 22 (21330: ibid., p. 36, figs. 2, 4 and 2, from Gorton 2000 (see n. 11, above). 8), and three from the early third quarter of the fourth century 13. Andrews 1994, p. 30. See also Waarsenburg 1995, p. 445, n. 1219. were found in Tomb 20 (24962: ibid., p. 37, figs. 3, 2 and 3, 6). 7. Paris, Louvre: BCH 3 (1879): pls. 4–5; and Higgins 1980, p. 115. 14. Agrigento, Museo Archeologico Regionale “P. Orso” AG 1145 (from the 1953–55 excavations, sector to the southwest of the 8. Corinth Museum, numerous fragments: M. C. Sturgeon, Isthmia: sanctuary of the chthonic deities): G. Castellana in Pugliese Excavations by the University of Chicago under the Auspices of the Carratelli 1996, p. 683, no. 96; and E. De Miro, Le Valle dei Templi American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. 4, Sculpture I: (Palermo, 1994), p. 59, fig. 61. Strings of boukrania (as several 1952–1967(Princeton, 1987), no. 1. The sculpted basin, which superimposed pectoral ornaments held in place by attachments stood guard over the entrance to Poseidon’s shrine, was for at the shoulders) are worn by some Archaic female divinities ritual purification. Sturgeon believes that the caryatid female from Magna Graecia. A votive mask phenotype from the figures represent the Mistress of the Animals and calls her extraurban sanctuary of Predio Sola at Gela wears two Artemis, considering the lions’ and rams’ heads to reinforce the necklaces, one of taurine heads, the other possibly of acorns: iconography. (She notes the rarity of rams’ heads in Greek Rams’ Heads 241

see R. Panvini in Pugliese Carratelli 1996, p. 680, no. 93. See also 24. One of the lapis lazuli rams’-head pendants is in the the terracotta seated deities from Athana Lindia. Metropolitan Museum of Art (55.65.8), and the other is in the 15. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 167: illustrated in Norbert Schimmel collection, New York; for the latter, see P. O. Haynes 2000, fig. 177. Harper in Norbert Schimmel Collection 1974, no. 102. For the calcite amulet-seal of a ram’s head, see Norbert Schimmel 16. SeeSteingräber 2006 (with earlier bibl.). Collection 1974, no. 103. 17. In the banqueting scene of the second chamber, the jewelry 25. Andrews 1994, pp. 15, 30. worn by the female banqueter and many of the vessels of 26. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 3571: Johansen 1994, pp. 86–88, no. 37 metallic shapes are painted white or yellow-orange. (from which this summary is taken). 18. Simon 1973 (see “Lions’ Heads” introduction, n. 22); and E. 27. H. Hoffman, Sotades: Symbols of Immortality on Greek Vases Simon, “Apollo in Eturia,” Annali della Fondazione per il Museo (Oxford, 1997), p. 12. “Claudio Faina” 5 (1998): 119–48. 19. For the Delphi coins with paired rams’ heads (or rhyta, as first 28. For the cult of Hermes in Medma, see M. Paoletti, “I culti di identified by C. Seltman, supported by C. M. Kraay), see Kraay Medma,” inSantuari della Magna Grecia in Calabria, exh. cat., ed. 1976, p. 121, with reference to C. Seltman, A Book of Greek Coins E. Lattanzi et al. (Naples, 1996), pp. 95–97. For Medma, see (London, 1952), p. 14. Paoletti and Settis 1981. For a recent collation of bibliography on the kriophoroi of the region and the subject generally, see M. T. 20. See “Lions’ Heads” introduction, n. 22. Iannelli in Magna Graecia 2002, p. 189, no. 30. 21. Steingräber 2006, p. 95. 29. Bonner 1950, p. 85. 22. These are among the oldest excavated parallels for recumbent 30. Unlike the rich literature on the horse and the lion in ancient art, rams on fibulae. to my knowledge there is no corresponding analysis of ram imagery. The topic is a rich one, and the in-depth studies of 23. Ram attachments are found on the upper and lower ends of some classes of material, Greek bronze vessel attachments (e.g., bronze vessel handles in company with various other subjects. Stibbe 2006) and Greek vase rhyta (Hoffman 1997, in n. 27, Among them are nude male figures that hold lions by the tail above), lead the way. Research should reveal not only and stand on rams, suggesting a wider interpretation for the something about artistic approaches to the subject and the subjects. transmission and modulation of imagery but also some understanding about ramrealia. 242 RAMS’ HEADS

39. Pendant: Ram’s Head is red-orange, and under strong light the core of the amber appears transparent and bright red-orange. No inclusions are evident. There are some tiny patches of yellowish residue on the surface. Description The ram is extraordinary for its morphological specificity. The zygomatic process arches upward in a dramatic, swelling curve, and the eye sockets are deeply drilled. It is possible that inlaid eyes were originally inserted in these cavities. At the inner corner of the eye, three lines indicate folds of flesh below the eye. The ears are sharply raised from the surface of the horn. Five lines are incised across the lower nose and slope down toward the mouth. The nostrils are carved in shallow relief. Accession 76.AO.82 Finely spaced diagonal cross-hatching defines the fleece Number on both poll and cheeks. The horns are relieved from the cap of fleece. Regular, evenly spaced ridges are incised for Culture Etruscan two-thirds of the length of the horn, three more lines are Date 525–480 B.C. indicated at the midpoint of the remaining third, and one last ring circles the tip of the horn. The horn tips splay Dimensions Length: 36 mm; width: 20 mm; depth: 18 away from the face. The pattern of ridges is meticulously mm; Weight: 9 g rendered, with a gentle undulation in the line; the spacing Subjects Ionia, Greece (also Ionian, Greek); Jewelry; between the ridges narrows from the base toward the tip. Ram The anatomical detail of this pendant, combined with the interplay in the surface pattern and the precision in Provenance artisanship, marks this as the work of a master artisan. The counterpoint created by the placement of the curved, –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. striated pattern of the ridges of the horns adjacent to the Paul Getty Museum, 1976. reticulated cross-hatching of the fleece offers but one Condition example of the maker’s careful attention to detail. The pendant is in good condition, with only minor Unpolished tool marks lie deep in the curve of the horns; modern chipping at the animal’s right horn (at the base) this was perhaps done to create shading. In other areas and on the lower lip and right jaw. The surface is sound, that would have been more difficult to finish, such as the but there is considerable crazing and many areas where sharp angle of intersection between the rings of the horns small flakes have chipped off. The caudal edge at the base and the fleece, the tool marks are polished out. plate has been rabbeted, most likely to fit into a now- Discussion missing metal mount. Part of the back has been broken off, revealing two plugged bores embedded with the This head of a ram may have come from the same original remains of metal (silver?) wire or pins. Traces of metal context as four other pendants in the Getty collection. The corrosion product surround the attachments. The surface five—76.AO.82 (this ram’s head), the rams’ heads 76.AO.83 243

(cat. no. 40) and 77.AO.81.7 (cat. no. 41), the foreparts of a 76.AO.83and77.AO.81.7have the same pattern of spacing. boar pendant76.AO.84(cat. no. 37), and the kore pendant The representation of the fleece is identical on 76.AO.82 76.AO.77(cat. no. 8)—share a similar state of and76.AO.83(it may once have been the same on the conservation, technique, and style. All have very similar more worn example77.AO.81.7). A filament threaded hollowed-out eyes and show a similar use of the graver through a perforation in the collar area suspended the and of polishers. The kore pendant is attributed here to a ram’s head 76.AO.83. The decorative suspension device is South Ionian artisan, or to one trained with an artisan very like that of the boar and kore pendants. The other from the area, on the basis of comparison to terracottas two rams’ heads, 76.AO.82 and 77.AO.81.7, must have and marbles. There is no such corresponding body of been set into metal mounts, for they both have broken material for the other four pedants. bores that once held metal pins (the breaks may have been caused by the expansion of metal corrosion products The three rams’ heads are very much alike, and although over the long period of the burial). It is possible that generally similar to many other amber rams or rams’ 76.AO.82 and 77.AO.81.7 were originally carved with heads, they have no close counterparts. These three are incorporated devices and that the metal mounts are later comparable in the deep V-shape of the horns on the top of additions. the head, the deep relief of the fleece from the neck, and the wavy, closely spaced ridges of the horns. The ridges of 244 RAMS’ HEADS

40. Pendant: Ram’s Head Getty Museum collection) have obscured some finer details. One inclusion is visible at the nose. In ambient light, the head is dark brown with a reddish tint; in transmitted illumination, it is bright red-brown where translucent. Description The pendant form and the animal are very similar to the rams76.AO.82(cat. no. 39) and 77.AO.81.7 (cat. no. 41). Four lines cross the nose and slope down toward the corners of the mouth. Beneath the eyes are three small incised folds that curve toward the ear. The chin slopes smoothly upward under the overhanging upper lip; the underside of the chin is flat. The horns are relieved from Accession 76.AO.83 the fleece. The missing horn tips would have turned Number outward. The poll, the cheeks, and the back of the head Culture Etruscan are cross-hatched. The horns are well elevated above the skull, and their ridges are closely spaced straight grooves Date 525–480 B.C. extending two-thirds of the way from the root to the tip. Dimensions Length: 24 mm; width: 19.5 mm; depth: 15.5 Two additional rings occur at the midpoint of the last mm; Weight: 4.0 g third of the horns. In comparison to 76.AO.82, the ears are upright, the muzzle is longer, and there is a more Subjects Inclusions; Ram prominent rise or bump on the bridge of the muzzle. Provenance Two 1.5 mm perforations at opposite edges of the back do not meet, suggesting that they were drilled after a metal –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. mount was placed on the amber. A 3 mm stopped bore of Paul Getty Museum, 1976. indeterminate purpose is drilled into the back. The collar is bordered by a molded detail consisting of a small fillet Condition surmounted by an ovolo topped by another fillet. There are clear abrasion marks in the molding. The head is in good condition, intact with small chips at Discussion the tips of the horns and overall fine surface cracking. A portion of the base is broken away. Wear, degradation, See the entry for 76.AO.82. and a varnishlike coating (applied before entry into the 245

41. Pendant: Ram’s Head Condition The pendant shows old breaks and chips as well as modern breaks, including at the tip of the ram’s nose. There is extensive surface loss and chipping, at times deep, along the throat, neck, and horns. A large fissure is near the point where the back meets the surface at the lower neck. The amber is dark red-brown when viewed in ambient light, but transparency is evident in the areas of the modern chips. In transmitted light, the amber is dark red. Description This pendant is very like both 76.AO.82 (cat. no. 39) and 76.AO.83(cat. no. 40), but it is closer in details and Accession 77.AO.81.7 conception to 76.AO.82. It may be by the same hand. The Number surviving parts of the eyes are almost identical in treatment to those of 76.AO.82. There is fine, closely Culture Etruscan spaced cross-hatch engraving on the nape of the neck and Date 525–480 B.C. top of the head. Wavy parallel lines define the horn surfaces and contrast with this cross-hatching. Dimensions Length: 40 mm; width: 24 mm; depth: 22 mm; Weight: 10.8 g Abrasion marks remain on the back. The base is sharply recessed, which suggests that this flange is functional Subjects Ram rather than ornamental. A metal cap or mount probably once covered the caudal end. Two 2 mm lateral bores are Provenance drilled from opposite sides of the pendant, but they do not meet. A fragment of metal remains in the right socket. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Discussion Paul Getty Museum, 1977. See the entry for 76.AO.82. 246

42. Pendant: Ram’s Head chip missing from the base, which leaves the suspension hole exposed. The amber is laced with fine, widely spaced cracks. An inclusion is visible at the throat. The amber is dark brown in ambient light, perhaps due to consolidation with amber oil. There is some yellow-ocher degradation residue in the carved interstices. In transmitted light, the pendant appears dark red. Some transparency is noted in the areas of modern chips. A 2 mm horizontal perforation for suspension runs through the collar area of the back, about 1 mm below the surface. Probable metallic residue remains in the stopped bore on the proper right side of the head. Description The head is finely rendered. Incised wavy ridges on the Accession 77.AO.81.11 horns begin at the forehead and extend to the intersection Number with the tip of the ear; the remaining involution of the Culture Italic or Etruscan horn is smooth. The tips of the horn flare outward. The eyelid is distinct, with a sharp outer edge, and the eye Date 500–400 B.C. sockets are deeply bored. The cap of fleece on the poll Dimensions Length: 21 mm; width: 18 mm; depth: 15 mm; rises above the plane of the face; the separation is Weight: 33.3 g delineated by a lateral incision. Shallow cross-hatching indicates the fleece on the poll and over the neck area. Subjects Ram The depression of the throat is indicated by a faintly incised triangle under the mandible. The upper lip Provenance overhangs the lower lip, and the chin is rendered distinctly. The nostrils are incised. The ears are long, –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. straight, and narrow and lie flat on the horns, with an Paul Getty Museum, 1977. incised line visible in the middle of the ear. Condition Discussion The pendant is largely intact, except for a chip missing See the entry for 76.AO.82 (cat. no. 39). from the tip of the left horn and a large, wedge-shaped 247

43. Pendant: Ram’s Head Getty Museum. There is some loss associated with this area. The surface was apparently treated with a consolidant, such as amber oil. The surface has ocher- colored degradation material in interstices, particularly on the throat. The amber is a dull red-brown except for the shiny areas of the exposed fractured inner surface, which show the material’s transparency. In transmitted light, the pendant is dark red. The only visible inclusion is in the fissure that rises to the surface at the back. Description The pendant is almost tubular. The horns do not rise higher than the poll, and they curve out timidly. The muzzle is somewhat squared off. The eye sockets are Accession 77.AO.81.13 hollowed. The broad, flat nose has a ridgeline across its Number tip, much in the way that the nostrils of some pre-Roman Culture Italic or Etruscan amber lions are indicated (see, for example, 77.AO.81.10, Date 500–450 B.C. cat. no. 36). The line extending from each inner canthus along the length of the nose is clearly indicated. The Dimensions Length: 32.5 mm; width: 19 mm; depth: 15 underside of the chin is flat. The upper lip puffs out mm; Weight: 5.3 g slightly on both sides of the mouth. Subjects Ram The poll rises between the base of the horns from a shallow but broad V-shaped incision centered on the Provenance forehead; it then spreads outward, curling around and behind the eyes. A pattern of minute, shallow cross- –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. hatched incisions defines the fleece across the forehead Paul Getty Museum, 1977. and on the cheeks. Shallow, regular incisions circle each Condition horn, whose surface is then smooth from the point of the ear to the tip of the horn. The pendant is largely intact, although there are several A 1.5 mm perforation runs through the suspension device, small old chips at the throat, on the back, and on the rear which is decorated with a bead-and-reel design. and bottom of the left horn; there is a modern chip on the right horn. Each upper eyelid has small chip losses. A Discussion section on the right side of the suspension device was broken off and reglued before the pendant’s entry into the This pendant has no close parallel. 248

44. Pendant: Ram’s Head at the inner tip of the left horn. There is a shallow crack on the right cheek. There is also a small vertical crack extending from the tip of the nose to the upper lip. The surface, firm with a slight granular appearance, may have been treated with a consolidant. In ambient light, the pendant is dull brown. In transmitted light, the piece is dark red and opaque. Description This pendant is almost cylindrical. The eyes and eye areas are plastically modeled: the eyes are almond-shaped, the inner canthi recessed, the lids indicated, and the eyebrow arches prominent. The small ears lie flat against the horns. The muzzle is broad and somewhat truncated; the nares are carved in a V-shape. The upper lip is Accession 77.AO.81.14 naturalistically full and hangs over the lower one. The Number throat is almost flat, except for a slight concavity behind the chin. The horns originate from a domed poll, which Culture Italic rises sharply from the plane of the face. The base of each Date 500–400 B.C. horn has six engraved lines; the rest of the horn’s surface is smooth. The tips of the horns project outward. At the Dimensions Length: 30 mm; width: 20 mm; depth: 19 base of the pendant is a collar, which is made up of an mm; Weight: 6 g indented ring and a flaring terminus. Subjects Ram The pendant was hung from a triangular system of holes: a 2 mm perforation passes horizontally within the Provenance indented ring section of the collar and joins to another perforation 2 mm in diameter in the center of the back. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Discussion Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Condition Despite its small size, this pendant reveals many idiosyncratic elements of the animal: the plastic eye area, The pendant is intact except for large chips at the back, the form of the mouth, and the shape of the head. behind the left ear, at the right side of the upper lip, and 249

45. Pendant: Ram’s Head cavity is simplified, the salient features indicated. The plastic, almond-shaped eyes are defined by surrounding incised grooves. The area below the eye is flat and the arch raised. A short, shallow groove extends downward from the inner corner of each eye toward a deeply incised naris. The division between the face and the fleece is sharp, with the line of the wool sweeping in a curve behind the eyes. The upper edge of the fleece is cut away sharply over each ear, resulting in a ledgelike ridge. Each horn is encircled with fourteen or sixteen closely spaced engraved ridges that extend from the base of the horn to a point just past the intersection with the tip of the ear. The remainder of the horn is smooth. The horns have sharp ends and flare outward. The collar area is narrower in Accession 77.AO.81.15 circumference than the neck; it is an inverted flute or a Number flute with narrow fillets on either side. Culture Italic A deep groove, 1.5 mm wide, begins at the upper edge of Date 500–400 B.C. the back and extends 8 mm into the area between the horns, probably the result of removing a fault in the Dimensions Length: 36 mm; width: 19 mm; depth: 15 mm; material. Two other grooves, 8 and 10 mm long, also likely Weight: 5.8 g resulting from fault removal, are located diagonally Subjects Ram across the underside of the neck. Two 1.5 mm perforations were drilled 4 mm apart in the center of the Provenance back. The perforations are obstructed with dirt. It is possible that a filament was threaded through the holes. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. The pendant would have hung head downward. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Discussion Condition This head and the next four—77.AO.81.16 (cat. no. 46), The pendant is intact except for a chip on the proper right 77.AO.81.17 (cat. no. 47), 77.AO.81.18 (cat. no. 48), and edge of the pendant back and minute chips at the tip of 77.AO.81.19 (cat. no. 49)—look to be by the same hand. each horn. The surface shows crazing. The pendant has a 77.AO.81.16 has a similar diamond-shaped poll and reddish brown patina, with some yellow mottling at the similar widely spaced ridges on the horns. The eyes are forehead, at the left naris, and under the chin. The plastically modeled, which is especially apparent when pendant may have been consolidated with amber oil. It is the pendant is viewed on the dorsal side. The upper edge transparent in ambient light. In transmitted light, the is sharply cut away over each ear, resulting in a ledgelike pendant is bright orange, and fine subsurface cracking is ridge. In profile, the animals show the same visible. No inclusions are evident. morphological features of the lower part of the head: they both have a long, narrow muzzle with a flat or slightly Description concave chin and neck. 77.AO.81.17 is very much like this pair, but it has a different decorative finial. One of the The ram of this pendant has a long and sleek head, the rams’ heads in London (British Museum 82) is especially tapering muzzle tipping down as in nature. The ocular close in form to 77.AO.81.15.1 250

NOTES 1. Strong 1966, p. 83, no. 82, pl. XXX. Cat. no. 45 251

46. Pendant: Ram’s Head 49)—are attributed here to the same hand and are thus described as a group in this entry. (The previous head 77.AO.81.15, cat. no. 45 is also likely by the same hand.) Three—77.AO.81.16,77.AO.81.17, and 77.AO.81.19—are nearly identical in weight, mass, type, form, and style. All four have nearly identical plastic suspension devices incorporated into the pendant design: in each, a hole is drilled through the neck, and not through the device. 77.AO.81.18 is slightly different, showing a greater affinity to live sheep, the head being higher and deeper, and the angle of the lower skull more natural. The other three heads are in comparison longer and narrower in profile and more slender in top or bottom view. Identical Accession 77.AO.81.16 features of all four include the shape of the hollow eyes— Number hemispheric concavities with heavy overhanging lids. All Culture Italic four have fleece indicated on the poll, the back of the neck, and the cheeks, with fine, irregularly spaced cross- Date 500–400 B.C. hatching. The horns of each are carinated from base to tip Dimensions Length: 32 mm; width: 16 mm; depth: 13 mm; in a chevron pattern, and in each small ears lie directly on Weight: 3.5 g the horns. On the upper side, the ears are cut away, Subjects Ram leaving small, shelflike plateaus. On each, the rendering of the ears and the horns is especially careful. The head of 77.AO.81.16 is longer and more slender than the heads of Provenance the other three. On all four, tiny V-shaped incisions indicate the nares. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Traces of tools remain on all the pendants, indicating the Condition use of a sharp tool (or sharp edge) for the cross-hatching, a graver, and abrasive materials for the polishing. Inside The pendant is intact, with only minute chips at the tip of one of the sets of holes, the marks of a drill are apparent. the left ear and at the tip of the right horn. There is On all four of the pendants in this group, the hole for crazing overall. Several cracks are visible, most notably suspension is located in the neck, very near to the plane under the left side of the chin. There is a small vertical of the back. The holes range in diameter from 1.62 mm to crack extending across the left side of the mouth. The 2.2 mm. All four pendants would have hung nose piece has been treated with amber oil. The surface is a downward. dark, dull red. In transmitted light, the pendant is dark Discussion red but does not itself transmit very much light. No inclusions are evident. The differences among the pendants of this group are Description probably owing to the form of the original drops of amber from which they were made. In the case of this pendant, This head and the following three—77.AO.81.17 (cat. no. the blank must have been more rectangular than those of 47), 77.AO.81.18 (cat. no. 48), and 77.AO.81.19 (cat. no. the other three. 252

47. Pendant: Ram’s Head Condition The pendant is intact, with only small chips missing from the tip of the left ear and the tips of both horns. The amber is laced with cracks. The piece has been treated with amber oil. The pendant surface is a dull, blackish red. In transmitted light, subsurface cracking is visible and the pendant is deep red. Description This pendant is nearly identical to the previous example (77.AO.81.16, cat. no. 46), with similar line engraving. However, the underside of this head is subtly marked by a Accession 77.AO.81.17 slight depression along the line of the throat. Number The 1 mm perforation for suspension passes through the Culture Italic neck portion of the pendant; fragments of metal possibly remain in the holes. Date 500–400 B.C. Discussion Dimensions Length: 30.5 mm; width: 18.5 mm; depth: 13 mm; Weight: 3.9 g The differences between this pendant and 77.AO.81.16 are Subjects Ram slight: this pendant weighs slightly more and is minutely shorter in length and wider. This pendant reveals the Provenance removal of a fault in the amber in the underside of the head. It also retains fragments of metal in the perforation. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. 253

48. Pendant: Ram’s Head generally soft and the surface abraded. The surface is crazed overall; there are no visible inclusions. The piece is a light red-brown, with dusty yellow degradation in areas with incised detail and crevices. In transmitted light, the amber is orange. Description The head of the ram is broad, full, and relatively short from nose to base. In profile, the nose is arched; the nares are slightly incised. A U-shaped incision marks the mouth. The ears are cut away on the upper side, leaving small, shelflike plateaus. A ridge indicating the fleece rises sharply from the center of the poll and sweeps around each eye to the cheek. The fleece on the cheeks is Accession 77.AO.81.18 rendered by irregularly spaced, shallow cross-hatching. Number The eyes are unevenly carved, with the right eye shallower and smaller than the left. The outer edges of the Culture Italic horns are carinated and ringed with ridges that extend Date 500–400 B.C. from the poll to the tips of the ears in a chevron pattern. The horns flare widely on the forehead, and the poll rises Dimensions Length: 28 mm; width: 20.5 mm; depth: 15 slightly at the joining of the horns. The area between chin mm; Weight: 4.4 g and neck is flat. Subjects Ram The short neck terminates in a base plate with a raised bead-and-reel molding, through which a 2 mm Provenance perforation for suspension has been drilled. The pendant would have hung nose downward. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. Discussion Condition See the entry for 77.AO.81.16 (cat. no. 46). In comparison to the other three pendants in this group—77.AO.81.16, The pendant is intact except for a weathered pit loss in 77.AO.81.17 (cat. no. 47), and 77.AO.81.19 (cat. no. 49)—the the midsection of the right horn and a large area of nose is more arched, the neck shorter, the head tilted breakage in the throat area. Small chip losses are found at downward, and the ears more worn. This pendant is also the tips of the horns, on the right side of the upper lip, and the heaviest of the four. on the suspension device (bead-and-reel) base. Details are 254

49. Pendant: Ram’s Head Condition The pendant is in a very good state of preservation, except for tiny chips missing from the right lip, the back of the neck, and the tip of the left horn. Only the chip from the horn appears to be recent. A web of cracks covers the surface of the piece, several of which have yellowish residue in them. The pendant is a dull red-brown, with yellowish surface alteration layers on the left cheek and especially on the underside of the pendant. The surface is opaque. In transmitted light, the amber is translucent and red. There are no visible inclusions. Accession 77.AO.81.19 Description Number In comparison to the other three rams placed in this Culture Italic group—77.AO.81.16(cat. no. 46), 77.AO.81.17 (cat. no. 47), and77.AO.81.18(cat. no. 48)—the nose is broader and its Date 500–400 B.C. tip blunter and the horns more flattened against the head. Dimensions Length: 27.5 mm; width: 20.5 mm; depth: 12.5 The ram’s neck is cylindrical on top and flatter on the mm; Weight: 3.6 g throat. All of these distinguishing features may indicate the limitations of the original amber nodule. Subjects Ram Discussion Provenance See the entry for 77.AO.81.16. The 1.6 mm suspension –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. perforation has remains of metal. Paul Getty Museum, 1977. 255

50. Pendant: Ram’s Head translucent and red and an extensive crack network underlying the surface is seen. There are no visible inclusions. Description Viewed dorsally, the ram’s head is narrow and triangular, flaring only slightly from the tip of the nose to the back of the head. In profile, the head is more triangular in shape than most rams’ heads in the Getty group. The plane of the face is delineated from the fleece by a shallow incision. The eye is amygdaloidal in shape, outlined with an engraved line, and a line indicates the tear ducts. The temple area swells slightly above the plane of the face. In profile, the nose curves smoothly downward. The right nostril is carved more deeply and is wider than the left. Accession 77.AO.81.21 The ears are plastically modeled and lie flat on the horns. Number Seven ridges are carved between the root of the horn on the forehead and the horn’s intersection with the tip of Culture Italic the ear. In profile, the horns are broad and flat. The chin Date 500–400 B.C. and throat area has a slight swelling at the jugular notch. The collar area is set off from the animal by a crudely Dimensions Length: 25.5 mm; width: 14 mm; depth: 17 engraved line. On the base is a low, rectangular device mm; Weight: 3.0 g that is schematically carved. Two horizontal lines cross Subjects Ram the base, and vertical lines are incised at both sides. Natural holes in the amber, perhaps resulting from Provenance original, now-missing inclusions, are evident under the neck and the left ear. The surface is worn, but traces of a –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. sawlike edge tool are visible on the horns and on the Paul Getty Museum, 1977. pseudo-suspension device; traces of a graver appear Condition around the eyes and the poll. A 2 mm perforation for suspension has been bored laterally about 1 mm through The pendant is intact except for a modern chip on the the collar section. The pendant would have hung head proper right side at the base. A fine fracture line extends downward. from the bottom of the proper left horn to the center of Discussion the lower jaw. There is a deep gouge in the throat area and a small deterioration hole in the left cheek. The This head is very similar in shape to 77.AO.81.18 (cat. no. surface may have been consolidated with amber oil, 48), but the execution is much more schematic in most resulting in a semiglossy, light brown surface color in details, with the exception of the tear duct extension, ambient light. In the incisions are found dusty yellow- which is anatomically precise. brown encrustations. In transmitted light, the amber is 256

51. Pendant: Ram’s Head red, shiny, and somewhat translucent. In transmitted light, the amber is orange-red. There is an inclusion in the partially cleaned cavity at the throat. Description In profile view, the head is a rectangle, broken only by the downward slope of the nose and the downward tilt of the chin. In top or bottom view, the head is triangular. The neck section is short. The pendant terminates in a pseudo- mount decoration that is larger in circumference than the neck. The somewhat cursory portrayal of the anatomy includes a more specific description of some features. The eyes have a slight bulge above for the arch, are plastic, and display a realistically long tear duct line; the ears Accession 77.AO.81.22 show the swelling of the antitragus and the curve of the Number helix; and the chin is swelled and the throat subtly Culture Italic concave. The line of the mouth slants backward and downward. The ridges of the horns are suggested by five Date 500–400 B.C. broad grooves between the poll and the ear (the rest of Dimensions Length: 23 mm; width: 16 mm; depth: 12 mm; the horns are plain). The horn tips flare outward from the Weight: 2.2 g face. The cap of fleece is distinguished from the plane of Subjects Ram the face by a shallow incision line. The limits of the original shape of the amber nodule might Provenance be indicated by the flatness of the horns. Abrasion marks remain along the periphery of the cavity at the throat –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. area. The collar of the pseudo-mount is made up of two Paul Getty Museum, 1977. engraved lines. On the back is a bead-and-reel–like device Condition consisting of four broad vertical grooves. A 1.5 mm perforation for suspension passes laterally through the The pendant is intact except for a tiny chip on the tip of two engraved lines at the collar. the right horn. The surface retains much of its polish, Discussion even though there are many fine cracks and crazing over its entirety. Some dusty yellowish residue is evident in the This ram’s head is by a hand different from that of any incisions, and dirt or encrustation remains in the other in the Getty collection, and it has no related parallel. suspension perforation. In ambient light, the pendant is 257

52. Finial(?): Ram’s Head Description This ram is schematically rendered in comparison to most of the other ram pendants in the Getty collection. It has a broad, semicircular nose and a very low forehead. The muzzle is long and rounded. The horns divide into broad, flat volutes; the ridges on the horns are indicated by five deep and widely spaced horizontal incisions. The ears are represented by sunken amygdaloidal cavities beneath the horns near the top of the head rather than at the sides. A deep incision over the eye and an equally deep incision over the cheek are devices that serve to raise the eye away from the plane of the face. On the back is an oval Accession 77.AO.81.12 raised section of amber delineated with five grooves Number (perhaps a pseudo-suspension finial). Culture Italic There is wearing on the prominent surfaces, but the marks of a graver remain on the cheeks, throat, and chin. Date 500–400 B.C. The grooves on the back appear to have been made by a Dimensions Length: 41 mm; width: 27 mm; depth: 29 mm; sawlike rasping with a straight edge. There are two Weight: 11.1 g perforations through the pendant, either of which may Subjects Jewelry; Ram have been used for suspension. A small bore, 1 mm in diameter, passes laterally through the pendant at the base of the head; the nostrils are perforated with a 2 mm bore. Provenance Discussion –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. This ram has no parallel known to me for the morphology Paul Getty Museum, 1977. of the animal or the style. I also know of no other pseudo- Condition suspension finial. The pendant is of considerable size, one of the largest known, and is comparable to the two largest The pendant is intact and in good condition, although the pendants from the sixth-century B.C. Braida di Vaglio surface is worn, as if from handling. The surface of the Tomb 102.1Two unusual aspects of this pendant are its amber appears to be crazed, and fissures are visible on two sets of holes and the wear on its prominent areas. It is the underside of the pendant. There is a small chip loss to also the only example that has a perforation through the the lower edge of the nose, and a shallow fissure runs nose. This pendant may have been used at some time as a partially across the back. Numerous small scratches mar finial for a necklace, since it is not uncommon for finial the surface and may be the result of heavy polishing. The heads to meet nose to nose in ancient gold jewelry. pendant appears to have been treated with amber oil. In ambient light, the amber is red-brown. Some slight NOTES subsurface cracking is visible and the piece is bright red in transmitted light. Many inclusions are present. 1. For the amber from Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio, see introduction, n. 276. For the ram’s head, see Bottini and Setari 2003, p. 40, no. 134, pl. XLVI. 258

53. Spout or Finial: Ram’s Head on the left horn may be ancient, as the rest of the horn curves around the flaw. The surface is covered by a thin, light tan alteration crust; freshly exposed areas have deteriorated further, to a yellow-ocher. In some areas, the surface appears slightly granular. Additionally, the surface is crazed and has yellowish residue in the cracks. The piece is yellowish gray in ambient light. At the break, the piece is orange. In transmitted light, it is opaque. Description The ram’s head is long and slender, with a sloping muzzle. A slight ridge sets the fleece of the poll and cheeks off from the muzzle and horns. The surviving, left horn Accession 82.AO.161.4 spirals in an oval, with irregular grooves indicating Number ridges. The eyes are closed. A shallow groove surrounds the muzzle; no other features are indicated. Culture Italic A large perforation, 10 mm at the base and narrowing to 3 Date 500–400 B.C. mm at the tip of the nose, runs through the pendant, likely Dimensions Length: 26 mm; width: 17 mm; depth: 13 mm; for suspension. This form of suspension perforation is Weight: 1.5 g rare for amber pendants. Subjects Jewelry; Ram Discussion Provenance The longitudinal suspension perforation and the schematic carving suggest that this head served as the –1982, Jiří Frel, 1923–2006, and Faya Frel (Los Angeles, spout of a small vessel, a design element of a ring, or the CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. small finial of a necklace. The last is the most likely, since the opening is tapered toward the mouth, and the bottom Condition of the ram’s head is not flat. There are few Greek, Etruscan, or Italic examples of longitudinally perforated The piece is largely intact, suffering only a large break figured objects in amber or any other material (see also and loss to the right base of the right horn. A depression the Getty Lion’s Head 76.AO.81, cat. no. 34). 259

Other Animal Heads 260

54. Pendant: Bovine Head light. In transmitted light, the amber is translucent and a deep reddish orange, and extensive shallow cracking is apparent. There are no visible inclusions. Description Viewed in profile, this piece is slablike. Viewed frontally, the head’s rectangularity is emphasized by the width of the muzzle and the flatness of the mouth’s lower edge relative to the breadth of the head. The face, nose, and muzzle are smooth and almost level in plane, with the edge of the nares protruding just above this surface. The upper lip overhangs the lower, a groove separating the lips. The top of the pendant is flat; in front is the suspension spool and behind is the back of the animal’s head. Judging from the remains of the breaks, the horns Accession 77.AO.81.20 appear to have been about 1.5 mm in diameter at the Number base, likely curving outward and then upward. The eyes Culture Italic are high on the head, smallish, and plastically rendered, with the right eye in higher relief than the left. The ears, Date 500–400 B.C. drooping downward, are shaped like short, broad leaves. Dimensions Length: 35 mm; width: 24 mm; depth: 13 mm; The left ear is turned backward and is slightly more Weight: 5.8 g almond-shaped. The helixes are articulated by raised ridges; the ear openings are recessed. The decorative Subjects Animals; Amulets; Egypt suspension spool may have replaced the forelock. The reverse side of the pendant, which includes the chin and Provenance throat, is nearly flat. –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. The face’s slight asymmetry suggests that the pendant Paul Getty Museum, 1977. may be close in form to the original shape of the amber lump from which it was carved. A 1.5 mm perforation Condition passes laterally through a bead-and-reel device even with the poll of the horns. The suspension device is slightly The horns of the pendant are broken off, with only stubs concave from end to end and is divided into of exposed, unweathered amber remaining. The breaks approximately three beads by two grooves. A horizontal on the horns appear to be modern. A large chip on the groove separates the device from the head. With the right ear and small chips on the fronts of the ears and device carved into the forward part of the head, the nares also appear to be recent. The older degradation of pendant, when suspended, would lie flat, with the chin the surface has resulted in overall pocking, flaking flush against the surface upon which it lay. (especially on the forehead and the reverse of the Discussion pendant), and yellow-ocher material that is thickest in the larger craters and crevices, such as the interiors of the The physiognomy of 77.AO.81.20 is described as much by ears and the line of the mouth. Cracks are found under subtle changes of surface modeling and plastic form as by the chin and along the forehead, brow, and eyes. The linear definition. This pendant compares favorably with cortex varies from brown to dark red-brown in ambient two other schematic bovine-subject ambers, one in the 261

British Museum (BM 79)1and another on the London art the cow was considered to embody “all the most admired market. All three, despite their differences in style and aspects of motherhood: she was fertile, protective, and morphology, present as hanging, detached heads seen provided sustenance for her young,” and “from an from above. The poll and horns are at the top of the equally early period, she was associated with Hathor, and pendant and the muzzle at the bottom. They are flat, and later with Isis and the sky goddess Mehweret.”11 Amulets their appearance suggests that they were worked from of a thin frontal bovine head with strongly curving lyre- thin amber nodules. The undersides of all three are plain. shaped horns, first found in pre-Dynastic graves, are usually identified as cows’ heads; they are associated with The sculptural description of 77.AO.81.20 relies on smooth Bat or Hathor, who by the Middle Kingdom had planar transitions and modeling by abrasion; the others completely assimilated the former and all her are more harshly worked, with greater use of the graver. attributes.12 From the Eighteenth Dynasty until the end of Bovine subjects, not counting two couchant man-headed, dynastic history, these amulets were used to depict 2 Hathor.13 As Carol Andrews notes, “Hathor-head amulets bull-bodied pendants in London and Paris, are uncommon subjects in the corpus of pre-Roman figured made of gold may be a punning reference to her epithet, ‘the golden one.’”14 amber. In addition to the three taurine head-pendants, six other amber carvings with bovine subjects are extant. In the ancient Near East, the cow-and-calf motif is They represent standing or recumbent bulls, cows, and common from the Old Babylonian to the Neo-Assyrian calves. In every case, the head is reverted. The period and has antecedents in earlier Near Eastern art, composition of these animals and animal groups follows a significantly in Sumerian art. It often appears to be a time-hallowed couchant type, one of the earliest animal divine symbol and has been interpreted as an emblem of composition types in the Near East.3 The earliest example Ishtar or, perhaps more probably, of Ninhursaga, and was is the calf from the mid-seventh-century B.C. Tomb VI represented in apotropaic monumental sculpture at least grave at Satricum.4 Dating to the end of the sixth century 15 in Urartu. A rare Egyptian amulet type of the couchant is the recumbent bull (or cow) from Tomb 102 at Braida di calf, made of red-glazed faïence or cornelian, is possibly Vaglio.5 Three fifth-century examples include a double- 16 an amulet of rejuvenation. A newborn calf in Egypt is subject amber (a recumbent cow or calf and a scallop the symbol of the infant sun.17 A male kriophoros, or calf- shell) in Bologna,6 a pendant of a recumbent cow with a carrier, in Greek art may represent two solar subjects, milking calf (art market, New York), and a recumbent cow Apollo and the dawn. (once in the Gavin McKinley collection).7 The bow decoration of a fibula from Belmonte Piceno (a calf or cow In the opinion of this author, the softly modeled Getty attacked by a lion) is related.8 pendant represents a cow rather than a bull. If this golden, sun-bright pendant carried with it a Hathoric To confirm the sex and age of bovine-subject ambers is association, the maternal and protective aspects of the essential for understanding why the subject was carved in amber object would have been emphasized, for Hathor amber and how such ambers were used, whether during was the celestial mother of the sun calf, protectress of the the wearer’s lifetime or for funerary purposes. The necropolis, goddess of love and music, nurse of the symbolism of the bull is age-old and is connected to pharaoh, and consort of Horus.18 hunting and conquering the animal, to its fertility, and to its guardian role in herd protection. Bull images might be NOTES clanic or mythic and symbolize a divinity, hero, king, pharaoh, or other ruler. Bull amulets can be classified as 1. Strong 1966, pp. 81–82, no. 79, pl. XXX (said to come from amulets of assimilation, conferring directly to the wearer Armento). In style, this object is very like the pectoral ornament the strength and virility of the animal, or of protection heads from Roscigno: see Losi et al. 1993; Holloway and Nabers (especially if the subject was thought to symbolize a 1982; and La Genière 1967. divinity).9 Bull subjects were appropriate not only for a divinity or royalty; they also may have been specifically 2. The man-headed, bull-bodied carved ambers may represent the same kind of creature known in the Near East, a sun and fertility appropriate for an infant. As D. Plantzos, citing deity. Since amber had solar, fertility, and water-origin aspects, Menander, wrote, “A gold-plated iron ring with a device of the bull-human anthromorphs would have been doubly ‘bull or goat’ helps to identify a baby.”10 powerful if they incorporated ancient Near Eastern aspects. For Alternatively, if the ambers depict a cow rather than a the pendant in London, see Strong 1966, p. 77, no. 68, pl. XXVII; for the very similar but smaller amber in Paris, A. de Ridder, bull, the representation may incorporate other symbolic Musée Nationale du Louvre: Catalogue sommaire des bijoux aspects and divine allusions. From earliest times in Egypt, antiques (Paris, 1924), no. Bj 2123. 262 OTHER ANIMAL HEADS

Generally speaking, bovine subjects are not especially popular 7. I am indebted to the late Gavin McKinley, London and in Archaic and Early Classical–period Greek, Etruscan, and Italic Capetown, who generously encouraged my study of the jewelry. When they do appear, bulls walking, running, savaging pendant. other animals, or represented as prey are more common than 8. The lion-calf bow decoration was found in the same tomb with cows or calves in the repertoire of gems, finger rings, and other two other equally unique fibulae decorations, one representing precious metal objects. a pair of addorsed lion foreparts and the other a lion and 3. The oldest recumbent animal composition known to me is the lioness or a lion attacking a deer. See Negroni Catacchio 1989, Natufian stone young ungulate of ninth- to eighth-millennium pp. 675–76, figs. 484–86, 489, pl. 8 AC. date found at Umm ez-Zuweitina (Jerusalem, Rockefeller 9. Andrews 1994, p. 61. Archaeological Museum). See R. Neuville et al., Le paléolithique et le mésolithique du désert de Judée (Paris, 1951), pl. 14; and A. 10. Plantzos 1999, p. 19. See Menander, Epitrepontes 388–90. Spycket, La statuaire du Proche-Orient ancien (Leiden and Cologne, 1981), p. 26, pl. 17. See also Waarsenburg 1995, p. 436, 11. Andrews 1994, p. 61. n. 1169. 12. Ibid., p. 62. 4. Waarsenburg 1995. 13. Ibid., p. 20. 5. Bottini and Setari 2003, p. 40, no. 131, pl. XLV. 14. Ibid. 6. Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico (unnumbered). The find is 15. Black and Green 1992, p. 53. A unique Old Kingdom glazed from Tomb 144, from the 1878 find in the area of the Giardini steatite amulet of a cow with its head turned back to its milking Margherita. See Ambre 2007, pp. 126–27; and Negroni Catacchio calf may be directly related to ancient Near Eastern typology. 1989, p. 662, figs. 48–56. On the back is a representation of a Andrews 1994, p. 62, writes that it was found in a male burial cockleshell (Cardium edule). One other carved amber pendant in and that it may have been intended to provide the deceased the form of a shell (another cockleshell imitation?) is with a supply of milk to drink in the afterworld. documented from the large pectoral ornament of Tomb 102 at Braida di Vaglio: see Bottini and Setari 2003, p. 40, no. 128, pl. 16. Andrews 1994, p. 61. XLV. That Tomb 102 has both bovine- and shell-subject pendants in the long necklace is significant in light of the proposed 17. Desroches-Noblecourt 2006, pp. 22–24. subject of the Bologna amber. Cardium edule is an early 18. Andrews 1994, p. 20. amuletic form in Egypt, and one that has a long life in the circum-Mediterranean area. Cat. no. 54 263

55. Pendant: Horse’s Head in Profile brown, overcast by patches of light yellow and a rusty orange alteration surface layer. In transmitted light, the interior is a pale ruby color. There are no visible inclusions. Description The pendant, depicting the head and upper neck of a horse facing to the left, is plain on the reverse and worked on the obverse, with the design flowing onto the contiguous surfaces. The ventral termination occurs at the point just above the larynx, and the dorsal termination is at the base of the mane. The ocular orbit bulges from the continuous raised line of the eyelids and is fullest at the center and depressed at the canthi. The leaflike left ear points straight upward and overlaps the partially represented right ear. The helix of the left ear is indicated by a raised line, while the opening is recessed. At the forehead, a small protrusion represents the forelock; one strand of hair, marked by a shallow groove, is indicated below and to the right of the Accession 77.AO.81.6 suspension hole. Number From the lower edge of the forelock to the tip of the Culture Italic rounded nose, the line of the face is almost straight. The muzzle and nares sweep up around the large circular Date 500–400 B.C. indentation of the nostril. Below the eye is the protrusion Dimensions Height: 37 mm; width: 36 mm; depth: 18.5 mm; of the cheek, gently undercut to emphasize the bulge of Weight: 10.8 g the nares. The line from the jaw to the mouth bows gently outward and is fullest through the cheek. Subjects Animals; Amulets; Dionysos, cult of (also Satyr); Etruscan culture; Inclusions; Magic Behind the head is the fall of the mane, the hair rendered by eight unevenly spaced vertical grooves set at a slight Provenance diagonal angle parallel to the slant of the head. The edge of the mane is rounded but uneven and is set off from the –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. flank by a groove. Between the mane and the head is a Paul Getty Museum, 1977. triangular section of amber representing the chest of the Condition horse. The head is turned slightly toward the front. The oblong contour, concave reverse, and convex obverse The amber is intact, but the surface is in poor condition, imply the shape of the original amber nodule. At the degraded and grainy, with some old and weathered lower edge of the mane is a grooved indentation probably chipping and loss of surface detail at the tips of the ears created by the removal of a fault. Rare evidence of the use and the base of the neck. On the reverse are small recent of a pushed or driven tool is seen in the channel under and larger old chip losses. The surface is blotchy red- the chin, which retains a succession of rippled cuts along 264

the bottom, typical of a gouging tool. A 4.5 mm the Getty amber. The horse is of the type first seen in perforation for suspension passes through the front of the Orientalizing Greek vase painting of the seventh century, poll and exits behind the ears. Between them, cleverly for instance the horses in the lion-hunt scene on the Chigi worked into the design, is a stopped bore, likely a mortise vase (a proto-Corinthian olpe from Veii) or on the Melian- for some kind of addition. When the pendant is ware amphora in Athens decorated with a representation suspended from the perforation, it is diamond-shaped, of the Wedding of Herakles.6 Its lineage can be traced to with the muzzle angled downward and the large, almond- horses on Etrusco-Corinthian vases, and it is not far from shaped eye tilted upward. horses and hippocamps painted on Etruscan black-figure Discussion wares. Sculptural comparisons from Etruria and South Italy especially demonstrate its Italian heritage, among This head represents a horse as if in movement. Although them the bronze horse and rider from Grumento, of the mid-sixth century;7 a bronze horse of the late sixth it differs somewhat in style and type, it is of the same century, said to be from Locri, in New York;8 and a hand- general form as three of the five other known amber modeled terracotta of a horse (likely a patrice, or model pendants of horse subjects, a pendant in New York,1 a for a mold) in Basel from around 600 B.C.9 pendant in a London private collection, and another on the Swiss art market.2 Each one includes the head and The horse’s head is a popular subject in sixth-century neck of the animal in profile, with the head brought close Greek and Etruscan vase painting and in Etruscan to the body, the inside profile adjacent to the neck, and bucchero; it is found on coins, gems, bronze work, and the neck arched. The animal is couped just above the funerary reliefs. Horses’ heads are one of the many jugular notch. Each example is perforated so that the shapes of East Greece aryballoi.10 Horses’ heads are often horse’s head is in a natural position of movement. paired on bronze and bucchero objects.11 (Some seem to 77.AO.81.6 is discussed here as the head of a horse, but on be of hippocamps rather than horses.) Some scholars the analogy of the representation of some hippocamps in believe that the large, bridled horses of one class of Attic Etruscan art particularly, it may in fact be the head of a black-figure amphorae (peaked from the end of the hippocamp (see the entry for 78.AO.286.1, cat. no. 29). seventh century to the middle of the sixth) are the predecessors of the Panthenaic prize amphorae for Two other horse heads are each of a different type. One is equine events,12 but they may have played roles in other from a controlled excavation, Tomb 955 at Lavello-Casino, ceremonies or in funerary ritual. a “princely” tomb that provides important information The most likely explanation for the horses’ heads that about the context of figured ambers in the Basilicata. The encircle bucchero oinochoae and other shapes is that they woman buried in the fifth-century B.C. tomb was adorned had a funerary meaning. The number of vases, including with rich hair and body ornaments, including a girdle plastic vases in the form of horses’ heads, that have come with five amber pendants. The largest is a pendant in the from tombs suggests a direct connection between the form of the foreparts of a rearing bridled horse, three subject, the tomb, and afterworld concerns, a possibility others are illegible, and the fifth is a large female profile that deserves further attention. (This is not to deny the head-pendant.3The other horse subject is a pendant in London (British Museum 62, identified by Donald Strong importance of the horse as a status symbol, its class and as a grotesque head).4 The Getty, New York, and London clanic associations, on the importance of horses in the private collection pendants all have a double incised line elite culture of South Italy particularly.) The meaning of at the bottom of the head, which emphasizes their the horse’s head in other contexts may shed light on the bustlike format, and perhaps their meaning.5 subject’s “activity” as an ornament or amulet. On an Early Corinthian alabastron from Rhodes, what is the role of the The Getty horse’s head is an artistic combination of a curiously inserted large horse’s head behind a centaur patterned representation and subtle modeling, suggesting who grasps the arm of a woman? Does the scene that the carver integrated firsthand knowledge of the represent Cheiron and Chariklo?13 Horses’ heads appear animal into an established prototype. The amber can be on some large early-fourth-century Metapontine compared to Greek and Italian sculpture and vase terracotta reliefs of Dionysos-Hades reclining with a painting of the Archaic period. The shape and proportion kantharosin hand (he is also joined by Kore and Iacchos): of the almond-shaped eye (like all amber carvings, it is here the context of the horse’s head is directly connected characteristically without an incised pupil), the large to the cult of Dionysos-Hades.14 fleshy nose with round nostril, and the form of the mane and especially the poll may reveal the artistic heritage of Cat. no. 55 265

In the ancient Near East, the horse’s head, as Jeremy Black A horse’s head made from amber may have had added and Anthony Green point out, occurs as a divine symbol powers in warding away pain, for the horse was one of on a seal of second-millennium date and on Neo-Assyrian the many amulet types prescribed in Late Antiquity for seals, as well as on a kudurru of the Babylonian king abdominal pain19(which could include womb pain). As Nebuchadnezzar I (r. 1125–1104 B.C.), where a horse’s such, it would work in a “like banishes like” manner. An head may represent a constellation. In the Neo-Assyrian amber horse’s head might ward off particular demons period, the horse is the animal of the sun-god Šamaš (Utu), and dangers not only in life, but also after death, in the based on the associated winged disk.15 grave and on the voyage to the afterworld. If amber by itself could bring light into the tomb and symbolize the Why an ornament or amulet in the form of a horse’s sun’s regenerative power, a horse might bring it with the head? The subject is ancient: among the oldest known speed of the gods. At the very least, a horse’s head could amber amulets from the Baltic is an equine (or elk’s) head continue its protective and danger-averting functions, amulet of the Neolithic period.16 The single horse’s head is perpetually guarding the tomb. a rare subject in Egypt, the Aegean Islands, and Greece, which makes the subject’s appearance in the Phoenician NOTES world stand out. A significant find from Orientalizing Italy is a Phoenician ivory protome in the form of a 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art 24.97.117: Richter 1940, p. 32, fig. bridled, teeth-baring horse, which was included in the 103. furnishings of the Barberini Tomb at Praeneste.17 2. The other two heads are unpublished. Worn in life, the amber horse’s head as pendant may have 3. In Tomb 955, Lavello-Casino, the horse pendant was found on functioned as a sign of status: the horse, horse ownership, the front of the skeleton’s pelvic area (she was placed on her and the cavalier in the ancient world were markers of the back, with her legs drawn up, and turned to her right, as if in a political-religious elite. The horse might have acted as a seated position. The other large carved amber found in the metonym, naming the wearer as beautiful, or it might Lavello-Casino burial, an unparalleled type of female head- have alluded to the power of the horse-tamers of religio- pendant, was strung to the right of the horse pendant. For the mythological realms, or more directly to a heroic female head-pendant, see the superb study by D’Ercole 1995. ancestor. As a permanent amulet, used in direct or For the grave, see Bottini 1993; and Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 82. aggressive magic, a horse’s head might have conferred on 4. Strong 1966, pp. 74–75, no. 62, pl. XXIV. its wearer the qualities affiliated with the horse or horse ownership, or the qualities of a deity or hero whose 5. The same line (common on coins) is found on a few female attribute was equine. A shining golden horse carved from head-pendants, including two of the heads from Tomb 164 at solar amber could recall the great steeds that drew the Banzi: see Magie d’ambra 2005, pp. 122–23. chariot of the sun across the sky. Through magical 6. Theolpeis in Rome (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia VG assimilation, the wearer would be linked to Apollo, Eos, or 22679). The Melian amphora from Melos is in Athens (National Phaethon, for example. The link between the chariot of Archaeological Museum 354). the sun, the new sun, and new life would follow on and link it to the age-old beliefs about the solar aspects of 7. British Museum GR 1904,0703.1: Pugliese Carratelli 1996, p. 686, amber. Phaethon, Apollo’s son, never suffered old age, no. 113; and C. Rolley, La sculpture grecque, I: Des origines au milieu du Ve siècle (Paris, 1994), pp. 123–24. instead became immortal, and was mourned in perpetuity by his sisters, who wept tears of amber. Eos, or the 8. Metropolitan Museum of Art 58.180.1. Etruscan Thesan, is the manifestation of the morning sun and aggressively abducts and pursues young men, who, 9. Antikenmuseum, Collection Ludwig BO 153: A. Bignasca in too, will deny death. Thesan is an important solar and Orient und frühes Griechenland: Kunstwerke der Sammlung H. und kourotrophic deity in Etruscan religion, and as A. Carpino T. Bosshard, ed. P. Blome (Basel, 1990), pp. 115–16, no. 172. reminds us, Thesan’s love “could result in the attainment 10. See Jean Ducat, Les vases plastiques rhodiens archaïques en terre of immortality—the triumph over death.”18 In death, as a cuite, fasc. 209 (Paris, 1966), pp. 107–12, pl. XV. badge, a horse’s head might also have brought to believers 11. R. De Puma,CVA,United States of America, fasc. 31, The J. Paul a lasting tie with the cult of Dionysos-Hades, securing the Getty Museum, Malibu, fasc. 6 (Malibu, 1996), pl. 304 (with powers of the divinity for an individual’s salvation after extensive bibl.). death. 12. For recent discussion of horse’s-head amphorae, see Centaur’s Smile 2003, p. 45, n. 4 (with references). 266 OTHER ANIMAL HEADS

13. Rhodes, Archeological Museum 11150 (from Tomb 277 at 16. Now lost. From Juodkrante, formerly in the University Museum, Ialysos): CVA, Italy, fasc. 9, Rhodes, pl. 2.9; see also discussion Königsberg: illustrated first in R. Klebs, Stone Age Ornaments and illustration in Centaur’s Smile 2003, pp. 16–17, n. 97, fig. 13. (Königsberg, 1882), figs. 120–25. 14. Metaponto, Museo Archeologico Nazionale 135679 (from the 17. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia 13428: I Fenici Metaponto theater votive deposit, first half of the fourth century 1988, p. 744, no. 940; and C. D. Curtis, Sardis XIII: Jewelry and Gold B.C.): The Wine of Dionysos: Banquets of Gods and Men in Work(Rome, 1925), p. 34, n. 56, pl. 15. 79. Basilicata, exh. cat. (Rome, 2000), fig. 94. 18. A. Carpino, Discs of Splendor: The Relief Mirrors of the Etruscans 15. Black and Green 1992, pp. 103–4. (Madison, WI, 2003), p. 21, n. 109 (with references). 19. Bonner 1950, pp. 85–86. Cat. no. 55 267

56. Pendant: Asinine Head in Profile Condition The piece is broken off at the neck area at a fissure; the tip of the left ear is missing. There are overall surface cracks. Large fissures are found at the jaw, at the mouth, on the cheek, and on much of the surface of the reverse. The surface has a thick, pale yellow deterioration crust, but little flaking has occurred; there is a cloudy area at the jaw. In ambient light, the piece is entirely opaque, predominantly yellowish tan, with patches of reddish brown on the nose and the temple area. In other areas, such as below the eye, the ear, and at the back (neck area), the amber is gray. In transmitted light, the piece is light orange. There are numerous inclusions. Description The obverse is convex and figured with the animal’s head and neck facing left. The head is long and elliptical; the neck terminates at the right side in a curved irregular line that runs from the withers to the throatlatch. There is no indication of a mane. The eye is almond-shaped and has thick eyelids. The outside canthus turns downward. The bridge of the nose is rounded, and the nose has a large tip and rounded nostril. The mouth is open as if in laughter. Only the left ear is represented. It is upright and leaf- shaped, with the helix indicated by a raised line; the ear opening is recessed. Accession 77.AO.81.24 The form of the head seems to take advantage of the Number natural protrusions and undulations of the amber piece Culture Italic from which it was carved. The amber’s shape may have Date 500–400 B.C. been very like the finished product and may even have directed the subject and its disposition: the mouth seems Dimensions Height: 48 mm; width: 59 mm; depth: 19 mm; to have been worked from a cleaned-out fissure and the Weight: 16.6 g jaw and eye from natural protuberances, the long ear Subjects Animals; Inclusions appears to incorporate a depression, and the eye may have been formed from a small dome raised above the surface of the face. On the back of the head, near the Provenance break, is a section of the suspension perforation. The pendant is drilled with three large stopped bores, all –1977, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. about 5 mm in diameter. One bore enters just under the Paul Getty Museum, 1977. chin, proceeding upward for about 11 mm; a second, about 4 mm deep, enters the rear of the head and passes horizontally toward the front of the pendant; the third 268

bore is on the reverse of the figure and proceeds to a Lamashtu is often shown with ass’s teeth and ass’s depth of 13 mm. ears on amuletic plaques and these teeth and ears are Discussion mentioned in ritual texts. Once, she is said to have an ass’s form. Once, she is adjured to go away, like a The termsassanddonkeyare often interchanged today, savage ass! Body parts of asses can be used in amulets and there appears also to have been some confusion in against Lamashtu, which may be a case of similia similibus.5 antiquity concerning representations of the nonhorse species of Equus equidae. Despite the schematic nature of Like the hyena, the ass was believed to have several the carving, the maker of the amber has emphasized the obstetrical and pediatric uses, judging by Pliny’s remarks subject’s asinine character: the animal is maneless, the in Book 28 of the Natural History,6 where an ass’s liver, ears are long, the nose is cupped at midlength, the muzzle worn as an amulet, was said to protect babies from is rounded, and the mouth is open as if braying. It seems epileptic fits. In Johnston’s view, most recommended uses even to be a specific breed, the wild ass, which, originally for ass parts in the magical papyri refer to the asinine found in Africa, was domesticated by the third form of Seth-Typhon and the “significance of the ass millennium B.C. (Variants of the wild ass have been bred eventually became more broadly applied, too, so that it for thousands of years and include donkeys.) became a sort of all-purpose demonic animal, and its body parts became all-purpose amulets.”7 Campbell One other possible asinine-form amber is a head in the Bonner links the subject of the ass with aggressive Vatican collections (findspot unrecorded), which, until amulets for women’s pain in the abdomen (which in now, has been considered a horse.1 It is said to belong to a antiquity included the womb).8 The roughly carved Getty fibula (although it looks like a pendant) and was acquired pendant might even be said to be ugly, which might have at the same time as a second (much degraded) figured aided its efficacy.9 At the very least, an asinine amber was amber, which represents a bearded male in half-figure, a potent amulet of healing. To be buried with a clamoring who is carrying a pithos on his back (his arms reach ass would be to be interred with an alert animal, ready to backward). The head shape, ear position, ruff of hair on bray and avert danger. the jaw, and sparse mane, as well as the toothy grin, suggest to me an asinine rather than an equine subject. NOTES The style of the Vatican amber is entirely different from that of the Getty head. They differ also in manufacture. 1. Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, inv. 13410. Why an asinine amber? The association of asinine beasts 2. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale del Melfese “Massimo with Dionysos, whose link with amber is well established, Pallottino” 51488: Magie d’ambra 2005, p. 70; and Popoli may be one reason. The ass served as transportation for anellenici 1971, p. 123, pl. LI. Dionysos, and its presence might indicate the “hidden 3. Johnston 1995, p. 375. god” by association. An Attic rhyton in the form of a braying ass from Tomb 43 at Melfi-Pisciolo (Basilicata), a 4. Ibid., p. 377. male tomb from the second half of the fifth century, is a 5. Ibid., nn. 40–41 (with important references). tangible recognition of the Dionysian presence.2 As Sarah Iles Johnston points out, the ass, the bird of prey, the 6. Pliny, Natural History 28.77. horse, and the wolf were “the four animals whose traits 7. Johnston 1995, p. 385. the child-killer [demon] borrows in extant sources.”3 The ass is not usually a demonic animal in ancient Greece or 8. Bonner 1950, p. 121. anywhere else: the two exceptions are the association of the ass with the Egyptian Seth or Typhon and with the 9. AsJohnston 1995, p. 372, n. 3, points out, “Like demons Near Eastern Lamashtu.4Johnston explains, throughout the world, child-killing demons generally are described as ugly.” Cat. no. 56 269

Forgery 270

57. Statuette: Seated Divinity Provenance –1982, Vasek Polak, 1914–97 (Hermosa Beach, CA), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982. Published A. M. Shedrinsky, D. A. Grimaldi, J. J. Boon, and N. S. Baer, “Application of Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry to the Unmasking of Amber Forgeries,” Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 25 (1993): 77–95. Discussion After a preliminary assessment that this amber sculpture was a genuine pre-Roman work, further study of the sculpture and a chemical analysis of the amber showed it to be a modern object.1 Stylistic similarities with the work of the forger who made the so-called Apollo of Fiumicino and an amber kouros, both once in the Grüneisen Collection, suggest that it is a work by the same hand.2 NOTES 1. For the chemical analysis, see A. M. Shedrinsky et al. (above, this cat. entry). 2. W. de Grüneisen, Art Classique: Sculpture grecque, romaine, étrusque, exh. cat. (Paris, 1925), pp. 1–3, pl. 1; and W. de Accession 82.AO.51 Grüneisen, Tableaux et esquisses de l’histoire de l’art: Apollon Number d’ambre trouvé à Fiumicino (Paris, 1924). C. Albizzatti, “Analecta Date Modern Gruenesiana,” Historia [Milan], n.s., 1 (1927): 39–41, fig. 9, published the “Apollon” as a fake. I owe these references to R. Dimensions Height: 280 mm; width of base: 135 mm; D. De Puma (pers. comm., 1999). Weight: 434 g 271

Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum Jeff Maish Herant Khanjian Michael R. Schilling Introduction beckerite, gedanite, or glessite, based in part on opacity, color, and friability.3 Some subdivisions are also Amber has been appreciated since antiquity for its unique morphological. For example, amber with many tiny aesthetic qualities in the production of small decorative bubbles may be termed “bone” amber, whereas “foamy” objects. It has been a source of both mystery and curiosity, amber has slightly larger bubbles. Amber typing can, as it bridges the divide between the living and organic therefore, be viewed from different perspectives ranging and the mineral and inorganic. It was initially selected for from morphological to chemical. qualities such as color and hardness, with an eye toward an end market in jewelry production, and the Baltic Sea coastline has been, and continues to be, the largest source Amber Deterioration and of the material. Conservation The focus of amber studies over the past two hundred Although amber may have lain relatively dormant in years has paralleled scientific developments in geological deposits for thousands of years, its relatively instrumentation and methods. Some of the earliest recent collection, shaping, use, and reburial have often investigators used microscopy to view a hidden world of resulted in continued—and in some instances severe— natural history and provide insights into past geological deterioration. In general, deterioration manifests itself as ages. More recent studies have analyzed the material a thick “corrosion” crust that not only obscures the itself in an attempt to better understand its chemistry, translucent quality of amber but may also lead to flaking origins, and deterioration processes. This has included the and loss of the carved surface. In the worst-case scenarios, identification of imitation ambers composed of natural the carved surface completely flakes off, leaving an and human-made compounds.1 ambiguously shaped amber core. Deterioration may continue in a collection’s environment and be aggravated Amber Characteristics by pollutants, oxidation processes, and inappropriate environmental controls.4 Recently, the degradation Although amber types have been classified generally, mechanisms and conservation treatments of some ambiguities remain. Visual characteristics of amber archaeological amber have been studied using a variety such as color and translucency do not clearly relate to of analytical instrumentation.5 differences in chemical composition,2 and some differences may relate more closely to inclusions, Over the years, restorers and, more recently, conservators entrapment of air, and states of oxidation. Amber may have attempted to reinforce fragile amber surfaces by also be defined by grade, color, or even geographic origin, applying a range of consolidative organic materials. such as Romanian or Sicilian. Ambers such as Baltic may Examples of past amber consolidants include dammar resin and “amber oil,” a product of amber distillation.6 A be further subdivided into the categories allingite, variety of waxes and natural and synthetic resins have 272 TECHNICAL ESSAY

also been applied. While preserving the morphological tetramethylammonium hydroxide for thermally-assisted characteristics of carved amber, organic consolidants may hydrolysis and methylation (THM-Py-GC/MS). Surface interfere with future attempts to analyze or classify the samples were also removed from seven amber objects, in amber. Therefore, the consolidation process should be order to better understand the composition of weathered carefully considered and, if carried out, fully amber surfaces. For comparative purposes, tests were documented.7 carried out on a number of reference materials, including Baltic amber, Dominican amber, copal resin, pine resin, Scientific Analysis of Amber sandarac resin, dried residue from amber-oil distillate, and amber varnish. The study of amber has kept pace over the past two centuries with the developments in scientific analysis. Fourier-Transform Infrared Microscopic studies beginning in the eighteenth century Spectrometry Procedure focused on the morphological characteristics of amber and the recognition of amber’s botanical origins.8 As The samples were analyzed on a Nic-plan infrared methods for chemical analysis developed, so did the microscope equipped with a nitrogen-cooled MCT/A understanding of amber’s complex chemical structure.9 detector. Selected amber particles were placed on an Considering the archaeological context of many amber infrared diamond window, flattened with a metal roller, finds, its characterization is further complicated by and analyzed using a transmitted infrared beam material degradation and possible interference from past apertured to 100 x 100 microns. The spectra are the sum stabilization treatments.10 Beginning in the 1960s, -1 of 100 scans at a resolution of 4 cm . Infrared analysis of analytical studies of amber relied heavily on infrared the samples produced spectra containing bands that spectroscopy (IR)11 and nuclear magnetic resonance 12 correspond to amber. For example, a characteristic peak (NMR). attributed to the carbon-oxygen bond at 1158 cm-1 IR spectroscopy in particular was the first technique distinguishes Baltic amber. Additional bands at 1737 and 1715 cm-1are assigned to the ester and carboxylic acid capable of readily identifying Baltic amber through the groups, whereas peaks located at 1643 and 888 cm-1 are presence of a distinct succinic acid peak or “shoulder” in attributed to the exocyclic methylene group. Other its infrared spectrum. However, the limits of this method components may be present in the samples at were reached when it proved less successful in concentrations below the detection limit (5%). distinguishing among non-Baltic ambers. More-recent analytical studies have employed Raman spectroscopy,13 capillary gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/ THM–Pyrolysis–Gas MS),14 and pyrolysis–gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS),15 which are capable of isolating Chromatography / Mass a broad range of compounds that compose amber.16 Spectrometry Procedure Combined with other analysis, this has led to proposals for the botanical origins of some ambers as well as Samples were tested on an HP 5972 gas chromatograph / common sourcing for previously distinct ambers.17 mass spectrometer using a CDS Pyroprobe 2000, fitted with a valved interface at 330°C and purged with helium at 25 ml/minute. The split injector was at 340°C (30:1 Current Research ratio), and the MS transfer line was set to 300°C. A DB-5MS capillary column (30 M x 0.25 mm x 0.25 µm) was used, The primary goal of the scientific investigation of a group with helium at 44 cm/sec. The GC oven temperature of amber objects from the collection of the J. Paul Getty program was 2 minutes at 40°C, then rising 6°C/minute to Museum was to verify that the ambers were indeed of 310°C, and 13-minute isothermal. The solvent delay was Baltic origin. A secondary aim was to ascertain whether 2.5 minutes. The mass spectrometer was scanned from treatment with amber oil or other organic materials m/z35–700. Samples were placed into quartz tubes fitted might interfere with the identification process. Samples with quartz wool, and three microliters of 25% were removed from the cores of twenty-six amber objects tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) in methanol for analysis at the Getty Conservation Institute using were introduced for derivatization. After 3 minutes, the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and tube was placed into a coiled filament probe, which was pyrolysis–gas chromatography / mass spectrometry with inserted into the valved interface. After purging for 3 Analysis of Selected Ambers 273

seconds before pyrolysis, samples were pyrolyzed using and methyl bornyl succinate (Mills et al. 1984) may also the following temperature program: 200°C for 1 second, appear in THM-Py-GC/MS results for Baltic ambers. then ramped at 10°C/millisecond to 700°C, and held isothermally for 10 seconds. Figure 1, an overlay of the FTIR spectra for Baltic amber and an amber object (76.AO.84, cat. no. 37), reveals characteristic spectral differences that make it possible to positively identify Baltic amber. The infrared spectrum of Baltic amber shows characteristic intense absorption -1 bands at 2926, 2868, and 2849 cm , attributed to C-H stretching modes of the CH2 and CH3 groups. A doublet for carbonyl C=O stretching peaks at 1738 and 1715 cm-1 is characteristic of ester and acid groups. Additional bands at 1259 and 1158 cm-1 are assigned to CO-O- modes of the succinate group, whereas the C-H bending modes for the terminal olefins are located at 888 cm-1. Finally, the peak located at 1643 cm-1 is attributed to the exocyclic methylene group. Figure 2 THM-Py-GC/MS results for Baltic and Dominican ambers. Figure 1 FTIR results for Baltic amber and amber object 76.AO.84 (cat. no. Figure 3 THM-Py-GC/MS results for core sample from amber object 37). 82.AO.161.285. In THM-Py-GC/MS results for Baltic and Dominican amber Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 list the various classes of compounds standards (figure 2), a total of 69 compounds were identified in the THM-Py-GC/MS analysis results of the identified. Many of these are sesquiterpene and diterpene amber objects and the reference materials. The compounds that are abundant, though not especially identifications were based primarily on the results from characteristic of the type of amber, as well as numerous mass spectral library searching using the NIST MS Search nonspecific compounds. Succinic acid is the dominant 2.0 program, and supplemented by published data (Mills marker compound for Baltic amber, and it appears in the et al. 1984). Although the NIST results of the nonspecific chromatogram as a large peak at 10.3 minutes. In this compounds listed in table 5 were inconclusive, the study, succinic acid was analyzed in the form of the unknown compounds did appear on a rather consistent dimethyl ester derivative, and is abbreviated in figures as basis in the objects. succinate. In figure 3, which shows THM-Py-GC/MS results The THM-Py-GC/MS results for the reference samples for amber object 82.A0.161.285, other Baltic amber appear in table 6. In this and all subsequent tables, the marker compounds are present in varying amounts, test results are expressed in terms of peak-area including fenchol, borneol, camphene, and camphor. Two percentages relative to the total peak area for all of the very small peaks identified as methyl fenchyl succinate 274 TECHNICAL ESSAY

compounds listed in tables 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (except for weathering, handling, and treatment. This is why core methyl fenchyl succinate, methyl bornyl succinate, and samples were removed from the objects by microdrilling. dibornyl succinate, which, due to their extremely small In figure 5, the THM-Py-GC/MS results for the dark surface peak sizes, did not contribute significantly to the total and inner core of a large piece of reference amber, it is peak area). Table 6 shows that the succinate content in the clear that the surface has become partially depleted in single known sample of Baltic amber was high, whereas succinate, with few other changes apparent. Table 8 almost no succinate was detected in the Dominican shows the results for pairs of surface and core samples ambers, copal resin, sandarac resin, or pine resin. The from the amber objects, and figure 6 shows a typical succinate content in the ambers of unknown origin chromatographic result (for 83.AO.202.1, cat. no. 12). The appeared rather variable, but the presence of the other surfaces of these objects have also been depleted in markers in table 1 placed them firmly in the Baltic succinate, but the sesquiterpenes and diterpenes also category. The “amber varnish” was found to contain a have been radically reduced. These compounds are not high concentration of a drying oil with no detectable chemically bound to the polymeric network of the amber, succinate content. Fortunately, the test results for dried which would make them more susceptible to leaching amber oil residue showed no significant amount of any of during burial. the Baltic marker compounds listed in table 1 except for borneol, indicating that amber oil treatment should not produce a “false positive” identification for Baltic amber. In the THM-Py-GC/MS results for the core samples from the untreated amber objects (table 7), the most striking feature is the remarkably broad range for the succinate content compared to the composition of the standards. In an overlay of FTIR spectra for some of these samples (figure 4), the main trend is the shift of the carbonyl peak to a lower wavenumber with increasing succinate content, which is characteristic of the conversion of esters to carboxylic acids. These results provide evidence that partial hydrolysis of the succinate esters in the objects has occurred, which is a reaction that would enrich the residual amber in succinic acid. Figure 5 THM-Py-GC/MS results for dark surface and inner core of amber from Verfmolen ‘De Kat.’ Figure 4 Variation in FTIR spectrum with succinate content for amber objects (core samples). Figure 6 THM-Py-GC/MS results for surface and inner core samples from 83.AO.202.1 (cat. no. 12). One concern in this study was that the composition of the surface crusts of the amber objects might be considerably different from that of the inner cores, due to hydrolysis, Analysis of Selected Ambers 275

FTIR analysis also reveals important details about the nature of the surface and core compositions. Figure 7 shows FTIR spectra for surface and core samples from 83.AO.202.1. The saturated C-H bands at 2927 and 2869 cm-1in the spectrum of the surface sample are reduced, whereas the C-O stretching modes at 1159 cm1 in the fingerprint region are more intense. This indicates that the surface is more highly oxidized than the core. The other important peak appears at 1574 cm-1, which is due to salts of succinic acid. There is a much higher concentration of succinate salts in the surface sample, which is consistent with exposure to alkaline conditions during some period of time.18 This might have occurred during burial, or resulted from harsh cleaning with alkaline chemicals. FTIR spectra of two surface samples Figure 8 FTIR spectra for surface and core samples from 82.AO.161.7 (cat. no. and a core from 82.AO.161.7 (cat. no. 24) (figure 8) show 24). an increased O-H stretching band in the surface sample, with a shift in the C=O band to lower wavenumbers, Table 9 lists the THM-Py-GC/MS results for the treated indicating the prevalence of carboxylic acids. However, amber objects, and representative chromatograms are the succinate salt peak at 1574 cm-1 is only a slight shown infigure 9. Azelaic acid was detected in three of shoulder on the carbonyl peak, indicating that this object the objects: 77.AO.81.29 (cat. no. 16), 77.AO.81.5 (cat. no. was not exposed to the same harsh alkaline conditions as 23), and 77.AO.81.30 (cat. no. 25). This is a common 83.AO.202.1. marker compound for cross-linked drying oils, and its presence along with palmitic acid and stearic acid indicates that drying oils may have been applied to these objects in an alternative type of conservation treatment. In 77.AO.81.4 (cat. no. 14), palmitic and stearic acids were detected along with cholesterol, but azelaic acid was absent. This suggests that an animal fat could have been applied to this object as another type of alternative treatment. Three amber objects tested in this study had been previously treated with amber oil: 77.AO.84 (cat. no. 1), 77.AO.83 (cat. no. 38), and 77.AO.81.7 (cat. no. 41). Their extremely high succinate contents suggest that they were highly degraded prior to treatment. In figure 10, the FTIR spectra for selected treated samples show that treatment with drying oil or amber oil does not interfere with the identification of Baltic amber. Figure 7 FTIR spectra for surface and core samples from 83.AO.202.1 (cat. no. 12). 276 TECHNICAL ESSAY

Conclusions This study has demonstrated that chemical analysis using FTIR and THM-Py-GC/MS can provide rich details concerning the composition of antique amber objects. Fundamentally, the analytical results showed that all of the amber objects in the Getty Museum are classified as Baltic amber. Additional information revealed the nature and extent of deterioration, and provided tantalizing hints about the nature of the burial conditions to which some of these objects may have been exposed. Finally, detection of certain marker compounds has shown that a number of amber objects were treated with drying oils and fats and, furthermore, that amber oil treatment does THM-Py-GC/MS results for surface samples from treated amber not interfere with the provenancing process. Figure 9 objects. Figure 10 FTIR results for core samples from treated amber objects. Analysis of Selected Ambers 277

Tables Table 1: Marker Compounds from THM-Py-GC/MS Analysis of Amber IUPAC Name Synonym CAS # Formula MW Retention Time (min) Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane, 2,2-dimethyl-3-methylene- Camphene 79-92-5 C10H16 136 8.04 Butanedioic acid, dimethyl ester Succinic acid, dimethyl ester 106-65-0 C H O 146 10.27 6 10 4 Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane, 2-methoxy-1,3,3-trimethyl- Methyl fenchyl ether N/A C H O 168 12.35 11 20 Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-ol, 1,3,3-trimethyl- Fenchyl alcohol 1632-73-1 C H O 154 12.50 10 18 Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-one, 1,7,7-trimethyl-, (1S)- L-camphor 464-48-2 C H O 152 13.20 10 16 Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-methoxy, 1,7,7-trimethyl-, (1S-endo)- Methyl bornyl ether N/A C H O 168 13.48 11 20 Bicyclo[2.2.1]heptan-2-ol, 1,7,7-trimethyl-, (1S-endo)- L-borneol 464-45-9 C H O 154 13.83 10 18 Naphthalene, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,8-dimethyl- 25419-33-4 C12H16 160 17.44 Cedren-13-methoxy, 8- N/A C H O 234 24.80 16 26 Methyl fenchyl succinate N/A C H O 268 25.16 15 24 4 Methyl bornyl succinate N/A C H O 268 26.54 15 24 4 Cedren-13-ol, 8- 18319-35-2 C15H24O 220 26.92 Dibornyl succinate N/A C H O 390 38.64 24 38 4 Table 2: Diterpenes Identified in Amber Objects Using THM-Py-GC/MS Analysis IUPAC Name Synonym CAS # Formula MW Retention Time (min) Podocarp-8-en-15-oic acid, 13alpha-methyl-13-vinyl-, methyl ester Methyl pimara-8,15-dien-18-oate 19907-21-2 C H O 316 33.17 21 32 2 Podocarpa-8,11,13-trien-15-oic acid, 13-isopropyl-, methyl ester Methyl dehydroabietate 1235-74-1 C H O 314 35.14 21 30 2 Methyl 5-(5,5,8a- Labd-8(20)-en-15-oic acid, methyl 13008-80-5 C H O 320 33.49 21 36 2 trimethyl-2-methylenedecahydro-1-naphthalenyl)-3-methylpentanoate ester Methyl pimar-7-en-18-oate 72088-13-2 C H O 318 33.80 21 34 2 Labda-8(20),12,14-trien-19-oic acid, methyl ester, (Z)- Methyl cis-Communate 10178-35-5 C H O 316 33.95 21 32 2 Podocarp-8(14)-en-15-oic acid, 13á-methyl-13-vinyl-, methyl ester Methyl sandaracopimarate 1686-54-0 C H O 316 33.95 21 32 2 Podocarp-7-en-15-oic acid, 13á-methyl-13-vinyl-, methyl ester Methyl isopimarate 1686-62-0 C H O 316 34.61 21 32 2 Podocarpa-7,13-dien-15-oic acid, 13-isopropyl-, methyl ester Methyl abietate 127-25-3 C H O 316 35.84 21 32 2 Podocarpa-6,8,11,13-tetraen-15-oic acid, 13-isopropyl-, methyl ester Methyl 18492-76-7 C H O 312 36.43 21 28 2 6-dehydrodehydroabietate 278 TECHNICAL ESSAY

Table 3: Fatty Acids in THM-Py-GC/MS Analysis of Lipids IUPAC Name Synonym CAS # Formula MW Retention Time (min) Hexanedioic acid, dimethyl ester dimethyl adipate 627-93-0 C H O 174 15.47 8 28 4 Heptanedioic acid, dimethyl ester dimethyl pimelate 1732-08-7 C H O 188 17.78 9 16 4 Octanedioic acid, dimethyl ester dimethyl suberate 1732-09-8 C H O 202 20.02 10 18 4 Dodecanoic acid, methyl ester methyl laurate 111-82-0 C H O 214 21.63 13 26 2 Nonanedioic acid, dimethyl ester dimethyl azelate 1732-10-1 C H O 216 22.10 11 20 4 Decanedioic acid, dimethyl ester dimethyl sebacate 106-79-6 C H O 230 24.03 12 22 4 Tetradecanoic acid, methyl ester methyl myristate 124-10-7 C H O 242 25.48 15 30 2 Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester methyl palmitate 112-39-0 C H O 270 28.96 17 34 2 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)-, methyl ester methyl oleate 112-62-9 C H O 296 31.71 19 36 2 Octadecanoic acid, methyl ester methyl stearate 112-61-8 C H O 298 32.13 19 38 2 Eicosanoic acid, methyl ester methyl arachidate 1120-28-1 C H O 326 35.01 21 42 2 Table 4: Nonspecific Compounds Identified in THM-Py-GC/MS Analysis of Amber Objects IUPAC Name Synonym CAS # Formula MW Retention Time (min) Methyl benzene Toluene 108-88-3 C7H8 92 3.76 1,3-Dimethyl-1-cyclohexene 2808-76-6 C8H14 110 4.92 Benzene, 1,4-dimethyl- p-Xylene 106-42-3 C8H10 106 5.99 Benzene, 1,3-dimethyl- m-Xylene 108-38-3 C8H10 106 5.99 2-Propenoic acid, 2-methyl-, methyl ester Methyl methacrylate 80-62-6 C5H8O2 100 2.87 Ethylbenzene 100-41-4 C H 106 5.77 8 10 Benzene, 1,2-dimethyl- o-Xylene 95-47-6 C H 106 6.53 8 10 Benzene, 1-ethyl-3-methyl- Toluene, m-ethyl- 620-14-4 C H 120 8.33 9 12 Benzene, 1-ethenyl-2-methyl- o-Vinyltoluene 611-15-4 C H 118 9.24 9 10 Benzenemethanol, 2,5-dimethyl- 2,5-Dimethylbenzyl alcohol 53957-33-8 C H O 136 9.36 9 12 Benzene, 1,2,4-trimethyl- Pseudocumene 95-63-6 C H 120 9.90 9 12 3,3,5,5-Tetramethylcyclopentene 38667-10-6 C H 124 10.89 9 16 Benzoic acid, methyl ester Methyl benzoate 93-58-3 C H O 136 11.85 8 8 2 Naphthalene 91-20-3 C H 128 14.12 10 8 Naphthalene, 1-methyl- 90-12-0 C H 142 16.62 11 10 Naphthalene, 2-methyl- 91-57-6 C H 142 17.11 11 10 1,2,3-Trimethylindene 4773-83-5 C H 158 18.68 12 14 Naphthalene, 1,6,7-trimethyl- 2245-38-7 C H 170 22.93 13 14 Analysis of Selected Ambers 279

Table 5: Nonspecific Compounds Tentatively Identified in THM-Py-GC/MS Analysis of Amber Objects IUPAC Name CAS # Formula MW Retention Time (min) Methyltricyclo[2.2.1.0(2,6)]heptane 4601-85-8 C H 108 6.15 8 12 Cyclopentane, 2-ethylidene-1,1-dimethyl- 56324-66-4 C H 124 7.84 9 16 1,3,3-Trimethyl-2-(2-methyl-cyclopropyl)-cyclohexene 285129-06-8 C H 178 16.62 13 22 2-Buten-1-one, 1-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexen-1-yl)- 35044-68-9 C H O 192 19.73 13 20 1,5,9,9-Tetramethyl-2-methylene-spiro[3.5]non-5-ene N/A C H 190 19.82 14 22 Bicyclo[4.1.0]heptan-2-ol, 1beta-(3-methyl-1,3-butadienyl)-2alpha, 6beta-dimethyl-3beta-acetoxy- N/A C H O 264 21.49 16 24 3 2-Methyl-4-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-1-enyl)but-2-en-1-ol 62924-17-8 C H O 208 21.70 14 24 8-Acetyl-5,5-dimethyl-nona-2,3,8-trienoic acid, methyl ester 68799-74-6 C H O 236 23.09 14 20 3 2-Methyl-4-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-1-enyl)but-2-en-1-ol 62924-17-8 C H O 208 23.83 14 24 7a-Isopropenyl-4,5-dimethyloctahydroindene-4-carboxylic acid N/A C H O 236 24.56 15 24 2 2-[5-(2,2-Dimethyl-6-methylene-cyclohexyl)-3-methyl-pent-2-enyl]-[1,4]benzoquinone N/A C H O 312 25.17 21 28 2 Acetic acid, (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8-octahydro-3,8,8-trimethylnaphth-2-yl)methyl ester 314773-27-8 C H O 250 25.83 16 26 2 Acetic acid, 3-(6,6-dimethyl-2-methylenecyclohex-3-enylidene)-1-methylbutyl ester N/A C H O 248 26.00 16 24 2 Table 6: THM-Py-GC/MS Results for Reference Samples Sample Supplier GCI Identifier Peak Area Percentages Succinate Diterpenes Fatty Acids Amber varnish Zecchi VARN0084 0 0 77 Copal resin JPGM 0 36 0 Pine resin GCI NRES0244 0 74 0 Sandarac resin Verfmolen ‘De Kat’ NRES0295 0 19 0 Amber oil JPGM 1 1 3 Dominican amber JPGM 0 14 1 Amber (Dominican?) JPGM NRES0095 2 1 0 Amber Kremer NRES0005 3 2 1 Yellow amber Verfmolen ‘De Kat’ NRES0296 3 2 1 Amber Zecchi 10 2 2 Baltic amber JPGM 12 12 0.4 Amber Zecchi NRES0305 14 4 1 Amber Kremer NRES0004 20 6 1 Amber Kremer NRES0171 20 4 1 280 TECHNICAL ESSAY

Table 7: THM-Py-GC/MS Results for Untreated Amber Object Core Samples Accession # Peak Area Percentages Succinate Diterpenes Fatty Acids (cat. no. 21) 13 1 0 20 10 0 24 5 0.4 (cat. no. 18) 25 12 0.4 (cat. no. 11) 27 11 0 28 12 0.6 (cat. no. 22) 34 7 0.7 34 9 0.0 82.AC.161.285 35 4 0.7 (cat. no. 33) 36 5 0.6 (cat. no. 56) 38 22 0.5 (cat. no. 28) 38 8 0.3 (cat. no. 53) 39 9 1.1 (cat. no. 29) 39 16 0 (cat. no. 20) 41 8 0.9 (cat. no. 17) 41 9 0.6 (cat. no. 13) 46 7 0.3 (cat. no. 55) 47 16 0.4 (cat. no. 27) 53 4 0.3 (cat. no. 9) 65 6 0.4 average 36 9.1 0.4 standard deviation 12 5.0 0.3 Analysis of Selected Ambers 281

Table 8: THM-Py-GC/MS Results for Amber Object Core & Surface Samples Accession # Sample Location Peak Area Percentages Succinate Diterpenes Fatty Acids core 20 9.6 0.0 surface 4.2 9.1 0.8 core 25 12 0.4 surface 16 4.6 1.6 (cat. no. 19) core 27 11 0.0 surface 11 1.7 1.5 core 34 9.1 0.0 surface 11 2.0 1.5 core 38 8.1 0.3 surface 29 4.3 0.7 core 41 8.0 0.9 surface 12 2.0 1.2 Table 9: THM-Py-GC/MS Results for Treated Amber Objects Accession # Sample Location Treatment Peak Area Percentages Succinate Diterpenes Fatty Acids core drying oil 34 5.2 18 surface drying oil 13 4.6 7.7 core drying oil 29 6.4 6.6 core fatty substance 39 6.2 0.7 surface 23 2.7 8.1 core amber oil, once 72 5.1 0.6 surface 44 7.6 0.4 core amber oil, twice 38 5.6 1.9 core amber oil, three times 54 2.9 0.4 NOTES 3. E. Stout, C. Beck, and B. Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, for example, 1. See N. Kalsbeek and K. Botfeldt, “Identification of Amber and used infrared spectroscopy (IR) to compare and separate Amber Imitations by Infrared Spectroscopy,” Meddelelser om gedano-succinite from succinite: see “Gedanite and Gedano- konservering no. 1 (2007): 3–11. Imitations have included Succinite,” in Anderson and Crelling 1995, pp. 130–48. materials such as Bakelite, nitrocellulose, polystyrene, and plant 4. See J. Waddington and J. Fenn, “Preventive Conservation of resins. Amber: Some Preliminary Investigations,” Collection Forum 4, no. 2. SeeRice 2006 for a discussion of amber and its terminology. 2, (Fall 1988): 25–31; and Y. Shashoua, National Museum of Denmark, 2002, http://www.natmus.dk/cons/reports/2002/ amber/amber.pdf. 282 TECHNICAL ESSAY

5. G. Pastorelli, “Archaeological Baltic Amber: Degradation 441–54. For the ATR method, see M. Guiliano, L. Asia, G. Mechanisms and Conservation Measures” (Ph.D. diss., Onoratini, and G. Mille, “Applications of Diamond Crystal ATR University of Bologna, 2009). FTIR Spectroscopy to the Characterization of Ambers,” Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular 6. F. Preusser, “Zur Restaurierung von stark korrodiertem Spectroscopy 67, no. 5 (2007): 1407–11. Bernstein” (“The Restoration of Badly Weathered Amber”), Arbeitsblätter für Restauratoren 9, no. 2 (1976): 75–77. 12. For a summary of the use of the nuclear magnetic resonance 7. See N. Bromelle, C. Beck, and G. Thomson, “Authentication and method in amber analysis, see Artioli, Scientific Methods and Conservation of Amber: Conflict of Interests,” in Science and Cultural Heritage, p. 383 (in n. 9, above). Technology in the Service of Conservation: Preprints of the 13. See Y. Shashoua et al., “Raman and ATR-FTIR Spectroscopies Contributions to the Washington Congress, 3–9 September 1982, Applied to the Conservation of Archaeological Baltic Amber,” ed. N. Bromelle and G. Thomson (London, 1982), pp. 104–7. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 37, no. 10 (September 2006). 8. The relationship of Baltic amber and succinic acid was 14. J. Mills, R. White, and L. Gough, “The Chemical Composition of recognized in the early nineteenth century by chemists in Baltic Amber,” Chemical Geology 47 (1984): 15–39. Germany, where succinic acid was isolated using strong acids 15. See A. Shedrinsky et al., “The Use of Pyrolysis Gas and bases. One study identified the amber constituent camphor Chromatography (PyGC) in the Identification of Oils and Resins (borneol) through smell. Found in Art and Archaeology,” Conservation of Cultural Property 9. For an excellent overview of amber and resin studies see I. in India 21 (1988): 35–41; and J. Boon, A. Tom, and J. Purveen, Angelini in G. Artioli, Scientific Methods and Cultural Heritage: An “Microgram Scale Pyrolysis Mass Spectrometric and Pyrolysis Introduction to the Application of Materials Science to Gas Chromatographic Characterization of Geological and Archaeometry and Conservation Science (New York, 2010). Archaeological Amber and Resin Samples,” in Beck and Bouzek 10. Brommelle et al. 1982 (in n. 7, above) first warned that most 1993, pp. 9–27. For comprehensive overviews of the method, see conservation materials will interfere with infrared spectra. D. “The Application of Analytical Pyrolysis to the Study of Cultural Thickett discusses the problems of consolidant removal and the Materials,” chap. 6 in Applied Pyrolysis Handbook, 2nd ed., ed. effects of solvents on amber in “The Influence of Solvents on Thomas Wampler (Boca Raton, FL, 2007), pp. 105–31. the Analysis of Amber,” in Conservation Science in the UK: 16. Gas chromatography effectively separates volatile, solvent- Preprints of the Meeting Held in Glasgow, May 1993, ed. N. J. extractable components, which are subsequently detected and Tennent (London, 1993), pp. 49–56. analyzed by the mass spectrometer. The limit to analyzing only 11. The earliest IR studies of amber were carried out most notably the extractable components is mostly overcome by pyrolyzing by J. Langenheim, C. Beck, and R. Rottländer. See, for example, the sample before the analysis. Pyrolysis uses thermal energy to C. Beck and H. Hartnett, “Sicilian Amber,” in Beck and Bouzek break down polymeric and nonvolatile materials into small 1993, pp. 36–47; and C. Beck, “Spectroscopic Investigations of volatile molecules that are amenable to gas chromatographic Amber,”Applied Spectroscopy Reviews 22, no. 1 (1986): 57–110. analysis. Amber studies have benefited from further developments such 17. E. Stout, C. W. Beck, and K. B. Anderson, “Identification of as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), diffuse- Rumanite (Romanian Amber) as Thermally Succinite (Baltic reflectance infrared Fourier-transform (DRIFT), and Attenuated Amber),”Physics and Chemistry of Minerals 27, no. 9 (2000): Total Reflection (ATR) FTIR. For the DRIFT method, see I. Angelini 665–78. and P. Bellintani, “Archaeological Ambers from Northern Italy: 18. Pastorelli 2009 (in n. 5, above). An FTIR-DRIFT Study of Provenance by Comparison with the Geological Amber Database,” Archaeometry 47, no. 2 (2005): Analysis of Selected Ambers 283

Acknowledgments The long period of research and writing has generated an Mieke Halbrook and Susan Allen (at the Getty) represent equally long list of scholarly debts. The first and most the best in art librarianship. I also recognize the help important thanks go to the Antiquities Department at the given to me over the years by the library staff of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Kenneth Lapatin, Claire Lyons, American Academy in Rome; the University of California, Mary Louise Hart, Jens Daehner, and David Saunders; and Los Angeles; the University of California, Riverside; the to former department staff Jiří Frel, Kenneth Hamma, University of California, Santa Barbara; the Sterling and Marit Jentoft-Nilsen, Karol Wight, and Marion True. Francine Clark Art Institute; and Edinburgh University. Recently, Alexandra Sofroniew, an Antiquities Department assistant curator, with keen eye and deft hand, has greatly Throughout my tenure at the National Gallery of Art, I aided the transformation of the manuscript into the book have had superb administrative support, and for it I and this online catalogue. In Antiquities Conservation, thank Rusty Powell, Alan Shestack, Franklin Kelly, heartfelt appreciation goes to Jerry Podany, Jeffrey Maish, Elizabeth Pochter, and Lynn Russell. The help offered by and former staff member Maya Elston. Michael Shilling colleagues while I was on sabbatical in Edinburgh during and Herant Khanjian of the Getty Conservation Institute an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Curatorial Fellowship at the Center provided critical scientific analysis. In the director’s for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National office, David Bomford, Stephen Garrett, and John Walsh in Gallery of Art and during a Summer Fellowship at the turn offered support at important junctures. The beautiful Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute greatly affected photography by Ellen Rosenbery speaks for itself. the outcome of the publication. In Williamstown, special Benedicte Gilman and Mark Greenberg, the original thanks are offered to Michael Ann Holly, Mark Ledbury, supporters at Getty Publications, are owed more than and Richard Rand; and in Washington, to deans past and appreciative words. Ann Lucke and Rob Flynn deftly present Henry A. Millon, Elizabeth Cropper, Therese picked up where they left off. The online catalogue is the O’Malley, and Peter Lukehart. The grants and fellowships result of the talents of designer Kurt Hauser, production supporting research abroad began with a Samuel H. Kress coordinators Elizabeth Zozom and Elizabeth Kahn, Traveling Fellowship. Summer grants from California assistant editor Ruth Evans Lane, and software architects State University, Long Beach, made possible the first Brenda Podemski and Roger Howard. The expertise of the Italian sojourns. Two Robert H. Smith Fellowships Web Group, particularly Jack Ludden and Susan Edwards, awarded by the National Gallery of Art were critical to has been invaluable. The anonymous reader offered research in Greek and Italian museums. priceless comments. Cindy Bohn, the manuscript editor, Any museum-based endeavor is a complex project, and deserves commendation for her skill and patience, as do institutions housing archaeological finds, especially Laura Harger and Greg Dobie. Last, but certainly not least, fragile collections, present special challenges. I owe a debt without Marina Belozerskaya, guide and lantern, the of gratitude to the many people around the world who project would have been benighted long ago. aided me in the firsthand study of amber objects. At Two great libraries and their staffs call for special museums in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, the mention, the library at the National Gallery of Art in Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany (once Washington, DC, my home institution, and that of the East and West), Greece, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Getty Research Institute, where I have been a Reader Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the since it opened. Neal Turtell, Lamia Doumato, Thomas United States, curators, conservators, registrars, scientists, McGill, Jr., and Ted Dalziel (in Washington), and Anne- photographers, and other professionals were instrumental to the research. Particular appreciation is 284

owed to Joan Mertens and Carlos Picón of The Ninaber, and Anna Zagorski. Alexis Castor and Bjoern Metropolitan Museum of Art; Denis Haynes and Dyfri Ewalt were ideal research associates at the Center for Williams of the British Museum; Alain Pasquier of the Advanced Study in the Visual Arts. In Washington, Patrick Louvre; Mary B. Comstock, John Herrmann, and Cornelius Resing and Jack Shepherd performed key editorial work. C. Vermeule of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Jan Lee B. Ewing, photographer, National Gallery of Art, Bouzek of the Classical Institute of Archaeology, Charles offered new insights. Amber life and work were much University, Prague; János György Szilágyi of the Fine Arts ameliorated by my Academic Programs Department Museum, Budapest; Elena Khodza at the State Hermitage colleagues Ana Maria Zavala Kozuch, Ben Masri-Cohen, Museum, Saint Petersburg; and David Grimaldi of the Ali Peil, Rachel Schulze, and Jennifer Wagelie. American Museum of Natural History, New York. Gavin Hamilton, Leon Levy and Shelby White, and Judy and Without the support of family and friends, this work Michael Steinhardt kindly welcomed study of their would not have reached daylight. Selma Holo and Fred private collections. Without the generous help of specific Croton read and listened to the unfolding story. Alan scholars and curators in Italy, this project would not have Conisbee and Marie Clarke offered more than engineering progressed. Among Italian colleagues, I extend particular insight. My grandmother and parents, Elizabeth Lees, thanks to Sebastiano Bianco, Nuccia Negroni Catacchio, Willard Causey, and Catherine Causey-Lees, and my Giulia Rocco, and Marcello Tagliente. siblings C. Andrew Causey, Douglas Causey, Kay Marie Kuder, and Laurel Nelson provided not only Substantial recognition goes to my Doktorvater, Mario Del encouragement over the years but also keen editorial Chiaro, and to my former graduate students and research eyes. Andrew’s contributions go far beyond art and assistants in California and Washington. First on the list anthropology. To my son, Jan, and to the memory of are the Angelenos Maureen Burns, John Tucker, René Philip, this book is dedicated. Acknowledgments 285

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About the Authors Faya Causey Herant Khanjian Faya Causey is the head of the academic programs Herant Khanjian is an assistant scientist at the Getty department at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Conservation Institute, where has worked since 1988. He DC. She was educated at the University of California, specializes in the study of organic material found in receiving her BA at UC Riverside and her MA and PhD traditional and modern works of art, using Fourier- degrees at UC Santa Barbara. A lifelong fascination with transform infrared spectroscopy. the ancient resin began on a student trip to the British Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Museum, where she first encountered Etruscan carved Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum ambers. Causey began her professional life as an academic, teaching at the Art Center College of Design and Jeff Maish California State University, Long Beach. She has lectured and published internationally on antiquity, contemporary Jeff Maish is a conservator of antiquities at the J. Paul art, and museums. She is the author of Amber and the Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, where he has worked Ancient World (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2012). since 1988. He has conducted research and worked on the treatment of Attic ceramics and bronzes in the Getty’s collection and in cooperation with other institutions, in addition to his work with ambers. Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum Michael R. Schilling Michael R. Schilling is a senior scientist in charge of the organic materials laboratory of the Getty Conservation Institute, where he has worked since 1983. Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum 297