- Richard Daniel De Puma –
Figure 58.2 Undecorated tang mirror from Tarquinia. Drawing by the author based on H. Hencken,
Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins (New York 1968), pl. 59.Figure 58.3a–c Typical bronze tang mirrors and independent carved bone, ivory or cast bronze
handles. Drawings by the author.Another disc shape that appears during this early period of development is the “solar”
or elliptical disc.^21 This type was probably infl uenced by Egyptian mirrors, which are
normally of this “fl attened” shape (Fig. 58.5a).
Still another mirror type is a simple circular disc with no tang or handle (Fig. 58.5b).
These tend to be small, undecorated and have fl at or slightly concave sections with
rounded edges.
Almost certainly, many of these unpretentious mirrors were originally kept in boxes
that functioned like modern compacts (Fig. 58.5c). Sometimes box mirrors of this sort
appear in sculpted representations where the box might be square or rectangular but the