- chapter 6: Orientalizing Etruria –
represented a ritual action, codifi ed in gestures and in materials. Even the passage of
knowledge from father to son, biological or metaphorical as fellow-members of the
guilds, was cloaked in an aura of magic.^25 In this sense we might interpret the Semitic
inscriptions on two Phoenician cups found in Italy, respectively, “Ešmunya’ad son of
Ašto” at Palestrina and “Balašī son of the smith” at Pontecagnano. It is likely that at least
a residual awareness of the scope of magical-religious symbols had survived among the
artisans who prepared the funeral goods of the Middle Tyrrhenian principes.
In the golden fi bula from Vulci-Ponte Sodo (Fig. 6.13) we observe looped double spiral
pendants on the cross-piece, an ancient symbol of the Mesopotamian goddess Ninhursag,
“lady of the mountain,” the goddess of fertility, which we see reproduced in amulets in
Ur, Tepe Hissar (Iran), and in cast-form at Nimrud and Aššur tomb 45 (fourteenth to
thirteenth centuries). In the same tomb appears the prototype of the cup-spirals, the
equivalent of the double spiral (Fig. 6.14), a pattern found in the plaques of gold and
Figure 6.13 Fibula in gold, with looped double spiral pendant on cross-piece.
Vulci, Ponte Sodo. 675–650 bc. Munich, Antikensammlungen 2331. Photo Staatliche
Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek München, photographer R. Kühling.Figure 6.14 Pendant from tomb 45 at Aššur, end fourteenth-thirteenth century bc,
with motif of “cup-spirals.” Photo made at time of discovery. Formerly Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum. Photo Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.