- chapter 19: Etruscan goods in the Mediterranean world –
serpentine fi bulae with disc-shaped terminal from Besançon and from Bourges (see Fig.
19.15c) or likewise the fi bula a navicella from tumulus I at Colmar-Riedewir in the Haut-
Rhin department.^28 As with fi gurines, fi bulae are preserved in the basements of museums
amongst the various objects deemed to be local fi nds but not certifi ably so.^29 The fi bulae
from past dredging of the Saône at Lyon and from the Seine at Paris have achieved a
new credibility through the discovery in 1991 of a fi bula a sanguisuga and of a tin bar
in the deep excavations at Bercy at the edge of the river in Paris, which also revealed
the famous proto-historic, wooden dugout (monoxile) canoes.^30 The Villanovan-style belts
with a large bronze, lozenge-shaped plaque are known through the example from Châtel-
Gérard, between the Yonne and the Seine, and that from Nantes, although whether this
latter example was in fact a real local discovery remains controversial. A fi ne Villanovan
belt in Paris (Cabinet des Medailles) (Fig. 19.4) is believed to have come from Euboea,
indicating that dealings among aristocrats also proceeded in the Greek homeland.^31
Such female accessories as Villanovan belts and feminine fi bulae types (Fig. 19.5) imply
intermarriage or even deliberate visits (as pilgrims? members of diplomatic entourages?)
- the belts are really for ceremonial wear, as they would impede any sort of normal work
or leisure, and the fi bulae were surely offered attached to complete garments, either robes
of state, the suppliant’s favorite belonging pledged to the gods in a sanctuary, or samples
of the Etruscan lady’s own weaving expertise.^32 Semi-lunate razors appear throughout
northern Italy, where they inspired several imitations. They appear in Austria and in
Dalmatia,^33 while in France they have come to light in the Alpine regions of Pralognan-
la-Vanoise and possibly from the lake at Bourget, as well as in Mulhouse Forest, also in
Bourges (see Fig. 19.15a).^34
Etruscan mirrors brought to light outside of the Italian Peninsula are extremely rare.
Outside of Aléria, the strongest example is that of a tomb in the Greek foundation of
Empúries in Catalonia, decorated with a scene of the Judgment of Paris (Fig. 17.20).
Another Etruscan mirror is alleged to come from Torre del Mar in Malaga.^35 For the
record, let us note the mirror with the Dioskouroi, discovered in an Imperial Roman
tomb in Paris at the Boulevard of Port-Royal.^36
Other than the cylindrical, bronze-clad pyxis dating to the seventh century from
Appenwihr in Alsace, Etruscan quadrangular pyxides are known in the Mediterranean
from the last quarter of the sixth century. These small coffers or caskets, covered in ivory
or bone with fi gural decoration, were found in the eastern Mediterranean at Athens,
Delos, Rhodes, Cyprus, Kavala and in the heart of the Balkans at Atenica.^37 They also
appear in the western Mediterranean at Malta, Ibiza, and in the hinterland of southern
Iberia at Los Villares (Albacete), and at Turuñuelo, near Merida (Figs 17.13 and 17.14).
Figure 19.4 Belt in bronze of Late Villanovan type, discovered in Euboea.
Eighth–seventh century. (Cristofani 1983).