- chapter 51: Engraved gems –
Figure 51.2 Agate Scarab. Satyr. Greek, Master of the London Satyr, circa 530–520 bce.
London, British Museum, inv. GR-1876.12–7.106 © Trustees of the British Museum.highly polished than is the case with Greek works, and they normally lack the raised
spine or carination that Greek scarabs often have. From the late Archaic period onwards,
Etruscan scarabs usually also have a characteristic decoration on the plinth beneath the
beetle, which further distinguishes them from Greek works. Most common is a neatly
hatched band (orlo etrusco), which is sometimes double or triple, but there are many other
kinds of decoration, like the kymation, zigzag, hatched triangles, and fi shbone. While
the scarab gem soon went out of fashion in the Greek world where it was replaced with
the scaraboid and other shapes, it remained the preferred shape in Etruria well into the
third century bce.
LATE SIXTH- AND EARLY FIFTH-CENTURY
WORKSHOPSThe preserved material from the Archaic period, circa 530/520–480 bce, is very limited.
The fi rst engraver who may be called “Etruscan” has been named the “Master of the
Boston Dionysos” after one of his more ambitious works, now in Boston: a pseudo-scarab
which has an exceptional four-fi gure intaglio device showing Herakles/Hercle fi ghting
Nereus (or possibly Geras), and an image of Dionysos carved in relief on its backside (see
Fig. 24.14). Eight or nine works have been plausibly attributed to this master-engraver,^16
who was active sometime in the last decades of the sixth century bce, although there
are no known datable fi nd contexts for any of his works. These gems share a number
of defi ning features. They are of exceptionally high technical quality and very small in
size – the gem in Florence depicting Achilles/Achle, illustrated here, measures only
9 mm across (Figs. 51.3–5). The beetles are meticulously carved and polished, but lack
the plinth decoration that later on becomes characteristic of Etruscan works. A string
of tiny drill-holes surrounds the intaglio devices, and an even fi ner round drill-head has
been used for some details such as Achilles’ shield and sword on the gem in Florence. The
fi gures are stocky, depicted in the archaic manner with frontal upper torso and the rest of
the body and head in profi le. Their heads are somewhat over-proportioned and angular,
the back of the skulls usually hollowed-out and highly polished, and the longish hair
neatly held in place by a hair band or diadem. Facial features are carefully outlined. The
armour of Achilles in the work illustrated here is very detailed, and the long garments