The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• chapter 51: Engraved gems –

of them are more likely linked to mythological fi gures;^25 defi ning actions such as these
probably served to make depicted fi gures more easily identifi able. Figures from Greek
myth remain popular, especially Herakles who is depicted alone or together with various
fi gures and creatures such as Athena, Hermes, Acheloos, Kerberos, the Nemean Lion,
and the Hydra. Other recognizable fi gures include Hermes, Achilles, Ajax, Peleus/Pele,
Perseus/Pherse, Odysseus/Uthuze, Theseus/These, Kastor/Castur, Kadmos, Kapaneus,
and Tydeus, but there are also many numerous nameless warriors, archers, athletes,
hunters, youths, lyre-players etc. Animals and various hybrid creatures begin to surface,
as do satyrs. The beetle-sides continue to be detailed and fi nely carved, with a variety of
plinth decorations.

LATE FOURTH TO SECOND CENTURIES BCE

For a long time scholars doubted that purely Etruscan workshops continued to be active
after the fourth century bce. But authors like Peter Zazoff and Wolfram Martini have
shown that Etruscan craftsmen continued to engrave gems well into the second century
bce, turning out works in different, parallel styles and techniques, and even introducing
a new shape into their repertory, the fi xed ringstone. But this important period is still
highly problematic in a number of ways, and in need of further study. What can be safely
said is that, towards the end of the fourth century bce, Etruscan workshops offered an
artistic output that was not only much more varied than previously, but it may also
already have been partly aimed at customer groups outside Etruria. This is most likely
the case with the two major new classes of gems, the so-called a globolo scarabs and the
ringstones. But scarabs engraved in the various extensions of the Late Classical or “Free”
style continued to be produced for a long time, with subject matter drawn from all
previous periods of production. Engravers now leave more space around the increasingly
elongated and statue-like fi gures, which are reminiscent of Hellenistic sculpture. Some
stones tend to be somewhat fl atter and wider, resulting in distorted beetle anatomies. The
backsides are generally more summarily carved than before.

A globolo scarabs

Round drill-heads of various sizes were used throughout production not only for details,
but also for producing larger cavities in the stone surface in preparation for additional
engraving with fi ner tools. This technique is evidenced already in the earliest Etruscan
works. But on some gems from the fi fth and fourth centuries bce such blob-like forms,
mostly confi ned to heads of human fi gures and later also to animals and various objects,
have been left more or less as they are and appear side by side with more detailed engraving
achieved with fi ner tools. Such hybrid works prepare the way for a new important class
of gems, the a globolo scarabs, which dominated the glyptic production of the late fourth
and early third centuries bce, and in which most or all engraving was done with a limited
number of round drill-heads (Fig. 51.11).^26 There are many more datable fi nd contexts
for these gems, which had a very wide geographical distribution even outside Etruria
and the Italian peninsula.^27 The a globolo gems constitute more than two thirds of the
preserved corpus of Etruscan scarabs and were mostly serially-produced. This interesting
development towards formal abstraction resulted in simplifi ed, at times strikingly bold
and effective images, which allowed for greater variety in interpretation. This engraving