- chapter 47: Health and medicine in Etruria –
dental appliances that held replacements for one or both missing front teeth, or central
incisors (Bliquez 1996; Becker 1992, 1994A, 1994B, 1999A, 1999B). Nearly all of
the examples of Etruscan dental appliances were found prior to the advent of modern
archaeological methods, and we cannot be sure that the jaws in which the appliances
were displayed or sold were really those of the original “owners” – some most defi nitely
were not!
The earliest known prosthesis that can be assigned a date is one of a very few that can
be placed in time. This piece, found in a tomb at Satricum (Borgo Le Ferriere, Tumulus
C, tomb XVIII) and dated circa 630 bce, was fashioned from a very narrow band of
sheet-gold into which a single replacement tooth made of gold had been cold-welded (cf.
Becker 2003). This is the only known example of the use of a gold replacement tooth.
That this was also an early example suggests that it may have been a prototype for the
concept.^3 The rapid development of wider and more stable gold bands and the use of
cut-down human teeth or other materials to fashion the replacement tooth suggests an
evolution in the technology. Those few examples clearly made from re-cut human teeth
(Fig. 47.8), and some others that were cut to resemble human teeth, were attached to
the band using tiny golden rivets. The band itself was anchored by loops extending from
either end that were placed around adjacent living teeth (Fig. 47.9). Two examples in
the Liverpool Museum illustrate replacements and the once-living teeth that served as
anchors.^4 These appliances would have been made – and installed – by a goldsmith (Turfa
forthcoming b; Becker and Turfa forthcoming).
Figure 47.8 Etruscan dental appliance, gold with human teeth carved as replacements for missing
teeth (empty spaces fi t over original teeth). Liverpool Museum inv. M 10334, Mayer Collection. Photo
by Margarita Gleba (2011). Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (World Museum).Figure 47.9 Liverpool, Etruscan dental appliance, gold with human anchor-teeth remaining, the
replacement teeth missing. Liverpool Museum, inv. M 10335, Mayer Collection. Photo by Margarita
Gleba (2011). Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool (World Museum).