Etruscan Amulets: Amber, Gold Bullae and Carnelian Scarabs

The Etruscans were great makers and users of amulets. In their tombs, from the Villanovan age to the Hellenistic period, one finds amber pendants, gold bullae, carved scarabs and faience figurines imported from Egypt. These objects tell of a civilisation open to exchange, able to welcome foreign models and transform them into a tradition of its own, which would also leave deep traces in the culture of Rome.

Amber from the North

Amber reached Italy from the Baltic along long trade routes running up through central Europe. Already between the ninth and seventh centuries BC, Villanovan and Orientalising cemeteries such as those of Verucchio in Romagna and Vetulonia in Tuscany have yielded large quantities of amber ornaments: beads, pendants, figurines and fibula coverings. Its warm colour, its translucency and its ability to attract small objects when rubbed gave amber a special aura.

Pliny the Elder, many centuries later, notes that the peasant women of the Transpadane region wore amber necklaces both as ornament and for the virtues attributed to them. It is a late testimony, but it suggests the long life of these beliefs in northern Italy, where amber had been prized since the Bronze Age. The same author also records the Greek name for amber, elektron, and the various legends explaining its origin, including that of the sisters of Phaethon turned into poplars.

Gold bullae

The bulla, which the Romans regarded as Etruscan in origin, is well documented in Etruria. Examples in embossed gold, decorated with mythological figures, come from tombs at Vulci, Tarquinia and other centres. In Etruscan statues, bronzes and sarcophagi the bulla is worn not only by children but also by adults, sometimes on necklaces with several pendants or on the arm, unlike the later Roman custom, which reserved it for boys until they came of age.

Carnelian scarabs

Between the sixth and third centuries BC Etruscan gem engravers produced scarabs in carnelian and agate, inspired by Egyptian and Greek models. The back is carved with the insect, often with a decorated border; the flat base is engraved with scenes of Greek heroes, such as Achilles, Ajax, Heracles or the Seven against Thebes, sometimes with names in Etruscan letters. Used as seals and mounted on swivel rings, they were also bearers of protection, thanks to their sacred shape and red stone.

Egyptian and Eastern influences

In the Orientalising tombs of the seventh century BC, such as the Regolini-Galassi Tomb at Cerveteri, the Etruscans accumulated precious objects of Eastern taste. Scarabs and faience amulets with Egyptian deities, such as Bes or Ptah-Pataikos, reached Etruria through Phoenician and Greek trade and were placed among grave goods, testifying to a protective repertoire shared across the Mediterranean. Local craftsmen then imitated their forms, adapting them to their own taste.

Etruscan amulets thus reveal a culture on the border between different worlds: the North of amber, the East of scarabs, the Greece of engraved myths. Rome inherited part of this heritage, starting with the bulla, and passed it on in turn to the whole empire, together with the Etruscan taste for jewellery laden with meaning.