Glass Head Pendants and Grimacing Masks of the Punic World
Punic core-formed glass head pendants and grimacing terracotta masks: technique, dating, protective function and the museums where they can be seen.
Among the most striking objects of the Phoenician and Punic world are small glass pendants in the shape of human heads, with huge eyes, curly beards and bright colours. Often only a few centimetres high, they were worn as amulets and accompanied the dead in their tombs. Together with grimacing terracotta masks, they bear witness to an idea of protection entrusted to the gaze and the expression of the face, rather than to the written word or to the image of a specific deity.
A refined technique
The pendants were made using the core-formed glass technique: molten glass was shaped around a crumbly core of clay and sand, which was then removed. Additions of glass in different colours formed the eyes, eyebrows, hair and beard, while a loop at the top allowed suspension. Production is dated between the seventh and third centuries BC, with centres thought to have been in the Levant and later at Carthage. Examples have been found over a vast area, from the Levant to Sardinia, from Carthage to Ibiza.
The main types include bearded male heads, female faces, demonic heads with grotesque features and, more rarely, animal heads such as rams or birds. The variety suggests different meanings, not all of which can be reconstructed, but their frequent discovery in children's tombs points to a particular protective role. Some examples show traces of wear, a sign that they were worn for a long time before burial.
The grimacing masks
Alongside the pendants, the cemeteries of Carthage and of Punic Sardinia have yielded larger terracotta masks, with wide mouths twisted into a grin, deep wrinkles and slit eyes. Dating mostly between the seventh and fifth centuries BC, they were not made to be worn by the living but were placed in tombs or perhaps hung in sanctuaries. Their grotesque expression had, according to the prevailing interpretation, an apotropaic value: to frighten whatever threatened the deceased.
The role of the gaze
In both cases the focal point is the eyes. Large, wide open, often a brilliant white with a dark pupil, they seem to stare at the viewer. Many cultures of the ancient Mediterranean attributed an active force to the gaze, capable of harm but also of repelling evil. Punic craftsmen exploited this belief in small, portable objects that could accompany a person throughout life and then follow them into burial.
Where to see them
Important collections are held at the Bardo Museum in Tunis and the Carthage Museum, the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari and the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza. In these galleries the pendants are often displayed beside scarabs, Egyptianising amulets and gold jewellery, showing how Punic culture was able to combine Egyptian, Levantine and local models in an original and recognisable figurative language.
The glass heads are today among the most photographed images of Punic art. Behind their lively, almost ironic appearance lies a serious function: to give protection a face, and to entrust that face, with its wide-open eyes, with the task of watching over the living and the dead. They are, in this sense, among the most eloquent witnesses to the everyday religion of Carthage and its colonies.