ETRUSCAN SCARABS. ORIGIN OF AND WHERE FOUND. COPIED FROM EGYPTIAN BUT WITH CHANGES IN SUBJECTS, SIZE AND ORNAMENTATION. THE ENGRAVING OF. WHERE USUALLY FOUND. USES BY THE ETRUSCANS. GREEK AND ROMAN SCARABS. GNOSTIC, OF THE BASILIDIANS.

The archaic people of ancient Etruria did not make cameos, their gems were intaglios and were incised on the under side, on forms shaped in the model of the scarabaeus or beetle. The use of the form therefore was most likely derived from those used in the valley of the Nile. The Etruscan scarabs were however not correct representations; they were conventional and exaggerated resemblances of the insect.

The Etruscan scarabaeus is found in different parts of Italy, quite frequently at Chiusi, in Tuscany, which was formerly ancient Etruria; from whence, the name Etruscan for those found in this part of Italy, has been derived.

They were usually manufactured of common red sard, such as is now often met with in the beds of Italian torrents, but Etruscan scarabs have also been found made of sardonyx, cornelian, onyx and agate, also, but rarely, of chalcedony.

The ancient inhabitants of Italy followed the Egyptian form in making the representation except, that the back and the wing cases of the scarab are set much higher than the Egyptian, and there is usually a raised ridge running along the junction, also the legs are cut out on the side, and a slight difference exists in the ornamentation and engraving of the wing cases. The stones have been rubbed into shape apparently by corundum. Few exceed an inch, and most are not over half an inch in length, whereas the Egyptian were from the size of our ordinary house fly to those a number of feet across. The material of the Etruscan is also always semi-transparent, except those burned which has made the sard opaque. The flat side or base was engraved with intaglio. This engraving though in early examples rude and done with the drill, was in later times, improved by the use of the wheel, diamond dust and the diamond point, and by the polishing of both the surface and the incised parts, and also, by the addition, both at the sides and around the engraved base, of an ornamental border of small strokes following each other closely, resembling in some specimens, the milling of a coin; in others, it is like a widely linked chain or string of beads, or a loosely twisted cable, and in others like the ornamentation known as “egg moulding.”

In Egyptian scarabs the flat or under part of the stone, which is the side engraved in intaglio, has representations of deities or hieroglyphs; in the Etruscan, the subjects engraved in intaglio on the base, are representations of animals, wild or domestic, or are those derived from Egyptian, Assyrian or Babylonian sources, and after acquaintance with the Greeks, subjects derived from early Greek myths, especially the deeds of Herakles and of the heroes of the Trojan War, of those of Thebes and the sports of the Palaestra.

Sometimes the name of the subject was engraved on one side of it, and occasionally the wearer’s name or a word of mystic meaning, rarely symbols or figures of the Etruscan gods or chimaeras. The engraving is of great service to the historian and student of the glyptic art, as the subjects show the transition from Assyrian, Egyptian, and Persian forms and figures, to the archaic Greek and the best period of stone engraving.

Many of the Etruscan examples have been found at Praeneste, the modern Palestrina, and in the necropolis of Clusium; some of those found there, have engraved on the base the lotus flower with four-winged figures of archaic Etruscan form, the kynokephallos ape, the sacred asp or uraeus of Egypt, the winged sun of Thebes and the bull Apis; on others are figures copied from Assyrian originals; on others are Herakles fighting the lion, Herakles stealing the tripod of Apollo and discovered by the latter; Ajax and Cassandra, a Harpy, etc. Some of these have been found in tombs and other places with the color changed to an opaque white by the action of fire. These have been burned with the body of their owner when he was cremated.

The Etruscans have evidently borrowed the form without caring for the cult; there does not appear with them any mysterious, religious or astronomical meaning, nor the veneration for it, which existed among the old Egyptians; but no doubt, the representation was considered as a talisman or preservative amulet and was worn as such, but in many instances likely, only as a matter of ornament in dress.

They were pierced like those of Egypt longitudinally, and one method of wearing them, was, by stringing them, intermingled with beads, as a necklace, but they were also worn as a signet stone in a ring with a swivel, so they could be turned and the incised part used as a seal by the owner.

I think it likely that the Etruscans at first, purchased the scarabs from the Phoenician traders whose merchant ships, as I have said in the preceding chapter, trafficked in ornaments and jewelry at an early period, and who likely, at first, may have brought some from Egypt and afterwards manufactured scarabs as an article of barter.

There is one peculiarity to be noted in the glyptography of the Etruscans, the absence of a transitional period between the extremely rude designs of the early style, made almost entirely by the use of the drill, and the intaglios of the most beautiful finish in low relief. Mr. King, in his work on Antique Gems, says: “While the first class offers caricatures of men and animals, the favorite subjects being figures throwing the discus, fawns with amphora, cows with sucking calves, or the latter alone, the second gives us subjects from the Greek mythology, especially scenes from Homer and the tragedians, among which, the stories of Philoctetes and Bellerophon occur with remarkable frequency.” I think the rudely made are likely of Etruscan or Phoenician manufacture, the finely executed of Greek.

The inscriptions on Etruscan stones are nearly always the names of the persons represented on them. There are but few exceptions to this. We may therefore divide Etruscan glyptography into:

I. Etruscan scarabs, with Etruscan or Assyrian subjects.

II. Etruscan scarabs, with archaic Greek subjects.

There are many more of the latter than the former. The Greek subjects most frequently met with, refer to actions by Herakles, Perseus, Tydeus, Theseus, Peleus, Ulysses, Achilles and Ajax.

The time of manufacture and use by the Etruscans was most probably before the IIIrd century B.C., at which time, Etruria was conquered by the Romans, its manufactures destroyed and its artists taken to Rome.

The Greeks borrowed the form from the Egyptians, but improved on the engraving, which they made more natural and artistic; finally they suppressed the insect but preserved the oval form of the base. The Romans also adopted, it may be surmised from the Etruscans, the scarab signet and retained its form until the later days of the Republic. Winckelmann, says: Those with the figures or heads of Serapis or Anubis incised upon them are of this period. I think it likely, that those with this deity upon them may go back to the period of the Ptolemys.

At the end of the Ist or beginning of the IInd century A.D., arose the gnostic Egyptian sect called the Basilidians. They introduced an amulet or talisman. It was made oval in the form of the base of the Egyptian scarab. Such talisman were usually made of black Egyptian basalt, sometimes of sard or other hard stones. Upon them were engraved mysterious hieroglyphs and figures, called Abraxas, and they are known as Abraxoides. Among the figures engraved was frequently that of the scarabaeus. Montfaucon has given a number of them in his Antiquities. Chifflet has also given several.