Cerveteri e Tarquinia a confronto: le produzioni orafe in età tardo classica ed ellenistica tra realia e attestazioni iconografiche

It is only since a few decades that the study of ancient gold jewellery has finally been approached with a somewhat different approach than in the past: no longer only the evaluation of aesthetic and technical aspects, but also the symbolic, social and in some cases religious values underlying their use. In many cases, gold jewellery is linked in antiquity to moments marking fundamental transformations of existence, such as the transition of state to adulthood, marriage, death, etc. The analysis of the productions especially of that very difficult historical phase of transition that accompanied the Romanisation of the Etruscan-Italic territory lends itself to the study of ancient gold jewellery also as an expression of identity memory. Some jewellery, typical and exclusive of the Etruscan world, seems in some cases specifically chosen to strongly reaffirm their identity in the face of pressure from Rome. It is precisely in this sense that significant divergences can be noted in the use of jewellery in both the funerary and cultic spheres between Cerveteri and Tarquinia, the two main centres of southern Etruria on which this conference is focused. While the former, which entered the Roman orbit at an early stage, seems to show a certain rigour in the funerary display of jewellery, aligning itself with the Latium world, in Tarquinia many clues point to a use of typically Etruscan gold jewellery as an assertion of identity in the face of Roman power.