A Matriarchal Society That Sacrificed Women? The Disturbing Truth About Britain’s Celtic Tribes

  By Mary Harrsch © 2025

I was surprised by this article I read in the New York Post by Ben Cost describing a recent archaeological find in an Iron Age cemetery of the Celtic Durotriges tribe in ancient Britain.

Teenaged female victim of Durotriges sacrifice found buried face down in a "deviant" burial Image courtesy of Bournemouth University

https://nypost.com/2025/10/30/science/scientists-crack-2000-year-old-murder-mystery-while-filming-tv-show/

I had read about the various Celtic tribes in Britain while studying Roman history and assumed the tribes considered matriarchal would not have engaged in ritual violence against women. Yet the discovery described in the Post article challenges the assumption that social systems centered around women were nonviolent or egalitarian.

Apparently, the team found the remains of a young female victim who had been bound and sustained injuries to her arms and upper body, indicating she had been brutalized before her death. She had then been buried facedown—a burial that would have been considered “deviant.”

I dug a little deeper and learned that the description of the Durotriges as a “matriarchal” society—where women owned land and men moved to their wives’ villages—is based on classical sources (like Roman historians) and some archaeological evidence (such as rich female burials). However, modern historians and archaeologists caution against seeing this as a true matriarchy in the sense of women holding all political power. A more accurate term might be matrilineal or matrifocal.

In a matrilineal culture, descent and inheritance are traced through the mother’s line. This would explain why land ownership was tied to women—it stayed within the mother’s clan. In a matrifocal culture, the family and household are centered around the mother. For example, a matrilineal society might trace inheritance through the mother’s kin group, while a matrifocal one—like some Mediterranean peasant communities—centers household authority on the mother even when property is nominally male-owned. In such a system, women could have high social and economic status, but it does not mean that all women were powerful or that violence against them was absent. Power was likely still concentrated within certain elite families, many ultimately controlled by males.

The key explanation for the violent sacrifice of a young female by the Durotriges is suggested by the lead archaeologist’s comment mentioned at the end of the article. He proposes that the victims “straddled the lower strata of society” and may have been “from elsewhere.”

Even in societies where elite women held power, there was still a social hierarchy. The victims of sacrifice might have been slaves or captives taken from other tribes, social outcasts including criminals or individuals who had broken sacred taboos, or simply the expendable—those from the lowest rungs of society whose lives were deemed necessary to offer to the gods for the community’s benefit (e.g., for a good harvest or to avert disaster).

Other examples of female ritual violence can be drawn from many other Celtic tribes in Britain as well. At Wetwang Slack, a young Parisi woman was found buried in a grain storage pit. She was placed on her side in a crouched position, which might seem respectful, but a large, sharp piece of bone (a goad) had been violently thrust through her body, piercing her lung and heart. This is strongly interpreted as a ritual killing—perhaps a dedicatory offering when the storage pit was first dug or last used.

Excavations at Danebury Hillfort, associated with the Atrebates, revealed burials of both sexes thrown into disused storage pits. The victims were bound, with no sign of traumatic injury, indicating the sacrificial nature of the deposit.

A pre-Catuvellauni sacrifice, dubbed the Goddess of Ivinghoe, was found at the bottom of a hillfort’s ritual shaft. She had been thrown in headfirst and was accompanied by ritually killed animals. Her death is interpreted as a foundation offering for the hillfort’s defenses.

Figure 1 Foundation sacrifices likely served multiple ritual purposes: propitiating chthonic deities, transferring life force to sanctify new constructions, and establishing supernatural protection for the community. The choice of victims—often young individuals of lower social status—and the careful ritual context of their deaths reflect the Iron Age Celtic worldview where human life could be offered to maintain cosmic and social order. Such practices, while disturbing to modern sensibilities, were integral to the religious landscape of pre-Roman Britain. Image generated using Adobe Firefly by the author.

In 2023, archaeologists uncovered the skeleton of a young woman who had been placed facedown in a ditch in the territory of the Cornovii tribe. Her spine showed signs of a severe, chronic joint disease that would have caused a hunched posture and significant pain. The theory is that her physical difference may have marked her as an outcast or someone with a special (perhaps sinister) connection to the spirit world, leading to her being killed and buried in a “deviant” manner to prevent her spirit from rising.

These cases reveal several patterns that help explain why women were victims of this type of violence. In the ancient world, foundation offerings have been found across cultures. Burying an individual (male or female) in a grain storage pit, under a house post, or in a hillfort’s rampart was likely seen as a way to consecrate the site and ensure its success and fertility. The Wetwang Slack woman is a prime example.

Individuals deemed “different,” whether through physical disability, illness, social status (such as foreign slaves), or behavior (accused of witchcraft or breaking taboos), became potent scapegoats or offerings because of their “otherness.” The Cornovii woman and the “expendable” Durotriges victims fit this pattern.

In a worldview where death and fertility were closely linked, the killing of an individual (representing a life force) could be an offering to the gods to ensure the cycle of life, a good harvest, or the turning of the seasons. It’s vital to note that men were also frequent victims of ritual violence, often in even greater numbers. The difference lies in the potential reasons. While male victims are often linked to warfare and warrior cults, female victims are more frequently interpreted in the context of fertility, earth deities, and domestic rituals (such as the dedication of a storage pit).

Evidence from ancient Gaul (modern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, and Germany) provides some of the most compelling and well-documented cases of ritual violence against women in the Celtic world. The classical sources on Gaul paint a picture of a staunchly patriarchal warrior society.

At Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme), a site often associated with the Ambiani tribe but likely used by a broader confederation of the Pictones or Santones, a vast open-air sanctuary was found containing the remains of hundreds of young warriors, arranged in a “bone house” where their corpses were left to be defleshed by the elements—a clear war trophy dedicated to a warrior god. Crucially, nearby, archaeologists found a separate enclosure containing the skeletons of at least six women. They showed no signs of battle trauma but had been executed, likely by strangulation or throat-cutting. Their bodies were then left exposed in the same manner as the warriors.

At the Arverni site of Gournay-sur-Aronde (Oise), another major nemeton (sacred sanctuary) similar to Ribemont, among the human remains, skeletons of women have also been found. While the emphasis was on male warriors, the presence of female victims indicates they were part of the ritual spectrum.

There was also a case of female ritual sacrifice discovered among the dynastic burials at Heuneburg (Germany). While technically in the area of the early La Tène culture that influenced Gaul, a stunning discovery was made in a lavish burial mound near the Heuneburg hillfort: a high-status princess buried on a bronze couch. However, in an adjacent chamber, the skeleton of a young girl (around six or seven years old) was found. She showed no signs of disease or trauma, leading to the strong conclusion that she was a retainer sacrifice, killed to accompany the princess into the afterlife.

Unlike some of the Celtic tribes of Iron Age Britain, inheritance and lineage in Gaul were traced through the father. While Celtic women in Gaul are noted to have had more freedom and legal rights than their Roman counterparts (they could own property and engage in trade), they did not hold systemic political power. The famous story of Boudica is from Britain, not Gaul, and was seen as an exception born of crisis. So, in the patriarchal context of Gaul, the ritual killing of women makes a different kind of sense, aligning with the themes of a warrior culture. Destroying the enemy’s warriors was one thing; but by also sacrificing their women, the victors were symbolically destroying the enemy’s future—their ability to reproduce and continue their lineage.

Celtic societies in Britain, even with a notable capacity for women to hold power—especially as queens (e.g., Boudica of the Iceni, Cartimandua of the Brigantes)—were still generally patriarchal. A woman from a powerful royal family, with a combination of lineage and personal achievement, could inherit power and rule, much like a man. But for the most part, all were fundamentally patriarchal, where acts of ritual violence were part of a religious and social system controlled by a male-dominated elite.

The archaeological record reminds us that reverence and violence often coexisted in ancient ritual. Even societies that celebrated female fertility and lineage could sanction the ritual destruction of women’s bodies—offered as vessels of renewal or scapegoats of misfortune. The paradox is not unique to the Celts; it speaks to a deeper human tension between power and sacrifice.

References: Bournemouth University, Durotriges Project. (n.d.). Durotriges Project: Excavation summaries and genomic research. Bournemouth University. https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/durotriges-project

Brunaux, J.-L. (Ed.). (2006). Holy ground: Sanctuaries and sacred landscapes in ancient Gaul. Yale University Press.

Brunaux, J.-L., & colleagues. (1990s–ongoing). The sanctuary at Ribemont-sur-Ancre (Somme): Excavation history and site reports. French Ministry of Culture. https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr

Cadoux, J.-L., Ferdière, A., & later teams. (1960s–present). Excavation reports for Ribemontsur-Ancre and synthesis publications. French Ministry of Culture. https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr

Cassidy, L. M., et al. (2025). Continental influx and pervasive matrilocality in Iron Age southern Britain. Nature. Advance online publication.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08409-6

Clauzel, T., Richardin, P., Ricard, J., & Lécuyer, C. (2023). Geographic origin and social status of the Gallic warriors from Ribemont-sur-Ancre (France) studied through isotope systematics of bone remains. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 33(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3172

Cost, B. (2025, October 30). Archaeologists unravel heartbreaking 2,000-year-old teen ‘murder mystery’ while filming TV show. New York Post.

https://nypost.com/2025/10/30/science/scientists-crack-2000-year-old-murder-mystery-while-filming-tv-show/

Dent, J. S. (1984). Wetwang Slack: An Iron Age cemetery on the Yorkshire Wolds (Unpublished MPhil thesis). University of Sheffield.

Grant, A. (1989). Animals and ritual in early Britain: The visible evidence from Danebury and other hillforts. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 55, 263–278.

Heuneburg publications. (19th–21st centuries). Studies on princely burials and retainer deposits at the Heuneburg. In And make some other man our king: Heuneburg funerary practice and Fürstensitz archaeology. Cambridge University Press.

Jay, M., Haselgrove, C., Hamilton, D., Hill, J. D., & Dent, J. S. (2012). Chariots and context: Radiocarbon dates from Wetwang Slack and the chronology of the East Yorkshire Iron Age burial tradition and brooch sequence. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 31(2), 161–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2012.00384.x

Killgrove, K. (2025, October 29). 2,000-year-old Celtic teenager may have been sacrificed and considered ‘disposable’. Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2-000-year-old-celtic-teenager-may-have-been-sacrificed-and-considered-disposable

Knüsel, C. J., et al. (1992). Fragmentation, mutilation and dismemberment: An interpretation of human remains on Iron Age sites. Research Paper / Archaeological chapter.

Russell, M., Smith, M., Hambleton, E., Cheetham, P., & Tamminen, H. (2024). Brutalised, bound and bled: A case of later Iron Age human sacrifice from Winterborne Kingston, Dorset. The Antiquaries Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581524000143

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The Liangzhu Paradox: The Lethal Result of an Ideology of Inequality in the Ancient World

by Mary Harrsch © 2025

Even after my intense research into the elite use of human sacrifice as a response to ecological stress across the globe, I must admit I was still appalled upon reading this paper detailing how Neolithic Liangzhu residents shaped human skulls and other bones into everyday tools like bowls, cups, masks, and knives.

A finished cup devised from a human skull found in Liangzhu courtesy of Scientific Reports..

A human skull fashioned into a mask found in Liangzhu courtesy of  Scientific Reports

Liangzhu Jade Yue unearthed from Tomb 2 at Yaoshan Site courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor 猫猫的日记本

Jade Cong unearthed from Tomb 21 at Fanshan site courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor 猫猫的日记本

Jade Bi from Tomb 14 at Fanshan site courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor 猫猫的日记本

Jade hand grip for a fan unearthed from Tomb 15 at Fanshan site courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Siyuwj

 

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15673-7

The mere idea that urbanization had reached an extent where the divide between the elite and the general population was so wide that non-elites were being “recycled” into utilitarian objects brought back to me scenes from the sci-fi movie “Soylent Green.”

The researchers’ primary explanation is the Urban Anonymity Hypothesis in which traditional kin-based social structures become loosened or even fractured and “remains could be treated as materials without malice or spectacle.” This is supported by the absence of cut marks, evidence of disarticulation, or burning. Researchers point out this rules out cannibalism, trophy-taking from enemies, or human sacrifice.

The bones were shaped into six recurring tool shapes (cups, mask, scrapers, etc) indicating the objects were produced in a repeatable manufacturing process, a hallmark of craft specialization in a complex society. The modified bones were not found with elite jade objects or in ritual contexts. This separates the practice from high-status ceremonies or temple ritual, placing it in the realm of "everyday craft."

Furthermore, almost 80% of items found in canals and moats were unfinished and subsequently discarded, leading researchers to conclude human bones were readily available so artisans could discard unsatisfactory work without great loss. This points to an urban setting with a relatively high anonymous individual mortality rate.

The research paper, however, is tightly focused on the mostly unfinished discards found in the city’s unusual workshop and canal system. An evaluation of contexts where finished human bone objects were found, however, reveals a different connotation. Finished human bone tools have not been found in commoner residential trash pits even though these same middens often contain finished tools made from animal bone. This indicates human bone tools did not circulate widely as common household items.

Furthermore, human bone tools have not been found in significant numbers at other specialized industrial sites within Liangzhu. The vast majority of finished human bone tools—whether utilitarian scrapers or ritual skull cups—are concentrated in and around the Zhongjiagang bone workshop itself. Finished skull cups have also been found in elite burials unearthed in the peripheral areas of Fuquanshan and Jiangzhuang. Although these burials were accompanied by the Yue, a battle-axe representing military command and the right to execute, it was not a practical weapon.  Instead, it was a symbol of coercive power legitimized by the state religion.

In the richest tombs in the core of Liangzhu, however, the Yue was usually made of jade. For these priest-kings referred to as “Jade Lords,” the yue was part of a standard "kit" of power-regalia that also included the cong (cylindrical tube) and bi (disc). The finest jade yue signaled that their military/executive authority was as sacred as their religious power.

 The elite burials of the "bone-worked tradition" at Fuquanshan and Jiangzhuang show a clear and deliberate pattern of grave goods include a yue made of a less valuable stone like diorite and excluding the cong (symbolizing cosmic connection) and the bi (symbolizing heaven). This pattern suggests they were high-ranking, powerful chieftains whose authority was derived from their connection to the central Liangzhu power structure, but who were not at the absolute pinnacle of it. They were part of the Liangzhu system—hence the Yue—but they expressed their power through a distinct, and perhaps more militaristic or pragmatic, set of symbols centered on the skull cup, and were denied its ultimate expression in jade.

In essence, their burial goods tell a story of "second-tier" elite status: powerful enough to command force (stone Yue) and control a potent ritual tradition (skull cups), but not powerful enough to claim the celestial, jade-based mandate of the core Liangzhu priest-kings.

They were not poorer cousins, however, they were deliberately distinguishing themselves as an elite class with a different ideology. The cong and bi were the core instruments of the state religion practiced by the Liangzhu "jade lords." By not including them, these peripheral elites were signaling that they either did not have access to that level of priestly power or, more likely, that they practiced a different form of ritual, one centered on the power of the skull cup. They were a warrior or secular elite whose power base was focused on military command (the Yue), with its control over life and death (the skull cup), and even possibly economic control, rather than the priestly, astrological, and ancestral authority of the jade-based core.

Furthermore, their sudden appearance in 4800 BP and disappearance in 4600 BP suggests they may have initially been nomadic migrants to Liangzhu who gained control because of their militaristic tendencies during a period of ecological stress then lost control possibly because their worldview and authority waned as ecological conditions further deteriorated.

The Greenland ice cores indicate a massive volcanic eruption occurred at about 4300 BP. The period leading up to the event was not climatically stable. The Liangzhu culture likely endured multiple periods of stress before the final, cataclysmic eruption that resulted in catastrophic monsoons that ultimately destroyed the civilization. The most prominent precursor eruption identified in the ice cores is a massive event dated to around 4660 BP. This eruption, potentially from Mount Aniakchak in Alaska or another high-latitude volcano, would have caused a significant "volcanic winter" and years of monsoon disruption, crop failures, and social chaos, perhaps of an intensity great enough to “dethrone” the warrior-elite of the bone-working tradition.

The ruling "bone-working" elite, who derived their legitimacy from their appearance of brutal power and control, are now seen as failures. Their ideology is discredited. They are blamed for the gods' displeasure. This leads to their swift overthrow—an internal coup, a popular rebellion, or usurpation by a rival faction.

One of the first acts of the new regime would be to formally and violently abolish the previous dynasty's signature practice. The Zhongjiagang workshop is not just abandoned; it is ceremonially shut down. Its tools, both finished and unfinished, are cast into the canals as a symbolic rejection of the old order. The practice is expunged.

There were just a few details that required further investigation. The bone-working workshop was located in the heart of Liangzhu but the finished products appeared in elite burials in peripheral areas. Why would the workshop be constructed in the city’s core when the market was located in the outer areas? Why have no skull cups been found in elite burials within the city? Perhaps an examination of the cultural changes that occurred during the reign of Genghis Khan and his successors would provide a clear model for how a powerful, non-urban elite can exert control over a sophisticated, urban-centered civilization without replacing its day-to-day culture. 

When the Mongols captured centers of production and wealth, they didn’t destroy them but co-opted them instead. Comparing this process to Liangzhu, it explains the construction of the human bone workshop in its core. By establishing their signature bone workshop in the urban core (Zhongjiagang) it was their way of captalizing a key "industrial" asset and using the city's existing infrastructure for their own purposes.

The Mongols introduced new symbols of authority usually related to their military supremacy. During the Yuan dynasty the Mongols used the Paiza, a tablet made of gold silver or bronze, that functioned as a passport and credential. Possessing a Paiza granted the bearer the right to use the empire's vast relay station system (the Yam), which provided them with fresh horses, food, and lodging. But, more importantly, it demanded compliance from all local officials.

The material of the Paiza directly corresponded to the rank and authority of the bearer, mirroring the Liangzhu hierarchy of jade vs. stone Yue. A Gold Paiza: was reserved for the highest-ranking nobles, imperial princes, and especially important envoys. It conferred the highest level of authority and privilege. The Silver Paiza was Granted to lower-ranking officials, military commanders, and important diplomats. The Bronze Paiza was Used by lower-level imperial messengers and officials.

The Paiza was not just a practical tool; it was a piece of the Khan's own authority made portable. When an official showed their Paiza, they were, in effect, speaking with the voice of the Great Khan himself. It was a direct, physical manifestation of the state's power to command resources and obedience across thousands of miles. By controlling who received a Paiza, the Mongol central administration controlled movement, communication, and the exercise of power within the empire. It was the key that unlocked the entire logistical system of the state.

Like the Great Khan who adopted symbols of power from those he ruled, the bone-working commander adopted the local ultimate, sacred symbol of authority, reserved for the supreme ruler and his closest circle in the capital. That would explain why skull cups have not been found in any of the elite burials in the core of the city. However, The combination of stone Yue and skull cups found in peripheral Liangzhu elite burials served like a silver Paiza, powerful symbols of delegated authority granted to a provincial governor or general. They showed that the bearer had real, state-sanctioned power (the stone Yue to command) and a special connection to the ruling regime (the skull cup, a unique ideological symbol), but it was distinct from and subordinate to the supreme symbol of the core (the Jade Yue).

The evidence from Liangzhu, therefore, paints a picture far more nuanced than simple urban anonymity. It reveals a stratified society where a distinct elite faction, possibly arising from migration or internal coup, established a grim new ideological order centered on the utilitarian power of human bone. For two centuries, they ruled from the core, their authority flowing outwards to loyal chieftains who displayed stone Yue and skull cups like silver Paizas—symbols of real, but delegated, power.

Their sudden disappearance around 4600 BP, coinciding with a massive volcanic winter, suggests their pragmatic, coercive ideology was discredited by catastrophe. The workshop was shut down not as an economic decision, but as a political and religious act. In the end, the story of the Liangzhu bone tools is not one of faceless recycling, but of a failed dynasty whose brutal signature practice became its epitaph.

The story of Liangzhu is a stark reminder that the most formidable threats to a civilization are not always external, but can be the direct consequence of the ideologies it tolerates, and the divisions it creates, within its own walls. It is a warning from the deep past: when a society begins to sort its people into categories of the revered and the unimportant, it is a short and perilous path from dehumanizing rhetoric to the literal devaluing of human life.

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Echoes of Sacred Dance; A Tarentine Bronze Celebrating Fertility and Ritual Grace

 by Mary Harrsch © 2025

Another piece I photographed at the Ashmolean Museum back in 2016 is this bronze figurine of a dancer wearing a basket-like headpiece found in Taranto, Italy and dated between 500-301 BCE.

Bronze figurine from ancient Taranto (ca. 5th–4th century BCE) capturing a moment of ritual motion — a dancer poised mid-step, her arm extended in offering. She wears a short chiton and a striking basket-shaped calathus headdress, symbol of abundance and fertility. Such dancers likely performed in ceremonies honoring Demeter or Persephone, celebrating the renewal of life through sacred dance and the rhythms of the agricultural year. Photographed at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by the author.

Taranto was a Spartan colony, but by the 5th–4th century BCE it had developed a rich, hybrid culture influenced by both Greek and native Italic (especially Messapian) traditions. Figurines of dancers, musicians, and processional figures were often votive offerings left at sanctuaries of female deities such as Persephone, Demeter, or Dionysos, reflecting the importance of seasonal fertility rites and ecstatic religious performance.

The dancer may have been participating in the Thesmophoria – women’s festivals of Demeter and Persephone, Dionysian rituals involving ecstatic dance and symbolic renewal or local Tarentine funerary cults, where dance symbolized the soul’s passage to the afterlife.

The short, belted chiton identifies the figure as a female dancer or ritual performer, not a deity. The raised arm and forward movement suggest motion—possibly holding a ritual object, such as a tympanon (hand drum) or offering dish, now lost.

The curious “basket-shaped” or “calathus” headpiece is one of the most distinctive elements. In Greek art, the calathus (κάλαθος)—literally “basket”—is often associated with Demeter, Persephone, and women engaged in ritual weaving or agricultural preparation. When worn as a headdress, it often signifies fertility, abundance, and ritual service.

In Greek ritual iconography, women known as kanēphoroi (“basket bearers”) led sacred processions carrying baskets of offerings atop their heads. The Tarentine artist may have immortalized such a figure mid-dance or mid-offering.

Tarentine bronzes like this one demonstrate how ritual dance, female devotion, and fertility symbolism became intertwined in southern Italian religious life. The dancer’s costume and headdress, while Greek in inspiration, show local elaboration—magnifying the calathus and emphasizing the kinetic grace of ritual performance.

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The Changing Faces of Death: Etruscan Funerary Urns in Central Italy

by Mary Harrsch © 2025

While visiting Oxford in 2017, I photographed two anthropomorphic funerary urns dated to the sixth century BCE at the Ashmolean Museum. One urn’s portrait sculpture is highly abstract, while the other is strikingly realistic. The difference reflects not only artistic style but also geography and trade networks: Sarteano and Todi occupied distinct positions in central Italy with differing external influences.

Terracotta anthropomorphic urn representing the upper part of a human figure, with a head-shaped lid featuring a stylized face and perforated hair or helmet pattern. Such urns were typical of funerary practice in southern Etruria, particularly around Chiusi and Sarteano, during the 6th century BCE. They mark the transition from Villanovan biconical urns to later lifelike Etruscan sarcophagi.

Photographed at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Accession no. AN1896–1908 PR.361) by the author.

Anthropomorphic funerary urn from Todi, 6th century BCE. Terracotta urn with a naturalistic human head forming the lid, from Todi, Umbria. The urn reflects the increasing realism of Etruscan sculpture in the Archaic period, in contrast to earlier, more schematic examples such as those from Sarteano. By this stage, Etruscan artisans were influenced by Greek Archaic models, emphasizing proportion and individualized features. Photographed at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by the author.

Sarteano lies in the southern Chiusine area, where Villanovan traditions persisted longer. Todi, on the northern fringe of Etruscan territory near Umbria, was more open to external artistic influences — particularly Corinthian and early Greek Archaic naturalism spreading via Orvieto and Perugia.

The Sarteano urn represents a transitional stage in urn development. Its face is abstract, mask-like, and schematic, emphasizing the idea of the deceased rather than a true likeness. This reflects a symbolic or protective purpose, linking the deceased to an ancestor-focused belief system in which emphasis is on collective family or clan identity. The facial holes may have held metal appliqués or hair ornaments, and the simplified features recall the Villanovan ancestral mask tradition.

In contrast, the Todi urn, though approximately contemporary and often classified as Orientalizing, belongs to a more developed Archaic phase. It features naturalistic facial proportions, carefully shaped ears, and attempts to model hair texture and individual identity. This style reflects the Etruscan adoption of Hellenic ideals of form and beauty, as well as an increasing interest in the human body and realistic portraiture.

These urns foreshadow the reclining sarcophagi figures of the 5th–4th centuries BCE, such as the Sarcophagus of the Spouses. By the sixth century BCE, Etruscan sculptors in northern centers like Todi, Orvieto, and Perugia were exposed to Greek kouroi and korai through imported ceramics and itinerant artisans. These influences encouraged symmetry, proportion, rounded natural forms, and expressive individuality.

This evolution in artistic style parallels a cosmological shift. Funerary imagery increasingly blends ancestral reverence with broader religious cosmology: the deceased are envisioned as participants in a divine-human cosmos, not merely as household members. Across the Mediterranean, gods and mortals alike begin to appear in human form with relatable emotions, making both the afterlife and divine protection conceptually more accessible to the living.

References:

Brendel, O. J. (1995). Etruscan art. Yale University Press.

Carpino, A. (2016). The Sarcophagus of the Spouses: A terracotta portrait of Etruscan identity. In S. Bell & A. A. Carpino (Eds.), A companion to the Etruscans (pp. 219–231). Wiley-Blackwell.

Haynes, S. (2000). Etruscan civilization: A cultural history. J. Paul Getty Museum.

Izzet, V. (2007). The archaeology of Etruscan society. Cambridge University Press.

Spivey, N. (1997). Etruscan art. Thames & Hudson.

Steingräber, S. (2006). Abundance of life: Etruscan wall painting. J. Paul Getty Museum.

Torelli, M. (Ed.). (2000). The Etruscans. Bompiani.

Turfa, J. M. (Ed.). (2013). The Etruscan world. Routledge.

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7th century BCE Ivory depicting the "Sons of Tinia," precursor to Castor and Pollux

 7th century BCE Ivory depicting the "Sons of Tinia" precursor to Castor and Pollux

Here is another double horse-headed pendant carved of ivory said to be from the area near Tivoli, Italy and dated to the 7th century BCE that I also photographed at the Ashmolean Museum in 2016 while I was in Oxford.

Double horse-headed pendant carved of ivory said to be from the area near Tivoli, Italy and dated to the 7th century BCE photographed at the Ashmolean Museum by the author.

Tivoli (ancient Tibur) lay on the eastern edge of Latium Vetus, just east of Rome, in an area inhabited by the Latini, one of the Italic tribes that formed the Latin League. However, by the late 8th–7th century BCE, this region was deeply influenced by Etruscan art and trade from the north and Greek and Phoenician luxury goods arriving through coastal markets such as Veii and Caere.

Thus, the piece was most likely made by a local Latin artisan or a craftsman working in an Etruscan-influenced workshop—possibly even in nearby Veii or Praeneste (Palestrina)—where such hybrid artistic traditions flourished.

The horse motif itself was widely used by Etruscans, Latins, and Sabines as a symbol of power, fertility, and divine favor. Its mirrored composition echoes both Etruscan repoussé bronzes (like the one I posted yesterday) and Near Eastern ivory plaques, showing how international visual language was adopted by Italic elites.

Elephant ivory from Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt was a prized imported luxury material in central Italy during this period, most likely obtained through Phoenician and Greek traders. Carthaginian and Cypriot merchants traded North African ivory as early as the 8th century BCE, which also reached Tyrrhenian ports. Workshops at Caere (Cerveteri) and Veii imported and crafted raw ivory into inlays, handles, and small sculpted objects similar in style to this pendant.

As with the bronze pendant I posted yesterday, the face-to-face horseheads probably reference the divine twins motif again, representing protection, fertility, or martial strength. In central Italy during the 7th century BCE, depictions of twin horsemen begin appearing in Etruscan bronzes, Praenestine cistae, and Latial ivory plaques, reflecting contact with Greek mythological imagery from the eastern Mediterranean.

Before full Hellenization, these paired horsemen likely embodied indigenous Italic guardian deities connected with fertility, initiation, and protection of travelers or warriors. The Etruscans referred to them as the Tinas Cliniar (“Sons of Tinia”), while the Latins later adopted the Greek names Castor and Pollux, integrating them into Roman religion.

The piece could have served as a pectoral ornament, harness fitting, or votive offering. The use of imported ivory would have underscored elite status and cosmopolitan taste—typical of aristocratic display goods in Latium and southern Etruria.

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Etruscan influence in metalworking of the Golasecca and Veneti cultures

 By Mary Harrsch © 2025

Another piece I photographed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford back in 2016 - a bronze pendant in the form of two pairs of horseheads with boot-shaped and plain pendants hanging from the base dated between 800-500 BCE. The piece was found in north Italy and the style is similar to some Etruscan work.

Bronze pendant from north Italy possibly from the Golasecca culture dated to between 800-500 BCE photographed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford by Mary Harrsch.

During this period, the Golasecca Culture, an early Celtic-Italic peoples often linked to the Insubres and Lepontii tribes, inhabited the area around Lake Maggiore and Lake Como. Golasecca artisans were skilled metalworkers, producing bronze ornaments, weaponry, and horse harness fittings. Trade with the Etruscans and Greeks via river and alpine routes is well-documented, and Etruscan bronze goods and motifs often appear in their artwork. Superior Etruscan metallurgy and artistic style spread widely including repoussé decoration, geometric and animal motifs, and use of pendants or dangling elements.

Another possible origin of the pendant may be the Veneti culture of northeast Italy around Padua. Distinct from the Veneti of Gaul, this Indo-European-speaking people inhabited the region around Venetia. They adopted many Etruscan artistic and technological innovations as well while maintaining their own distinctive alphabet and religious customs. Venetic bronze votive figurines and horse imagery are especially common, reflecting both trade contact and shared symbolic traditions with Etruria.

The paired horsehead motif was a powerful symbol across Italic and Celtic regions—representing nobility, fertility, and the divine twins associated with horses (akin to the Greek Dioscuri). It may represent aristocratic emphasis on charioteering or mounted warfare practiced by both Etruscans and their northern neighbors.

Some scholars interpret elaborate bronze pendants like this as pectoral ornaments or belt fittings, worn by high-status men or women during ceremonies. The combination of repoussé decoration and suspended elements may have been designed for visual and auditory impact during ritual dances or public appearances. In northern sanctuaries, such as those in the Po Valley, Etruscan bronze votive objects and inscriptions often appear alongside local artifacts.

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