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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