Pendant with double bullshead

Ultima modifica 26 ottobre 2023

Bull shaped pendants made of cast bronze.

In ancient art the decorative element consisting of the head of an animal is called "protome".

In this case we are in front of a double bull’s head on the same pendant.
It has a very pointed snouts and horns are extremely long. At the meeting point of the two bodies there was the ring, normally done in iron, with which the artefact was hung.
These pendants are typical of the Picen necropolis of the southern part of Marche region and it was very often part of female funeral sets.
Most likely it is not a jewelry of daily use because it is very difficult to wear because of the weight and the spiked parts, but it was used in special ceremonies, especially at the time of the burial of the woman who owned it.

Its symbolic value accompanied the extreme greeting of the deceased along with the very rich set that the female Picen tombs have always guarded. 
This pendant was made as a single body.

The technique used is that of wasted wax. The object is moulded in wax and covered with layers of clay that are cooked to form the mould: the wax, in fact, melts during cooking and leaks out from holes left in the clay, creating the "negative" shape inside. The molten bronze is poured in the mould and, once cooled, the clay mould is broken and the object is eventually finished.
This pendant is also part of the rich equipment of Tomb nr 19 that already for its size, much larger than the others, makes understand the high rank of the deceased. 
The skeleton found, in fact, was that of a buried woman lying on her right side.
Next to the head there were numerous earrings, necklaces, fibulas and pendants.  Close to the hips there were some skewers tucked into reels, while close to the feet, a large jar of dough and, further on, a bronze boiler. Besides these artefacts, there were also bone objects and a multitude of clay pots, some of them with fine decorations and in bucchero, the black-shiny color of the ceramic.
Dating: first quarter of the sixth century B.C. between 600 and 575 B.C.