Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This bulla is currently in three fragments: a hollow dome, a flat disc, and a T-shaped fragment for suspension. The front, domed section of this bulla is flat on the back and spherical on the front; it is pierced by an iron rod, the remains of which can be seen on the front and the back (1). The edge of the front has short incised lines in a row around the flat border; the front and back are otherwise featureless. The front section retains a small part of the tang of the T-shaped section, which consists of a folded sheet of bronze and would have been used to attach the pendant to a string or chain so that it could be worn. The T-shaped section bears incised linear decoration at the middle and at one end, although it has not been preserved at the other end.
This bulla would have been worn by an Etruscan or Roman boy until adulthood (2). Within the domed section would have been some apotropaic item that would have provided protection to the boy as well as warded off the evil eye.
NOTES:
1. Compare Los bronces romanos en España, exh. cat., Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Palacio de Velazquez (Madrid, 1990) 252, no. 170; P. G. Warden, The Metal finds from Poggio Civitate (Murlo) 1966-1978 (Rome, 1985) 51, nos. 57-58, pl. 7; J. M. Turfa, Catalogue of the Etruscan Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia, 2005) 177-78, nos. 169-70; and A. M. Bietti Sestieri and E. Macnamara, Prehistoric Metal Artefacts from Italy (3500-720 BC) in the British Museum (London, 2007) 186, nos. 544-45, pl. 122.
2. Two bronze statues, the Putto Carrara and the Putto Graziani, in the Vatican Museo Gregoriano Etrusco depict male infants wearing bullae around their necks; see C. Cagianelli, Bronzi a figura umana, Monumenti Musei e Gallerie Pontificie Museo Gregoriano Etrusco Cataloghi 5 (Vatican City, 1999) 110-34, nos. 2-3. Other depictions of bullae being worn, sometimes in multiples, appear on Etruscan mirrors, cista lid handles, and statuettes; see R. Herbig, Götter und Dämonen der Etrusker (Mainz, 1965) 7, 26-27, 36-39, and 41, figs. 2 and 9, pls. 20 and 22.
Lisa M. Anderson
