Etruscan head, 3rd century B.C.

Etruscan head, 3rd century B.C.
Terracotta.
Thermoluminescence analysis included.
Measurements: 21 cm tall.
Terracotta head depicting a woman with an idealized face, her hair falling in regular strands over her forehead and on both sides of her neck, wearing a diadem decorated with stylized plant motifs, rendered through incisions. This is an example of the sculptural art of Etruscan culture, which even in antiquity was shrouded in an aura of mystery; even their Greek contemporaries were intrigued by the sudden emergence of this people as a maritime and commercial power—an ancient people who, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, “resemble no other in their language and customs.”