Images of Artisans on Etruscan and Italic Gems

As the ancient sources make clear, the Etruscans excelled in many fields of artistic craft, especially in the production of jewelry and bronzes. They also produced numerous gems, a small number of which show artisans--blacksmiths, carpenters, shipbuilders, sculptors, etc.--at work. Although the similarity between these artisans and mythological craftsmen such as Hephaestus and Daedalus, along with mythical characters such as Argos and Epeios, leads to problems of identification in cases where the Etruscan gem does not bear an inscription identifying the character depicted, iconographic comparisons can be used as a guide for reliable identifications. In this article, I present the evidence for the depiction of artisans of all types, as well as laborers/quarrymen, on Etruscan gems. This subject matter was most common in the third to first centuries BCE, including on gems related to Italic and/or Roman-Republican production. Some crafts appear much more frequently than others: for example, the men employed in the manufacture of perfumes and leather, and the dyeing of fabrics, are absent, while those engaged in the production of weapons, ships, or sculpture appear more regularly. In addition, female artisans are absent, despite women's known activities in the crafts of weaving and leather tanning, to name just two of their occupations. Because of the absence of workshop scenes, it is unlikely that the owners of these gems (i.e., craftsmen) chose this subject matter as a means of selfrepresentation, although, in some cases, they may have wanted to elevate their status by alluding to a legendary craftsman. It is also possible that some of the images on the gems--in particular, blacksmiths making weapons and carpenters building ships--reference the activities of the person who bought the gem (i.e., military and naval activities, both for trade and for war).